The first major Baldur’s Gate 3 patch that resolves 1000-plus bugs, including proper kiss animations for the height-challenged races.(Images: Larian Studios and Wizards of the Coast)

The first big patch for Baldur's Gate 3 has been released by developer Larian Studios and it solves more than 1000 technical issues. And that includes letting Gnomes and Halflings kiss their taller romantic interests.

Larian Studios has been on top of reported bugs and glitches with multiple hot fixes since Baldur's Gate 3 launched. However, the last hotfix caused more problems than it solved, requiring a rollback. Thus, the developer changed the update strategy, following a slower pace to make sure the fixes are properly tested before distribution. The end result is the biggest patch for BG3 so far. It's so big in fact that it exceeded the Steam Page text limit for Community Updates.

Announcement of the patch was posted on the Steam Community Page for Baldur's Gate 3 and was shared on the social media channels of Larian Studios and Dungeons & Dragons.

Patch #1 is now live for Baldur's Gate 3, addressing over 1000 bugs, glitches, and blockers.

An update so large it actually exceeded Steam's text limit, read more: https://t.co/aAxUxvZOQ2 pic.twitter.com/mvMxcNvGvn

— Baldur's Gate 3 (@baldursgate3) August 25, 2023

However, due to the text limit on the Steam page, the full list and details of this first major patch for Baldur's Gate 3 is made available at the official site.

As the Larian Studios team explains, the update is officially designated as Patch #1. It addresses over 1000 major and minor bugs, visual glitches, game balance problems, and more.
Notably, players who made custom characters who belong the shorter D&D races (such as Gnomes and Halflings) found they kissed their romantic interests as if they had the same height, leading to awkward but funny memes. But that's over now, as romantic partners of the vertically challenged races will now bend the knee appropriately.

So what can you expect from this update? Well, we've eliminated issues like NPCs who sometimes spot you when they really shouldn't be able to, floating items like mugs and newspapers that should abide the laws of gravity, and the conclusion to Shadowheart's romance scene not triggering for some players, among others. With expansive systems come many unknowns, so our support team continues to work with you to relay any issues to us. Please don't hesitate to reach out with further reports.

Patch 1 also tackles a few visual bugs, and sprinkles on more post-launch polish. We're bringing back Short King Summer with better kissing contact for short races!

Highlights of the major issues resolved with the Baldur's Gate 3 Patch #1 include:

• The Emperor will no longer leave you stranded in the Morphic Pool, which could lead to the inability to progress.
• Another game-stopping issue: Using the boat to go to the Morphic Pool and then sending that character to camp to designate another character to make the journey will no longer block you from progressing.
• Helm of Arcane Acuity is capped to 7 stacks. Previously, the multiple stacking will crash the game.
• Saving the game in the middle of a Reaction will no longer mess up the UI and block progress in combat.
• Attacking an NPC during a dialogue after being Downed caused a Game Over screen to appear. Instead, doing this will now simply get you arrested.
• Another bug with a Game Over screen from helping a Downed party member is also resolved.
• Player 1 eavesdropping in on a conversation, but exiting before the dialogue was over caused a serious bug that prevented the player from interacting with anything. This has been fixed.
  Marcus would oddly resurrect with the second hit from a dual-wield character. This update fixes that so that Marcus stays down.
• Infinite falling loop glitches have been resolved.

The full list and detailed descriptions of the Baldur's Gate 3 technical problems fixed with Patch #1 can be found here.

With the first major update for Baldur's Gate 3 now out, when should players see another big patch? According to Larian Studios, not very long, but they are keeping the specifics hush-hush for now. More details will be provided as the release date for Patch #2 approaches.

Baldur's Gate 3 has been an undeniable success for both Larian Studios and Wizards of the Coast. BG3 has already clocked in over 200 million hours of players adventuring in the Forgotten Realms since it was launched last August 3rd. Plus, the windfall from the critical and financial success of licensing the Dungeons & Dragons IP led to parent company's Hasbro stock rallying the S&P 500. Baldur's Gate 3 certainly helped with recovering from the negative perception from issues like the Open Gaming License (OGL) controversy and increased prices on D&D products earlier in the year.

But could Larian Studios successfully translating the D&D Fifth Edition rules and visuals in video game form have a negative impact on the planned VTT (Virtual Tabletop)? Baldur's Gate 3 already features customizable character appearances and spectacular effects, with the advantage of seeing characters in motion. The sneak peek for the One D&D VTT which showed static miniatures seems primitive by comparison, despite being built on Unreal Engine 5.

Baldur's Gate 3 is out now for Windows PC via Steam and GOG. The Sony Playstation 5 port is scheduled for release on September 6, 2023. A later release for the Microsoft Xbox Series X/S will be announced soon.