Baldur’s Gate 3 Stress Test Update Fixes The Most OP Addition, But It’s Still Pretty Weird

Baldur's Gate 3 has made a much-needed change to one of its most unusual new features, but the solution might be even stranger. The upcoming Patch 8 for Baldur's Gate 3 adds numerous subclasses, spells, and abilities which greatly expands the available gameplay options. These are more than just new flavors for its preexisting classes - many of them include entirely new perks that can totally revolutionize your playstyle.

Although Patch 8 isn't due out for a little while yet, some players have already been able to try out the new features coming to Baldur's Gate 3 in a temporary stress test. Larian is running this program not only to see how the game functions with its new crossplay features enabled, but also to test the balance of its new subclasses and abilities against what already exists in the game. That causes the occasional oddity as Larian adds, removes, or changes how the game's new features work.

Booming Blade’s BG3 Nerf Is Absolutely Necessary

Booming Blade Used To Be Overpowered

Astarion holds his hand to his chest, Wyll grins as he flourishes his sword, and Lae'zel lines up a lunge in a series of screenshots from Baldur's Gate 3.

One of the new spells to be introduced in Patch 8 is booming blade, which was definitely a little overpowered when it was first introduced via the stress test. Booming blade initially worked a lot like it does in Dungeons & Dragons: it's an Evocation cantrip learnable by sorcerers, wizards, and warlocks. When the player is holding a weapon, they can cast booming blade to imbue it with resonant energy.as they attack, transferring that energy to their target. If the target then moves five feet or more before the caster's next turn, they take 1d8 Thunder damage.

Starting at level 5, booming blade does an extra 1d8 damage as soon as it's cast, and 2d8 damage when the target moves. At level 10. those rolls go up to 2d8 and 3d8, respectively.

It's easy to see how an attack like this would be powerful; it has the potential to deal enough hurt in and of itself, but it's also a great way to stave off an enemy when you need an extra turn to heal, by freezing them in place unless they're willing to eat up to 24 damage. Issues arise, though, when combining it withBG3's Eldritch Knight subclass. Eldritch Knight is a unique fighter subclass that combines physical prowess with arcane knowledge; Eldritch Knights can cast a wide variety of different spells to deal additional damage, bolster their own abilities, or detract from their opponents'.

Key art of Shadowheart and Lae'zel from Baldur's Gate 3

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When booming blade was introduced in the BG3 stress test, players could cast the spell as if it were a melee attack, not a spell. The problem is that most nonmagical classes receive an Extra Attack at level 5, meaning they can strike twice while only using one action. Other abilities allow players to chain even more attacks together - for example, by using their Action Surge to gain a second action, an Eldritch Knight could have cast four charges of booming blade in a single turn.

That's massively overpowered: at level 10 or above, four booming blade casts could cause up to 160 Thunder damage in a single turn, in addition to whatever melee damage each weapon attack inflicted. A nerf was definitely necessary, but the way Baldur's Gate 3 chose to address that makes things even weirder.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s Version Of Booming Blade Is Still Weird

Is Booming Blade A Melee Attack Or Not?

Lae'zel with Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3

Recent updates saw this spell's function completely changed: booming blade is now hard capped at one use per turn. That's not how it works in DnD. Although it doesn't count as a melee attack for the purposes of, say, a melee class' Extra Attack ability, booming blade could theoretically be used multiple times per turn if the caster has the ability to use multiple actions, such as a fighter using Action Surge.

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And it gets even weirder: even though booming blade is now strictly once-per-turn, it still allows melee attackers to use their Extra Attacks afterward, as though it were a normal melee attack. That's also pretty different from how it works in DnD, and is separate from the War Magic ability, which allows fighters to perform a single melee attack as a bonus action after casting a cantrip like booming blade. It leaves booming blade in an odd limbo, where it counts as a melee attack for some purposes, but not for all.

BG3 Balance Is Completely Different Than D&D’s

BG3 Isn't Tabletop D&D

Ultimately, it's just another case in which BG3's specific rules differ from the DnD sourcebooks they're based on. Many DnD spells and abilities just wouldn't work in a video game setting, hence the changes to things like Channel Divinity and Divine Intervention that don't quite work away from a more freeform, human-run roleplaying table. Other aspets were just changed for balance: Baldur's Gate 3 has some unique mechanics, and special boss fights that only work under certain conditions.

But it still seems odd to leave booming blade in this in-between state. Truthfully, it probably won't stay that way for long; I wouldn't be surprised if further changes continued to alter how this unusual spell works during the stress test. It'll likely work a lot more like it does in the tabletop rules by the time it's officially added to Baldur's Gate 3.