Baldur's Gate 3 pops in Paladins with Patch 9, out now

If you're the type of D&D player who likes big swords and being a goody two shoes, then good news! Patch 9 for Baldur's Gate 3 is out now, adding playable Paladins and increasing the level cap to 5. In true D&D spirit, that's when you get the good stuff, like the ability to fly or summon zombies. Heck, I think you can summon zombies and make *them* fly. It's a whole new world.

Come watch the developers natter all about it in a festive edition of one of their Panels From Hell. One of them is dressed up as a knitting reindeer, and they just announced critical role chap Matthew Mercer will voice a new character.

Those Paladin's pack multiple subclasses, initially based on whether you choose to take the Oath of the Ancients or the Oath of Devotion. There's also a hidden Oathbreaker subclass "that triggers if you break your oath", which is a neat idea. I like it when your abilities get all wrapped up with your role-playing.

The other big addition is the level cap increase, which grants access to a smorgasbord of unprecedentedly powerful spells and abilities. If it works the same way as in D&D, "Fly" lets you touch allies to temporarily grant them the power of flight, while "Animate Dead" lets you summon zombies from corpses. Combine them, I dare you.

There are plenty more changes, from overhauled tooltips to rebalanced Act 1 combat encounters. I'll leave you to peruse the patch notes in full.

I'm holding off until the full game launches in August next year, but each of these patches makes resisting the early access siren call a little harder.

If you can't wait 'til it's done, you can buy Baldur's Gate 3 for £50/$60/€60 on Steam.