The first update hit today, and we have patch notes right here. It’s definitely not everything the game needs, but the amount of content the developers are offering so soon after release is a promising sign of things to come. Highlights include:
Unlockable Companion Skill Trees
Your NPC companions have unique skill trees that are unavailable to your character. A little unfortunate if you wanted to, say, play a necromancer, since only your necromancer friend could use those abilities. Luckily, whenever you complete an NPC’s story quest, you’ll get access to their skill tree. With the talent trees having felt a little sparse, this is great news.
New Monster Abilities
Not for the main campaign, rather, for the game’s Dungeon Master mode. The unfortunately limited monster customization process is getting some much-needed love, including over 100 monster abilities that can be applied to any monster of the DM’s choosing.
New DM Items:
170 “nature objects” have been added to the map editor. Trees, shrubs, and other things that will help players spruce up the terrain and give it some life. Of course, more doodads for DMs to toy with wasn’t a huge concern. Luckily, Community Pack Three, to drop in December, promises a “tile-based level editor,” which will hopefully bring some customization to the game’s Dungeon Master mode.
Ability Respec:
A bit basic, but a welcome quality of life change nonetheless. By visiting your party’s camp, you can now pay some gold to refund your ability points and rebuild your character however you see fit.
Player Stash:
More quality of life stuff. The game will have an account-based stash so you can store items for later and transfer them between characters.
Skill Rolls:
A bit on the strange side. You will now be able to type out a text command to receive a randomized die result that doesn’t actually have an impact on the game. Digital dice-rolling. n-Space reasons that players can use this in their multiplayer games that are being administrated by Dungeon Masters for roleplaying purposes. While it would have been nice to have a mechanical way to enforce this sort of dice-rolling, the acknowledgement of traditional D&D is heartening.
Bug Fixes:
The usual.
With two more community pack updates on the way, Sword Coast Legends isn’t done yet. But for those of you looking for a reason to come back, you may want to wait for the more dramatic updates coming in packs two and three.
