Baldur's Gate 3 is a monumental video game. Phrases of this kind usually sound like exaggerations, but in the case of Larian Studios' latest work it is almost a reductive definition. The work has in fact alerted several developers who have gone so far as to declare that: "You shouldn't expect this to be normal". They fear, in fact, that the public will get used to such a mass of content, to such a variety in the RPG element, to a quantity of choices capable of accompanying players for hundreds of hours.
Baldur's Gate 3 is an extremely complex video game, because starting from the foundations of the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons it introduces a long series of new systems, constantly revealing new secrets. Precisely for this reason we decided to create a guide made up of Baldur's Gate 3 tricks, tips and fundamental mechanics to know to make the most of the adventure.
In no particular order, we will analyze a long series of things that you absolutely need to know before embarking on one of the most absurd trips of the year. Get ready, because this is going to be a very deep dive down the white rabbit hole.
Interacting with the world
Baldur's Gate 3 expands on the already incredible level of environmental interaction encountered in Divinity: Original Sin 2. This means that in exploration, in combat and in any situation you must always keep in mind the hundreds of options available. It is possible to set surfaces on fire, destroy objects in the scenario, even put them in your pocket. You can use any movement skill outside of combat to reach unreachable areas, to exploit verticality and reach rooftops, to move teammates and opponents. It is possible to collect explosive barrels and place them during battles, you can use fire to ignite weapons and light torches, you can destroy elements of the scenery such as stalactites (remember that at the bottom left there is always a command available to change between ranged and melee weapons) to rain them on the heads of enemies.
Holding down ALT when you are exploring activates the complete interface, which shows the name of every single body or interactable object present on the screen. By holding down SHIFT and Space, however, it is possible to access the turn-based mode even during the relaxed phases, in order to interact with particularly elusive characters, or face certain types of traps safely. It is also important to keep in mind that you can divide the group and reposition it according to your needs, in such a way for example to place a ranger and a magician in elevated positions before starting a specific battle with your tank. In short, it is a system that practically knows no limits. For example, are you about to drink a healing potion? Well, remember that you can instead throw it so that it crashes between two characters to heal them both.
Interact with other creatures
This freedom is also reflected in the deep fabric of interactions that regulate NPCs present in the world of Baldur's Gate. You can communicate with any creature, and it is also possible to initiate transactions with each of them: even if they are not merchants, simply press the appropriate button in the lower left corner to access their inventory. All spells affect all characters, so it is good to keep in mind that you can use them during exploration to resolve any kind of situation, for example by enchanting or putting a guard to sleep.
Abilities such as Talking with Animals also allow you to interact with squirrels, rats and dozens of other entities that could hold much more information than the average citizen: there are entire missions available solely for those who are able to chat with the beasts, or with the dead. It is also good to know that in Baldur's Gate 3 it is possible to kill any NPC, even at the cost of depriving yourself of fundamental missions; as if that wasn't enough, we often come across seemingly impossible battles: this is the case of the commander who invades the Nautiloid during the prologue. Even if it is suggested to ignore the enemy and concentrate on the mission, managing to defeat him guarantees a unique reward - in this specific case a flaming sword - but this rule applies to any clash present in the work.
Magical classes and spells
Since Baldur's Gate 3 brings different magical classes, in recent days many of you have asked us how to learn new Spells. The issue is both simple and complicated: Warlocks, Sorcerers, Clerics, Paladins, Wizards and Bards - as well as some subclasses - constantly get new choices, but how this happens varies depending on the class in question. Strictly speaking, only Wizards can learn new spells in the game world: once you get your hands on a scroll, you can spend a fair amount to transcribe it into the Wizard's book, and at that point it will be ready for preparation; in fact, the Mages' enormous arsenal is one of their greatest strengths, especially compared to classes like the Sorcerer. Most of the other classes, in fact, learn new Spells only when they level up; this is actually inaccurate, because some classes like Clerics and Paladins already know all of their respective spells, and simply need to reach the necessary level to be able to use them.
There are several things to know about Spells: first of all, some classes need to choose them and prepare them for camp, others have the ones they know always available, all must resort to specific Slot - corresponding to the spell levels - which increase as the class levels progress. By equipping a lower level Spell in a higher slot, it will gain power according to a mechanic called Upcasting; this works especially well with the Warlock, since his Slots all get the highest level available. Additionally, some Spells require Concentration to be cast: these are spells that bring continuous effects that could be interrupted by a distraction or by the will of the caster himself. The last thing to know is that once the Slots have been consumed, in order to recharge them, it is necessary to rest. This is only a superficial analysis of Spells: if you want to know more, consult our complete guide to magic and Spells.
Split the party and think outside the box
By pressing G or accessing the Group control system, you can split up your party members and maneuver them as if they were separate entities. You will have already noticed that walking all together is not always a great advantage: if the first in line falls into an ambush, everyone will end up there, or perhaps a dialogue will start involving one of your characters who does not have the right statistics to win a Perception roll; in short, there are many circumstances in which it is better to split up: you may want to send a Ranger to an elevated position, a Wizard to the top of a cliff, and so on.
Using the G command you can do a lot of things like this: have you been banned from entering a camp? Great, separate your Arcane Trickster Thief and send him on a solo stealth mission to get what you want. Do you want to squeeze your enemies in a pincer? Send two party members to the right and the other two to the left. Do you want to perform an action that you already know will infuriate your companion like Darkheart? There's no problem: leave Darkheart to chat with a merchant and go do what you want without him ever finding out. There are many ways to exploit this mechanic, and it is good to exploit it whenever possible.
Non-lethal damage
In Baldur's Gate 3, at any time, you can activate a passive ability that allows you to deal nonlethal damage to enemies. This feature is fundamental to say the least in a title like Larian: it often happens that we find ourselves attacked by creatures who don't know what they are doing, or who perhaps find themselves in possession of very precious information for certain members of our party. By activating non-lethal mode, it is possible to knock them out and then have a chat with them without having to resort to spells such as Speak with the Dead. To activate it, simply access the Passives submenu at the bottom of the HUD and select it, changing all the damage inflicted by each party member into non-lethal variants. The trade-off, in this case, is that the damage will be slightly reduced: hitting an enemy with a flat sword does not have the same effects as a lunge.
Inspiration
That ofinspiration it is a particular mechanic that must always be taken into account: essentially these are points that can be spent to roll the dice again during a Check. It is possible to accumulate up to a maximum of four, and their obtaining is based on the completion of actions in line with the story of a specific character. What does it mean? If, for example, your character has a Soldier background, killing ten enemies in a single fight provides Inspiration. There are many ways to obtain Inspiration, in the first act there are over ten for each background, and they are absolutely not linked to combat alone, but to the completion of secondary missions and sometimes even simple dialogue options. This is an excellent method with which Larian has integrated one of the D&D mechanics underlying the interpretation of the Master.
Eye does not see, heart does not hurt
The world of Baldur's Gate 3 is full of rules: don't steal, don't kill innocents, don't perform acts in front of the Paladins that would break their oath, and obviously don't give vent to instincts that would risk annoying your love interest. But in Larian Studios' games there is one golden rule that reigns above all others: if no one saw it, it means it never happened. And that includes your party members too. You can leave your companions at camp, or shopping at a merchant, and do everything you never want them to know, in complete safety.
This applies to the smallest of thefts, but also to heists worthy of the thieves' guild, for example secretly freeing a prisoner chained in a faction's dungeon in front of everyone's eyes. The stealth and separate control of the group members (accessible with the G button) can do real magic, other than the Magicians.
Poteri Illithid
The beginning of Baldur's Gate 3 takes place inside the Nautiloid, an Illithid airship in which the protagonist and other characters find themselves prisoners despite themselves. Here, a Mind Flayer engages a parasite in the mind of our hero, effectively transforming the idea of freeing himself from this burden into the driving force of the entire adventure. There is, however, another path: by choosing to take advantage of the dialogue options linked to the parasite, the possibility of consuming further specimens will open up in order to access a secret skill tree (after about three parasites) which can be called up with the button B.
This opens the gates to a plethora of extremely powerful active and passive abilities, from Black Hole to Mind Blast; However, this power has a price, and in true Larian Studios style the consequences are paid only in the long, indeed, very long, term. This is a further opportunity to invite you not to take lightly the choices you make in a Larian game: nothing happens by chance. If you want to know more, check out our complete guide to Illithid Powers.
The Paladin's Oaths and the hidden subclass
Il Paladin it is a particular class. Being one of the strongest of all, she encounters a limit in the Divine Oath that fuels her powers: a player who chooses to abide by this pact must absolutely not break it, under penalty of losing all the abilities obtained. By breaking the oath, in fact, a Paladin is brought before an entity that offers various options: it is possible to make amends for one's sins, otherwise one can become an Apostate, losing access to divine abilities but transforming into a sort of outcast warrior, a kind of Anakin Skywalker in the D&D universe. The Apostate can in fact rely on dark abilities such as Control Undead and other abilities that recall the fantasy of the fallen sacred warrior, instead sacrificing the aura of sacredness and the light abilities that usually guide his gameplay. Ok, but how do you break the Oath? Each Oath is different and is linked to particular obligations:
- Il Oath of Devotion it requires you to help the weak and prove yourself as a beacon of hope, so to break it you simply need to do any evil or cruel act. Going back on your word, attacking someone you promised not to hurt, and other actions of this type are enough to break him. Respecting the law is fundamental: even just theft can lead to apostasy.
- Il Oath of the Ancients it harks back to the imagination of the Green Knights: they are Paladins who have sworn to protect life, therefore also plants, animals and the natural order in a broad sense. Protecting the good, acts of mercy, and other positive gestures are the foundations of the Oath, which is however not tied to the law. The morality of these Paladins is therefore quite different, disconnected from the norms of society.
- Il Oath of Vengeance it is based on a very simple principle: no mercy must be shown to evil and the wicked. This means that while it is best to avoid attacking first, you must always go all the way when spotting an evildoer. Going against this simple principle will lead to apostasy.
A shower of tricks and tips to get you started in the best possible way
At this point it would be redundant to continue to dissect the mechanics, therefore we would like to leave you with a long series of short and useful tips that can significantly improve the experience, both for newbies and for D&D veterans. We will go into detail about the PC experience itself, passing through some slightly more obscure mechanics to get to advice during the combat phase.
- If you get tired of going through the launcher at Larian Studios, you can remove it: by going to Baldur's Gate 3 Properties on Steam, and then Launch Options, you can add the string "--skip-launcher" and then close Properties. Goodbye Launcher.
- In the game options you can activate or deactivate the Karmic Dice. By activating it you will get a sort of bonus to dice rolls to make you feel the impact of your choices more. By deactivating it, however, you will get the classic D&D experience: only luck can save you.
- Baldur's Gate autosaves very rarely, so it's good to save VERY frequently.
- L'environment offers a solution for everything: are you in the dark and without spells? You can light a torch. See a trap but can't disarm it? A well-aimed arrow will blow it up. Can't reach an area? You can always teleport a companion to us.
- Being free to pickpocketing anything, you can take back what you have given to the merchants or directly empty part of their inventory of goods.
- Always remember to bring your own skill scores to even numbers, because by keeping them odd you will not get any kind of bonus. This effectively makes level 14 the soft-cap for skill scores, since you'll need the full one-level bonus to proceed further.
- By selecting several inventory items with SHIFT you can right-click and add them to the goods. This makes it possible to sell all items marked as goods to a merchant, saving you a lot of time.
- The Baldur's Gate system rewards players who approach it with the right rhythms. Running out of Spell Slots makes it very difficult to face certain fights, so it is good and right, when possible, to rest after each fight. Here it doesn't work like it does on Divinity, in which it is virtually possible to play the entire campaign without stopping. On the other hand, even resting at the camp has a cost, so you need to have excellent resource management.
- A good positioning wins over everything. Before entering combat, taking a couple of minutes to reposition your DPS can make the difference between victory and defeat, even if your opponents seem seemingly invincible.
- Right clicking on enemies is possible examine them to understand what you are dealing with. Resistances, statistics, active statuses: sometimes a good knowledge of the enemy can reverse the outcome of the battle. Maybe the monster you are facing is very weak to fire: a good fire and the fear goes away.
- When you move in combat passing next to an enemy you create the condition to suffer a attack of opportunity. This, of course, also applies to enemies. There are several ways to avoid them, and the simplest is to jump or, when possible, fly away.
- Unlike Spells, i tricks they never run out and can be used every turn. Of course, they are often not extremely effective, but it is good to have useful resources available in any situation. Don't ignore the tricks too much, especially in the early stages of the adventure.
- Activating the turn-based mode out of combat, it is possible to unleash a sudden attack on a team of enemies, planning buffs and debuffs in detail before launching the first blow. Getting into the habit of doing this every time exponentially increases your chances of winning.
- The environment and the surfaces play a fundamental role. Sometimes burning water to create steam is more than enough to protect you from a Gnoll's arrows for a long time. Likewise, you must always look around: an explosive barrel in the right place can reap entire hordes, if used properly. Remember, in this regard, that you are free to carry objects such as barrels with you to place them in advance.
- Generally speaking, in Baldur's Gate 3 there are no "cheese" mechanics. Since you can do anything, you are free to do anything, and the only limit is your imagination. Sending a solo thief to execute an enemy and then have him flee from invisible combat, for example, is a great way to balance combatant numbers. Larian Studios has put a world in your hands where you can do anything you can imagine: don't limit yourself.
