Baldur’s Gate 3 is an absolutely massive game. It’s fun, it’s mind-blowing, but if you feel a bit lost it’s normal. After more than thirty hours in the final version -and we don’t plan to tell you how many in the early access version-, we are here to give you some essential tips to start playing Baldur’s Gate 3. Don’t expect here things about what class to take or anything like that. Here we go to the nitty-gritty. Case studies. So grab a pen and paper, because you’re going to learn how to play the game we’ve been waiting 23 years for, but for real.
Don’t overlook athletic skills
We understand that you come here for the power fantasy and the last thing you want to think about is doing something other than getting into a sword fight and casting tremendous spells. That’s normal. But hear us out. Athletic skills are one of the most important, fun and secretly broken parts of the game. Pushing, jumping, moving in stealth, carrying stuff and doing acrobatics may sound like boring stuff until you realize that the game has no limits. Pushing enemies off cliffs has made a lot of lost fights winnable. Using a barrel to throw it in someone’s face by surprise has helped me more than a few times. What the hell, grabbing an enemy to throw it in another enemy’s face won me a fight that was too close for my liking!
The same goes for anything that doesn’t involve combat. Don’t know how to access the inside of a place? Try stacking crates until you climb up through the roof. Or jumping over balconies to get to the first floor. Or twisting yourself to fit through a tiny hole. What’s the limit? Your attributes and the points you have dedicated to your skills. You will see if you want to be a Hero or someone who has fun unraveling all the secrets of Faerûn.
Use physics to your advantage
If Baldur’s Gate 3 stands out from previous Baldur’s Gate games, it is that it now has a relatively complex physics system. If something is wet, it will be affected more by electrical energy. If something is soaked in grease or filled with spider webs, it will catch fire easily. And at this point, I don’t think we need to explain much more. Except that there is something that is easy for you to miss.
You can create these effects completely artificially. No need to be a magician. Hoard jars of water or oil and throw them in the face of enemies before throwing your favorite elemental effect in their faces. It’s easier to do it with magic, but throwing Grease and Fireball is no more effective than throwing a jar of grease and then throwing a torch in the area to set the whole thing on fire in a horrible pandemonium that no one expected. Maybe not your allies either. So carry water on you, just in case you need to put out that fire or clean up that puddle of acid quickly.
Do you know Newton’s? So do your sorcerer and your archers.
If we talk about physics, it is important to talk about Newton. We understand that movies and other video games may have made you misaccustomed, but no: bows are not guns. Even guns don’t behave the way most people think they do. Projectiles fall over time. What does that mean? That the higher your archers and spell casters are, the more effective their attacks will be.
Here the advice is, moreover, twofold. Positioning them well is very important. It is important because you don’t want them to be killed, because they are weak in close combat, but also because they are more effective when they attack with a height advantage. Therefore, whenever possible, place them in the heights beforehand and, when it is not possible, provide them with the means to place themselves in these favorable positions as soon as possible. Spells like Flight, Levitate or Invisibility are a blessing for this, but Jump and Stealth can do the trick if you are not in the best possible position.
The environment is your friend (or not; the truth is that sometimes it is not).
Related to the previous points, it is necessary to understand that the scenery is an important part of the game. How important? Of the utmost importance. If we are going to create a wall of fire, a puddle of acid, we are going to throw an enemy off a cliff or we are going to place our spell casters, we have to take into account where we are going to do it. And that means taking into account the environment.
Sometimes an elevated position may seem ideal, but if we are between a ravine and our enemies, perhaps it would be better to lose that advantage in favor of not being able to die instantly if they charge at us. Similarly, dropping a lamp in a room or setting off a bomb to make a statue fall to crush several enemies may be an ideal strategy on many occasions, but not if it separates our group in such a way as to leave them exposed to the remaining enemies. So before you do something that looks like a cool move, make sure what the consequences will be. Because it can end very badly.
Being a coward is not bad: it’s being smart
Speaking of ending badly, here’s a tip: don’t fight. Avoid fighting. Both when you’re out on the street and when you’re playing Baldur’s Gate 3. But if you’re forced to fight because you have no choice, or you’re a brawler who won’t listen to the best advice you’ll ever get, we’ve got you covered too. Because we get bitten by the brawl bug from time to time too.
Whenever possible, start combat by attacking your enemies before they are hostile. It’s not honorable, it’s a part they’ll omit in the songs about you, but that first attack, especially if it’s with a rogue, can be the difference between winning and losing. After that, if you know there’s going to be combat, be prepared. Cast all the spells you need to get a head start, place your characters in the best possible positions and only then, start the combat. And above all, when you are already in combat, the main priority is always: alarms first, healers second, everything else after.
Believe us, you don’t want reinforcements to arrive after you have thoroughly prepared for combat. Nor do you want the best enemy warrior to seem incapable of dying. And since you haven’t listened to our advice not to pick fights, at least listen to us on how to win them.
The roll bonuses are there for you to use.
We said before that you must prepare yourself before each combat. Good. Do the same before every conversation. If you know you’re going to have an important conversation, a tough negotiation where things are going to happen where you don’t want everything to go wrong, then prepare yourself properly. There are spells to increase rolls, there’s equipment that gives bonuses of all kinds, and you can equip and unequip them at any time as long as you’re not in combat, in a conversation or in any kind of altered state.
In fact, why don’t you apply this advice to everything? Those ruins where there are so many traps? Time to increase perception and research. Do you have to negotiate with tieflings? You can use a spell to disguise yourself as one, or use the tiefling in your party to talk to them. Think about it. You are a group. You treasure lots of spells and equipment, why not take advantage of it?
Don’t stress when choosing your class (you can change it later).
The last and most important tip. Don’t stress about choosing your class. In general, don’t stress yourself. It’s a complex game, full of subtleties, but it seems more impenetrable than it really is. But when it comes to choosing a class, don’t think too much about which class you should choose, because you can’t choose wrong. They are all useful, they all have advantages and disadvantages, and they all end up being strong and consistent in the medium term.
In addition, it is possible to change your class at any time. To change your class you will need to find a specific NPC, the good guy Mustio, and pay him a small amount of gold, but you will not be forced to restart your entire game if you feel you have made a mistake with your class. So, don’t stress. Just remember our tips and think about everything we’ve told you. How it all boils down to one thing: enjoy and think of Faerûn as a living world where the only limit is your imagination. That’s what we have learned after more than thirty hours. And we are glad it is so.
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