You might not know this about me, but I love playing video games. I didn’t grow up playing them as a kid, as I had the kinds of parents who thought they were all violent and dangerous. But, since my late teenage years, I’ve spent a considerable amount of my own time and money investing in video games.
As I am also a teensy bit obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons, I have been very excited about Baldur’s Gate 3 for a long time.
For anyone unaware, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a huge open-world role playing game that uses the rules and mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons as the base for the game. This means using the races, classes, lore, continent, rules, spells, attacks, and (most importantly from my perspective), the dice rolls.
There have been two previous games in the series, both of which were made by former RPG powerhouse Bioware, but this latest in the instalment was made by Larian Studios — the developers of the Divinity: Original Sin games.
What I Learned Playing Baldur’s Gate 3 for a Month
Now, I love Bioware games. I was introduced to Dragon Age many years ago and Mass Effect followed soon after. Both of these series are incredible.
Intriguing stories with complex plots that feel so real and relatable. Companions with varying opinions and backgrounds so you’re always given different perspectives from them, and the choices that your character makes have a real impact on the world and the people around you.
I will never forget the first time I played Mass Effect 2 and forgot to do a loyalty mission for my favourite companion, Garrus, and that decision led to him being kidnapped by space bees in the final mission and I had to play through all of Mass Effect 3 without him. Devastating.
This feature of having long term consequences for actions is something that many gamers such as myself really appreciate, as it shows a much greater level of commitment and attention to detail than can be found in other games.
Ask anyone who has ever played The Witcher 3 and Skyrim, and they will surely mention the long-lasting impact of decisions in The Witcher 3 makes it a much more desirable game to go back and play a second time.
So, why am I talking so much about other games in an article about Baldur’s Gate 3? Well…
Baldur’s Gate 3 feels like the peak game where your character’s decisions impact the game and I love it so much for that.
The game is truly incredible, and will let you do anything and everything, just be prepared that all the consequences have been accounted for as well.
Taking all of this information, it can make starting off in Baldur’s Gate 3 feel like a pretty daunting task. So here’s what I’ve learned to help you out on your adventures.
Talk to everyone you possibly can
There are so many hidden details and stories dotted around, it can really be worth your while to chat to every person you meet.
I know when you get to loud crowded areas it can be overwhelming, so what I started doing was just stopping, looking around, and prioritising people by themselves, or people that looked like they had something to say.
Use the search function
Now I’ve been playing the game on playstation 5. It’s not ideal I know, but my PC is a bit of a potato and I wanted to play without ten minute loading screens and blocky graphics.
On PS5, you can hold down X to highlight all interactables in a nearby area. This is such a useful tool for finding small hidden items.
There have been so many hidden letters, keys, and buttons that I missed in the early game before I tried this technique.
Turn-based mode is crazy useful
I had no idea there even was a turn-based mode until I started Act 2 of Baldur’s Gate 3. This might be on me.
But since I discovered it, I’ve found so many uses for it, particularly when you go to Baldur’s Gate (the city) in Act 3 of the game.
Any time you’re trying to sneak somewhere, or trying to jump from rooftop to rooftop, turn-based mode is there to make sure you can do it all before your buffs run out, in a stress-free (ish) environment.
Don’t forget to prepare your spells!
Did you just find yourself stuck at a door and need a small animal to climb through a pipe to open it from the other side? (Baldur’s Gate 3 here, bringing you all the relatable problems once again.)
Did you forget to bring a druid to wild shape?
Have no fear! If you’ve got a wizard in your party (or like me, you’re playing one) hop into the menu and prepare your spells to make sure that you’ve got find familiar and poof, problem solved!
I could have saved myself so many painful moments if I had just remembered this little detail.
Short Rests!
I mean, that’s pretty much it. Don’t forget you’ve got short rests.
I still don’t use them enough in the game; they’re great; everyone should remember they have short rests.
Horde your potions of animal speaking
It took me way too long to realise that this potion lasts all day! And that I hadn’t been talking to my owlbear!
There are so many pets and animals that you can talk to in this game, and many of them have actually useful information to give you.
I’ve got into the habit of popping an animal speaking at the start of most days, and haven’t regretted it once.
Teach your wizard new spells using spell scrolls
Again, my own silly fault for not noticing this sooner. But yeah, for a sum of gold and a spell scroll, your wizard can learn new spells that they didn’t pick up at levelling up.
I found myself learning so many more spells this way, and not worrying about wasting my precious spell scrolls as much.
Talk to all your companions
This one was one I’ve done all the way through, but I had at least one friend that was literally just ignoring the other people with them unless it was in cutscenes. No, baby, no!
The game is renowned for basically being a dating simulator wrapped up in a Dungeons & Dragons adventure. But apparently not everyone was aware that you do actually have to go and initiate conversation with your companions in order to have any of the graphic stuff actually happen.
Read all the books
There have been a few times through the games that I’ve wiped the sweat from my brow, relieved that I made it through the dialogue options.
Several of those moments have only been possible because my character is a compulsive bookworm. There’s so much extra lore and information squirrelled away in the books which are scattered everywhere.
It’s definitely worth investing in the extra minute or two to read it all.
You can hold the up arrow to jump
Another PlayStation-specific tip. But I’m not going to tell you how many hours I wasted finding the jump action in my menus every time there was a slight cliff in the way.
Jumping is such a key mechanic for this game and having a shortcut to it saved me a lot of time.
Don’t skimp on the brain worms
Now there is a sentence I didn’t think I’d be saying when I woke up this morning!
Nevertheless, it’s true — don’t skimp on the brain worms. At some point the game will give you illithid powers that you can unlock through devouring brain worms found on certain characters.
I put off doing it for a long time as it felt, well, wrong.
There’s nothing negative from doing this, so feel free to indulge, and get yourself some badass mind powers.
Romance someone
So I asked my current Dungeons & Dragons campaign group for any tips or tricks they had and wanted to share.
The result seems to be a four way turf war over the different characters, so I’m going to simplify it.
Romance someone, it doesn’t matter who. All of the companions in the game are romanceable, and they are all “player-sexual” so they’ll always be into you.
From what I’ve seen, all of the romance stories are beautifully done and match each character perfectly. All the relationships feel different and unique. Particularly if you manage to romance Halsin.
If romance isn’t your thing, that’s fine, but if it’s something you enjoy in your games, then Baldur’s Gate is sure to please.
Try thinking outside the box
Got locked out of a building you need access to? Why not try and pick the lock? Oh you failed the check? Don’t worry!
In Baldur’s Gate there is usually a way around any problem; you just need to think creatively.
There are so many secrets hidden in strange and wonderful ways, don’t be afraid to experiment.
Jumping onto roofs, knocking down walls, turning characters into sheep or putting bombs in people’s pockets. There always seems to be an unusual solution available if you’re willing to have a go.
So don’t give up and go away because the obvious normal solution didn’t work. Have a think about what else you could try to do.
Explore
I know, I know. It’s a big open-world game. It seems and obvious thing to do. But, yeah, really explore. There’s an enormous world out there, and you’ll only be directed towards a fraction of it.
Get your curious mittens on and see how much you can find with them. The game really rewards you for this, with so many chests of loot or new characters in hidden nooks and crannies.
It’s a joy to explore new places so go ahead and indulge.
More like guidelines than actual quests
Baldur’s Gate 3 is an enormous game.
There are hundreds of quests and tasks and things you can check in on. It’s quite literally impossible to do them all in one playthrough.
Also, it’s very possible to get rid of quest sensitive information as well.
My advice would be not to stress it. Lost a note or forgot to hand in a quest to an NPC? Try to move past it. There are a million other things that you can do, and that’s just how life works.
You can always come back and get it in your next play though!
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