Baldur’s Gate 3 Tips and Tricks to Get Started For Beginners

Sure, the world might be in serious trouble right now and the richest 1% might have the equivalent of the poorest 50% combined, but you don’t need to worry about that here. And you also don’t have to worry too much about starting class in the game either.

That’s not to say that each class is basically the same, because they’re not. And it’s not to say that you can easily go and pick a new class mid-game if you want, because you can’t. But whatever call you pick, from warrior to wizard, you’ll never feel underpowered as long as you follow the basic guidelines. Each race and class fit together differently, but it isn’t impossible to make a combination work, just make sure you have the most points in the most important attributes when you create your character. After that, the game will give you some choices as you level up, helping craft a truly unique character that has their own role and position on the battlefield, no matter what they are.

So instead of picking the “best class”, choose whichever one strikes your fancy. Make the character you want, whether it be a sadistic elven warlock or hammer swinging dwarven cleric. Like in D&D, creating the character should be a fun chance to explore your options and indulge in the possibilities, not memorise a spreadsheet.

If you’ve played either Divinity Original Sin or Dungeons and Dragons, this one shouldn’t be much of a surprise to you. Each dungeon you delve into or abandoned home you explore in Baldur’s Gate 3 will be filled with boxes, shelves and secrets that are just waiting for you to loot them.

And you can find some incredibly useful items tucked away if you spend a few minutes making sure each corpse and crate are thoroughly turned over. From scrolls that can change the tide of a battle, to shiny trinkets worth plenty of coin, and even rarer goodies. Some items are fixed, but most are randomly generated so even if you’re playing through more than once, it’s worth backtracking and taking the wrong corridor to find a few other locations to loot.

Holding down the ‘alt’ key will highlight items in the area you can interact with, but it’s also worth just letting your mouse guide over the incredibly detailed world, in case there’s something hidden in the murk of the dungeon or the undergrowth of the forest.

While overlap can be inevitable, making sure your companions are as different as possible gives you the best chance of survival in Baldur’s Gate 3. While a party of four battle-hardened fighters might look intimidating, they’ll not fare so well against a squad of wizards and archers.

This is really important and not just because of the obvious tactical advantage that diversity brings. In your party, you’ll want to try and make sure that you have a selection of skills that can help outside of the battlefield to. Investigation and Perception can save you from traps and dangers in the dungeons. Religion, Arcana, and History can all help unlock hidden secrets, and high Charisma skills like Persuasion and Deception can get you out of a dicey situation without having to murder your way through a whole Druid’s Grove.

Making sure that your party has at least some balance across the different fields of play, in and outside of the scrap, means you’ll find a lot more on your adventure, and surive for longer too.

This is a tip for everyone, but more particularly for those that are more used to pen and paper than mouse and keyboard. In Dungeons and Dragons fights might be lost, player characters might die, but in the end, the DM will find a way to continue the story. If you lose in Baldur’s Gate 3, you’re dead. That’s it.

While there is an autosave feature, it’s unreliable at best. It’s a good signal that a large fight is on the horizon when you spot the game save itself, but there are far more deadly encounters than just the bosses.

It is a good idea to save after every fight, and every successful dice roll. If you’re looking to make a perfect run, you’ll probably want to save before most conversations and interactions as well, but Baldur’s Gate 3 is designed with failure in mind. So the reason you should save after a success is that there is nothing worse than getting a lucky roll, dying in the next room, and failing that roll on the next attempt.

Save often and avoid that disappointment.

Baldur’s Gate 3, as mentioned earlier, based on Dungeons and Dragons. The famous tabletop roleplaying game allows players to really let their imaginations run wild because whatever you can think of is possible, as long as the DM allows it.

Baldur’s Gate 3 tries to do the same and has so many overlapping systems that you can pull off some incredibly imaginative and often hilarious hijinks if you just try. Not everything will succeed, either because it doesn’t quite work the way you expected it to, or because the dice weren’t on your side. But there is so much experimentation to be had in Baldur’s Gate 3 beyond casting the same spell and swinging the sword. It’s up to you to discover what nonsense the game will let you get away with, but consider this a bonus tip and try shoving everyone and everything you encounter.

• Tooltips appear near the top-right below the minimap. These are usually useful for certain
  moments, like needing to jump. When you haven’t learned how yet.
• Hold Alt to make all lootable bodies visible nearby. This also works for showing certain items.
• Baldur’s Gate III doesn’t autosave often, so it’s important to save frequently.
• Remember to use short rests and long rests at the campsite by using the buttons near the minimap
  at the top right corner. These will help you recover health and spell slots.
• If you’re not sure how to light a torch, you can dip it in a flame to do so. This will help deal with a
  lack of light if you don’t have the darkvision trait.
• Even if you can’t disarm a trap, you can still shoot it from afar to trigger it.
• You can travel between all activated waypoints when at one. Also, you can fast travel between
  them by simply opening up your map, so long as you’re not underground.
• Sometimes a character will have a trade button at the bottom left corner even though they won’t
  have a dialogue option to trade.
• If you sell something to a trader, you can try to steal it back by pickpocketing them.
• Certain classes like wizards and warlocks can learn spells for a small sum of gold. Just right-click
  scroll in that character’s inventory to see if you can and for how much.
• Keep an eye out for areas you might be able to jump to. Baldur’s Gate III has a large range for
  jumping both forward and up. You’ll likely find a lot of secrets if you notice jumpable gaps.
• While exploring dark areas, you can see a lot better if you use a companion with darkvision.
• The minimap in the top-right corner has a marker for which way is north.
• Spacebar skips dialogue incase you’re in a rush or replaying content.

• Always take advantage of high ground and getting behind your enemies. This will make it easier to
  hit them if you have a height advantage. Being behind enemies only really benefits melee
  characters for the backstab advantage.
• You can use a bonus action to dip your weapon in nearby elements for extra damage. The most
  common one you’ll likely find is fire.
• Be careful of moving during a fight when you’re right next to an enemy. This will trigger an
  opportunity attack where they can attack you without expending actions
• You can use the jump/disengage bonus action to get out of an opportunity attack without getting hit.
• Cantrip spells don’t exhaust any spell slots and can be used every turn. Remember to check what
  actions are used when hovering over an ability. It will say at the bottom of the window that appears.
• You can eat all different types of food for health. Certain types of meat are especially great for
  healing.
• You can right-click an enemy to examine them. This is a useful way to learn about their
  resistances, current conditions, and more. If you’re not sure what a condition is on yourself or a
  companion, you can hover over the condition on your portrait.
• Offhand attacks count as a bonus action. This can work well with a rogue using two daggers.
• Pressing the spacebar will activate the turn-based mode outside of combat. This can be useful for
  planning the first move or treading carefully.
• Always look for opportunities in the environment. You may see a stalactite hanging from a cave
  ceiling or a wooden stockade you can knock down. Sometimes it pays off to hover your mouse
  around with an arrow prepared.
• You can throw potions at other people to get that effect on them. This also works on groups of
  people that are very close together. For example, throwing a healing potion between two
  companions to heal both of them at once.
• Take advantage of the elements by freezing blood, burning water to create steam, or zapping a
  water source. These are a few methods great for certain spells and potions.