This document contains loosely organized planning, notes, and thoughts. Some of them may be contradictary. There are no plot spoilers, because I wrote it before I played the game. I did look up nonspoiler tips and included some info from those results. Also, FWIW, I haven't played any other games in the Baldur's Gate series.
I played on PC using Steam.
There's an enormous amount of information at the
BG3 Fandom site and
wiki
Here's a great
build planner
What follows are a bunch of misc non-spoiler tips from a bunch of sources. Some of them mention various game items or areas, but without context they don't really give away anything.
BG3 is based off the Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition ruleset. The maximum character level attainable in the game is 12.
The plot is divided into three acts, each of which occurs in its own area of the game world.
Picking locks, disarming traps, and exploring locations grant experience
You can sometimes avoid combat entirely via dialogue, especially if your character is Charisma-based. You may lose out on some loot and XP. But there's plenty to be had in unavoidable fights, so if you prefer to talk our way out of some conflicts, your overall playthrough will still be fine.
The game occurs in the Forgotten Realms setting, also used by other D&D games such as Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights. The premise is that, long ago, planet Earth and the magical world(s) of the Forgotten Realms were more closely connected. As time passed, the inhabitants of Earth had mostly forgotten about the existence of that other world. Hence the name Forgotten Realms.
You can play as an "Origin character" with a premade backstory, or as a "Custom" character with no backstory. If you play as "Origin", one of your choices is "The Dark Urge". This is a special backstory only available to the main character. All the other "Origin" characters appear still in the game even if you don't play as them. There are no wrong choices here. For my first playthrough, I played as a Custom character, made up my own backstory, and had a great time. But if one of the Origin characters seems interesting to you, go for it.
Don't feel guilty save scumming. It's fun to get the dialogue outcome you want
Look up "best build" guides for each companion. At least, eventually. You can always respec any of the companions, or the main character, for an amount of gold that will be trivial by the middle of Act 1.
The game is really only hard in Act 1. By Act 3 you're basically a god
Don't be afraid to use potions, scrolls, and throwables. They are widely available and you don't really need to save them up for bosses
Long rest often. A lot of content is served at camp
Once you come across an encounter, it begins to run. So if you walk away, it continues without you.
In Act 1 try to be at least the same level as the mobs you are fighting. The mobs get higher the further West you go from the starting point.
You'll meet two people in the intro (no way to miss them). You should meet two more pretty quickly in the first open, explorable area. If you've played awhile and are getting some distance from where you started, but you haven't met both of them, then go back to where you started and look around for them.
Autosaves are few and far between, Quicksave like it's your job. During dialog, before, during and after fights, just walking around if it's been a minute. You don't want things to go south and have to replay the last three hours
There is no 'right way' except for what you wanted from that playthrough, so if you think "did I mess this up?", maybe you did, but you can continue the game anyway. There are many different paths to the end. Or you can start over. There is no shame in that, either.
Wanna make your Barbarian companion a Paladin? You can! Hate your class? Respec/reclass to your heart's content.
Use your potions, arrows, scrolls. Vendors restock after each long/partial rest.
Talk to your companions, get to know them . The writing is top-notch and none of them are black-and-white. They made all different kinds so that everyone could like or relate to some of them, if not all.
Actions have consequences. Some decisions you make in Act 1 affect outcomes in Act 3. Don't stress about that - you won't break your game or lock yourself out of finishing it - but don't be surprised when the way you treated a minor character comes back up later.
Hold down left-alt to show interactable objects. Not everything gets shown this way, but important things usually do.
Hit the ~ (tilde) key to add borders around party members (blue), friendlies (green), neutrals (yellow), and combatants (red). That is SUPER helpful and you can even see figures through walls. I don't see how anyone plays the game without doing this.
If you are having trouble targeting someone (to hit or buff or whatever) - you can click on their portrait and "do the thing"
Dead NPCs won't talk to their killer. Disguise Self (or later on, Disguise Kits) can be handy.
Toggle all reactions to "ask". You don't always want to opportunity attack that fleeing enemy, or auto smite on a crit. If it being asked gets annoying, you can always set it back to automatic, but at least you'll have seen what's going on behind the scenes.
Always have the character with the highest Persuasion bonus do the trading
Elixirs generally last until a LONG REST and a lot of buffs, such as Detect Thoughts and Speak With the Dead, also last that long. Get an item, equip, use, unequip, run around for the day buffed up!
Save Speed Potions. There are fights that really really need the speed buff, no spoilers but save at least 4 potions for ACT III.
Throwing most poisons on the ground creates a surface you can dip your weapons in that lasts until long rest rather than 10 turns. Multiple people can use the same surface too.
Food and camp supplies can be sent directly to camp, you don't have to encumber yourself by carrying arounf 5 pig heads and 113 apples.
Even if you have a healer, buy plenty of health potions from shops.
Send most loot directly to camp. When you encounter a vendor, you can step back to camp, load everyone up, sell. Saves you from becoming encumbered, and maximizes the gold you can get.
Hold Shift to see enemies lines of sight before attempting to hide
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. Certain areas prevent fast travel as well.
If you sell something to a trader, you can try to steal it back by pickpocketing them.
Keep an eye out for areas you might be able to jump to. Baldur's Gate 3 has a large range for jumping both forward and up. You'll likely find a lot of secrets if you notice jumpable gaps.
Some places (burrow holes, etc.) are hard to squeeze through for medium-sized characters without some magical assistance. You can use Disguise Self to go through cracked rocks by choosing a small creature, such as a Gnome or Halfling. If the space is too small for even your Gnome or Halfling Character, use other methods such as Enlarge/Reduce and Wild Shape to become something smaller. Or just don't worry about it - there's almost always another way to get to wherever the hole takes you.
Looking through each character's inventory to find a specific piece of equipment is a pain - instead, click the equipment slot, which will then show you a list of all available equipment that the character can use for that slot across everyone's inventory.
Want to sell a lot of items to a vendor at once? Before speaking with them, select multiple items (L Shift to select adjacent items or L Ctrl to select items individually), right-click, and select 'Add to Wares'.
When you are in the Trade/Barter menu with the vendor, toggle to 'Trade' and select 'Sell Wares' at the bottom. You can use the same process to manage your inventory by selecting 'Send to Camp' and the items will go to your Traveller's Chest in camp.
You essentially have infinite carry weight because you can right-click on any item at any time and hit 'Send to Camp' and it'll teleport there into your Traveller's Chest in camp. You can even do this with locked/enchanted chests you find then you can unlock them later at your leisure.
You can teleport back to camp almost any time you want outside of combat, and it isn't tied to a rest action. You can pop into camp, grab any items you need, and then head back out into the world. (There are some areas you can't teleport from, mostly deep into dungeons or important story areas)
If you're having trouble clicking on a squirrel that you're trying to converse with, or you just want to slow things down, press Shift + Space (On controller: Accessible via the Right Trigger shortcut menu). This will put you into a turn-based mode where the world acts as if you're in combat and makes it much easier to interact with small, fast-moving targets, and it lets you handle an impending trap with infinite time to prepare
Find the shovel and keep it in your inventory. You only need one shovel to share with your party, but you cannot dig up treasure from mounds of dirt you find without it.
Group Hide is useful for keeping the whole party in stealth mode. For mouse and keyboard: the button is on the bottom left of your screen. For controller: hold down on the d-pad
You can gather more information and insights by talking with animals or corpses. Bards, Druids, and Rangers are able to cast Speak with Animals (and recast it until Long Rest). You can find The Amulet of Lost Voices in the room with Withers, which grants the wearer the ability to cast Speak with Dead. And there are scrolls/potions too. You can only ask the corpse 5 questions, though, so choose your options wisely
The way that you act in front of a vendor or store owner can completely change your experience with them. Being seen committing crimes by a vendor can make them charge you much more for items, so try to be sneaky if this is part of your playstyle
Take advantage of high ground and get behind your enemies. This will make it easier to hit them if you have a height advantage. For example, if you stack three crates and jump/climb on top of them, you'll have advantage on ranged attacks against enemies. 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
Keep a candle in your character's inventory. In combat, you can use a free action to place the candle on the ground and light it. Then, as a bonus action, dip your weapon into the candle and it will become a flaming weapon that deals additional fire damage
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 or party members to heal both of them at once
There are a LOT of endings. As you get closer to the end of the game (it'll be pretty obvious) create permanent, named saves (not quicksaves) every time you enter an area or just before having a conversation with major plot-moving NPCs. Just in case you want to go back and do it again differently.
| Class Name |
Hit Die |
Proficiencies |
Skills |
Saving Throw Proficiencies |
| Barbarian |
d12 |
? |
? |
STR/CON |
| Bard |
d8 |
Light Armour
Simple Weapons
Hand Crossbows
Longswords
Rapiers
Shortswords |
Musical Instrument Proficiency
Any 3 Skills |
DEX/CHA |
| Cleric |
d8 |
? |
? |
WIS/CHA |
| Druid |
d8 |
? |
? |
INT/WIS |
| Fighter |
d10 |
? |
? |
STR/CON |
| Monk |
d8 |
? |
? |
STR/DEX |
| Paladin |
d10 |
? |
? |
WIS/CHA |
| Ranger |
d10 |
? |
? |
STR/DEX |
| Rogue |
d8 |
Light Armour
Simple Weapons
Hand Crossbows
Longswords
Rapiers
Shortswords |
4 from:
Acrobatics
Athletics
Deception
Insight
Intimidation
Investigation
Perception
Performance
Persuasion
Sleight of Hand
Stealth |
DEX/INT |
| Sorcerer |
d8 |
? |
? |
CON/CHA |
| Warlock |
d8 |
? |
? |
WIS/CHA |
| Wizard |
d6 |
? |
? |
INT/WIS |
Spellcasting Ability
| Ability |
Classes/Subclasses |
| WIS |
Cleric, Druid, Monk, Ranger |
| CHA |
Barbarian, Bard, Paladin, Sorcerer, Warlock |
Anything not listed above uses INT. But there are some subtleties:
- The above table determines the ability used when casting from a scroll or otherwise using an item
- Spells learned from taking a class use that class's spellcasting ability
- Spells scribed into a Wizard's scroll always use INT
- Spells granted by a race use that race's spellcasting ability (heck if I know what those are...)
- Some companions don't follow the normal rules
- Magic items use the class the character most recently took a new level in
Read that last one again, because it can be surprising for multiclassing. Suppose you have a CHA-based Swords bard who knows a few Bard spells, but dips into Rogue and Fighter for improved combat abilities. That Bard may lean heavily on scrolls when in a support role. This is pretty consistent with the Bard class, and allows the Bard to use spells they normally couldn't. But if this Bard takes either Rogue or Fighter as their last new class (which is pretty likely), they'll use INT and not CHA when casting from the scroll, and not use their CHA bonus. This happens even if they took additional Bard levels after taking Fighter/Rogue. Be wary of class order in multiclassing, and remember you can always respec.
Also be aware of Effective Spellcaster Level (aka ESL, described on
this page). To understand this, you have to know if you're a Full, Half, or One-Third caster:
| Type |
Classes/Subclasses |
ESL |
| Full |
Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard |
Class level |
| Half |
Paladin, Ranger |
Class level divided by 2, rounded down |
| One-Third |
Arcane Trickster, Eldritch Knight |
Class level divided by 3, rounded down |
Rounding happens at the end. So a character who took five levels of Eldritch Knight and five of Arcane Trickster would have an ESL of 3, not 2. In other words, it would be (5+5)/3 then rounded down, not 5/3 rounded down to 1, plus another 5/3 rounded down to 1.
| Race |
Darkvision |
Movement |
Proficiencies |
Skills |
Other |
| High Elf |
12m |
9m |
Longsword, Shortsword, Shortbow, Longbow |
Perception |
Advantage on save vs charm, can't be magic'd to sleep, know one Cantrip |
| Wood Elf |
12m |
10.5m |
Longsword, Shortsword, Shortbow, Longbow |
Perception, Stealth |
Advantage on save vs charm, can't be magic'd to sleep |
| Half High Elf |
12m |
9m |
Spears, Pikes, Halberds, Glaives, Light Armour, Shield |
|
Advantage on save vs charm, can't be magic'd to sleep, know one Cantrip |
| Half Wood Elf |
12m |
10.5m |
Spears, Pikes, Halberds, Glaives, Light Armour, Shield |
Stealth |
Advantage on save vs charm, can't be magic'd to sleep |
| Drow Half Elf |
12m |
9m |
Spears, Pikes, Halberds, Glaives, Light Armour, Shield |
|
Advantage on save vs charm, can't be magic'd to sleep, know Dancing Lights, Faerie Fire, and Darkness |
| Human |
None |
9m |
Spears, Pikes, Halberds, Glaives, Light Armour, Shield |
Any 1 |
Carrying capactity increased by one quarter |
A lot of opinions on skills in
this reddit thread
Here's
a wiki list of all skills
My summary of skills based on things I've read, without having played the game yet. It is tilted towards the high DEX/CHA low STR/INT Rogue-ish mostly-but-not-always-Good Bard I'm planning to play for my first playthrough. Other builds might rank skills differently. Internet rankings were random posts I found, and were not specific to my build.
| Skill |
Attribute |
Internet Rankings |
My Ranking |
Notes |
| Deception |
CHA |
AB |
B |
You can Decieve yourself out of XP/rewards by avoiding fights |
| Intimidation |
CHA |
B |
B |
You can Intimidate yourself out of XP/rewards by avoiding fights. Gained automatically by Lore Bards. |
| Performance |
CHA |
CB |
B |
Not a lot of checks for this, but synergizes with a particular melee weapon |
| Persuasion |
CHA |
AACBS |
A |
You can Persuade yourself out of XP/rewards by avoiding fights. Does help with vendor prices. |
| Acrobatics |
DEX |
AA |
A |
Helpful to avoid being shoved. Take this OR Athletics |
| Sleight of Hand |
DEX |
DCSB |
A |
Useful, helps with gold and items, but is unnecessary. Gained automatically by Lore Bards. |
| Stealth |
DEX |
ABSA |
A |
Allows combat options and exploration. Unnecessary but useful. |
| Arcana |
INT |
BAA |
B |
Helps in understanding what magical things do. Gained automatically by Lore Bards. |
| History |
INT |
CC |
C |
Adds some knowledge but kinda meh |
| Investigation |
INT |
ABB |
B |
Opens up some additional possibilities |
| Nature |
INT |
ACC |
C |
Useful but not critical |
| Religion |
INT |
AB |
B |
Lots of religion checks in the story, plus an especially notable one |
| Athletics |
STR |
AAA |
A |
Helpful to avoid being shoved. Take this OR Acrobatics. |
| Animal Handling |
WIS |
BC |
C |
Kinda situational, redundant with Animal Speaking + Persuasion |
| Insight |
WIS |
ABAA |
A |
Helps detect lies/motivation and with knowing who to trust |
| Medicine |
WIS |
CC |
C |
Useful but there are usually other ways to solve the issue |
| Perception |
WIS |
SA |
S |
Pretty much everybody says this is important. |
| Survival |
WIS |
D |
D |
|
Some things get locked in based on which class you take first. I think these are skill Proficiencies, initial equipment, and Saving Throws Bonuses. (Internet info is inconsistent, because some of this changed during Early Access.) My testing confirms that those lock in, but you still get some class features. For example, when I added Bard at character level 2, I still got Musical Proficency and an initial musical instrument. I didn't get the other Bard initial equipment, but that's no big deal. Bards and Rogues have identical starting Proficiencies otherwise. For the Saving Throw Bonuses, Rogues get DEX/INT and Bards get DEX/CHA. I'd rather have DEX/CHA, but it stuck at DEX/INT. Also no big deal, staring as Rogue seemed to work well and made the first part of the game a little easier.
This wiki page has a pretty good description of how this works. On the Saving Throw Proficency portion, remember that you always get your ability bonus to saving throws, no matter what. (Well, unless some effect in the game messes with a particular instance, but multiclassing doesn't change it.) You ALSO get your proficiency bonus (which is based on your class level) added to two of your saving throws, as determined by your starting class. Which class you'd prefer that to be probably depends on which types of saving throws you expect to be making the most and/or which you think are most important to pass, not your ability scores. Regardless, that part is unlikely to be a huge concern.