Highlights
- Skills have a significant impact on gameplay, affecting a player's capabilities and knowledge.
- Intelligence Skills like History, Nature, Religion, and Arcana offer valuable information and insights that can inform players' decisions and actions.
- Skills like Investigation are essential for uncovering hidden details and objects, making them necessary for players in a game filled with intrigue and secrets.
Baldur's Gate 3 has gone to great lengths to ensure that every decision matters, even those seemingly frivolous or unimportant. Among the most affecting choices are those players make at the very beginning during character creation — chiefly the Skills they choose to be proficient in. Proficiency in a Skill makes a character more likely to succeed on checks relating to that talent and may have more options to utilize it whenever it may be relevant. Thus, a player's selection of Skill proficiencies can alter the game significantly, affecting their capabilities and knowledge.
Baldur's Gate 3 hammers home the importance of information in its expansive world; it can inform players' decisions and actions or offer alternatives to particular scenarios, making Intelligence Skills tempting, practical, and rewarding to lore enthusiasts or those looking to make their character the resident know-it-all. Players will have a wealth of knowledge with the Skills of Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, and Religion, which they can use to their benefit. Players should know the usefulness of Intelligence Skills to get the most out of their proficiencies.
5 History
How To Gain Proficiency
Classes | Backgrounds | Feats |
|---|---|---|
Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Monk, Warlock, Wizard | Noble, Sage | Skilled |
History is one's ability to recall monumental events, trends, institutions, people, etc., vital to the past and apply such knowledge to the present. This Skill can provide players with invaluable insights into much of what occurs in the story, granting them additional information that can offer clarity and inform current-day happenings. Players often find themselves delving into ancient locations or pouring over historical texts, making History alluring.
History does not offer much practical use to players, despite being a means of acquiring additional context about many things. Instead, it often presents supplemental information that, despite being intriguing and seemingly important, has little effect beyond catering to roleplay. So unless players want to learn more about the world or fit a particular character archetype, they should avoid History because it is compelling but not the most practical. ​​​​​​
4 Nature
How To Gain Proficiency
Classes | Backgrounds | Feats |
|---|---|---|
Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Ranger, Warlock | None | Skilled |
Nature is the capacity to recollect information about the natural world, including its various environments, flora, fauna, weather patterns, cycles, and other relevant details. Players can use this Skill to identify and understand the qualities of a particular biome and note its natural features, granting them information on things that can benefit or deter them. The wilds will be where players spend most of their time, so Nature is not without its uses.
Nature proves beneficial because the story of Baldur's Gate 3 sees players delve into the wilderness often. Knowing what can and cannot kill you is paramount for surviving any environment, particularly hostile ones like the Underdark. The only shortcoming of this Skill is that it is not applicable as applicable or consequential as other Intelligence Skills. Even so, Nature is a solid choice for those looking to prosper in any environment.
3 Religion
How To Gain Proficiency
Classes | Backgrounds | Feats |
|---|---|---|
Bard, Cleric, Druid, Monk, Paladin, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard | Acolyte, Hermit | Skilled |
Religion is one's knowledge of the various deities overseeing the world, alongside religions prominent and obscure. This Skill grants players information on the character, influence, and histories of the gods and the theologies that worship them, including specific details on rites, prayers, and holy symbols. Deities, faith, religious orders, and cults play a vital role in the story of Baldur's Gate 3, making Religion a compelling choice.
Religion does more than offer players fun facts about the gods, their domain, and their followers, as it provides genuinely helpful information that proves advantageous in the long run. Players can use their knowledge of divinity in various ways, such as determining the rite necessary to free an artifact or using knowledge of another's faith to influence them. Religion is a worthwhile Skill with much use to the story and interacting with the world.
2 Arcana
How To Gain Proficiency
Classes | Backgrounds | Feats |
|---|---|---|
Bard (College of Lore), Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard | Sage | Skilled |
Arcana is one's penchant for knowledge of the arcane, including lore on spells, magic items, magical symbols, etc. Players can use this Skill to recognize and identify locations, objects, creatures, and people that use or are influenced by magic, granting them indispensable information they can use in their favor. Magic is everpresent in Baldur's Gate 3 and impacts much of the story, so much so that it seems ridiculous not to have Arcana.
The information granted by Arcana is almost always beneficial to players and often saves players from making costly decisions with severe short-term or long-term impacts. This Skill proves necessary when interacting with the arcane, as more often than not, knowledge makes the difference to prevent one from releasing an eldritch horror or equipping a cursed magic item. Arcana scarcely proves unhelpful and often serves players well.
1 Investigation
How To Gain Proficiency
Classes | Backgrounds | Feats |
|---|---|---|
Bard, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock, Wizard | None | Skilled |
Investigation is the talent for identifying clues and obscure details, using them to make well-informed deductions; it can also uncover hidden objects or features. This Skill allows players to function as detectives, unveiling things others would never think to consider or look for. Much of Baldur's Gate 3 is shrouded by intrigue and hidden details imperceivable to those undiscerning, making Investigation a Skill arguably necessary for players.
Investigation never fails to prove beneficial throughout Baldur's Gate 3, as it sees use in the first few moments of the game and continues proving useful. It is a Skill that appears in many pivotal moments, such as finding the hidden entrance to a long-forgotten ruin or seeing past the illusion masking a text vital to quests. Many things that can benefit players and dramatically influence the story can go unnoticed without Investigation, making it a must-have Skill in most playthroughs.
Baldur's Gate 3 is available now on PC, with a PS5 release on September 6 and an Xbox launch to follow.
