Baldur's Gate 3 presents players with a ton of options when it comes to its combat scenarios. However, those who are new to this style of game might not be aware of what exactly they're capable of pulling off.
The journey through Faerun is no walk in the park, and player characters in Baldur's Gate 3 are about as powerful as every other NPC in the world. Players need to earn their victories in this game, though this may be easier said than done. Here are some tips that everyone should know in order to win more fights.
1 Understand How Armor Class Works
Unlike most modern RPGs, armor sets in Baldur's Gate 3 do not reduce the damage characters take. Instead, they dictate how often attacks connect, essentially affecting hit rates instead of modifying raw damage numbers.
When a character attacks, they must roll a number higher than their target's Armor Class in order for their hit to meet its mark. Players can see the results of individual rolls by hovering their cursor over the combat log on the lower right side of the screen while in a battle.
2 Always Get High Ground
Characters gain +2 to their attack rolls whenever they're positioned at a higher elevation than their target, greatly improving their hit rates while reducing enemy hit rates against them. Ideally, the party's ranged attackers should always be on high ground, while melee fighters should be right at the enemy's face.
Use Jump or Misty Step to secure the high ground in battle. Alternatively, try to position characters on high ground before a fight even starts.
3 Seek Advantage, Avoid Disadvantage
When a character has Advantage, they roll two die in their attack rolls instead of one. The game then uses the higher number when calculating results. The opposite is true when a character has Disadvantage — the lower number will be used instead of the higher one.
Advantage can be gained in multiple ways. A general rule of thumb is that when a character is affected by a crowd-control status effect like Dazed, Off-Balanced, and Entangled, all attacks against them will have Advantage. These effects can be inflicted by certain Bonus Action moves like Pommel Strike and Vow of Enmity, so try to use those first before unleashing a proper attack.
4 Pick Up and Place Items
While exploring, players can pick up items like chests, crates, and barrels and store them in their characters' inventories. These items can then be used in combat by using Throw or opening the inventory screen and selecting the Drop Item option.
Exploding barrels can be thrown at enemies or used to create disadvantageous surfaces. Meanwhile, Wooden Crates can be stacked on top of each other to gain a high-ground advantage on otherwise flat terrain.
5 Use Stealth
Fights are best started while the party is in stealth mode. Using Hide causes characters to sneak, so they draw less attention to themselves while moving. Use this to put ranged characters like Astarion into a good position where they can start a battle with a ranged Sneak Attack.
Beginning a battle will not reveal any other hidden characters. Once enemies shift their attention to the party member who attacked them, move the rest of the hiding characters closer while avoiding the enemies' fields of vision. This allows melee characters to get some cheap shots in before they enter turn-based combat themselves.
6 Be Creative
Players can still interact with their environment while in turn-based mode, and most things interact with other things the way people expect them to. Oil will ignite when hit with Fire Bolt or a burning weapon, water will be electrified when struck with lightning, and throwing a goblin off a cliff will result in its immediate death.
Douse flames with water, shoot light sources to force enemies to fight in the dark, and break chandelier hinges to damage multiple targets at once. There are a ton of possibilities when it comes to upfront fighting, and it'll be up to the player to discover more interactions as they continue their journey.
7 Run Away
Fighting an enemy that's even one level higher than the party's can be a death sentence. When the odds are stacked heavily in favor of the opposite side, then the best course of action is to just run away.
Grab every party member and get them as far away from the enemies as possible. This will enable the Flee Combat option on the right side of the action bar. There's no glory in running away, but it's better than losing the entire party.
Baldur's Gate 3 is available now on PC, with a PS5 version coming soon.