Highlights
- Role-playing in Baldur's Gate 3 and staying true to a character's background leads to more fun and rewards, like gaining inspiration for rerolls.
- Embrace the failures of dice rolls and tragedies to weave a unique and compelling story, making each success feel greater.
- Stay in character and make decisions based on what your character would do, considering their backstory, race, class, and previous events. Let companions perform actions that align with their nature to maintain immersion.
Dungeons and Dragons​​​​​​, which Baldur's Gate 3 is based on, is all about role-playing and to get the most out of Larian Studios' hit game, players can take inspiration from the way in which people play the tabletop adventure.
By role-playing in Baldur's Gate 3 and staying true to a character's background, players will not only have more fun but they will also be rewarded in-game by gaining an inspiration that lets them reroll after bad dice throws. With such an incredible cast of characters and a highly dynamic plot, players who properly role-play in BG3 will craft a truly immersive story.
7 Roll With The Dice
As Baldur's Gate 3 is based on Dungeons and Dragons most aspects of the game are determined by dice rolls, and it can be tempting for players to simply save the game before an important role and reload after failing. However, players looking to role-play should trust the dice, as both in real life and in any story, things go wrong.
By embracing the failures of dice rolls, and any other tragedies such as an NPC dying in combat, players will end up weaving a unique and compelling story, and each success will feel even greater.
6 Stay In Character
The most important aspect of role-playing in a game such as Baldur's Gate 3 is staying in character and making decisions based on what they would do, rather than what is best for success in the game.
From choosing between dialogue options and making big decisions about the plot to simply deciding where to head off to on the map, every choice should be made based on the character in question. The character's backstory, race, class, and whatever else the player has imagined, should all influence the decisions, as should previous events from the current playthrough.
5 Let Companions Perform Certain Actions
If players are role-playing as a noble character with unscrupulous morals, then performing certain actions such as looting corpses or pickpocketing would go against their very nature and break the immersion. Instead, players can take control of one of the companions who would be okay with the task in question, and have them carry out the deed.
Even for tasks that could be carried out by anyone, having Baldur's Gate 3's incredible cast of companions help out is more immersive, as a real party of four adventures would split the load.
4 Play As A Paladin
Playing as a Paladin is one of the easiest ways to role-play in Baldur's Gate 3 as each of the three Paladin subclasses has its own specific oath that must be kept. This oath influences the dialogue choices players will make, the decisions they make about who lives and dies, and can even dictate the way the game is played as a whole.
If players don't keep to their oaths, there will be consequences, with them becoming Oathbreakers. Interestingly, playing as an Oathbreaker looking for redemption or even doubling down on abandoning one's vows can be just as fun to role-play as.
3 Bring Companions On Quests That They Would Care About
Baldur's Gate 3 has a party system that allows the player to invite and dismiss companions from their party of four. In order to beat the game, players would choose companions based on their combative skills for a specific mission.
However, players looking to fully immerse themselves in the game and role-play should instead consider selecting companions for quests based on their character and driving forces. For example, a quest about saving innocent lives is perfect for Wyll, who cares deeply for those who cannot fight for themselves.
2 Choose Spells And Abilities To Suit The Character
There are a wide array of spells, abilities, Cantrips, and feats in Baldur's Gate 3, and depending on their class, players will have access to different ones when creating their character and leveling up. While players might want to go for the strongest of these, selecting spells and abilities that align with a character's nature is better for role-play.
For example, if players are taking on the role of a friendly and lovable Bard, they would want to avoid a Cantrip such as Vicious Mockery. Instead, a Cantrip such as Friends or a spell such as Charm Person would both be much more in character.
1 Act Without Foreknowledge In Successive Playthroughs
Baldur's Gate 3 is a game with incredible replayability, and it is easy to see why players have many playthroughs. However, as players become familiar with the story and consequences of certain decisions, it can become easy to make choices based on foreknowledge.
Of course, if players are role-playing as a Divination Wizard, then this can make perfect sense, but otherwise, it is only the player and not their character who knows what will happen. Therefore, players looking to role-play in successive playthroughs should only act on the knowledge that their character has, even if it means falling into a trap.
Baldur's Gate 3 is out now on PC and is set to release on September 6, 2023, for PlayStation 5.
