Baldur’s Gate 3 Difficulty Settings – Different Game Modes

Dungeons & Dragons

April 28, 2024

Emmanuel Echoga

Baldur’s Gate 3 really took the gaming industry by storm since it was released back in August 2023. It has reminded fans of how enjoyable RPGs can be. But unlike other similar games that don’t allow players to set their difficulty level, Baldur’s Gate 3 difficulty settings enables you to pick from four predefined modes.

Keep reading to find out how to change the difficulty in Baldur’s Gate 3, and the features they have.

How to Change Difficulty in Baldur’s Gate 3

In many games like Baldur’s Gate, difficulty settings help provide each player, newbie or veterans, with a more tailored and enjoyable experience. Some players may just want to experience the game’s story and the choices/interactions the game has to offer without the added challenge of brutal and tanky enemies. Others may thrive on difficulty and punishment, with the only thing keeping them going is the sweet satisfaction of beating the game on its Hardest difficulty.

Baldur’s Gate 3 has 4 difficulty levels: Explorer, Balanced, Tactician, and Honor.

In this Baldur’s Gate 3 difficulty settings guide, we will compare all other game difficulties to the Balanced game difficulty. It makes for a good baseline to measure the increase or decrease in stats like enemies’ health, damage, etc.

For players wondering how to change the difficulty in Baldur’s Gate 3, all they need to do is open up the in-game menu by pressing the Escape key and selecting the Difficulty option.

Baldur’s Gate 3 difficulty settings explained

@Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian Studios

Explorer

This is the easiest difficulty in Baldur’s Gate. It draws more focus to the story of the game, and makes it easier overall.

All enemies maximum health is decreased by 30%.
Party members receive a 100% bonus to hit points.
Items purchased from a merchant are at a 20% discount.
Increase in all proficiency bonuses (including allies and enemies) by 2.
Multiclassing is not allowed on Explorer difficulty. Multiclass levels previously gained will stay if the difficulty is lowered to Explorer.
Because of this, you won’t be able to reach the Jack of All Trades achievement.
The Iron Throne’s timer is set to 8 turns.

Tactician

We recommend this mode for those who seek a slightly more difficult gameplay experience. If you’re used to turn based combat and the DnD 5th Edition spell lists, this might be the one for you.

All NPC’s maximum health increased
More aggressive enemy NPC behavior, such as targeting spellcasters more often and attempting to finish off downed characters.
Some enemies will gain special attacks and/or passive features not present in the lower difficulties.
All non-party characters receive modifiers that are added as “Difficulty: Tactician” in the combat log.
All enemies gain +2 to attack rolls and +2 DC to their spells and abilities.
Camp supplies requirements for a Long Rest increased from 40 to 80.
Insufficient camp supplies rules remain the same (restore half HP and half your spell slots rounded down).
The stores reduce the baseline bonus for discounting, causing items to cost more to purchase and sell for less.
The Iron Throne’s timer is set to 5 turns.

Honor

This is the hardest difficulty in the game and by far the most challenging. It’s also the only game mode that grants players rewards for completing, such as skins and achievements.

30 tweaks to boss fights, giving bosses Legendary Actions (actions that the boss can take at the end of another creature’s turn).
Stricter action economy and damage bonuses as the game progresses.
The player only gets a single save file for the entire campaign.
Should the party die and you need to know how to help downed party members, the player is presented with two choices: Continue the campaign in Custom mode (you can toggle features on and off), which ends Honor mode, or end the campaign, which deletes the save.