Difficulty

Baldur's Gate 3 has three difficulty settings to choose from, in increasing difficulty order: Explorer, Balanced, Tactician.

Selecting A Difficulty

When you start a new game, you will be prompted to select a difficulty.

You also may change the difficulty after starting a game by using the menu and clicking on 'Difficulty'. The changes to statistics by modifying the difficulty are immediate.

Explorer Difficulty

Explorer is the least difficult setting. In comparison to the Balanced difficulty setting, Explorer has:

• Party characters receive a 50% bonus to hitpoints.
• Items purchased from a merchant are at a 20% discount.
• All characters (including enemies) proficiency bonuses are increased by 2.
• All non-party characters have the lowest hitpoints of all of the difficulty settings.
• Some turn-limited combat gives you additional turns making the encounter easier.
• Multiclassing is not allowed on Explorer difficulty. Multiclass levels previously gained will stay if the difficulty is lowered to Explorer.

Balanced Difficulty

Balanced is the middle difficulty setting and the most like a baseline, however Balanced has:

• All non-party characters have approximately 150% of their hitpoints compared to Explorer difficulty.

Tactician Difficulty

Tactician is the highest difficulty setting. In comparison to the Balanced difficulty setting, Tactician has:

• More aggressive enemy NPC behavior, such as targeting spellcasters more often and attempting to finish off downed characters.
• Some enemies will gain special attacks that are not present in the other difficulties.
  • Examples from the Prologue: Intellect Devourers gain a ranged psychic attack, Cambions can cast Fire Bolt, Commander Zhalk can attack twice.
• All non-party characters receive a +2 bonus to hit (noted as Difficulty: Tactician in the combat log) and enemy spells with a saving throw receive a +2 to their Difficulty Class.
• All non-party characters have approximately 200% of their hitpoints compared to Explorer difficulty.
• Taking a Long Rest requires 80 Camp Supplies instead of the normal 40 on the other difficulties

Example of Difficulty Changes

One named 4th level enemy in Act 1's statistics change the following across the three difficulties:

• Explorer Difficulty: 46hp, +4 Proficiency Bonus
• Balanced Difficulty: 67hp, +2 Proficiency Bonus
• Tactician Difficulty: 87hp, +2 Proficiency Bonus, additional +2 Difficulty: Tactician bonus to attack rolls.