Difficulty: Difference between revisions

Baldur's Gate 3 has five difficulty settings to choose from, in increasing difficulty order: Explorer, Balanced, Tactician, Honour - and a Custom mode which lets you tweak various gameplay elements.  

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 ==

[[File:Explorer Difficulty.webp|200px|thumb|right]]

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

* All Enemies Maximum Health decreased by 30%.

 

* Party characters receive a 100% bonus to hit points.

* All characters (including enemies) proficiency bonuses are increased by 2.

** [[Iron Throne]] is an example of this where you'll be given 8 rounds to solve the problem rather than 5 rounds at the other difficulty settings.

** This makes the Jack of All Trades achievement (multiclass into all the 12 classes on a single character) unobtainable.

 

[[File:Balanced Difficulty.webp|200px|thumb|right]]

This middle ground of the other two difficulties, this is considered the game's standard setting to which the other three are compared.

== Tactician ==

 

** Most changes are between 20%-30%, with many "boss" enemies seeing larger boosts.<ref>One notable exception: [[Raphael|Raphael's]] maximum health remains 666 HP regardless of difficulty.</ref>

 

* [[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).

== Honour ==

[[File:Honour Difficulty.webp|200px|thumb|right]]

* 30 new tweaks to all of Baldur's Gate 3’s boss-fights, giving bosses new Legendary Actions.

* Players only gets '''a single save for the entire campaign''', with many special conditions:

** The save file cannot be loaded, outside the main menu.

** The game will override the save is the following situations:

*** The player attempts to ALT+F4 out of the game.

*** The player dies and choses to restart the campaign.

* When the entire party dies, the player is presented with two choices:  

** Continue the campaign in Custom mode, which ends Honour Mode.

** Restart the campaign.

'''Rewards'''

* An in-game Golden D20 die skin.

* The new Foehammer [[Achievements|achievement]].

'''Custom''' difficulty lets the player tweak various gameplay elements to their liking, such as:  

* '''Use [[Difficulty#Honour|Honour Mode]]'s single save system.'''

** ''Default: Off''

** You cannot load saves outside the main menu.

** The game will override the save with the same conditions as Honour Mode.

** Unlike in Honour Mode, you can reload the save if your party dies.

*** ''It is possible to brick your campaign if you save and cannot avoid a full party wipe, such as during an enemy turn!'' {{ActionWarning|}}

* '''Enemy Aggression''': Adjust how dangerous enemy combatants will be in combat.

** ''Default: Balanced''

** Explorer: ''Enemies will not be as ruthless in combat.''

** Balanced: ''Enemies will provide a balanced challenge.''

** Tactician: ''Enemies will attack ruthlessly and efficiently.''

* '''Character Power''': Adjust how powerful players, allies and enemies are by modifying their bonuses to rolls and how hard they are to kill.

** ''Default: Balanced''

** Explorer: ''Friendly characters will be stronger and harder to kill in combat.''

** Balanced: ''Keeps enemies and allies alike at the same level of strength.''

** Tactician: ''Hostile characters will be stronger and harder to kill in combat.''

* '''Enemy Loadouts''': Adjust the items and spells enemies will have access to in combat.

** ''Default: Balanced''

** Explorer: ''Enemies will only have access to basic spells and items.''

** Balanced: ''Enemies will use a variety of spells and items in combat.''

** Tactician: ''Enemies will employ advanced spells and items in combat.''

* '''Aditional Combat Mechanics''': Change the difficulty of combats by adjusting how many new mechanics or enemies are added to certain fights.

** ''Default: Balanced''

** Explorer: ''No details''

** Balanced: ''No details''

** Tactician: ''No details''

* '''Proficiency Bonus''': Increase the proficiency bonus of all characters - reducing the impact of random rolls. This will impact game balance.

** ''Default: 0x. (At level 1 +2)''

** Range: -1x - 4x (At level 1, bonus at -1x is +1, 0x is +2, 1x is +3, 2x is +4, 3x is +5 and 4x is +6)

* '''Enemy Critical Hits''': Enemies will be able to score [[Attack_roll#Critical_Miss_/_Critical_Hit|Critical Hits]].

** ''Default: On''

* '''No Death Saving Throws''': Enable to stop player characters dying at 0 hit points. They will be stabilised until [[Help|Helped]].

** ''Default: Off''

* '''Disable Free First Strikes''': Harming a character before combat starts will cost you one attack or action on your first turn in initiative.

** ''Default: On''

* '''Camp Cost Multiplier''': Adjust how many [[Camp Supplies|camp supplies]] a [[Long Rest]] costs.

** ''Default: 1x (40 supplies per Long Rest)''

** Range: 0.5x - 3x ''(20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120)''

* '''Short Rest Full Heal''': Your health is fully restored on a [[Short Rest]].

** ''Default: Off''

* '''Trade Price Modifier''': All prices traders ask for their wares are multiplied by this value. All prices you get for your gear are divided by this value.

** ''Default: 2.5x (Item worth 100gp costs 250gp and sells for 40gp)''

** Range: 1x - 4x ''(E.g. Item worth 100gp at 1x costs 100gp and sells for 100gp. Item worth 100gp at 4x costs 400gp and sells for 25gp)''

* '''Multiclassing''': Enable to allow choosing an additional class upon level-up.  

{{Prereq|This setting can't be changed once the game starts!}}

** ''Default: On''

* '''Always Prompt Reactions''': All reactions that can pause the game will do so by default.

** ''Default: Off''

* '''Hide NPC Health''': Only HP counts of characters controlled by the player will be displayed.

** ''Default: Off''

* '''Hide Failed Perception Rolls''': Perception rolls to spot traps and hidden objects in the world will only be displayed if successful.

** ''Default: Off''

* '''Hide Passive Rolls in Dialogues''': Prevent dialogues showing you if you have passed or failed a passive roll to learn information.

** ''Default: Off''

* '''Preview Dialogue Check Difficulty Before Rolling''': Enable to see how hard Ability or Skill Checks will be before you select them as dialogue options.

** ''Default: Off''

* '''Hide Difficulty Class During Rolls''': Obscure the Difficulty Class while making Ability or Skill Checks during dialogues, lockpicking and disarming traps.

** ''Default: Off''

== Example of Difficulty Changes ==

== Notes ==