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:
- Characters in your party 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.
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.
- Enemy characters receive a +2 bonus (noted as Difficulty: Tactician in the combat log).
- All non-party characters have approximately 200% of their hitpoints compared to Explorer difficulty.
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.