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.
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
Explorer is the least difficult setting. In comparison to the Balanced difficulty setting, Explorer has:
- All Enemies Maximum Health decreased by 30%.
- In comparison to Tactician, where enemies have almost twice (x1.9) as much max HP as Explorer enemies.
- Party characters receive a 100% bonus to hit points.
- Items purchased from a merchant are at a 20% discount.
- All characters (including enemies) proficiency bonuses are increased by 2.
- Some turn-limited combat gives you additional turns making the encounter easier.
- Iron Throne is an example of this where you'll be given 6 rounds to solve the problem rather than 5 rounds at the other difficulty settings.
- Multiclassing is not allowed on Explorer difficulty. Multiclass levels previously gained will stay if the difficulty is lowered to Explorer.
- This makes the Jack of All Trades achievement (multiclass into all the 12 classes on a single character) unobtainable.
Balanced
This middle ground of the other two difficulties, this is considered the game's standard setting to which the other three are compared.
Tactician
Tactician is the second highest difficulty setting. In comparison to the Balanced difficulty setting, Tactician has:
- All NPC's Maximum Health increased
- This applies to most temporary companions as well.
- Most changes are between 20%-30%, with many "boss" enemies seeing larger boosts.[1]
- More aggressive enemy NPC behavior, such as targeting spellcasters more often and attempting to finish off downed characters.
- This could also be somewhat beneficial as they end up triggering attack of opportunity reactions more frequently.
- Some enemies will gain special attacks and/or passive features 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 modifiers that when examined are noted as "Difficulty: Tactician" in the combat log.
- All enemies gain +2 to attack rolls and +2 DC to their spells and abilities.
- Other modifiers can be additional attack rolls, AC, resistances, better saving throws and sometimes unique modifiers that are not present in the other difficulties.
- 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).
- At stores, the baseline attitude bonus for discounting is reduced, making items cost more to purchase and sell for less.
Honour
Honour is the highest difficulty setting. In comparison to the Tactician difficulty setting, Honour has:
- 30 new tweaks to all of Baldur's Gate 3’s boss-fights, with a new Legendary Action system
- TBD
- Beating Honour Mode rewards the player with a Golden D20 die skin.
- When you die in Honour Mode, the player is presented with two choices:
- Continue the adventure, which disables Honour Mode
- Restart the run
- You only receive the Golden D20 if you beat Honour Mode without dying.
Custom
Custom difficulty lets the player tweak various gameplay elements to their liking, such as:
- Enemy Aggression
- Enemy Loadouts
- Camp Cost Multiplier
- Trade Prices
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.
Achievements
Critical Hit
Complete the game in Tactician mode.