Baldur’s Gate 3 – Tips For New Players
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a new game that takes place within the realm of Dungeons and Dragons. Taking place a century after Baldur’s Gate 2, this world is being invaded by Cthulhu-inspired beings called, “Mind Flayers.” Being infected by one of them, you as a player must seek out a Cleric that can heal you from this fate. Generally, it is a pretty basic plot, but this RPG is dense with things to; find, build, and conquer. If a player is new to this IP, playing the other two games isn’t really necessary. Since every game is basically a stand-alone adventure. However, Baldur’s Gate 3 does take the initiative to educate the uninitiated through in-game texts and dialogue if one feels so inclined to study its history.
Now, the gameplay, at first glance, may look similar to Diablo IV. However, it plays very differently. Diablo has real-time combat, while Baldur’s Gate is turn-based. RPGs with turn-based combat were turning by the wayside over the years, and are now slowly making a comeback. When starting out, you will choose between 12 different classes, along with 46 subclasses when creating your character. It is a highly detailed customization system, and it can be quite elaborate. With it, is the chance to pick a certain background for your character which will let the overworld treat you a certain way.
Thus, the background of the characters will introduce new paths and things to do when playing the story. The UI in Baldur’s Gate 3 can be a little overwhelming, at first. Once everything is digested, it all becomes second nature. Players can move their characters by simply clicking their mouse in the direction they want to go. Alternatively, they can just hold down their right mouse button and drag it to manually walk their character. Thus, scrolling the middle mouse button will rotate the camera. This game is packed with little things to take notice.
How To Navigate The Map
When exploring the map, you will come across a sigil ingrained into a surface of sorts. These are fast travel portals that can be useful to get around the map. The entire map is riddled with these, except for a few key areas. There is also a ‘jump button‘ available under the ‘Bonus Actions‘ on the screen. Line up where you want to jump and the game will execute it accordingly. Another way to jump is by pressing the ‘Z button.’ Lastly, at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, there’s a little ‘Bonfire Icon‘ there. Click on it and you and your entire party will warp to camp.
What Camp Is About
Camp is a vital place to do a number of things in Baldur’s Gate 3. Two options are “Short Rest” and “Long Rest.” Short Rest will recharge HP and Weapon Stats by 50%. Long Rest, however, will fully recharge everything. To Long Rest, click on the sleeping sack next to the campfire and choose what type of food you have in your collection. You can choose these foods manually or pick “auto select.” You can only have 2 Short Rests after every 1 Long Rest. So, to recharge Short Rests, gather up food and take time to do a Long Rest now and again. Also, camp is a prime place to talk to other characters and kick off new quests. When salvaging for supplies in the wild, hold ‘Alt-Left‘ and it will highlight items around your proximity, telling you what they are.
How Combat Works
As mentioned before, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a turn-based RPG. In this game, there is an actual dice involved with the combat. This is because of the D&D roots that this IP comes with, so it’s befitting for this title. The first roll is an Initiative Roll which sets up the line-up of the attacking party. This will be solidified throughout the entire battle until someone goes down. To accomplish a surprise attack, hiding in plain sight will grant an extra hit before enemies spot you. Always try and gain higher ground from the enemies and hit them from afar with a long-rage class, like a rogue for example. Every character will only have one action, some movement speed, and a bonus action in their repertoire. Actions are standard attacks, while bonus actions are secondary attacks with special features that generally do less damage. Lastly, characters can be moved during at any point during a battle, but only so many times according to their movement speed.
Pick Your Party Wisely
As a new player, building up your entire party is crucial for the end game. It might be best to try out a; Barbarian, Shield Dwarf, Half-Orc, or any other melee-based character since they’re generally the easiest to grasp. For novice D&D players, a Wood-Elf, Druid, or Wizard might be a good class to start with. There are a total of 11 races along with 28 sub-races in Baldur’s Gate 3. The mechanics are set up in this game so that certain classes and races gel together better than others. If something isn’t working out, you can re-spec your class and try a different build. Part of the fun with this game is experimenting with all the classes and seeing how they work together. Finally, it’s worth noting that this game does not come with an auto-save feature. Players will need to manually save their game by hitting ‘F5‘ periodically. Be sure to do this after accomplishing major goals, or risk losing a lot of time.
Conclusion
There is much praise for Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s quickly heralded as one of the best RPGs that has come out in some time. If a player doesn’t mind the turn-based mechanics and wants to try something new, then this is a title worth checking out. It’s an old-fashioned adventure that many gamers have been craving for a long time. Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available for PlayStation 5 and PC.
