Baldur's Gate 3 Hirelings explained: How and why to recruit them

Creating your character is your first big mission in Bethesda’s massive new RPG, and you can spend hours doing just that before you even take your first steps in the open world.

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Square Enix has released new information and screenshots for Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, introducing the game’s new battle and monster recruiting systems, as well as opened digital pre-orders via Nintendo eShop.

We all joked about the Baldur's Gate 3 cast being too horny, and as it happens, we were dead right. Speaking to our features editor Eric Switzer at PAX West, game director Swen Vincke confirms that romances were bugged at launch. This means characters were flinging themselves at the player way faster than they were supposed to, particularly everyone's favourite down-bad wizard, Gale.

In a game as big as Baldur's Gate 3, it's safe to assume that you might miss a few key details here and there. Unfortunately for one player, they thought they'd uncovered a whole new party member - only for the game to rip it out from underneath them.

Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios has teased the release of two highly requested features: the ability to kick co-op party members when you want to go forward solo, and the ability to change your appearance after you make a character.

When Baldur's Gate 3 launched earlier this month, it earned near universal praise for its gameplay, characters, and apparently infinite choices. Since then, many have been taking it slow through the first two acts to discover everything hidden across the continent of Faerûn.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is full of unique challenges that other RPGs don’t offer, like having to rescue a gnome strapped to a windmill. But for every goofy quest, I run into a tough encounter that forces me to strategize. This is especially true for boss fights; Larian absolutely loves to pit me against encounters that test my wits — and sometimes my patience. No two boss fights are ever quite the same, thanks to the range of boss enemy types and arenas. But the companions I roll around with also give me different dialogue options for handling the game’s big bads. These boss fights showcase Baldur’s Gate 3’s ethos of creative freedom, even if they’re sometimes a pain. And they’ve made me a better player.

Over the last year, Xbox has been under one massive spotlight: a giant acquisition and court case, speculation about its upcoming AAA portfolio, Starfield on the horizon, questions around third-party game parity across both its consoles, Game Pass, and so much more. Naturally, we have tons of questions about all of this, and at gamescom 2023, we were finally able to get some answers from Xbox head Phil Spencer about almost everything.

Starfield garnered a huge presence at this year’s Gamescom, with both Xbox Studios head Phil Spencer and Bethesda Games Studio head Todd Howard on hand to talk about the game.

The majority of classes in Baldur’s Gate 3 can cast a spell, especially spellcasters such as Wizards, Sorcerers, Druids, Warlocks, and Clerics. You can also come across spell scrolls that any class can use, which are always helpful when you’re backed into a corner. These intricate spells are endlessly useful, but it might be difficult to figure out which ones you should be using.

It’s no secret that Baldur’s Gate 3 is overflowing with content. Every corner is filled with a secret side quest that’s pretty easy to miss. After all, platinum-ing the game would take no less than 200 hours. Still, with the excitement of all the new mechanics, characters, and world, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and start skipping content.