Baldur’s Gate News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

I don’t have to tell you Baldur’s Gate 3 loves keeping secrets tucked away in the shadows. But sometimes, even the darkest corners won’t spill the beans.

BG3 players are discovering new things every day, it seems. On Reddit, this one Baldur’s Gate 3 player realizes that you can talk to the Chosens’ Gods, which are the Dead Three.

Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke says he’s made significant progress drafting the first act of an upcoming project.

Eldritch Knights are one of the most versatile subclasses in all of . The primary class is Fighter, which is dedicated to mastering various weapons. But, the Eldritch Knight mixes in some limited spell knowledge allowing for extra protection, destruction, or utility outside combat.

Although is a game centered around a party of heroes, there are plenty of players who have taken up the challenge to complete the story solo. This can be done for a variety of reasons and provides an extra level of difficulty for a playthrough. Playing solo isn't for the faint of heart, and having the right character build is even more crucial without having a party for backup.

The Spellsparkler quarterstaff can be acquired early in 's Act 1, albeit it will require some exploring. The quarterstaff is a two-handed melee weapon meant as a gift for a cleric of Mystra. The Speellsparlet also gives d6 Bludgeoning damage with one hand and 1d8 Bludgeoning damage with two hands, making it an essential weapon to have for magic builds.

Obsidian Entertainment's beloved isometric RPG Pillars of Eternity just received an unexpected update, nine whole years after its initial release, and I have a sneaking suspicion that two other big games are responsible.

Gale is one of the many companions you can add to your Baldur’s Gate 3 party as you progress through the story. He’s a powerful wizard with access to various useful spells, but to truly use this character, you’ll want to consider the type of Feats he should be using.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is crammed full of memorable, moving stories. At least one of those stories extends far beyond the Forgotten Realms into the real world too, as a fan has revealed the heartfelt tribute that developers Larian included to their father - a long-time CRPG player - diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

You may think that you’ve seen every part of Baldur’s Gate 3, but you’re wrong. One BG3 player on Reddit shared a discovery of rare dialogue between Astarion and Shadowheart.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s hardest difficulty, Honor Mode, is incredibly challenging, with harder bosses, a limit of one save file, and the rule that players have to start all over again if their full party is wiped. However, players have recently found that there’s another way to get stuck in a run right near the final hurdle.

Spiders can be summoned to fight for your party in as unexpected allies during a difficult fight. These friendly creatures only appear if you throw a specific item found in the forested areas of Act 1. Although these surprise companions are not permanent additions to your party, they could protect you from dangerous encounters found throughout your adventures.

Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian has claimed it’s working with Microsoft to resolve an issue that was seeing players on Xbox being banned from accessing their account.

A Baldur’s Gate 3 writer has reflected on Larian Studios’ decision to include a tribute in the game to a fan’s father who has Alzheimers, and said they’re “really happy we got to honour the mighty mindflayer hunter.”

Do you like food? Of course you do. How about Dungeons & Dragons? You dabble, yeah? Maybe played a fantasy role-playing video game or two? Never? That’s cool, too. You’re still gonna want to check out Delicious in Dungeon.

When it comes to Baldur’s Gate 3, there is so much we could say about the game that we could fill up the entire article with just these praises. It’s not only one of the best games of 2023; many people called it their “Game of the Year,” and others praised it for being one of the most “surprisingly epic” games of the year. It has a deep story, fun characters, loads of replay value, and a world that is begging to be explored. When it was announced to have finally come to the Xbox Series X/S, many gamers rejoiced until they learned about all the issues plaguing it.

Just a couple of days after winning the Game of the Year and Best Story-Rich Game prizes at the Steam Awards 2023, Baldur's Gate 3 is once again preparing to clean up the house at the upcoming 13th Annual New York Game Awards. The New York Videogame Critics Circle (NYVGCC) has just announced the full list of nominees during a live stream event and Larian's outstanding cRPG has received six nominations in the Game of the Year, Best Writing, Best World, Best Music, and Best Acting (twice, for Amelia Tyler as the narrator of Baldur's Gate 3 and Neil Newbon as the High Elf Vampire Rogue companion character Astarion) categories.

Here’s a Baldur’s Gate 3 PSA to anyone who has Karlach a lot in their party, don’t forget to use those Soul Coins! How often have you been using these special items?

Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios is in talks with Microsoft over Xbox players getting banned for uploading explicit in-game content.

Microsoft has seemingly accidentally revealed that Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition and Baldur’s Gate 2 Enhanced Edition will be making their way on to Xbox Game pass. According to TrueAchievements, notifications about the games coming to Game Pass went out to subscribers with the Xbox Game Pass app installed on their smartphones.

A Baldur’s Gate 3 player has reportedly been banned for sharing their Xbox gameplay recording, as the footage automatically uploaded contained nude, in-game character models.

A few hours ago, Valve closed the Steam Awards 2023 polls to announce the winners in each of the ten categories. Unsurprisingly, Larian's Baldur's Gate 3 brought home another Game of the Year award after the previous wins at the Golden Joystick and The Game Awards, beating finalists Resident Evil 4, EA Sports FC 24, Lethal Company (the runaway early access smash hit of the last couple of months), and Hogwarts Legacy.

Steam has unveiled the winners of its annual fan-voted awards. Headlining the categories is the Game of the Year award, which predictably went to Baldur’s Gate 3. The RPG was up against Hogwarts Legacy, EA Sports FC 24, Resident Evil 4, and Lethal Company. Baldur’s Gate 3 also managed to walk away with the Outstanding Story-Rich Game award, where it was in competition with Lies of P, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Resident Evil 4, and Love Is All Around.

The sunny landscapes of Baldur’s Gate are a welcome sight after all that darkness in Act 2. Exploring the area will result in some random encounters, even with newborn Mind Flayers.

After playing Baldur’s Gate 3, some players now realize why Scratch is the best summon to have. There are a few different creatures you can summon throughout your playthrough, depending on your choices.

From the looks of it, Microsoft has banned an Xbox Baldur's Gate 3 player for one year for uploading an explicit scene within the game.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s hardest difficulty, Honor Mode, is full of challenges. One player has now warned others to be careful when playing fetch with Scratch the dog, as, in this toughest of modes, even that can be fraught with danger. 

Larian Studios came off of a strong year thanks to the release of Baldur’s Gate 3, with the Xbox Series X/S version launching during The Game Awards. Unfortunately, a severe bug has been doing the rounds on Xbox, leading to a loss of progress.

What are you doing on New Year’s Eve, dear readers? Maybe you’re spending it with the family, going out with friends, or just snuggling up with some favorite games. If so, let me introduce you to the Polish gaming group who are planning to turn Gale, from Baldur’s Gate 3, into fireworks when the clock strikes twelve - all at the same time.

Steam has released its annual end-of-year charts, ranking the games that have generated the most cold-hard cash on the digital PC storefront. Frequent chart-toppers this year include the obvious subjects (Baldur’s Gate 3, Starfield), as well as the games that silently crushed it (Sons of the Forest, Goose Goose Duck.)

The Nine Hells are not a place you can travel to outside the prologue to , unless you try to reach the devil Raphael's House of Hope in Avernus. This dungeon and mansion holds many secrets, and is where Raphael has enslaved other creatures and kept many contracts of infernal dealings. Legendary items can be stolen here, but only if you are willing to face one of the hardest bosses in the game.

Now that I’m over 150 hours into Baldur’s Gate 3, still actively playing it on my Steam Deck or PC almost every single evening, you’d never guess that I initially gave up on the game 10 hours in. Yes, I was playing on the easiest setting. Yes, I have played Dungeons & Dragons multiple times before, and I understand how D&D works. None of that was a problem for me. But I found myself in a frustrated rage because Baldur’s Gate 3 has multiple complicated aspects to its turn-based combat that are never explained.

Though Baldur’s Gate 3 is a multi-award-winning and highly regarded fantasy RPG, you can always download some mods to add even more individuality and customization to your playthrough (if you’re playing on PC, that is). Do you wish Astarion was femme? There’s a mod for that. Do you want more character customization options? There are lots of mods for that. And if the actual gameplay isn’t exactly what you want, there are dozens of mods for that, too.

Before the holidays, Larian Studios released a new hotfix for Baldur’s Gate 3. It addresses the usual assortment of progression blockers, crashes and bugs, including an issue that, as the developer calls it, turned characters’ faces into “stretched eldritch horrors with pits of flesh in place of eyes.”

Steam’s Winter Sale has officially begun, and it’s discounting thousands of titles through Jan. 4, 2024. Although Epic Games Store is currently having its own holiday sale through Jan. 10 (one that gives each gamer a 33% off coupon to use on games), this sale is an opportunity to save on a number of excellent titles on Steam, like Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Battlebit Remastered, Wasteland 3, and more.

Larian Studios’ latest hotfix for Baldur’s Gate 3 arrived on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam early this morning, bringing with it a variety of improvements to one of the year’s best and biggest games.

Larian is closing out 2023 with yet another Baldur’s Gate 3 update, and as usual, it’s had loads of fun writing the patch notes.

Baldur’s Gate 3 players rejoice — you no longer need to worry about your favorite characters’ faces becoming distorted and stretched during cinematics to the point that their eyes are transformed into harrowing “pits of flesh.” Hotfix 15 is live now and addresses a whole bunch of issues.

Honor Mode is the new permadeath one-save mode in Baldur’s Gate 3, and players are failing it in some pretty hilarious ways.

has been fully released for a few months now, but the developers continue improving the game with regular updates in the form of patches and hotfixes. Plenty of those adjustments made through updates are subtle or not noticed without reading the patch notes that accompany them. Some changes, however, have had a larger impact than most others, even if the changes themselves weren't necessarily large.

According to Microsoft's Xbox support team, the latest Xbox firmware update should address some Baldur's Gate 3 Xbox crashes.

is an epic game filled with characters and NPCs for the party to interact with and get to know. Strangely enough, several of these brilliant characters just happen to be cats, 10 of which can be found throughout the game and chatted with. With each cat having their own personality and quirks, tracking them all down is a must for anyone looking to uncover all their secrets and hidden quests.

Players who’ve been yearning to join their in-person campaign as Karlach or Astarion no longer have to homebrew their character sheets. Wizards of the Coast has released official Character Sheets for our favorite companions, and yes, they’re free.

Larian Studios has explained why Baldur’s Gate 3 might never come to Xbox‘s Game Pass subscription service.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s Xbox Series X|S version is apparently still experiencing some save data issues, but players have been reassured that they now seem to be much rarer following a recent firmware update. 

Baldur’s Gate III for PlayStation 5 and SPYxANYA: Operation Memories for Switch are the highlights of this week’s Japanese video game releases.

When developing Baldur’s Gate 3, the studio took inspiration from some games you might not expect.

Neil Roberts is a great many things in the world of acting. He’s an accomplished soap opera actor in the U.K., a villain in the classic series Charmed, a performer on countless radio dramas, and a stage actor, and he’s been in a lot of stuff going back over three decades — including an early Marvel film called Nick Fury: Agent of Shield, alongside Germany’s favorite import, David Hasselhoff.

Gale Dekarios is 's resident wizard, available as a playable Origin character as well as romance option, who will happily talk anybody's ear off about all things magic. However, there may be more to this loquacious spellcaster than first meets the eye. Because for all his talk about Mystra and his beloved cat, Gale's tales of his magical abilities don't quite add up.

One Baldur’s Gate 3 player ran into some extraordinarily bad luck by rolling four consecutive nat ones. 

If you’ve been holding out hope that Baldur’s Gate 3 might find its way onto PC Game Pass in the future, I’ve got some bad news for you: it’s very unlikely to happen.

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After a period of some uncertainty, Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available on Xbox Series X/S, which begs the question – could the smash hit RPG ever end up on Xbox Game Pass? Baldur’s Gate 3 is exactly the kind of high-engagement title that could potentially drive long-term Game Pass subscriptions, so I’m sure Microsoft would love it, but according to Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke, it’s not happening.

Swen Vincke, the director of Baldur’s Gate 3 and CEO of Larian Studios, has spoken out about the role-playing game’s lack of Xbox Game Pass release, saying that it was a decision made «from the get-go.»

Swen Vincke, Baldur’s Gate 3 director and CEO of Larian Studios, recently offered his condolences to the massive group of Wizards of the Coast workers affected by Hasbro’s latest round of layoffs, drawing specific attention to the fact that nearly everyone at the company who was part of early discussions about the Dungeons & Dragons-based game is now gone.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is now available on Xbox Series platforms, but don’t expect the game to make its way to Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service anytime soon.

Larian Studios head Swen Vincke has reiterated that Baldur’s Gate 3 will not be coming to Game Pass.

Larian Studios has released a new hotfix for Baldur’s Gate 3, which brings Patch 5 and its features – like the new Epilogue and Honour Mode – to Mac players. There are also fixes for various issues, starting with a potential crash that could occur in Honour Mode when trying to load a save file.

The critically acclaimed Baldur’s Gate 3 is available now for Xbox Series X/S after launching for PC and PS5. Of course, the question now is whether it would ever arrive on Game Pass at some point. In an interview with IGN, game director and Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke said it’s not happening.

Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 have received the most nominations in the longlist for the BAFTA Games Awards 2024.

2023 was truly the year of both Dungeons & Dragons and, to a more specific point, Baldur’s Gate 3. The new RPG from Larian Studios had a thunderous launch out of Early Access in August, and has since taken the world by storm, even securing the Game of the Year trophy at The Game Awards 2023.

You might remember Larian CEO and Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke giving a short speech while accepting the Game of the Year Award for BG3. Now he’s taken a second pass online, and delivered a moving statement on behalf of everyone behind the game.

The Game Awards were a week ago, and it seems like many are still talking about the event, not because of some of the big reveals that were made there but because of the various instances of the show ignoring the reason it was there and dissing the people who won the awards. We’re not being harsh here, far from it. The best example of this is when Larian Studios won “Game of the Year” for Baldur’s Gate 3. The title went from a game that only some knew was coming to one of the best titles of the year, the most critically acclaimed title of 2023, and a game that gave players many “feelings.” If you get our drift.

Industry and CRPG veteran Josh Sawyer has weighed in on Baldur's Gate 3's gameplay and mechanics, highlighting the challenges of adapting from D&D's fifth edition.

After his acceptance speech was cut short, Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke has published what he “wanted to say” when Baldur’s Gate 3 took home the top prize at The Game Awards last week.

Microsoft has offered some tips designed to tackle an issue that can result in Baldur’s Gate 3 saves being lost on Xbox Series X/S.

Players adore Baldur’s Gate 3 for the freedom it gives them to be whoever they want in a fantasy setting where anything is possible and finding surprises or clever dialogue is one new choice away. It encourages players to seek out new opportunities, and today, that’s turned into a sausagefest.

When an armour-clad Swen Vincke, boss of Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios, accepted the award for Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2023, he had just 30 seconds before the dreaded “please wrap it up” message ushered him off stage.

As a storytelling medium, games are strange. In my day job, I tell students that the medium-specific dimension of games is that they respond to our choices in real time: you press a button, Mario jumps. You choose a line of dialogue, and a scene can suddenly turn violent or comedic. This means that games, especially narrative-focused ones, are simultaneously a way for us to tell a story and a way for us to be told a story. Clara Fernández-Vara and Matthew Weise, in talking about world-building, call the world of a game a “story engine”: by creating a fleshed-out and engaging world, the designer builds story potential, which the player then “actualizes” through their play.

The developer of Baldur’s Gate 3 has issued an update on the deleted save bug that’s affecting the recently released Xbox version of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

Wander off east of the Shadow Cursed Lands in Baldur’s Gate 3 to run into a strange man performing a necromancer ritual. He’s on a quest to punish a dead woman’s soul, and he wants your help, thus initiating a new side quest in BG3: Punish the Wicked.

Like most RPGs, loot comes from the pockets of fallen enemies or from raiding treasure chests. Baldur’s Gate 3 is no exception.

After much waiting and uncertainty, Baldur’s Gate 3 finally arrived on Xbox Series X/S last week, and plenty of folks are eagerly playing on the platform, but a few have run into a fairly serious issue. Apparently, some Xbox players have experienced crashes that resulted in their save files disappearing, which is obviously a pretty big problem. Thankfully, according to the official BG3 X account, a fix may have arrived…

Larian Studios has advised Baldur’s Gate 3 players to manually update their Xbox Series X/S consoles to combat an issue resulting in saves being lost.

Baldur’s Gate 3 had a huge night at The Game Awards 2023, winning Game of the Year and then just launching the game on Xbox Series X|S. Surprise!

was stealth-dropped onto Xbox Series X|S during The Game Awards last night, and it seems like this is because Larian Studios’ CEO Swen Vincke forgot to make the announcement. Vincke was meant to mention the release during an award acceptance speech, but he failed at his “one job” and left several people confused in the process.

While most players in Baldur’s Gate 3 will choose the usual custom origin, others who try out The Dark Urge are finding that it has ruined custom characters for them.

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offers the opportunity to have amazing powers, with magic and powerful items at the party’s fingertips. However, one source of these awesome abilities is being ignored by a surprising number of players. While there could be a few reasons for this, those people are missing out on some great powers that could help save Faerûn.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s Honour Mode is inherently hard — not only is it played at the game’s highest difficulty setting, but it limits players to a single save file. No save-scumming here! Since the Honour Mode update was released on Nov. 30, 464 Baldur’s Gate 3 parties have completed the game in that mode, compared to the 34,000 players who have failed their attempts, according to statistics released by Larian on Dec. 5.