Difficulty

Baldur's Gate 3 has five difficulty settings, or modes: the preset Explorer, Balanced, Tactician and Honour modes – as well Custom mode, which lets the player tweak various gameplay elements.
When starting a new game, players are prompted to select a difficulty. This selection can be changed at any time from the Difficulty option of the pause menu. Any resulting changes to creature statistics are immediate.
== Difficulty modes ==
The difficulty modes are the preset Explorer, Balanced, Tactician, and Honour modes, and the Custom mode, where various gameplay elements can be tweaked.
The Balanced mode is the default mode to which all other modes are compared.
Explorer Difficulty.webp|Explorer mode
Balanced Difficulty.webp|Balanced mode
Tactician Difficulty.webp|Tactician mode
Honour Difficulty.webp|Honour mode
Custom Difficulty.webp|Custom mode
== Explorer mode ==
* 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 members receive a 100% bonus to hit points.
* Items purchased from a merchant are at a 20% discount.
* All proficiency bonuses (including allies' and enemies') are increased by 2.
* 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 unobtainable.
* The Iron Throne's timer is set to 8 turns, up from 6.
== Tactician mode ==
* 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.
* 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.
* The Iron Throne's timer is set to 5 turns, down from 6.
==== Reward ====
Players who beat the game in Tactician Mode earn the Critical Hit achievement.
== Honour mode ==
* 30 tweaks to boss fights, giving bosses Legendary Actions: actions that the boss can take at the end of another creature's turn.
* Stricter action economy and damage bonuses as the game progresses.
* The player only gets a for the entire campaign, with many special conditions:
** The save file cannot be loaded outside the main menu.
** The game will overwrite the save in the following situations:
*** The player returns to the main menu.
*** The player quits the game.
*** The player attempts to ALT+F4 out of the game or use Task Manager to end the Process. (Workout by going to Details tab & ending task)
*** The player quicksaves.
*** The game autosaves.
* Should the party die, the player is presented with two choices: 
** Continue the campaign in Custom mode, which ends Honour mode.
** End the campaign, which deletes the save.
* Restoration pods can only be used once.
==== Rewards ====
Players who beat the game in Honour Mode receive an in-game golden D20 skin, "Shining Honour", and the Foehammer achievement.
== Custom mode ==
Custom difficulty lets the player tweak various gameplay elements to their liking. Custom Mode settings with the exception of two can be changed at any time. However the player cannot revert back to the original Explorer, Balanced or Tactician difficulty. The 'default' values displayed will be those of the difficulty level you were on prior to selecting Custom.
The following options can be tweaked:
; The set of rules used in this campaign, affecting core elements such as spells and character behaviours. 
This setting can't be changed after the campaign has started.
* Standard Ruleset: The classic BG3 experience. 
* Honour Ruleset: Bosses are empowered with new mechanics with additional changes to action economy and damage rules. 
; Use Honour mode's single save system : The player cannot load saves outside the main menu, and the game will override the save with the same conditions as Honour mode.
* Unlike in Honour mode, players can reload the save if their party dies. It is possible for players to become stuck if the game is saved when the party is about to all be downed, such as during an enemy turn.
* This setting can't be changed once the game starts.
* Default: Off
; Enemy aggression : Adjust how dangerous enemy combatants will be in combat.
* Default: Balanced.
* Explorer: "Enemies will not be as ruthless in combat."
* Balanced: "Enemies will provide a balanced challenge."
* Tactician: "Enemies will attack ruthlessly and efficiently."
; Character power : Adjusts how powerful players, allies and enemies are by modifying their bonuses to rolls and how hard they are to kill.
* Default: Balanced.
* Explorer: "Friendly characters will be stronger and harder to kill in combat."
* Balanced: "Keeps enemies and allies alike at the same level of strength."
* Tactician: "Hostile characters will be stronger and harder to kill in combat."
; Enemy loadouts : Adjust the items and spells enemies will have access to in combat.
* Default: Balanced.
* Explorer: "Enemies will only have access to basic spells and items."
* Balanced: "Enemies will use a variety of spells and items in combat."
* Tactician: "Enemies will employ advanced spells and items in combat."
; Additional combat mechanics : Change the difficulty of combats by adjusting how many new mechanics or enemies are added to certain fights.
* Default: Balanced.
* Explorer: No details.
* Balanced: No details.
* Tactician: No details.
; Proficiency bonus : Increase the proficiency bonus of all characters - reducing the impact of random rolls. This will impact game balance.
* Default: 0. (At level 1 +2).
* Range: -1 - +4 (At level 1, total bonus at setting -1 is +1, 0 is +2, +1 is +3, +2 is +4, +3 is +5 and +4 is +6)
; Enemy critical hits : Enemies will be able to score Critical Hits.
* Default: On
; No death saving throws : Enable to stop player characters dying at 0 hit points. They will be stabilised until Helped.
* Default: Off.
; Disable free first strikes : Harming a character before combat starts will cost you one attack or action on your first turn in initiative.
* Default: On.
; Camp cost multiplier : Adjust how many camp supplies a long rest costs.
* Default: 1x (40 supplies per Long Rest).
* Range: 0.5x - 3x (20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120).
; Short rest full heal : Your health is fully restored on a short rest.
* Default: Off.
; Trade price modifier : All prices traders ask for their wares are multiplied by this value. All prices you get for your gear are divided by this value.
* Default: 2.5x (Item worth 100gp costs 250gp and sells for 40gp).
* Range: 1x - 4x (item worth 100gp at 1x costs 100gp and sells for 100gp, whereas item worth 100gp at 4x costs 400gp and sells for 25gp).
; Multiclassing : Enable to allow choosing an additional class upon level-up.
* This setting can't be changed once the game starts.
* Default: On
; Always prompt reactions : All reactions that can pause the game will do so by default.
* Default: Off.
; Hide NPC health : Only HP counts of characters controlled by the player will be displayed.
* Default: Off.
; Hide failed perception rolls : Perception rolls to spot traps and hidden objects in the world will only be displayed if successful.
* Default: Off.
; Hide passive rolls in dialogues : Prevent dialogues showing you if you have passed or failed a passive roll to learn information.
* Default: Off.
; Preview dialogue check difficulty before rolling : Enable to see how hard Ability or Skill Checks will be before you select them as dialogue options.
* Default: Off.
; Hide Difficulty Class during rolls : Obscure the Difficulty Class while making ability checks during dialogues, as well as when lockpicking and disarming traps.
* Default: Off.
==Custom settings corresponding to the standard difficulties ==
Setting 	Explorer 	Balanced 	Tactician 	Honour
Ruleset 	Standard Ruleset	Standard Ruleset	Standard Ruleset	Honour Ruleset
Single Save 	Off 	Off 	Off 	On
Enemy Aggression 	Explorer 	Balanced 	Tactician 	Tactician
Character Power 	Explorer 	Balanced 	Tactician 	Tactician
Enemy Loadouts 	Explorer 	Balanced 	Tactician 	Tactician
Additional Combat Mechanics 	Explorer 	Balanced 	Tactician 	Tactician
Proficiency Bonus 	2 	0 	0 	0
Enemy Critical Hits 	On 	On 	On 	On
No Death Saving Throws 	On 	Off 	Off 	Off
Disable Free First Strikes 	On 	On 	On 	On
Camp Cost Multiplier 	1 	1 	2 	2
Short Rest Full Heal 	Off 	Off 	Off 	Off
Trader Price Modifier 	2 	2.5 	3 	3
Multiclassing 	Off 	On 	On 	On
Always Prompt Reactions 	Off 	Off 	Off 	Off
Hide NPC Health 	Off 	Off 	Off 	Off
Hide failed Perception Rolls 	Off 	Off 	Off 	Off
Hide Passive Rolls in Dialogues 	Off 	Off 	Off 	Off
Preview Dialog Check Difficulty Before Rolling	Off 	Off 	Off 	Off
Hide Difficulty Class During Rolls 	Off 	Off 	Off 	Off
== 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 ==
== Notes ==
Category:Gameplay mechanics