How to knock out enemies in Baldur’s Gate 3

Throughout your playthrough in Baldur’s Gate 3, there are dozens upon dozens of combat encounters you’ll have to face. No matter which class you chose, or who’s in your party, combat is difficult to escape. And so is defeating enemies. But what if I told you combat didn’t always have to end in death? Just like in Dungeons & Dragons, you can perform non-lethal attacks instead of deadly ones. Let me explain how you can knock out enemies in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Baldur’s Gate 3: How to knock out enemies with non-lethal attacks

Perhaps you’re facing an enemy that you don’t want to kill, just incapacitate and cause them to fall unconscious. This method is also important for certain Paladins, if you don’t want to break your Oath. How you can knock out enemies in Baldur’s Gate 3 is by selecting ‘Toggle Non-Lethal Attacks‘.

While in combat, look at your Action bar. Along the bottom of the UI, you should spot different filters like Common, Items, etc. Select the one that says ‘Passives’. Different characters, depending on their class or race, will have unique passives to toggle on and off.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Every character in Baldur’s Gate 3 has the Toggle Non-Lethal Attacks option. If you select it, and you see a white ring circling it, that means it’s toggled on. Now, whenever this is on and you get an enemy to zero health, they’ll instead reach one health. Not only that, but they’ll fall unconscious. Just be wary that this only works for unarmed or melee weapons attacks. So if you defeat an enemy with a spell or ranged weapon, it won’t work. It also doesn’t work on undead or constructs.

Otherwise, once they’re knocked out, you can simply leave them there. The next time you come back to the area you left them, they’ve probably already left. It’ll take a full Long Rest until they wake up. If you want to wake them up yourself, you can use the Help or Shove action.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is available on Steam.