Baldur’s Gate 3 difficulty settings – Explorer, Balanced, or Tactician?

As soon as you start your Baldur’s Gate 3 journey, you have three options to pick from. Difficulty options are present in nearly every video game, and Larian Studios’ latest title is no different. You can either choose from Explorer, Balanced, or Tactician, but which of the difficulty settings should you go for in Baldur’s Gate 3? We’ll answer this question and explain each one below.

Baldur’s Gate 3: Explorer, Balanced, or Tactician difficulty settings?

There are three different difficulty options to choose from: Explorer, Balanced, and Tactician. Like most games, you’ll probably know what they each translate to, but there’s more to them than meets the eye. Remember, you’re allowed to change your difficulty anytime you like, so you aren’t stuck to one option for the entire game.

Screenshot via Larian Studios

Explorer

If you’re new to Baldur’s Gate, or RPGs in general, perhaps consider starting your campaign on Explorer. This is the beginner setting, or as some games call it, the story mode. Want to just sit back and play Baldur’s Gate 3 like it’s a long-running television series? This may be the best option for you. Of course, there’s still combat, but it makes enemies easier to kill and Trader prices better.

One other interesting aspect is the change in your Proficiency bonus. Typically, it’s at a +2 at the start, but that’ll be doubled for a +4 Proficiency bonus to anything you’re Proficient in. This makes dice rolling a lot easier, no matter if it’s in or out of combat.

Screenshot via Larian Studios

Balanced

The typical Baldur’s Gate 3 experience will be its middle mode called Balanced. This is a medium difficulty, not too hard, but not too easy. It makes combat still quite tactical, but you also won’t down enemies in one round.

Balanced is a good mix of both easy and hard modes, and will probably be most players’ choice of difficulty. If you enjoyed the difficulty you played on during the Early Access period, stick with Balanced. Explorer and Tactician are two new difficulty settings introduced in the full version.

Screenshot via Larian Studios

Tactician

If you want to have a tough challenge, try out this mode. Tactician is basically your hard difficulty, and I’d recommend it for any player who knows D&D extremely well or has played a Baldur’s Gate game before. This challenging mode is going to make you scratch your head during combat and reload your save files often.

Not only are the enemies’ health and AC set higher, but enemies play smarter. Larian Studios designed the enemy AI to know how to react to certain situations and adapt. Even playing with the environment is important. Just remember that your enemy will also know how to make the environment work to their advantage.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is available on Steam.