Best strategies to stealth successfully in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3)

Although you may enjoy hacking-and-slashing your way through combat situations in Baldur’s Gate 3, what if I told you there was another way? You can actually choose to be sneaky about it. This is either to get in a surprise round, or to avoid fighting all-together. Let’s go over some of the best strategies to stealth successfully in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Best ways to be stealthy in Baldur’s Gate 3

Even if you kept the tutorials on, there are quite a few things the game doesn’t tell you. Although most fights will happen spontaneously, you can get the jump on some, or just stealth by them. Here are the best strategies to stealth successfully in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Make the entire party sneak

Something that I had to figure out myself was making the entire party sneak. Pressing the ‘C’ key or selecting ‘Sneak’ on your action bar will make the character you’re controlling sneak. While you can move them around as they crouch down and whisper, your other party members are still walking around like normal.

To make the entire party sneak, press ‘Shift+C’. You can also toggle this on by selecting the bottom-most button on the left side of your screen below the party members’ photos. Now, everyone is just as sneaky as you are.

Cast Pass without Trace

One of the handiest spells for being stealthy in Baldur’s Gate 3 is Pass without Trace. This is a level two spell that Druids, Rangers, and Trickery Domain Clerics can learn. As an Action, a veil of shadows encases your group, which gives you a +10 to your Stealth roll.

If you enter the line-of-sight of an enemy, you’ll be rolling Stealth checks to see if you can stay hidden. That +10 bonus is quite useful, and it even lasts until your next Long Rest. The only problem is that it’s a concentration spell, meaning you can’t cast another concentration spell on top of it.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Stay out of the red

While you’re in sneak mode, you’ll notice that you can view what everyone’s line-of-sight is. A red cone will show on the ground for anyone in the vicinity, friend and foe. This greatly helps with avoiding getting into the view of people you don’t want to be caught by.

Turn off the lights

Sneaking around in the dark is all good, until someone lights a torch or brazier. If you’re planning to engage in some stealth, and you’re in a dark area, make sure to put out those lights. Just interact with the light source to switch it off and on.

Although you may try to sneak, enemies can spot you in the light. Although, this may not work as well for enemies with Darkvision. Even if you try to sneak, enemies will catch you if they have good Darkvision.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Make use of Rogue stealth

Stealth isn’t just useful out of combat, but during combat as well! Rogues like Astarion can Hide as a Bonus Action, then get the jump on enemies with a Sneak Attack. Of course, you can automatically Sneak Attack when your Rogue is flanking an enemy with a friend. But if an enemy is standing alone, use Hide, then use that Sneak Attack on them for extra damage. Not only can you do this in Melee, but Ranged as well!

Use turn-based mode for careful stealth

You don’t just have to use turn-based mode for combat! You can enter this mode at any time, and it can be best used when being stealthy. If you’re trying to carefully craft an ambush, or sneak past a group of enemies, this may be easier than real-time mode.

This way, everyone in the vicinity takes turns, and this gives you the opportunity to be extra careful about your sneaky movements. Then, once you get to safety, you can turn off turn-based mode.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is available on Steam.