How Cutting Words works in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3)

I’m playing a Bard/Cleric multiclass in Baldur’s Gate 3 and I use Cutting Words all the time. If you want to fully understand what Cutting Words is in BG3 and how to use it, you’ve come to the right place.

How to unlock Cutting Words in Baldur’s Gate 3

The only way to get Cutting Words in Baldur’s Gate 3 is to get to level three as a College of Lore Bard. I think College of Lore is the best Bard subclass for more reasons than unlocking Cutting Words, but Cutting Words is absolutely worth picking this subclass.

Related: How to edit appearance in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3)

Cutting Words is good because it’s a ranged Reaction that uses one Bardic Inspiration to give the attacker -1d6 penalty to their Attack Roll, Ability Check, or Saving Throw. It has an 18m range can will be triggered when an enemy attempts to attack one of your characters. At level five, it becomes -1d8 and at level 10, it becomes -1d10.

How to use Cutting Words in Baldur’s Gate 3

I recommend you use Cutting Words whenever an enemy is attempting to attack you or one of your teammates. With Cutting Words, you force the enemy to reroll their Attack which can lead to them missing entirely. Basically, Cutting Words is a way for you to completely negate damage.

Especially if the check, which is shown to you on the Reaction page, is just barely successful, using Cutting Words is wise. At level five, your Bardic Inspiration refill on Short Rest which makes using Cutting Words even easier.

The only time I don’t recommend using Cutting Words is when your allies or an enemy is applying a status effect. It can be hard to tell if the Reaction page is for the Attack Roll, Ability Check, or Saving Throw, but if a status effect is being applied, like poison, you can confidently guess that it’s a status effect and therefore you shouldn’t waste a Bardic Inspiration. Status effects are often not as powerful as negating straight damage which is what Cutting Words is great at.

And that’s how you use Cutting Words in Baldur’s Gate 3. I love Cutting Words as it allows me, the resident healer of the group, to keep damage at bay so I can spend more time dealing damage instead of healing my team. Healing can only get you so far which is why you need something like the best Astarion build on your team.