Baldur's Gate 3 launches with three difficulties for players of different skill levels, or who want different things out of this enormous RPG. The three BG3 difficulties mirror the Easy, Normal, and Hard gaming standard, but with unique twists for each mode.
The Balanced difficulty, as its name suggests, is where most players will feel comfortable, but combat is significantly more forgiving in Explorer difficulty as it focuses more on the game's story. Tactician adds more than just simple Health and damage boosts for enemies: one could argue that Tactician difficulty focuses on making Baldur's Gate 3 combat as strategic as possible.
Explorer Difficulty Keeps Things Simple, With A Tradeoff
"A narrative experience placing story before combat."
The first of the three Baldur's Gate 3 difficulty settings is the Explorer difficulty. There are two main effects that happen in this difficulty: enemies have significantly reduced HP, and all party members get an increased chance to hit on attacks. There is one drawback to these combat buffs, though: players are unable to multiclass in the Explorer difficulty setting.
Multiclassing can be a way to increase one's power significantly in Baldur's Gate 3, especially for players who know how to min-max. Unfortunately, all party members have to stick to just one class in Explorer mode, but once players have a feel for the combat of BG3, they can change the difficulty to Balanced any time to take advantage of this unique mechanic.
Balanced Difficulty Is The "Default" Setting
"A balanced adventure full of challenging choices."
The Balanced difficulty setting is the "normal" mode of Baldur's Gate 3. Newcomers to the game, or the Dungeons and Dragons style RPG genre in general, ought to try the Explorer difficulty for the tutorial area to get a feel for the game before switching over to Balanced, as it can be a big step up in challenge.
But, players who are at least familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, the Baldur's Gate games and gameplay style, or tactical RPGs will have no trouble with Balanced mode. Combat is fair to both sides, and enemies don't adopt any new strategies over Explorer Mode. Choose Balanced mode if you want to experience the game as it was designed to be played for most.
Those looking for a bit of an extra challenge will find it in the Tactician difficulty, though.
Tactician Is Only For The Most Skilled Players
"A tough campaign emphasising strategic combat."
The leap from Explorer to Balanced difficulty is not too big, as enemies just get more HP and attacks are less likely to hit. Comparatively, the leap from Balanced difficulty to Tactician is enormous.
Not only do enemies get a boost to their HP, the fights themselves change in Tactician mode. More enemies show up, there are more environmental hazards to be wary of, and to make matters even worse, it appears that enemies adopt new strategies in combat – like going for spellcasters, and aiming to outright kill their foes rather than just down them.
When enabling Tactician mode, be prepared for a hefty challenge. This hardest BG3 difficulty is not for the frail-hearted or even players who think they're "pretty good" at the game. Tactician difficulty is an entirely different combat experience, one that's only meant for seasoned veterans of Larian Studios' CRPG games and masters of the Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition ruleset.
Baldur's Gate 3 is available for PC, and is set to release on PlayStation 5 on September 6, 2023.