Baldur’s Gate 3 can be a tough game. While it’s not as punishingly difficult as other titles out there, its high level of unpredictability and the chance of wandering into an encounter for which you aren’t ready can lead to plenty of resets throughout a campaign. That’s doubly true if you’re playing on Tactician Mode, the game’s highest difficulty setting.
Tackling Tactician requires a good knowledge of Baldur’s Gate 3 or Dungeons & Dragons, ideally both. In addition, you’ll need patience and luck if you want to complete your quest in its most dangerous form.
Always Try For A Surprise Round
Every turn counts during combat in Baldur’s Gate 3, especially on Tactician Mode. Surprising your enemies by attacking them while they are unaware of your presence lets every party member involved in the battle take a free turn before the opponent can do anything at all!
As a Rogue, Astarion is best for this, though anybody can theoretically start a fight with surprise – especially from range. As you level up, you’ll be able to use Sneak Attacks to pick off weak enemies with one shot, reducing the overall amount of damage you take and spell slots that you have to use.
Partial Rest Is Better Than No Rest
Taking a Long Rest uses a whopping eighty Camp Supplies on Tactician Mode, twice the amount required on lower difficulty settings. The game does a fairly good job of keeping you well-stocked as long as you’re diligent about looting and careful with your money, but with harder fights you’ll probably need to rest more often.
If your hit points are critical, and you don’t have enough Camp Supplies for a Long Rest, you can at least get some of your health back with a Partial Rest. It’s not a perfect solution, but if all you need is enough hit points to survive the next fight then it’s worth doing.
Exhaust Every Party Member Before Resting
Another way to conserve Camp Supplies is to wait until everyone has used up all their resources before ending the day. You’ve probably got a dream team that works perfectly for your play style, but since everyone levels up at roughly the same rate you can swap party members in and out with only minor tweaks to your strategy. If a character is low on health and spell slots but everyone else is still in good shape, send the tired character back to camp until your next Long Rest.
If you’ve got some extra gold and want to maintain a consistent strategy throughout the campaign, you can always re-class party members so that you always have a similar team build, no matter who is in camp!
Turn Off Karmic Dice
Karmic Dice, a setting that prevents long streaks of good or bad rolls, is turned on by default. Most players who turn off Karmic Dice do so because they want the authentic D&D experience, but as it turns out doing so also makes the game much easier.
Player characters in D&D and in Baldur’s Gate can usually expect to have a better than fifty-percent chance of success when doing something that fits their skill set and is appropriate to their level. Hot streaks, therefore, are more likely than cold streaks, so Karmic Dice will actually rob you of potential successes!
Additionally, Karmic Dice applies to enemies as well; even if you’ve build a super-tank character with an AC in the stratosphere, Karmic Dice ensures that they’ll get hit more often than they statistically should. Be sure this option is turned off before you set off on a Tactician Mode run!
Only Face Bosses At Full Strength
The boss fights in Baldur’s Gate 3 are exceptionally challenging. From main story antagonists to side-quest villains, these battles will put your skills to the test no matter which game mode you’re in.
Facing a boss fight on Tactician at anything less than full strength – hit points, spell slots, gear, and levels – is practically asking for a trip to the Game Over screen. Even if it means retreating to a safe place so that you can make camp and rest, always take the time to heal up when a climactic battle is on the horizon!
The Ends Justify The Means
If you’re playing on Tactician, the game won’t pull any punches; that means that you shouldn’t, either. Stealing from NPCs, demanding rewards for your heroic deeds, and using Charm Person to get yourself discounts from traders are all perfectly viable ways of making sure that you always have the necessary edge to survive.
Remember, on this difficulty level NPCs will realize afterward if you’ve enchanted them and may resent you for it!
By the same token, there’s no shame in «save scumming,» creating frequent save files so that you can wind back the clock if things go wrong. All it takes is one critical hit from an enemy to jeopardize your survival, so restarting a battle is much safer than having to pay for costly resurrections from Withers. Besides, if your party wipes, you’ll have to load the save anyway!