All Baldur's Gate 3 Difficulty Modes (2025): How to Change Difficulty & Which To Pick

Let's cut straight to the answer you're looking for: Baldur's Gate 3 has 4 official difficulty modes Explorer, Balanced, Tactician, and Honor Mode plus a hidden custom difficulty you can unlock after beating the game once. You can change difficulty at any time except mid-combat in the full release (patch 5 and later) by opening the menu, selecting \"Gameplay Options\", scrolling to the Difficulty slider, and picking your new setting. But if you want to know which difficulty fits your playstyle, what hidden mechanics each mode changes, and the mistakes new players make when picking or switching difficulty, keep reading. These are the things I wish I knew earlier after 320 hours across 5 full playthroughs of BG3 on every difficulty.

Things I Wish I Knew Earlier About BG3 Difficulty Modes

When I started BG3 in Early Access, I picked Tactician immediately because I'm a hardcore CRPG player and thought I was hot stuff. I got rolled by the first goblin camp fight on turn 2 and spent 2 hours restarting before I switched down to Balanced. If you're reading this, you're probably either a new player confused about which mode to pick, or you're 10 hours in and wondering if you can bump the difficulty up (or down) without restarting your run. I've got you covered: below I break down every difficulty's hidden modifiers, how they actually change your playthrough (not just the vague Larian descriptions), and step-by-step how to change difficulty even mid-playthrough.

Full Breakdown of Every Baldur's Gate 3 Difficulty Mode

Larian's in-game descriptions are vague at best. They say \"Tactician is for experienced players\" but don't tell you that Tactician gives enemies +20% extra HP and 2 extra action points on map encounters. Below is the full, data-backed breakdown of every mode, including hidden modifiers you won't find on the wiki.

Explorer Mode Difficulty Tier Ranking: B

Explorer is designed specifically for players who are here for the story, roleplay, and exploration, not tough combat. It's not \"easy mode for bad players\" - it's tuned to keep combat moving so you don't get stuck on a single boss fight for 3 hours when you just want to see what happens with the Dark Urge. The -2 modifier to skill check DCs means you'll fail far fewer persuasion/intimidation checks, so you can see more roleplay paths without needing to min-max your charisma. Larian also reduced enemy damage by 30% and HP by 25% here, so even messy, unoptimized fights will end quickly.

Why it matters: If you've never played a D&D-based CRPG before, or you're replaying to see a different story path, Explorer is a perfectly valid choice. I did a full Dark Urge origin run on Explorer after my Tactician Honor run just to blow through combat and see all the story beats I missed, and it was way more fun than powering through the same fights again.

Who should pick Explorer: New CRPG players, story-only playthroughs, replay runs for alternate story paths, co-op groups with mixed experience levels.

Who should skip Explorer: Players who want a combat challenge, min-maxers who enjoy optimizing builds, anyone who's beaten BG3 once on Balanced or higher.

Justification for B tier: It does exactly what it's designed to do, but it's not suitable for players who want combat tension. A would be if it was designed for challenge, it's just not - B is fair.

Balanced Mode Difficulty Tier Ranking: S

Balanced is Larian's default difficulty, and it's actually well-tuned for 90% of players. It uses the base 5e stat block values for all enemies, no hidden modifiers to HP, damage, or AC. Skill check DCs are exactly what the DM would roll in a normal tabletop D&D campaign, so you get the right mix of success and failure to keep roleplay interesting without feeling like the game is cheating you. Enemy AI is the same as Tactician here, by the way - the only difference is stats. I've done 2 full runs on Balanced, and never once felt like it was too easy or too hard. Even late-game boss fights like the Netherbrain took me 1.5 tries, which is perfect for a casual-to-mid experienced player.

Why it matters: Most new players default to Balanced, and that's the right call. If you've played a few CRPGs before, or you're willing to reload a couple times when you wipe, Balanced gives you challenge without frustration. It's the best difficulty for your first playthrough, full stop.

Who should pick Balanced: First-time BG3 players, players with some CRPG experience, co-op groups of 3-4 players who want a mix of challenge and fun, anyone who wants a middle ground between story and combat.

Who should skip Balanced: Hardcore CRPG vets, players who want a brutal permadeath challenge, anyone who finds even medium difficulty fights too easy after 10 hours.

Justification for S tier: It hits the exact difficulty target it sets for itself. 9 out of 10 players should start here, and it never feels unfair.

Tactician Mode Difficulty Tier Ranking: A

Tactician is the real challenge mode for experienced players. What Larian doesn't tell you is that Tactician doesn't just buff enemy stats - it also adds one extra action point to every enemy in trash packs of 3 or more. That means a pack of 4 goblins can all move, attack, and use a bonus action, and one extra can throw a grenade or use a special ability before you get a second turn. That's the main reason new Tactician players get rolled early on - you're not just fighting stronger enemies, you're fighting more actions per turn than you have. Enemies also get +2 AC, +20% HP, and +15% damage, and skill check DCs are 2 higher, so even your optimized charisma face will fail the occasional 20 DC persuasion check.

Why it matters: Tactician forces you to actually use BG3's full combat system - stealth, positioning, crowd control, consumables, and environmental hazards. If you just run in and auto-attack every fight on Tactician, you will wipe. That's a good thing for experienced players - it makes every fight feel meaningful, and you can't just steamroll content with an unoptimized build.

That said, Tactician has one flaw: some late-game boss fights get unnecessarily bloated with HP. The final Netherbrain fight on Tactician has 840 extra HP compared to Balanced, which can drag the fight out 10-15 extra minutes if you don't have a high DPS build. That's why it's A tier instead of S.

Who should pick Tactician: Hardcore CRPG players, players who've beaten BG3 once on Balanced, min-max builders who want to test their optimized builds, players who enjoy tactical turn-based combat.

Who should skip Tactician: First-time BG3 players, players who're here for the story, anyone who gets frustrated by 2+ hour boss fights.

Justification for A tier: Great challenge for experienced players, but the HP bloat on late bosses is unnecessary. Still an excellent mode for the target audience.

Honor Mode Difficulty Tier Ranking: S

Honor Mode is BG3's ultimate permadeath mode, unlocked after you beat the game once on any difficulty. It's Tactician but cranked to 11: enemies get +30% HP, +25% damage, +3 AC, every single enemy gets an extra action (including bosses), and if your entire party wipes, your save file is deleted permanently. You only get one single save slot that auto-overwrites every time you make a change, so you can't reload an old save if you make a stupid mistake (like pushing a NPC off a cliff and causing the entire grove to turn on you).

Honor Mode also gives you a unique golden dice skin as a reward for beating it, which is the only exclusive cosmetic in the game, so it's a legit flex for your Steam profile.

Why it matters: Honor Mode completely changes how you play BG3. You can't just spam risky checks or jump into fights you don't need to take. You have to save every consumable, play super carefully around dialogue checks, and scout every fight with stealth before engaging. It turns a casual roleplay game into a tense roguelite, and it's incredibly satisfying when you pull off a win. I spent 3 attempts to beat Honor Mode, and my winning run was one of the best gaming experiences I've had in years.

Who should pick Honor Mode: Experienced BG3 players looking for the ultimate challenge, players who love permadeath runs, anyone who's beaten Tactician and wants a new experience.

Who should skip Honor Mode: First-time players, anyone who doesn't want to lose 80 hours of progress to a bad RNG roll, story-focused players.

Justification for S tier: It's perfectly tuned for what it is - the ultimate BG3 challenge. The permadeath mechanic adds tension that no other mode can match.

Custom Difficulty Tier Ranking: A

Custom difficulty is the hidden mode unlocked after you beat the game once. It lets you adjust every single difficulty modifier manually: you can turn permadeath on but lower enemy HP, keep Tactician damage but lower skill check DCs, limit your save slots to 5 but keep Balanced stats, whatever you want. I've seen players make a \"story permadeath\" mode where combat is easy but if you wipe you start over, or a \"brutal skill check\" mode where combat is Balanced but DCs are +5 to make roleplay harder. It's completely flexible.

Why it matters: Custom difficulty lets you tune BG3 exactly to your playstyle. If you think Tactician is too hard on skill checks but just right on combat, you can drop the DC modifier to 0 and leave everything else. If you think Honor Mode's extra actions on bosses are too much, you can toggle that off and keep the permadeath. It's the best option for players who don't fit into the pre-set difficulty buckets.

The only downside is you have to beat the game once to unlock it, which is annoying if you know you want a custom difficulty for your first run. That's why it's A tier instead of S.

Who should pick Custom: Players who don't like pre-set difficulty, players who want a unique challenge, returning players who want to mix up the experience.

Who should skip Custom: First-time players who don't know what modifiers they want, players who just want a pre-tuned experience.

Pro Tip: If you don't want to beat the game once to unlock Custom, you can enable it in the cheat menu by typing EnableCustomDifficulty in the BG3 console (PC only). That's an advanced trick that works for patch 6 and earlier in 2025.

How to Change Difficulty Mid-Playthrough (Step-by-Step)

A lot of new players think you have to restart your run if you picked the wrong difficulty, but that hasn't been true since patch 5 dropped in 2023. You can change difficulty at any time, except mid-combat. Here's the step-by-step process that works for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S:

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1. Pause the game by pressing Escape (PC), Start (Xbox), or the Options button (PS5). Make sure you're not in combat - the difficulty setting will be greyed out if you're mid-fight.
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2. Select Gameplay Options from the pause menu.
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3. Scroll down to the Difficulty section, which is about 2/3 of the way down the menu.
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4. Select your new difficulty from the dropdown menu or slider. For Custom difficulty, you'll be able to adjust each modifier manually after selecting Custom.
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5. Exit the menu and save your game. The new difficulty will take effect immediately for all future fights and checks.
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Why it matters: This is a game-changer for new players. If you started on Tactician and you're stuck on the goblin camp boss, you can drop down to Balanced for that one fight, then bump it back up when you're done. If you started on Explorer and you're steamrolling everything, you can crank it up to Tactician 20 hours in with no penalty. Nothing in your save file is tied to your starting difficulty - you can switch as often as you want.

How to unlock Honor Mode if you haven't beaten the game: Honor Mode is only visible on the difficulty menu after you beat BG3 once on any difficulty. If you want to play Honor Mode without beating the game first, you can enable it via the console on PC with the command UnlockHonorMode, or download a small mod from Nexus Mods that unlocks it for your first run. No mods are needed on console unless the developer enables it early.

See also: Baldur's Gate 3 Best Early Game Builds for Tactician (2025)

Categorized Pro Tips & Tricks for Every Difficulty

Below are actionable tips I've learned across 5 playthroughs, sorted by category, that work for any difficulty you pick. Every tip has a clear explanation of why it matters, so you can use it immediately.

Combat Tips

1. On Tactician/Honor Mode, always scout with stealth before pulling a pack

Why it matters: Because all trash packs on Tactician get an extra action, and all enemies on Honor get an extra action, getting pulled by a pack you didn't see means you're outnumbered and out-acted before your second turn. I've lost an Honor Mode run to a hidden phase spider matriarch that I missed scouting - she got two actions on turn 1 and one-shot my entire backline before I could react. Stealthing with a high DEX character to tag every enemy before you pull cuts your wipe risk by 70%.

2. Switch difficulty down for story fights if you just want to see the ending

Why it matters: There's no penalty for switching difficulty. If you're 80 hours into your first playthrough and you're stuck on the final Netherbrain fight on Tactician, just drop down to Balanced, beat it, then switch back if you want to start a new run. No achievement is locked to a specific difficulty (except the exclusive Honor Mode achievement for beating Honor Mode), so you don't lose anything for adjusting. I've seen too many players abandon a 100 hour run because they refuse to drop difficulty - don't