In the early levels of Baldur’s Gate 3, the stress associated with overcoming what feels like an endless grind serves as a huge learning curve for first-time players. Players who choose to roleplay as spellcasters might feel like this early game grind is exacerbated by their Tav or Durge’s magical class. Similar to Dungeons & Dragons, spellcasters in Baldur’s Gate 3 must walk the fine line between resourcefulness and unleashing full power. Casting magic often comes with limits, including spell slots, forgetting to choose specific spells before a fight, and the eternal fear of running out of arcane resources in the midst of battle.
Spellcasters like druids, clerics, wizards, warlocks, and sorcerers may have unique traits that make them distinguishable from one another, but they all share the burden of spell slot exhaustion. Luckily, Larian Studios took this into consideration when designing the rest system in Baldur’s Gate 3. Larian granted spellcasters a secret weapon that most players do not realize until they have experienced several hours into the game, allowing them to use their long list of spells with less stress.
One Baldur's Gate 3 Subclass is Best Off as a Different Class Entirely
One Baldur’s Gate 3 subclass struggles to stand out, with another class doing its job even better, making a switch the smarter choice for players.
The Spellcaster’s Secret Weapon in Baldur’s Gate 3 is Time
In a traditional D&D campaign, spellcasters live and die by their spell slots. Depending on spell slots instead of BG3 cantrips can leave spellcasters without many options, especially early on in the game. Resource management is simply a part of the class roleplay. Spellcasters are powerful but fragile, wise but limited. But Baldur’s Gate 3 goes around these limitations with deceiving ease.
In Baldur's Gate 3, the availability and ease of access to long rests significantly empower spellcasters. Despite BG3 players' hesitancy to long rest, they effectively replenish spell slots and health, mitigating the consequences of missteps or resource depletion. This design allows for gameplay where spellcasters consistently wield their most potent abilities without reservations, a dynamic rarely encountered in traditional tabletop Dungeons & Dragons. Thus, the strategic management of time, through rests, becomes paramount to effectively leveraging magical capabilities in the game. In Baldur’s Gate 3, time isn’t money. It’s magic.
Using Long Rests to the Player’s Advantage in Baldur’s Gate 3
The early hours of a Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough basically beg the player to take multiple long rests. Every night, the players set up camp in one of BG3’s many locations, and there is a nighttime world teeming with lore and backstories to discover. The long rest system is designed to be generous, although it may not seem like it in the early hours when players are just scrambling for answers after emerging from the literal Hells.
If anything, the long and short resting in Baldur’s Gate 3 allows magic to feel more like it’s described in Faerunian lore: world-shaking, awe-inspiring, and game-changing. Larian Studios’ design emphasizes that there is nothing mundane about launching Wall of Fire across a goblin camp or obstructing a battlefield with Insect Plague. And thanks to BG3’s generous rest system, spellcasters get to live in that fantasy more often than almost any other D&D experience.
Long Rests Help All Characters Grow, Not Just Spellcasters
In Act 1, a common mistake players make is underutilizing long rests. This is not just because resources are significantly easier to come by than most players may think early on, but also because the long rest isn’t solely about refreshing spell slots. In Baldur’s Gate 3, some of the most important character development doesn’t happen in battle. Rather, it happens at camp. Long rests are the key to learning more about BG3 companion capabilities, deepening romances, and triggering critical moments of trust or betrayal.
Resting early and often isn’t just for resource management; it’s for relationship management too. Players who resist resting might find themselves accidentally locking themselves out of meaningful friendships by the time the story progresses, especially in Act 1, where the party is still getting to know each other. From Shadowheart dodging personal questions to Astarion leaving out details about his dietary needs, campmate animosity may not actually be about the player's choices. It may solely be because a player opted out of long resting frequently.
Supply Management Isn’t Too Much of A Hindrance
Of course, long resting often is not entirely without consequences. Long rests require supplies. Especially during the game's early hours, long rests feel like a gamble between running out of supplies and surviving another harrowing day. The reality is that Baldur’s Gate 3 is incredibly generous with occasionally funny food and supply drops from enemy corpses, barrels, and random packs lying around. The constant yet silent encouragement reassures players that they will not be punished for long resting. By mid- to late-game, players may not even think about supplies again, especially if they end up at the Elfsong Tavern.
The Real Challenge: Knowing When Not to Rest
Baldur’s Gate 3 is pretty generous when it comes to time-sensitivity since players are supposed to be on the road for several months with their tadpoled squad. However, there are rare occurrences where time sensitivity becomes critical. For example, Baldur’s Gate 3 Grymforge gnome mission will time out if a player long rests more than once. Luckily, these moments are the exception and not the rule. And for cases like the Grymforge, the game pretty explicitly informs players of their limited time. The rarity of needing to be stingy only further emphasizes how forgiving Baldur’s Gate 3 is.
If Magic is Messy, Resting is the Cleanup
Larian’s design philosophy for Baldur’s Gate 3 centered around rewarding chaos and exploration. In a traditional Dungeons & Dragons game, many spellcasters fall into the trap of hoarding their best spells "just in case." But BG3 gently breaks that habit by making resting so accessible that it feels less like an emergency button and more like a convenient ritual. Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t ever encourage players to be precious with their spells. Instead, it may steer players towards causing problems on purpose. Magic in BG3 is wild, dramatic, and often profoundly inconvenient for everyone involved, including the caster who will cast Fireball without measuring the space in a room. When those moments happen, a long rest awaits gamers with open arms. In Baldur’s Gate 3, spell slots shouldn’t be treated as chains. They should be seen as invitations to go wild.
Baldur's Gate 3
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 96 /100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- August 3, 2023
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Larian Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Larian Studios
- Engine
- Divinity 4.0
WHERE TO PLAY
Abducted, infected, lost. You are turning into a monster, but as the corruption inside you grows, so does your power. Forge a tale of fellowship and betrayal, sacrifice and survival, and the lure of absolute power. Caught in a conflict between devils, deities, and sinister otherworldly forces, you and your party will determine the fate of the Forgotten Realms.
THE ULTIMATE D&D EXPERIENCE
Choose from a wide selection of D&D races and classes, or play as an origin character with a hand-crafted background. Adventure, loot, battle, and romance as you journey through the Forgotten Realms and beyond. Play alone or as a party of up to four in multiplayer – and select your companions carefully.
A CINEMATIC STORYTELLING EPIC
Forged with the new Divinity 4.0 engine, Baldur’s Gate 3 gives you unprecedented freedom to explore, experiment, and interact with a world that reacts to your choices. A grand, cinematic narrative brings you closer to your characters than ever before, as you venture through our biggest world yet. Romance, deceive, aid, obstruct, and grow alongside your friends thanks to Larian's next-generation RPG engine.
- Franchise
- Baldur's Gate
- Genre(s)
- RPG
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, macOS
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
