For a game set in a fictional medieval world full of fairies, elves, feudal systems, and magic, there’s a concerning number of nukes in Baldur’s Gate 3. From the Netherese orb nestled in Gale’s chest to the endless amount of explosives you make Karlach carry, there’s always something to deploy on the brink of disaster. And those are only the physical nuke buttons a player can unleash. The narrative carries my favorite kind of detonation: the slow-burning terror of ceremorphosis, the evil-aligned companions that threaten your sanity, and even the mindblowing realization of Act 3’s size. But there is one nuke that brilliantly combines both threats: a cleric’s Divine Intervention.
Divine Intervention is a spell in Baldur’s Gate 3 that tempts the player with a perfect premise: calling upon the cleric’s deity for a one-time-use godsave—literally. Reading about what the spell could do, I realized that deploying Shadowheart’s nuke would become one of my most unforgettable epic moments in battle. But does not simply press a nuke button.
Knowing that Shadowheart was going through the push and pull of Shar’s darkness and Selune’s light made that decision feel heavier than any spell slot or damage roll. And to be quite honest, I still think about the moment I decided to call upon the gods for help. Because, technically, I was just using every tool in my box to stop my party from getting wiped out for a third time. Narratively, though, it was the most brilliant and nuanced deployment of Divine Intervention I could have asked for, and I have Larian’s writers to thank for that. And personally? It was the moment I realized I’m not just a decent RPG tactician: I’m the kind of player who will happily slam the big red button if it makes the story sing.
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Calling Upon A God’s Grace in Baldur’s Gate 3 Through Divine Intervention
I reached level 10 while exploring around Rivington early in Act 3. Therefore, I was armed with pivotal knowledge: knowing that Shadowheart could now invoke the favor of her goddess. For a BG3 player just trying to get by, this can be a lifesaver to be used at a moment of severe vulnerability. But as a seasoned D&D player, I knew that using Divine Intervention is more than just a cool trick.
The Options For Using Divine Intervention
Act 3 is a behemoth. Known for causing decision paralysis, being notoriously buggy, and feeling urgent in everything but actuality, BG3’s Act 3 has some shortcomings. However, it remains my favorite Act. It is home to the titular city and does an excellent job of showing how large and lived-in the neighborhoods inside and around Baldur’s Gate are. Everything feels carefully planned and somewhat dangerous. In its small moments—when NPCs chat about the latest gossip, or in its taverns and daily hustle—you realize how much life is at stake against Faerun’s greatest threat. The sense of narrative urgency and burnout seems almost intentionally built into the design: heroes don’t rest, and neither do villains. You aren’t here to get caught up in routines. You’re here to make sure they continue—or stop.
A spell like Divine Intervention is useful when facing the existential dread threatening Baldur’s Gate. Knowing what quests lay ahead, I had to choose Shadowheart’s one-time get-out-of-jail-free card wisely:
- The Remaining Chosen of The Dead Three: The Dead Three had picked their Chosen to lead the Absolute’s army toward victory. With Ketheric Thorm defeated, I knew Orin and Gortash would have boss fights that would wipe my party.
- Raphael’s Final Act: Did my Tav, Tavla, make a mistake by making a deal with Raphael? Yes. Was Tavla planning to go to the House of Hope to steal the Orphic Hammer and break the contract, effectively playing 4D chess? Yes. Were any of these plans wise? No. Am I blaming a pixelated woman to avoid taking responsibility? Yes.
- The Endgame: Facing the Absolute may necessitate the help of the gods themselves.
- Some Random Fight: Baldur’s Gate 3 is a hard game. By Act 3, I knew that some random fight of no consequence whatsoever could cause me to savescum. The Addled Frog outside of Auntie Ethel’s Teahouse walked so that some other unknown and unassuming threat could run.
Between these inevitably hard encounters and BG3’s many character quests, there was no shortage of places to spend my divine nuke. But one fight in particular demanded it.
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I Pressed The Nuke Button: Baldur’s Gate 3’s Divine Intervention
The House of Grief isn’t just another dungeon crawl. It’s Shadowheart’s crucible: where her memories fight to resurface, where her disloyalty is confronted, where the player has to decide what her future looks like. For Tavla and her companions, it was also a nightmare of clustered foes, high-level enemies, and the kind of damage that could melt a health bar before anyone got a chance to take their turn.
My party wiped. Then wiped again. By the third time Lae’zel had gone down, I considered uninstalling the game in pure fury. But then I remembered: I had the button. Shadowheart called on Selune (or Shar, depending on the path you’ve walked with her), and the battlefield lit up with a radiant attack like the gods had personally smitten it. A handful of enemies, including Viconia de Vir, were either obliterated on the spot thanks to Sunder the Hereticalb or weakened enough for us to finally push through. It wasn’t just a win condition; it was catharsis.
The Narrative Flexibility
The brilliance of Divine Intervention is that it isn’t just a mechanic. It slots neatly into Shadowheart’s dual paths. A Selunite Shadowheart feels like she’s fulfilling her goddess’s will: an answered prayer in her darkest hour. A Dark Justiciar Shadowheart, meanwhile, channels her devotion into destruction, demanding Shar's aid to replace Viconia. It’s the kind of overwhelming, raw, desperate power that makes Shadowheart such a fascinating character, no matter her fate.
It’s the same spell, but it feels different depending on her arc. That’s rare in RPGs: one button that carries both mechanical and narrative weight, and flexes differently depending on the story you’ve chosen to tell.
I Pressed the Nuke Button (And I Liked It)
Dropping Divine Intervention in the House of Grief didn’t just save my party. It made me feel like I was playing the game right. Not in the min-max, guide-reading, cheese-strategy kind of way, but in the sense that Tavla’s choices were weaving directly into Shadowheart’s. And the divine catharsis makes Shadowheart reuniting with her parents all the more bittersweet. To be touched by the holy, only to crumble at the sight of something so human as living kin.
Other “nukes” in Baldur’s Gate 3 are fun because they’re chaotic or non-negotiable experiences. But Divine Intervention feels earned. It’s roleplay translated into raw power, storytelling turned into damage dice. When Shadowheart called and the gods answered, it didn’t feel like cheating. It felt like destiny. And for once, I didn’t just survive Baldur’s Gate 3. I nuked it.
Baldur's Gate 3
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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
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- RPG
