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How to use non-lethal attacks in Baldur’s Gate 3

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A halfling playing an instrument to a large badger.
Larian Entertainment

If there's one thing you'll never be at a loss for while playing Baldur's Gate 3, it's ways to kill your opponents. From swords, axes, and maces to bows, magic, and poison, your potential arsenal is essentially limitless. While that's great for when you're faced with irredeemable monsters and forces of pure evil, sometimes a fight can break out with people you'd rather not kill. This could be due to a failed skill check starting a fight you didn't intend, to a misunderstanding, or because the people attacking you are connected to a group you want to stay on the good side of. When combat breaks out, you're not resigned to either killing your enemy or reloading a save thanks to a handy ability to non-lethally attack enemies, but how to activate it isn't clear. Here's how to knock out an enemy in Baldur's Gate 3.

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Difficulty

Easy

Duration

5 minutes

What You Need

  • A melee weapon or unarmed weapon slot

How to use non-lethal attacks

The only restriction to non-lethal attacks is that they have to be melee. There's just no way to make an arrow or magic missile non-lethal, so prepare to get up-close and personal to knock out your target.

Step 1: Once in combat with one or more enemies you want to knock out, position any character with a melee weapon or who uses their fists within striking range of the target.

Step 2: On any character, go to the Passive submenu at the bottom of your hub.

A description of how to use non-lethal attacks.
Larian Entertainment

Step 3: Toggle Non-lethal to make any attack knock your opponent out rather than deal damage.

Step 4: Note that this doesn't act like a skill, but rather a toggle that affects all your party members. Once on, everyone doing melee strikes will do so non-lethally until you toggle it off again.

Jesse Lennox
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Jesse Lennox covers all things gaming but has a specific interest in all things PlayStation, JRPGs, and experimental indies…
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