Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. How tos

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

Add as a preferred source on Google
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.

Recommended Videos

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…
Sony’s new PS5 Prism Collection gives a beautiful retro makeover to your console and controller
The new collection lets you peek inside your PS5 and DualSense controller with a glossy transparent design.
sony-prism-collection-ps5

Remember when transparent gadgets were the coolest things you could own? Sony is bringing that late '90s aesthetic back with its new PS5 Prism Collection. The gorgeous lineup gives your DualSense controller and PS5 console a glossy, see-through makeover in three eye-catching colors.

https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/2115459064981512662?s=19

Read more
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s Stranded mission had me hooked for hours, yet left me wanting more
I spent hours sneaking through North Korea, scavenging supplies, and clearing outposts, and I’d happily do it all again.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Stranded mission gameplay

For years, Call of Duty’s campaign mode has used big, scripted set pieces to tell the overarching story amid all the adrenaline-pumping action. The 2023 Modern Warfare 3 tried to shake up the established formula by introducing a handful of short open combat missions, and I genuinely liked the idea, but the game's overall negative reception seeped into how those missions were received.

I feared the next iteration might abandon the idea because of the backlash, but I am glad it didn't. MW4’s “Stranded” mission uses the same approach, but instead of fragmenting it across the campaign, it puts it all in a single large-scale open-world mission.

Read more
The $1300 Acer Predator Atlas 8 handheld is finally US-bound, and its pre-orders are already sold out
Acer’s first gaming handheld to launch in the US arrives November 1 with Intel Arc G3 Extreme hardware.
Intel Arc G3 Extreme Hands On with Acer Predator Atlas 8

Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.

Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.

Read more