Baldur's Gate 3 Taught Me One Huge Thing About How To Make D&D Combat Better (2024)

One of Baldur's Gate 3's great strengths is how intelligently it translates the tabletop experience to the video game realm, and in some cases, what it focuses on can provide great inspiration for how to make DnD campaigns better. I've been DMing a multi-arc DnD campaign since 2020, and that whole period has been a continual learning experience, with every session providing some kind of takeaway on how to make things better. Outside inspiration can be equally important, however, from live DnD play to books, films, games, or even life experiences.

When it comes to Baldur's Gate 3, not everything that the game is doing would be a great idea for tabletop play. Some concepts and changes serve distinct purposes of working within video game limitations, and in tabletop play, I'm always trying to give my players as much freedom as possible while gently guiding the direction. The video game format also has its advantages, however, and one can be found in how the environments of Baldur's Gate 3 battles tend to transcend the average battle map used in DnD.

Baldur's Gate 3 Combat Makes Great Use Of Verticality

Multi-Level Maps Offer So Many More Opportunities

The big word for Baldur's Gate 3 combat is verticality, and when I first jumped into the game after its release in August 2023, I was almost immediately impressed by how much its battles take advantage of multi-level setups. This isn't as deeply evident aboard the Nautiloid ship where Baldur's Gate 3 starts, but my first encounter afterward took place in the Chapel Entrance area of the Overgrown Ruins near the beach where the Nautiloid crashes. Several looters lurk here, and the ruins that surround them are complete with huge flights of stairs and balconies with half-crumbled rails.

It's not a setup that would be all that unusual in DnD, but the possibilities presented by the scenario feel so much more immediately exciting in Baldur's Gate 3. Shoving is a powerful tactic in the game, reworked to be a bonus action that can be deployed on the same turn as a regular attack. Pushing enemies off of ledges is just the start, however, as the cavalcade of interesting combat areas featured throughout opens up opportunities aplenty for all manner of height-based hijinks.

Making use of verticality can also come with its drawbacks, and I've lost out on some potential treasures by launching a few enemies into the abyss. At the same time, escaping a potential total party kill by rendering a boss's health pool irrelevant with the right application of Telekinesis is pretty thrilling, and there's more than enough loot to go around regardless. Whether setting up a stealth attack or finding a safe spot for my fragile wizard player character, I'm always thinking about the height options in an arena as part of the basic strategic equation.

Verticality Improves My D&D Encounter Design

Baldur's Gate 3 Helps Push Me To Think Outside The Box

It's not always easy to bring this same sense to tabletop DnD, as most dungeon masters work with generally flat map-building tools. My group plays online, so I make my maps in Photoshop or employ some of the great community-made options that can be found online. The lack of 3D space doesn't make it impossible to design multi-level maps, but it does end up being a less obvious option for both DMs and players, and a 2D flight of stairs at the edge of a dungeon room doesn't inspire the same immediate creativity that Baldur's Gate 3 tends to.

These challenges are no reason not to try, however, and Baldur's Gate 3 has done a great job of making me try. Whenever I'm designing a DnD combat arena now, I distinctly think about how I could apply verticality and make it interesting. One recent fraught scenario snowballed into a portion of the party hanging halfway down a cliff while attempting to extract from a fight gone wrong, and another saw the swashbuckling fighter drop a magic ship from midair in a desperate attempt to make a death-defying leap work.

Not every encounter needs to go in this direction, but it's one of those things that can unlock a whole new element of play for the party. Ensuring that some maps have interesting vertical aspects beyond a singular ledge or balcony gives players more alternatives to their normal attacks, and I'm consistently excited whenever someone asks me if they can attempt some ridiculous stunt that I would never have conceived myself. Even when people aren't thinking outside the box, it can help ranged classes like rangers feel more relevant than the average dungeon room tends to.

Designing D&D Combat Can Still Be A Challenge

There's No One Answer To Great Encounters

I still have a long way to go with making truly great encounter design, and like many aspects of DMing, it's one of those things that's easy to fall into a rut with. Time is always a problem, and you end up throwing something together at the last second and thinking you'll do better next week. Verticality is only one of many components that can elevate things, and it's important to draw different ideas together to make DnD combat stronger.

Even so, I do feel like Baldur's Gate 3 has helped me make my DnD combat better, and verticality is one of the biggest components of that. I've never been much of a fan of random encounters that are just thrown together, and the degree to which every fight feels bespoke in Baldur's Gate 3 inspires me to focus on reaching the same heights. When I do things right, my Dungeons & Dragons players can reach those heights as well, and then they can tie a rope to swing off of them into the fray.

Baldur's Gate 3

Franchise

Baldur's Gate

Platform(s)

PC , Stadia , macOS , PS5 , Xbox Series X

Released

August 3, 2023

Developer(s)

Larian Studios

Genre(s)

RPG