5 ideas for your next Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough

Baldur’s Gate 3 has taken the gaming world by storm and one of the best things about it is its replayability.

No single playthrough will ever be the same in Baldur’s Gate 3, with race and class choices unlocking different dialogue options, which in turn can offer different ways to advance the story.

Decisions you make along the way also vastly alter the progress of Baldur’s Gate 3, and it’s possible to take an entirely different approach in a new playthrough. On top of that, there are several characters to romance and companions to align with.

If you’ve made your way through a playthrough in Baldur’s Gate 3 and are looking for your next option, you can try these ideas for an entirely fresh experience.

Table of contents

Embrace the Dark Urge

The Dark Urge is an origin character in Baldur’s Gate 3 with a difference, as it is entirely customizable for class and race—unlike the other origin characters that come with a defined look and suggested classes.

While you can try to fight back against the urges of bloodlust that emerge from your mysterious history, it’s just as fun to fully embrace them and become an absolute psychopath with no love for anyone and a desire for war.

The Dark Urge origin leads to some shocking and unforgettable moments which, without spoilers, can give you a hand as a souvenir and lead you down some very dark paths.

Shadowheart’s opposite

Shadowheart, a cleric for the dark goddess Shar, makes her beliefs abundantly clear in Baldur’s Gate 3. Throughout the course of the story, that can of course change, but you can make her particularly prickly at the start by being her complete opposite.

To do so, you can choose to be a Cleric of Selune. Shadowheart will not take kindly to you and it will require some work to get her on your side, or you can opt to continue to be polar opposites throughout the course of your campaign.

Either way, it’s a great way to create some unique dialogue options that give a deeper insight into Shadowheart’s history.

Become an Illithid

With the Mind Flayer tadpole in your head, Illithid powers become an option throughout your Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough and a major decision needs to be taken on whether to embrace them or avoid them—and opting for the former changes the game.

Throughout the course of the campaign, you’ll find more tadpoles that can enhance your ability, then be given the opportunity to embrace the Illithid lifestyle that your Guardian is pushing upon you. Eventually, you can go full Illithid.

This provides a rather unique gameplay opportunity that is otherwise locked away completely and is certainly worth experiencing.

Related: Baldur’s Gate 3: All Mindflayer Parasite locations in BG3

The Lone Wolf

Baldur’s Gate 3 really pushes you towards finding allies and recruiting companions to your party, but you can challenge yourself by going the completely opposite way, shunning any alliances and instead adopting a full Lone Wolf approach.

This challenge is not for the faint-hearted, particularly in battles against hordes of enemies and powerful bosses that can quickly whittle down your health bar, but there is a mod available that provides boosts that make a huge difference.

The Lone Wolf challenge, however, does not necessarily lock you out of companions entirely, who can stay behind at your camp, and you’d just need to be on your own when exploring and entering combat situations.

Permadeath

Permadeath runs in gaming have become a staple challenge for players to adopt and Baldur’s Gate 3 really ups the ante, particularly when it comes to decision-making in the game that alters the way the story develops.

The general gist of this playthrough is simple. If someone dies, they are dead. While this can be applied to your character, resulting in a restart if you die, you can continue going yourself and instead apply the rules to any companions and NPCs.

If companions die, there’s always the option to recruit Hirelings with Withers to expand your party and, if they die, replace them, thus making it slightly more forgiving as you can always ensure you have allies—as long as you have the gold.