Baldur’s Gate 3 secretly nerfs literal pay-to-win strategy

Half the fun of Baldur’s Gate 3 is that it indulges the creativity and wit of a player, much like in Dungeons & Dragons, with one’s imagination is the only barrier to incredible feats. Well, thanks to an unmentioned hotfix, one weapon’s particular antics have come to an end.

The weapon in question is known as Twist of Fortune. Aside from reminding us of the similarly named League of Legends character, it has become quite the unconventional participant in an ingenious boss-beating strategy. The logic is relatively simple to understand as it revolves around this weapon’s Blood Money perk: an ability that increases damage to an enemy based on how much money is on their person. Hopefully, you can see where this is going. 

Those with a character building heavily into stealth mechanics could have an absolute field day with Twist of Fortune. By loading up an enemy with a truckload of cash, even the most daunting health bars could be devastated in a single hit. While I think this is incredibly smart, Larian Studios believes it is too exploitative for their lauded Game of the Year. 

As Reddit user -Specialist-Spite- found out, to their chagrin, a nerf that avoided patch notes made one alteration to Blood Money—leading to disastrous results. “The Self-Same Trial of Shar causes you to fight clones of your team,” they explained in a Reddit post on Dec. 11. “At one point, Shadowheart’s clone 1-shot my Tav. I knew how she did it, I just never bothered to read the entire thing. My Tav was holding 13k gold. Shadowheart was wielding Twist of Fortune. Hours later I notice my wallet is nearly empty.”

As much as we shouldn’t laugh, this is hilarious. The real kicker, however, is that this change has been traced back to a month ago. Another Reddit user, TheRen-Wolf, correctly identified the change in mid-November but was unsure if this was due to a mod they had installed. The post was barely seen, so this nerf remained largely unnoticed and we’ve arrived at today’s gaming lesson of the day. Always read the description. 

For those still interested in trying out Twist of Fortune for themselves, its acquisition (ironically enough) requires the defeat of one of Act 2’s more greedy encounters. The enemy in question is Gerringothe Thorm, found in the Rethwin Tollhouse. Work your way around her own Blood Money gimmick, and the Morningstar weapon shall be yours.