Baldur’s Gate 3: How to Toggle Non-Lethal Attacks in BG3

Larian Studios, developers of Baldur’s Gate 3, have truly made an RPG masterpiece, and the game is hyped for all the good reasons. A lot of interesting mechanics exist in the game (most of them known already by seasoned RPG players), and one of them that we will be discussing in this article is the ability to deal non-lethal damage. If you are wondering what non-lethal damage is, and how to toggle it on and off in BG3, you’ve come to the right place.

How to Turn Non-Lethal Attacks in Baldur’s Gate 3 On and Off (BG3)

You can easily toggle non-lethal attacks On and Off in the Passive menu located at the bottom of your screen. Please be mindful that non-lethal attacks do not turn themselves off after combat automatically, or anything of the sort. When you wish to stop dealing non-lethal damage, you must manually turn non-lethal attacks off.

Related: Baldur’s Gate 3: How to Save Baelen (BG3)

In the screenshot below you can see the steps necessary for you to turn on the non-lethal attacks:

1. Click the Passives tab.
2. Click the button the arrow is pointing at to enable/disable non-lethal attacks.
3. Confirm that non-lethal attacks are turned on in the status bar.

How to Deal Non-Lethal Damage in Baldur’s Gate 3 and What Does Non-Lethal Damage Do?

If you want to deal non-lethal damage in Baldur’s Gate 3, you must do this with a melee weapon, or while being unarmed. In addition to that, it’s worth mentioning that non-lethal damage cannot be applied to Undead and Constructs. Non-lethal damage will simply knock the target unconscious, and we know that the Undead and the machines cannot sleep, right?

Related: Baldur’s Gate 3: How to Complete the Soft-Step Trial (BG3)

Here’s what the “Knocked Out” status looks like in-game, for reference:

Best Uses for Non-Lethal Damage in Baldur’s Gate 3

The first thing that comes to mind when we are talking about non-lethal damage in Baldur’s Gate 3 are the “Pacifist” speedrunners that compete with the rest of the world in the discipline of not killing anyone throughout the entire gameplay. The other good usage would be to simply subdue the enemy in order to rob them, carry them elsewhere, or gain valuable intel from them.

That’s all we’ve got for this BG3 mechanic explanation. If you want to read more about this popular RPG (maybe even the prime GOTY candidate, who knows?), you might be interested in knowing how many Acts are in Baldur’s Gate 3 or you can simply explore many other guides that you can find at the game tag just under this article.