Big wheel keeps on turnin’
Baldur’s Gate 3 might be the third entry in the Baldur’s Gate series, but it’s also a follow-up to the style of RPG that Larian has been making for years. With that in mind, it’s easy to wonder which lineage it might draw from, especially when it comes to whether Baldur’s Gate 3 goes for real-time or turn-based combat.
While BioWare’s Baldur’s Gate series utilized the famous real-time-with-pause set-up it would continue to use all the way through Dragon Age, Larian uses a stricter turn-based system in its Divinity: Original Sin titles. So which one does Baldur’s Gate 3 opt for, and can you choose?
Baldur’s Gate 3 is turn-based
Yes, Baldur’s Gate 3 is strictly turn-based. There are, as of this writing, no options for changing that either. While you can walk around in real time, Baldur’s Gate 3 will go turn-based as soon as combat is initiated.
You do have the option of manually initiating combat from the real-time roaming set-up, though, if you wish. Just hit the Spacebar (or equivalent on a controller) and time will freeze, allowing you to issue orders to your various party members. Once this gets rolling, though, you can’t keep playing in real-time. Combat in Baldur’s Gate 3 will shift into turn-based mode, with characters rolling their initiative and playing out their turns accordingly.
This is actually much closer to how proper tabletop Dungeons & Dragons works, which uses a turn order and initiative rolls. But for longtime fans of the Baldur’s Gate series, or the real-time-with-pause era of CRPGs, that might be a bummer. The good news is there are still a few modern options, like the aforementioned Dragon Age series from BioWare. Those utilize a real-time combat system with pausing, though they have a bit more of an action tilt as the series has gone on.
