In Baldur’s Gate 3 there are “something like 600 spells and actions,” according to Larian’s release showcase. That sounds intimidating, especially if you’re not already au fait with Dungeons & Dragons, which is an arcane game that evolved out of tabletop wargaming in a dark and ancient lost age called the 1970s.
Fortunately Baldur’s Gate 3 uses the 5th edition, D&D5E as it’s known, which is the easiest version of D&D to learn and also the best. There’s a universal mechanic that resolves basically everything you can do and a straightforward rule for raising or lowering your chances of success. 5E is also a system where it’s hard to completely screw yourself by making bad choices at level-up, unless you do something ridiculous with multiclassing, which is easily avoided by, well, not multiclassing. In D&D’s third edition, if you made it to level 20 with only a single class under your belt you’d fucked up, but 5E is happy to let you just be a wizard forever. Which is certainly all I want from life.
D20 is the best D
The first thing to know about 5E, whether played around a table or in Baldur’s Gate 3, is that when…