Last updated: 2 November 2026

BG3 Difficulty Settings : Explorer, Balanced, Tactician & Custom

Pick Balanced for your first run of Baldur's Gate 3 — it is the baseline the other modes are measured against — and remember you can change it from the pause menu at any time. Explorer makes the game more forgiving and removes multiclassing, Tactician makes them tougher and doubles the camp-supply cost of a Long Rest, Honour adds a single save and boss Legendary Actions, and Custom lets you tune individual rules (Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios; also searched as BG3 difficulty modes).

01The Five Modes at a Glance

Baldur's Gate 3 has five difficulty options: Explorer, Balanced, Tactician, Honour and Custom. The first three have been in the game since launch; Honour and Custom were added in Patch 5 (late 2023).

• Explorer — the easiest preset. Your party is sturdier, traders charge less, and multiclassing is not allowed.
• Balanced — the default and the reference point for every other mode. Fights test you without overwhelming a new player.
• Tactician — enemies are tougher and smarter, and a Long Rest costs 80 Camp Supplies instead of 40.
• Honour — a single save file, no reloading, and bosses that get Legendary Actions. Covered in full in our Honour Mode guide.
• Custom — a mode where you adjust individual rules instead of taking a preset.

Difficulty does not change the story, the companions or the quests you can reach. It changes numbers and rules in combat, rests and shops.

02Explorer: What Changes

Explorer is built for players who want the story and the choices without a tough tactical game. Your party gets extra durability and bonuses, and traders charge less.

The one real trade-off is that multiclassing is disabled on Explorer. If you already took a second class and later drop to Explorer, the levels you gained stay, but you cannot add new multiclass levels while on it. That also means any build that needs a dip is off the table until you change difficulty.

Explorer is a fine choice for a second playthrough where you only want to see a different origin character or romance. If you want your build to feel strong without trivialising everything, Balanced is usually the better default.

03Balanced: The Baseline

Balanced is what the game was tuned around. A Long Rest costs 40 Camp Supplies, multiclassing is allowed, and fights reward positioning, spell choice and use of terrain rather than raw stat padding.

If you are unsure, start here. You can raise or lower the difficulty from the pause menu if a particular fight, such as an early boss, is clearly too easy or too punishing.

04Tactician: What Changes

Tactician is the hard preset below Honour. Three things matter most in practice:

• Tougher enemies. Fights are harder than on Balanced, so positioning and crowd control matter more.
• Resting costs more. A Long Rest costs 80 Camp Supplies instead of 40. With fewer supplies you can still rest, but you get a Partial Rest that restores only half of your HP and spell slots. See our Long Rest guide for how to stock up.

Expect to use consumables, scrolls and crowd control properly instead of brute-forcing fights.

05Custom Mode: Tune Your Own Difficulty

Custom mode, added in Patch 5, exposes individual rules instead of fixed presets. Examples covered by reviewers and the community wiki include how aggressive enemies are, how strong characters and enemies are, how much a Long Rest costs in Camp Supplies, whether enemy health is shown, and whether dice-roll requirements are hidden for a more tabletop feel.

Two rules to know before you switch:

• You cannot go back to an unmodified preset. Once you move a game to Custom, it stays Custom; you cannot return to plain Explorer, Balanced or Tactician.
• A few settings lock when the game starts. The ruleset (standard or Honour rules), the Honour-style single-save option and multiclassing cannot be flipped afterwards, so decide them when you create the campaign.

The exact slider ranges and defaults are shown in the in-game Custom menu and can change between patches, so read the tooltips on your version rather than relying on a number from an old guide.

06How to Change Difficulty Mid-Game

For Explorer, Balanced and Tactician you do not need a new save:

1. Press Esc to open the pause menu.
2. Select Difficulty.
3. Choose the new mode. Enemy changes apply immediately.

Honour mode cannot be swapped into or out of mid-run. If your whole Honour party is wiped, the game offers to continue the save in Custom mode, which ends the Honour run, or to end the campaign.

07Which Difficulty Should You Pick?

• First playthrough, new to D&D-style combat: Balanced.
• Here for the story and romance: Explorer, accepting the no-multiclass rule.
• Finished the game once, want more tension: Tactician, and plan your camp supplies.
• Want a specific tweak, such as cheaper rests or hidden enemy HP: Custom, once you are sure you will not want a preset again.
• Want permanent stakes: read the Honour Mode guide first.

Whatever you pick, a strong party matters more than the difficulty label. Our guides to best classes and multiclass builds help on Balanced and Tactician.