How to Perform Non-Lethal Attacks in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3)

You will encounter numerous battles while attempting to remove the Mind Flyer tadpole inside your head in Baldur’s Gate 3. Although you can kill all your enemies, there is an option to use non-lethal attacks and avoid needless bloodshed.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Non-Lethal Damage, Explained

The non-lethal attack is a passive skill you can activate while fighting enemies in Baldur’s Gate 3. You can toggle this ability by selecting the Passives section on your hot bar and clicking the man and hammer icon.

While the non-lethal attack passive is active, your character will simply knock out your enemies, leaving only one health point. The passive ability will be active for all units in your team, so you don’t have to click the icon during each character’s turn. Do note that this skill only works if you hit opponents using melee attacks or an unarmed character.

This passive ability is very useful if you’re playing as a pacifist or if you pick the Paladin class, who’s not allowed to kill innocents. If you’re facing enemies with a lot of HP, you can still use your strongest attacks to reduce their health. Then, once they’re dying, you can go melee to knock out the opponent.

Lastly, you can only use non-lethal attacks on living enemies and cannot knock out undead beings and constructs. After all, they don’t even have a consciousness, and your only option is to destroy them.

Now that you understand how non-lethal attacks work, I recommend checking out other BG3 guides on Twinfinite. You may want to read our class tier list article to find out the best class to pick on your next playthrough.