Baldur’s Gate 3 offers a lot of combat, and a lot of bloodshed will happen, but this doesn’t mean that you need to kill everyone who gets in your way.
The game has a Non-Lethal attack feature, which allows you to knock targets out instead of killing them and this can come in handy in certain situations.
Non-Lethal attacks may be used at any time, and this may be activated if you prefer to not kill a target, especially if they are an important character later.
What Are Non-Lethal Attacks?
Non-Lethal attacks are actions performed to damage enemies that do reduce their health below 1 Hit Point, which leaves them unconscious.
Unconscious or knocked-out targets will remain on the ground until a Long Rest is performed and may be looted as if they had been slain.
This allows you to encounter characters later or knock out characters that you don’t want to kill, and an example would be if your character was under the control of an enemy.
When Non-Lethal Attacks is toggled on, using a melee weapon or unarmed attack will count as an attack that won’t deal a fatal blow.
How To Toggle Non-Lethal Attacks?
Non-Lethal Attacks may be toggled by selecting the Passives action bar, which should show the option to turn this feature on and off.
Toggling Non-Lethal attacks will affect the whole party, which makes it easy so you don’t have to worry about other characters killing enemies.
The only exception is if you do not use the correct attacks as spells and attacks with elemental properties may end up killing your enemies. (Environmental damage may also kill them)
Non-Lethal Attacks Advantages
The advantage of Non-Lethal attacks is that you can knock targets out without killing them, which can save them for later on.
This is also useful if you are trying to get somewhere or obtain an item from an NPC but do not want to kill them and you may instead loot the knocked-out target.
Another good example is when your character is under the control of Auntie Ethel after wearing the Whispering Mask, which may be removed after knocking them out.
Verdict
Non-Lethal Attacks may not seem like the best feature if you are facing enemies that will surely kill you but when attacking important NPCs or your characters, it can come in handy.
You can toggle Non-Lethal attacks at any time that you choose and this includes in and out of battle as it will not take up any moves.
Performing Non-Lethal attacks while sneaking around can help you knock out targets to avoid killing them so you can lurk around without ending up with dead NPCs.