10 Baldur’s Gate 3 Secrets That Players Are Still Discovering Hundreds of Hours Later

Baldur's Gate 3 is a massive game. It is one that you will spend well over 100 hours playing. That first 100 hours might be your entire first playthrough with how much there is to do and discover.

Since the world is so big, it also means that there are numerous secrets hidden within it. Some of these secrets you might not even discover during your first playthrough. Others, you might not find during your second Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough.

You can easily spend over 100 hours in Baldur's Gate 3 and discover new mechanics, NPCs, items, and more. Never stop looking because you never know what you will find.

10 You Can't Throw the Book

Into a Chasm

The Necromancy of Thay is a strange book that you can find in a hidden room in a basement in the Blighted Village in act one. This book has a few interesting interactions that you might not know about.

First, you cannot destroy the book unless you hit it with radiant damage. If you do destroy it, shadow enemies will spawn and attack you. Normally, you would use the Dark Amethyst to unlock it, but if you attempt to use the Knock spell, it will instead spawn a hostile shadow.

Finally, you cannot throw the book into a chasm. Doing this will cause it to fly right back to you, almost as if the game is telling you that you need to keep it around.

9 Multishot Guiding Bolt

Gontr Mael Bow Interaction

There is a very strong interaction with the Gontr Mael bow in Baldur's Gate 3. This legendary bow is obtained by defeating the Steel Watcher Titan in the control center, but the secret lies in its ability called Promised Victory.

This ability allows arrows fired from Gontr Mael to apply Guiding Bolt to enemies they hit. This is already very powerful, but many don't realize that you can take this a step further by using multishot arrows.

Multishot arrows split when they hit a target, allowing them to hit multiple targets. This means that you can apply Guiding Bolt to multiple enemies at once. This will make it so you and your allies have advantage against multiple enemies and not just one.

8 Secret Portraits

Marcus Miles & Sebille

In the first act of Baldur's Gate 3, you can visit the Underdark. In the Underdark, you can make your way over to the Arcane Tower. Here, there are various secrets, but each of them is pretty easy to spot. There is one, however, that you may have overlooked. You might also not have seen it.

This secret is the Portrait of Marcus Miles, one of the protagonists of Divinity: Original Sin 2, and depending on what version of Baldur's Gate 3 you have, you may not be able to see it.

The portrait is above one of the beds on the upper floor of the Arcane Tower. If you have the deluxe edition of Baldur's Gate 3, the portrait will appear. If not, you won't be able to find the portrait. Another portrait can be found later in the game, and it showcases Sebille, another protagonist from Divinity: Original Sin 2.

7 Create New Companions

Even Gortash Can Join You

There is a strange way that you can go about getting any enemy to join your party. To do this, you need to have the Polymorph and Dominate Beast spells. Cast Polymorph on an enemy, turning them into a sheep.

After this, cast the Dominate Beast spell on the sheep to get it as a temporary companion. It is important to note that the character who uses Dominate Beast cannot be your created character and must be a companion.

Return to camp, and talk to your companion who is controlling the sheep to stay at camp. After this, ask them to join you in the fight once more. Doing this causes a strange interaction where the sheep will turn back into its original form, allowing you to control whatever enemy it was before it was polymorphed.

6 Murder Hobo Ending

A Very Powerful Spell

There is a secret cutscene that you can get during the epilogue of Baldur's Gate 3 that involves Withers. You meet Withers in a dungeon during the first act of the game, and he acts as a means of reviving your killed characters or changing your class.

Once you reach the end of the game, if you decide that you have had enough of your companions and decide to kill one of them, Withers will step in and put a stop to it. You will then trigger a cutscene where he opens a portal and throws you into it.

There is no telling where the portal leads, but it shows that Withers could have ended your run at any time and chose not to. Only after killing a companion at the end of the game will he care enough to make you disappear.

5 A Sickening Well

Outside Auntie Ethel's House

Auntie Ethel is a major threat in the first act of Baldur's Gate 3, and you will eventually travel to the swamp area to deal with her. Near her house, you can find a well, and drinking from it can make you sick.

The secret doesn't come from drinking from the well once. No, the secret is given to those who are brave enough to drink from the well a second time. If you drink from the well once, you will gain 10 temporary hit points. Unfortunately, the next day you will become nauseated.

If you are brave enough to drink from the well a second time, knowing the full effects of the previous swig, you will be given the sickened condition, giving you vulnerability to all damage.

4 Get Both Auntie Ethel Buffs

Outwit the Hag

Odds are you have seen Auntie Ethel and defeated her. When you fight Auntie Ethel, there are typically two outcomes. The first is that you accept her dying plea, take her hair, and gain a permanent buff. The other is that you kill her and get some loot.

Well, you might not know that there is actually a way to get both the buff and her loot. What you need to do is confront Auntie Ethel in her house. While she is distracted, have someone sneak into the secret passageway and use Scroll of Arcane Lock on the door.

This will prevent Auntie Ethel from going anywhere. A fight will ensue, but that is what you want. Fight Auntie Ethel, but keep non-lethal damage turned on. Knock her out, grab her loot, and then leave. Take a long rest, and when you come back, you will be able to fight her again in her lair to get the buff.

3 Upgrade Your Guardian of Faith

It Can Move

Guardian of Faith is a pretty great spell. It protects you and your allies, and can deal some decent damage to enemies. The main downfall of this spell is that the summoned guardian is immobile, meaning it can't move around the battlefield, but there is a way to fix that.

Minthara has an ability called Soul Branding that lasts for three turns. This ability grants the target additional fire damage on their next melee attack, but more importantly, it grants the target five feet of movement speed.

When used on a Guardian of Faith, the ability grants it movement, allowing it to traverse the battlefield. If you want to make it even better, you can use the Haste spell on it to make it move even faster.

2 Key Takes a Walk

Nobody's Getting In

In the latter half of the game, you will find yourself in Wyrm's Rock Fortress. The lower part of this fortress is a prison, and if you make your way down there, you will find a Dwarf guard who is asleep after eating a heavy lunch.

Normally, you will either wake her up, talk to her, and get her to open the door, or pickpocket her and open the door yourself. However, there is a funny interaction that you probably never knew existed. If you pickpocket her, and open the door, but then proceed to wake her up, she will freak out.

She will first go into a panic because the key has "taken a walk." She will then say that nobody can get into the prison until the next shift, and then become more panicked as she realizes that she is the next shift. It's a funny interaction that often goes overlooked.

1 Death Cloud

Dead Bodies Are Useful

There is a way that you can become extremely overpowered once you hit act three in Baldur's Gate 3, and it all has to do with the corpse of an NPC named Ellswort. First, go to Baldur's Gate's cemetery. Here, you will find an open grave with Ellswort's dead body in it.

If you loot this body, it will emit an AOE poison cloud, dealing damage all around it, but you can pick the body up. Pick up the body to place it in your inventory. Once the body is in your inventory, you can press the "loot" option to emit the poison cloud.

If you make yourself a monk, and reach level 10, you gain Purity of Body. This will grant you immunity to poison. You can now walk around, loot the body, and emit poison AOEs to damage enemies. The best part is that it doesn't consume your action.