Baldur’s Gate 3 Controls & Settings#
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a turn-based CRPG — its control logic is completely different from real-time action/shooter games: plan first, then strike, and each character only holds one share of “action + bonus action + movement” per turn. Understanding this action economy matters more than memorizing which key triggers which skill. This page covers the real PC keyboard/mouse and gamepad bindings, how to think about turn-based play, and how to manage the hotbar and camera.
Core Control Concept: This Is Turn-Based, Not Real-Time#
Out of combat you explore freely — but once a fight starts, the game switches to the turn-based interface. The tell is simple: action point icons (action, bonus action, movement) appear at the bottom of the screen, and a turn order bar appears at the top.
| Resource | Per-Turn Share | Main Uses | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Action | 1 | attacking, casting most spells, using items, Dash, Hide | resets every turn |
| Bonus Action | 1 | off-hand attacks, certain skills, Shove, Jump, Haste potion | resets every turn |
| Movement | one distance share | positioning, jumping to high ground | resets every turn |
| Reaction | 1 per round at most | opportunity attacks, Shield, Counterspell | restored when the round starts |
- Whose turn it is matters: once the round starts, the character you control is highlighted on the turn order bar. Characters who are not up cannot act for free — you must select them in the turn order bar first.
- Movement can be split: you don’t have to spend it all at once — walk a few steps, make one attack, then walk again. Spend the saved movement on claiming high ground or ducking behind cover.
- You can rehearse out of combat: while exploring, press the turn mode key to force turn-based mode — perfect for setting up stealth positions or laying surfaces before a fight triggers.
PC Keybinds#
The table below lists the most-used bindings in exploration and combat — ready to adopt as-is.
| Operation | Key | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Move/pathfind | click the ground, or hold W to walk up the screen | holding a direction key makes the character automatically path around obstacles |
| Open the context menu | right mouse button | inspect, steal, cast on NPCs, perform environment actions |
| Highlight interactables | hold Alt | pops up names and outlines of nearby lootable, flammable, and movable objects |
| Rotate camera | Q / E | rotate the view left and right around the party |
| Zoom camera | mouse wheel | zoom in to inspect details, zoom out to read the whole battlefield |
| Reset overhead view | press the “return to top view” key (or the UI overhead button) | one click back to the standard overhead angle |
| Enter/exit turn mode | G | force turn-based mode out of combat — ideal for setting up |
| Confirm within a turn / end remainder | Space | in most cases skips the current character’s remaining movement or ends the turn |
| Stealth | toggle stealth key (the UI stealth icon) | enter the stealth radius to steal or stage ambush positions |
| Open the party/character panel | Tab | check the whole party’s status, switch control to the current character |
| Quick save | F5 | press it before any important roll or big fight |
| Quick load | F8 | return to the save point after a failed roll or a wipe |
Camera and Perspective: Solving the Terrain of a Fight#
In Baldur’s Gate 3, the outcome of a fight depends far more on where you stand than on how fast you press buttons.
- Claim the high ground: attacking enemies below from elevation grants an attack roll bonus — the rule holds just as strongly on the PC version. So before combat starts, rotate the camera with Q/E and zoom out with the wheel to find the highest standable terrain on the battlefield.
- Read enemy positions: zoom out before the round begins to see enemy placement and patrol routes — decide whether to sneak behind them or split into two flanking groups.
- Shadows and cover: swing the view to the side and rear to see exactly which enemies are inside your line of sight — crucial for ranged classes picking firing lanes.
- Jump to vantage points: jumping costs only a bonus action — use it to quickly reach rooftops, clear obstacles, and loop around to the backline to cut down enemy archers and casters.
Hotbar Management#
In Baldur’s Gate 3, skills, spells, and items all go onto the bottom hotbar via drag and drop. Manage the hotbar well and you’ll never fumble through menus mid-fight.
| Slot Group | What to Put There | What Not to Put There |
|---|---|---|
| The first few easiest slots | that character’s most-used attack/damage skills | skills “you have never used once” |
| Common consumables | healing potions, throwables, Haste potions | bulk duplicates of the same item — merge with “use by quantity” |
| Supplies and scrolls | scrolls, arrows, alchemy materials | kept in reserve — restock as used |
| Non-combat tools | lockpicks, thief’s tools, exploration gear | used while exploring — occupy slots but not hotkeys |
Here is a more practical rule: put the skills “you use every single round” in slots 1, 2, and 3 — the easiest positions — and push burst resources that only come out in boss fights to the back or click them from the UI as needed. In a turn-based game you make decisions every round — when your most-used skills sit in easy reach, the whole combat rhythm flows.
- What about sub-bars: the hotbar supports multiple bars — right-click to edit — put spells, items, and weapons on their own pages.
- Switching melee/ranged: ranged classes should drag “swap weapon” onto the hotbar — makes bouncing between map-travel and ambushes painless.
Gamepad Controls (Radial Menu)#
On console, or when a gamepad is connected to the PC, the interface becomes a “radial wheel” — press the matching shoulder button to switch between the spell ring, item ring, and weapon ring, select with the stick, and confirm to use. The logic differs from the keyboard’s number-key shortcuts and is better suited to couch play.
- Ring + confirm: shoulder buttons switch rings, stick selects, confirm button releases. A few sessions and it clicks — the advantage is no memorized keybinds.
- Movement with the stick: the gamepad version also has stick-driven movement — drive facing with the left stick.
- Camera: the right stick rotates the view, with auto-follow.
- Quick save/load: the gamepad also has matching shortcuts (see the on-screen hints) — save before big fights here too.
The Real Cost of Mistakes in Combat#
In a turn-based game, the price of one extra step — or one bad decision — is magnified compared to real-time games. Below are the typical mistakes and what they cost.
| Mistake | Consequence | Correct Play |
|---|---|---|
| Charging in and bursting at round start | enemies uncontrolled — they counterattack at full power — your backline gets cut down | apply control or Hold first — output next round |
| Ignoring high ground | ranged accuracy suffers — output wasted for nothing | claim the high ground before combat starts |
| Wasting your bonus action | one free attack/reposition lost every round | use it at minimum for Shove, Jump, an off-hand attack, or a potion |
| Spending expensive spells on trash mobs | no resources left for the boss fight | cantrips or weapons for trash — spell slots for bosses |
| Starting fights without stealth | losing first strike — getting swarmed | set up in stealth pre-fight — first-round ambush |
| Not reloading before a wipe | the Honour Mode save is destroyed outright | press F5 at critical moments — F8 after failure |
Multiplayer and Split-Screen Handover Controls#
- 4-player online: each player controls one character, and the cameras never interfere. To jump your view to a companion, use the corresponding “switch controlled character” key.
- Split-screen (local co-op): two gamepads can control different characters at the same time — the screen splits in half by each player’s position.
- Confirm whose turn it is: in multiplayer the turn order bar marks which player owns each character — don’t grab decisions meant for someone else.
Settings That Actually Matter#
Most of Baldur’s Gate 3’s graphics and accessibility options are standard generic items — here we only call out the ones with a real impact on how this game plays. The rest (resolution, vsync, anti-aliasing, etc.) come down to your hardware and preferences and are not covered in detail.
- Subtitles and dialogue text: dialogue carries a huge share of the game — enable subtitles and size them up so you don’t miss key story beats or option details.
- Text-to-speech/read aloud: the game has a large amount of readable text (books, letters, inscriptions) — enable the read-aloud helper when needed.
- Combat pacing: some versions offer “speed up/skip enemy animations” options — a significant time saver when grinding repeated fights.
- Environmental interaction and the right-click menu: throwing, dragging corpses, igniting oil spills, pushing obstacles off ledges — most terrain interactions hide in the right-click context menu. Make sure you can pull up these secondary options, or you’ll miss a huge number of “solve the fight with the terrain” opportunities.