Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Pacifism and the knock out command

I saw the knock out command and got really excited. I used it when those two men had an issue with Auntie Ethel and unfortunately the game decided they were dead. I always was a big fan of games giving you the option to not kill people. I understand the concept of hitting a guy on the back of the head and him being unconscious for 24 hours is very gamey, but they bothered to do special animations for the knock out command and it'd be nice to see it recognized in gameplay. I realize that there would need to be limits to it. We couldn't of course expect the game to let us knock out a dragon and handle that somehow. Though it would be nice to see a little more of it. Like for example it'd be nice to have an option to not do that and instead knock them out.

I always liked the idea of being able to be someone who tries not to kill in these games. Especially given when the asks you about the value of a single life. You can say ""Each life is of infinite value and merits sacrificing everything for." which feels kind of weird when you go ahead and cleave two guys in half because they have a disagreement with an old lady.

In D&D you can actually subdue a dragon by not killing it and getting its points to a certain degree. pretty much using the knockout command. As for the Ethel thing if you got what I did they were in a different spot then were you knocked them out. So there is that, and I've knocked out many and came back to find them up and still hostile.

My thing with this is your barely doing any damage, I can see a reduction in damage, but it's only 1-4 damage at a time. Which when your being hammered, outnumbered, things going boom it limits you even further. I personally feel knockout damage should be half of your weapon. Instead of using your fists (even though your holding your weapons) your using the flat of your weapon if they are edged (yeah can result in a cut, but not as likely to kill) or pulling your blows with a blunt weapon (trying to soften the impact, and foe at same time.) yeah it is harder with blunt weapons but still. Half is at times alot better then seeing straight 1's pop up when your trying to play nice....ish?

I think the knock out option needs a lot more uses. So far, I have tried it on a few bosses, and a few other people who seemed interesting/important. But none of them had anything special to say, or gave me an altered quest or anything. Wouldn't it make sense if we can, for example, knock someone out, and then after combat, wake them up to, for instance, extort/blackmmail them? something along the lines of: 'you have one last chance, if you tell me xxxxx then I will let you live'

From what I could see, knock out and regular attacks do damage to the HP pool. So you could just damage them normally until they are low, and then down them with a non-deadly finishing blow to "not kill".

Question is, what benefit does this provide at the moment? Maybe some storyline choices later on?

Right now it is better to kill. I knocked out the two tieflings who wanted to kill the goblin prisoner after failing to convince them to stand down.
Every time I got close to there afterwards they tried to kill me again, turning the whole grove hostile. So it's either doesn't work as it supposed to, or it is completely useless

role play is the big one. there is also different consequences if you knock out vs kill outright certain people. (I believe, maybe misremembering them) and I tend to follow the damage heavily to within 9 or so hp with outright damage, then switch to knock out. Though it to me defeats the purpose, I'm only going to knock you out, but before that I'm going to try and maim you significantly.

I believe there is a work around really, depending on how much further you progress. Not yet tried it, and could be another consequence of actions as well that changes.

Right know knocked out NPCS are treated exactly like dead ones. They never get back on their feet, the game never acknowledge that you spared them, etc.

We are all guessing (hoping?) that the system is not in place yet and Larian will expand it in the future.

Don't think of the entire HP bar representing amount of injury. Think of the first 50-75% as whittling down the enemy's stamina/energy. Thus, when you've brought the enemy to 25% HP remaining, you've really only given them scratches and tired them out so they're easier to knock out with the next hit.


Knocked out NPCs do get back on their feet after you long rest. If they're not getting up for you, it's a bug. But yes, the problem is that the game never acknowledges that you spared them as they immediately aggro if they see you.

I hate to say it again but sounds to me like another game mechanic Larian thought was cool without really thinking about how to properly implement it

I'd love to see that kind of stuff, but I just don't know that we will. "Each life is of infinite value and merits sacrificing everything for.", I love that idea but hate how it's impossible to play that kind of character. I realize there are limits in a game like this but I really like the idea of being able to cast sleep to stop people from coming to blows or even cleverly taking control of the goblin horde to spare their lives.


What I thought it was, was an option for when a party member is otherwise charmed or controlled. But charm doesn't work like it did in BG2, so I may be totally wrong.

The only ones I wanted to knock out were the mask wearing ones at the hags place, they were obviously charmed and trying to resist her influence. Didn't managed to though

Yeah it felt like there should be some option to save them since they can still resist her influence. But it seems like a lot of the Hag area isn't done so hopefully we get more stuff.

That... May be a bit of a hasty judgement?
I mean, chances are they are simply still working on it.

On a related note, "long rest" or not, I think the player should be able to "wake up" knocked out characters once the combat is finished with the "Help" command.
And they obviously shouldn't stay "aggro" unless it makes sense in context that they do (i.e. monsters).
Different argument for being pissed at you. That's perfectly reasonable.