Published , by Josh Broadwell
Published , by Josh Broadwell
How to revive in Baldur’s Gate 3 is something that changes depending on the situation, and despite the action’s importance, BG3 isn’t always keen on telling you how it works. Death seems like a pretty big deal, but you have several options at your disposal to make sure no one stays down by the river. There’s even a fail-safe method to bring everyone back from the dead, assuming you’ve got some coins to spare.
The method of reviving a chahracter depends on what’s actually happening with the downed character in question. When a character’s HP reaches zero, they don’t die. They just fall. When that happens, you have a few options for reviving them.
The easiest and best way to revive is using a healing spell, ideally something like Healing Word that you can cast from a distance. That spell in particular counts as a bonus action, so it won’t take up the spellcaster’s primary action that turn. Healing spells are plentiful, and some even come built into certain pieces of equipment without taking up spell slots.
Potions also count as healing for revival. If you’re out of spell slots or don’t have a caster, you can spend an action to throw a potion at your downed ally. It looks like an aggressive action and even has an attack forecast with a hit percentage. It deals no damage, though. Just make sure you read the item description so you know you’re using an actual potion and not a poison or bomb disguised as one.
If you’re near the downed ally, walk over to them, and interact with their body. This method costs an action, and it revives the downed character without using any spells or items. The downside is that you have to be near them, which may involve putting yourself in danger if the enemies who defeated the character are still around.
The last method is the riskiest. A downed character has a death-saving throw at the start of each round. If they win three times, they come back to life without any action on your part. If they lose three times, they die.
Bear in mind that all of these methods have the same limitations, namely that they cost an action or bonus action and that the revived ally can’t act on that turn. In some cases, they may have a bonus action or some spare movement they can use, but they have few or no options to retreat safely or further heal themselves.
Since revived characters remain in that vulnerable state, make sure you have a plan in mind to keep them safe somehow, either by teleporting them, creating a shield, or turning them invisible.
If a character gets hit again while they’re down, or if they fail three saving throws, they die. You can’t revive dead allies with healing spells or potions when they’re properly dead like this, but you do have a couple of options to bring them back.
The first is a Scroll of Revivify. These are fairly rare items. Merchants tend to have only one or two on hand. To use it, select the item from your inventory, and target your dead ally. Then, choose where you want them to go after being revived. Since you can move them out of harm's way using scrolls, it’s sometimes better in combat to just let them die and revive them further away. You can also use the Revivify spell, which works the same way.
If you don’t have a scroll or the right spell, speak with Withers at your camp. He’ll bring someone back to life for 200 coins. He's also responsible for respeccing your characters, if you want to shake things up.
Characters might also die if an enemy pushes them into a chasm, though after the battle ends, they’ll appear as small, floating blue lights. Scrolls of Revivify won’t work on them in this state, so Withers is your only choice.
There’s no permanent dead state from battle that you can’t fix. The only way someone stays dead forever is if they die in a story scene – if, for example, if one of your traveling compaions kills another one or you fail to save one during specific story-based events.
There is some good news when it comes to your companions and their feelings toward you. Death and the downed status have no effect on your relationship with party members. So if you accidentally get Shadowheart killed, she won't hate you.
If you're after more help in Baldur's Gate 3, check out our guides for how to solve the brain puzzle in Act 2, the best party combinations, and who you can romance in your party.