Published , by Josh Broadwell
Published , by Josh Broadwell
How to cure Bone Chill in Baldur’s Gate 3 is a little complicated, complicated in the sense that there’s not actually a cure. There are some other options available to you on most classes for dealing with Bone Chill, though, and they’re probably tools you’re familiar with already. Even if Bone Chill turns out not to be a huge deal for you, these evasion tactics work well for most other combat situations too, so they’re worth bearing in mind.
Bone Chill deals necrotic damage and prevents the targeted character from receiving healing from magic or potions for one turn. If the target is an undead creature, they have disadvantage on their next attack roll. It’s a ranged spell, so you don’t have to be near a target for it to work. That’s great for you – less so when you’re the target.
Bone Chill has no cure, despite what some players theorized on Reddit when the game first launched. Bless won’t fix it, though your character will at least be blessed and have advantage on their next roll. Remove Curse won’t remove it, since it’s not, well, a curse. There’s no way to remove the effect other than waiting for a turn so it expires.
That’s not a problem in some cases. You can just position your afflicted character somewhere safe and take out the caster. It’s more difficult on maps with multiple enemies, where a turn of missed healing and multiple characters afflicted with Bone Chill could result in your party’s defeat.
One way around it is to use a potion of invisibility or an invisibility spell so the target character disappears from the physical plane and can’t be harmed. They can’t act that turn, or the invisibility will fade. However, it’s a safe way to deal with Bone Chill until the danger passes. The Play Dead spell works the same way, except it lasts longer and you can’t act at all. It’s effective, but only as a last resort.
Blade Ward won’t fix the situation, but it will keep the target character a little safer. If the Bone Chill sufferer knows Resist, False Life, or Armor of Agathys, they can cast it on themselves to get a bit more resistance and even some temporary hit points.
Bone Chill has no effect on temporary hit points, so if need be, you can stack five or more of them through False Life and Armor of Agathys to give yourself a small extra chance of survival. Warlocks, Eldritch Knights, Bards, Sorcerers, Wizards, and Arcane Tricksters can all learn this naturally, or you can teach it to any character if you give them the right Feat.
If you’re stuck dealing with multiple spellcasters and can’t defeat them all in one go, your best bet is inflicting some kind of disadvantage on your foes so they have less chance of hitting and inflicting the status. Stand close or cover your party in darkness or fog so your enemies don’t have an easy chance to attack.
If you're after more help on your journey, check out our guides for the best party compositions, whether you should use your Mind Flayer powers, and what you get from the Steeped in Bliss buff.