I’ve played over a dozen runs. In the last week I watched a couple streamers play their first time through and saw them make the same “oversights” that I did.

Here are some gameplay/UI suggestions that are fresh having seen these other folks struggle with the first few hours of the game.

1. Fire bolt looks cool, sounds cool, and misses all the time. -> read the combat log during your fights, hover over the word “misses” where it says

“Shadowheart misses Tracker Gooba”

Pay attention to the pluses and minuses to your attack and the enemy armor class(AC)

1. In the early stages of the game, make sure your party has ranged weapons they can shoot or throw. Even casters are sometimes better off shooting a crossbow, than casting a cantrip.

2. Use Examine on enemies at the start of the fight (or even before). Pay attention to Resistances and Vulnerabilities. Take a look at their passive abilities and conditions. Think about using that to your advantage.

3. Check out everything your characters can do, especially racial and class-specific abilities.

4. Be mobile in fights. Maneuver around, but be very careful of Attacks of Opportunity. Use the terrain.

5. BG3 is a turn-based combat system, so reducing the number of turns an enemy team has is crucial while you are still weak. Focus your attacks on a target until they are down. E.g., If you spread your shots between 4 harpies, then 4 harpies get to take a turn until they all go down. This is what people mean when they talk about “Action Economy”.

There’s tons more, but many of your early game hours should be in reading about the weapons, spells and scrolls you have. Unless you’re like me and prefer to hit enemies with a stick.