This Baldur’s Gate 3 strategy is easy, hilarious, and wildly OP — but there’s a catch

With 12 distinct classes to use, a huge number of skills and spells to learn, and tons of different types of weapons and armor, there’s no shortage of strategic ways to approach combat in Baldur’s Gate 3. Whether you’d prefer carefully positioning ranged classes onto high ground to snipe down at incoming foes, holding the front line as a Paladin or Fighter with crowd control and heavy melee damage, or sneaking up on enemies to deliver devastating stealth attacks, your party will see great success as long as you manage your action points well.

Notably, the game also often promotes taking advantage of your environment, and it’s here that my friends and I have found one particular strategy that’s working exceptionally well: shoving. That’s right — the simple act of giving baddies a good push is often enough to win you many battles.

While most likely think of shoving as a defensive Bonus Action used to put a little distance between you and your enemies at the end of each turn, I implore you to try using it more aggressively as well. For example, you can use it to knock foes flying off of high ground they’re on, dealing a large amount of fall damage to them and instantly giving your ranged party members a huge advantage for the rest of the fight.

It’s also perfect for sending them careening into environmental hazards, which is, by far, the most effective way my group has been able to take advantage of it. Nearly all the Baldur’s Gate 3 locations you’ll find yourself fighting in have things like patches of burning ground or slippery mud you can shove your enemies into to make them take extra damage or incur a negative status effect. Many of them even have chasms that outright kill everything and everyone that falls in. If you can manage it, pushing difficult bosses into the latter is one of the best ways to kill them without exhausting your party’s resources (it’s also guaranteed to give you a laugh).

There is one big downside to this particular approach, though. Once an enemy has been shoved into a death pit, their corpse becomes inaccessible, which means that you won’t be able to loot them for valuables like Silver Ingots that they might be carrying. That’s certainly disappointing, but there’s plenty of Gold and items to be found elsewhere, so my friends and I haven’t worried about it too much.

Another thing to keep in mind is that while anyone can shove, your chances of succeeding at shove attempts is dependent on a character’s Athletics skill, and the distance enemies go is determined by Strength. That means you should always try to use melee-focused party members like a Paladin, a Fighter, or a Barbarian for maximum shove effectiveness. If you’re playing solo and wondering which companions will be best to use for shoving, I recommend Lae’zel, Karlach, or Minthara. Shadowheart wouldn’t be a bad choice, either.

So, yeah. Next time you find yourself in a fight, definitely give pushing enemies around a try. You may be surprised at how hilariously effective it is to forego big swords or fancy spells for a good old fashioned yeet.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is available on PC now, with the PS5 version scheduled for Sept. 6. It stands tall as one of the best PC games of 2023, and is a must-play for fans of fantasy RPGs and the D&D universe.