To Save Scum or Not to Save Scum in Baldur’s Gate 3: While save scumming in Baldur’s Gate 3 may appear to some players to be cheating, it can be a useful tool for making the game more enjoyable.
Baldur’s Gate 3 has a generous save system, allowing players to create saves and reload them at any time during gameplay – a feature that many players will want to use frequently, as many choices can result in drastically different outcomes.
This is where the Save Scumming mechanic comes into play. It allows players to save their game progress before the major events involving various choices with different outcomes. In this article, we will talk about the details and tell you whether to save scum or not to save scum during your playtime in Baldur’s Gate 3.
What is Save Scum in BG3
For those who are unfamiliar, save scumming is a concept that makes use of saving mechanics. Players can set up a backup in case their choices prove to be subpar by saving before an important decision during a risky scenario. For example, if a player in XCOM makes a poor decision that results in the permanent death of a party member, reloading a previous save restores the character.
In most cases, it has no negative impact on one’s experience. Save scumming, on the other hand, can remove all suspense from things like permadeath in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Reloading saves repeatedly in games like Baldur’s Gate 3 can result in some uninteresting gameplay – for example, repeating a specific sequence of events until the best outcome is achieved can significantly undercut the consequences of a player’s decisions.
At the same time, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game in which certain dialogue or battle choices can have drastic unintended consequences or change the story in ways that the player may not like. With other factors such as reliance on RNG dice rolls considered, save scumming in Baldur’s Gate 3 can help to make the game less frustrating at times.
To Save Scum or Not to Save Scum in Baldur’s Gate 3
Given the massive size of the map in Baldur’s Gate 3, the length of the story, and the staggering amount of content in the game, players will inevitably miss out on some of what the game has to offer – especially those who don’t intend to play through the game more than once.
Because the game requires such a large time investment, certain decisions can have significant ramifications for the rest of a playthrough, and players who would rather things go differently will want to save frequently so they can backtrack on decisions or see more of the game in a single playthrough.
The game’s heavy reliance on randomness exacerbates the problem; as players progress through the story, they will almost certainly encounter bad rolls on checks or saving throws, which could result in anything from missing out on treasure, suffering heavier losses in combat, or drastically changing the outcomes of important story events.
In most cases, these failed checks or saving throws cannot be retried without returning to an earlier save, which means that players may miss out on content or have the story move in an unexpected direction.
Furthermore, unlike tabletop Dungeons & Dragons, where a DM can mitigate the effects of unlucky streaks or particularly bad rolls, the video game nature of BG3 means that there are fewer options to mitigate the effects of bad luck.
Aside from the Karmic Dice option, which has several unfavorable side effects, loading a save is the only way to ensure that the game does not progress in an unfavorable way for some players – especially since some decisions or checks can result in major consequences such as character deaths.
Conclusion
Save scumming is a useful tool in Baldur’s Gate 3, and players should not be afraid to use it to mitigate bad luck, reverse unintended consequences, or simply to see what would happen if they made different choices.
At the same time, not using save scumming can result in a playthrough that is uniquely tense and rewarding, with making the right decisions mattering even more than usual. Just like in traditional Dungeons & Dragons, finding the fun in Baldur’s Gate 3 will entail allowing players to tailor their own experiences to suit their needs, whether they decide to save scum on not.
Also, read Baldur’s Gate 3: Brilgor’s Corpse Location.