How to Use Non-Lethal Attacks in Baldur's Gate 3

Open Passives on the hotbar and turn on Toggle Non-Lethal Attacks. On a controller, look for the toggle in your action radial. Then finish your target with an ordinary melee weapon attack or unarmed strike. Check for the Knocked Out condition after the blow. The passive does not make spell damage or ranged attacks safe finishers.

1. Decide who needs to survive

Some encounters give you a reason to keep a character alive. Decide who that is before attacking, especially when the target stands close to enemies you intend to kill. You can use a normal attack plan for the rest of the fight while saving a controlled melee hit for the target.

If the outcome matters to your run and your difficulty lets you keep a separate save, save before starting combat. A knockout can satisfy some quests and produce an unexpected result in others. The condition on the target tells you what the attack did. The journal tells you how the quest interpreted it.

2. Turn on the passive and set up the final hit

1. On PC, select the Passives tab on the hotbar. On controller, open or expand the action radial to find the passive.
2. Turn on Toggle Non-Lethal Attacks and check that it is active before attempting the finishing hit.
3. Lower the target's health with controlled attacks. If a spell or arrow could finish them, stop using it on that target.
4. Move a melee attacker into reach and use an ordinary weapon attack or unarmed strike to finish.
5. Inspect the target and confirm that it says Knocked Out or Knocked Out (Temporary).

Check the passive again if you reload, switch to another controlled character, or toggle it off to finish a different target. For the last attack, favor the simplest move you can make. You need a hit that takes the target to the knockout threshold, so there is little reason to stack extra effects once their health is low.

3. Keep the target away from stray damage

A fire surface, damaging status, or separate damage effect can still kill someone you meant to spare. Avoid fighting over a hazard when you can move the target or reposition your melee attacker. Keep damaging spells away from the body after the knockout. A melee attack with an additional damage effect can also complicate the result, so switch to a plain strike if you are unsure how the attack applies its damage.

If another enemy is standing beside the person you want to spare, consider dealing with that enemy first. This reduces the chance that a later area attack catches the downed target. You can also let teammates block approaches while the melee attacker walks in for the final hit.

4. Confirm what changed in the quest

Once the fight ends, inspect the condition and check the quest journal before leaving or resting. Some knocked-out characters are treated as defeated for a quest. A temporary knockout can behave differently from another knockout after a long rest, so read the full condition rather than relying only on the character's pose.

Minthara is an example of a quest that can recognize a knockout. Larian added support for her to appear later at Moonrise Towers after being knocked out in Act One. If you are pursuing that route, check that she is unconscious after combat and avoid hitting her again. The video demonstrates one application of the toggle. Other quests can handle their characters differently.

5. Diagnose a target that died anyway

Read the combat log and find the last source of damage. If an arrow, spell, surface, or secondary effect dealt the final damage, use a simpler melee attack on the next attempt. If the last blow was melee, confirm the passive was on and that the creature was a valid knockout target.

When the target is already unconscious, stop attacking and check the journal. You can turn the passive off after the encounter if you want to return to ordinary melee combat. Remember where you found it on your hotbar or radial. That makes it easier to switch on before a later encounter where the outcome matters.

If your character's weapon is coated or you are unsure about an equipped damage effect, switch to an uncoated backup weapon before the final hit. Make sure the character can still reach the target after switching.