For comparison, Baldur’s Gate 2 contained 275 spells, and around 300 if you include the Throne of Bhaal expansion. Since Baldur’s Gate 3 includes double that number, it’s probably safe to assume that most of the spells in BG2 will show up. One we particularly hope to see is Polymorph.

I can’t help but be a little excited by the fearsome prospect of having 600 spells to choose from. When developers tell us they’ve written a billion lines of dialogue or created the biggest open world ever, even bigger than the surface of the sun, I shrug it off: For all I know, it’s all empty chitchat and empty space. But a D&D spell actually does something. Even the weakest spell can, in theory, decide at some point whether your party lives or dies, or at least help solve a problem. It seems impossible to include 600 of them without also including the possibility that we’ll use them to break the world.

Many of these spells may be damage-dealing attacks that don’t require super complex system design to implement in a videogame, granted. But what distinguishes Baldur’s Gate 3 having a lot of spells from, say, Diablo 4 having a lot of spells is that there are a good number of D&D spells whose rules aren’t so easy to express with math. Take Commune, a spell which lets a player ask their deity three yes or no questions and get true answers. Without a DM to play the role of the deity, Baldur’s Gate 3 would have to limit the possible questions to a set it can answer, but it could be done, in a way. That’s not a confirmed Baldur’s Gate 3 spell, but with 400-plus unknowns, it feels like anything’s on the table.

That’s especially true given that Larian is known for letting systems run somewhat wild in its games. The studio did remove an infinite damage loop from Divinity: Original Sin 2, but only because it determined that the loop was made possible by a bug. Before it noticed the error, Larian was going to leave the loop in: “If you glitch the system, congratulations,” producer David Walgrave told me at the time. Larian doesn’t care if you find a legitimate but cheesy way to, say, bypass some huge part of a questline through clever spell use: anything that isn’t a bug is fair game.

One spellcasting limit in Baldur’s Gate 3 is the character level cap of 12, which puts 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells out of reach. That means no mega spells like Power Word Kill, which instantly kills a creature if it has 100 HP or less, or Wish, which literally grants your character a wish at the DM’s discretion. These near-godmode spells aren’t necessarily out of the question for future updates, though: a limited version of Wish did appear in Baldur’s Gate 2, and a more powerful version showed up in Baldur’s Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal.

My most wanted spell is Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion, which is unfortunately a 7th level spell—it creates a portal to an “extradimensional dwelling” for you and your companions, and I’d just love it if Larian created a whole mansion just for the sake of a spell mainly used for camping. 

Another tricky conjuration spell that is actually within the level range is Transport via Plants, a 6th level spell that lets you enter one large plant and then exit any other large plant you’ve seen before on the same plane of existence. I doubt Baldur’s Gate 3 tracks “plants you’ve seen before” and includes a way to find them just for the sake of one spell which would eliminate most travel needs, but hey, maybe? 

I barely had to do much more than turn up to solve today’s Wordle, as my opening guess revealed three greens and one yellow. I imagine my good luck won’t survive until the weekend, but I wouldn’t complain if it did.

Today’s Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Wednesday, July 26

You need to remember the name of a particular muscle in the human body to win today’s Wordle—it’s the one you tend to see stylised images of around Valentine’s Day. Today’s Wordle contains two different vowels.     

Is there a double letter in today’s Wordle? 

No, there is no double letter in today’s puzzle.  

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day 

Playing Wordle well is like achieving a small victory every day—who doesn’t like a well-earned winning streak in a game you enjoy? If you’re new to the daily word game, or just want a refresher, I’m going to share a few quick tips to help set you on the path to success: 

• You want a balanced mix of unique consonants and vowels in your opening word. 
• A solid second guess helps to narrow down the pool of letters quickly.
• The answer could contain letters more than once.

There’s no time pressure beyond making sure it’s done by the end of the day. If you’re struggling to find the answer or a tactical word for your next guess, there’s no harm in coming back to it later on. 

Today’s Wordle answer

What is the #767 Wordle answer?

Midweek win? Midweek win. The answer to the July 26 (767) Wordle is HEART.

Previous Wordle answers

The last 10 Wordle answers 

Knowing previous Wordle solutions can be helpful in eliminating current possibilities. It’s unlikely a word will be repeated and you can find inspiration for guesses or starting words that may be eluding you. 

Here are some recent Wordle answers:

• July 25: WHEEL
• July 24: HOBBY
• July 23: WHALE
• July 22: FROZE
• July 21: BURLY
• July 20: FLANK
• July 19: TONIC
• July 18: FLYER
• July 17: DROOP
• July 16: TOPAZ

Learn more about Wordle

Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and it’s your job to work out which five-letter word is hiding by eliminating or confirming the letters it contains.

Starting with a strong word like LEASH—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters—is a good place to start. Once you hit Enter, the boxes will show you which letters you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns ⬛️, it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all. 🟨 means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 🟩 means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot.

Your second go should compliment the starting word, using another “good” guess to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer.  After that, it’s just a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there’s an E). Don’t forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS). 

If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used, you can scroll to the relevant section above.

Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes. 

Some days I just know I’m in for a quick win—like today. Wordle very kindly dropped exactly the right sort of clues in exactly the right sort of order, and that meant I found today’s Wordle answer in an effortless three. All that’s left to do now is wait for tomorrow’s new puzzle.

Today’s Wordle hint

A Wordle hint for Tuesday, July 25

The answer to today’s Wordle is probably one of humanity’s greatest inventions, and has existed in some form for millenia. This transportation aid can be made of pretty much anything, so long as that thing can be made round. 

Is there a double letter in today’s Wordle? 

Yes, a letter is used twice in today’s puzzle. 

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day 

Looking to extend your Wordle winning streak? Perhaps you’ve just started playing the popular daily puzzle game and are looking for some pointers. Whatever the reason you’re here, these quick tips can help push you in the right direction: 

• Start with a word that has a mix of common vowels and consonants. 
• The answer might repeat the same letter.
• Try not to use guesses that include letters you’ve already eliminated. 

There’s no racing against the clock with Wordle so you don’t need to rush for the answer. Treating the game like a casual newspaper crossword can be a good tactic; that way, you can come back to it later if you’re coming up blank. Stepping away for a while might mean the difference between a win and a line of grey squares. 

Today’s Wordle answer

What is the #766 Wordle answer?

Here’s your second win of the week. The answer to the July 25 (766) Wordle is WHEEL.

Previous Wordle answers

The last 10 Wordle answers 

Wordle solutions that have already been used can help eliminate answers for today’s Wordle or give you inspiration for guesses to help uncover more of those greens. They can also give you some inspired ideas for starting words that keep your daily puzzle-solving fresh.

Here are some recent Wordle answers:

• July 24: HOBBY
• July 23: WHALE
• July 22: FROZE
• July 21: BURLY
• July 20: FLANK
• July 19: TONIC
• July 18: FLYER
• July 17: DROOP
• July 16: TOPAZ
• July 15: CRONE

Learn more about Wordle

Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and it’s up to you to work out which five-letter word is hiding among them to win the popular daily puzzle.

It’s usually a good plan to start with a strong word like ALERT—or any other word with a good mix of common consonants and multiple vowels—and you should be off to a flying start, with a little luck anyway. You should also avoid starting words with repeating letters, so you don’t waste the chance to confirm or eliminate an extra letter. Once you hit Enter, you’ll see which letters you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns ⬛️, it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all. 🟨 means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 🟩 means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot.

Your second guess should compliment the first, using another “good” word to cover any common letters you might have missed on the first row—just don’t forget to leave out any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer. After that, it’s just a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the correct word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words and don’t forget letters can repeat too (eg: BOOKS).

If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used, you can scroll to the relevant section above.

Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes. 

Naturally, players ain’t impressed. Folks on the subreddit have a lot of choice words for Blizzard (cheers, GamesRadar) and who can blame them for feeling stiffed? “All Blizzard sells now is nostalgia,” writes one player. And there are more than a few comparisons made between Diablo 4 and Diablo Immortal. 

As much as the broad battle pass model is one I have a lot of issues with, plenty of them do justify their existence, and their cost, by doling out enough currency to let you do a bit of shopping, or even purchase the next battle pass. If you put in the time to finish them, you get your money’s worth and even future savings. Not so here, however, where 666 Platinum is not enough to cover the cost of season 2’s battle pass.  

As it stands, unless you want to save the Platinum for a later purchase once you’ve earned more in the second season, the only real use is buying battle pass tiers, speeding up your journey down the track. 

Another issue is that Smouldering Ashes, the currency that unlocks seasonal bonuses, including XP buffs, is level gated. Even if you’ve unlocked some of this currency on the pass, you won’t actually be able to take advantage of it and select a seasonal bonus until you hit the required level. So, for instance, if you want the XP boost, Urn of Progression, you have to wait until you hit 62, massively defeating the purpose of an XP boost entirely. Looks like it’s impossible to escape the grind. It looks like some of the seasonal objectives are bugged, too, failing to acknowledge that you’ve completed them, and thus not doling out their rewards.

Diablo 4 is not some free-to-play game using microtransactions to make ends meet; it’s a hugely popular premium game being very, very stingy. At least this makes me feel a bit better about packing it in after I finally unlocked my horse.

Fortunately Baldur’s Gate 3 uses the 5th edition, D&D5E as it’s known, which is the easiest version of D&D to learn and also the best. There’s a universal mechanic that resolves basically everything you can do and a straightforward rule for raising or lowering your chances of success. 5E is also a system where it’s hard to completely screw yourself by making bad choices at level-up, unless you do something ridiculous with multiclassing, which is easily avoided by, well, not multiclassing. In D&D’s third edition, if you made it to level 20 with only a single class under your belt you’d fucked up, but 5E is happy to let you just be a wizard forever. Which is certainly all I want from life.

D20 is the best D

The first thing to know about 5E, whether played around a table or in Baldur’s Gate 3, is that when you’re faced with a challenge you reach for a 20-sided die—a d20 for short. Whether you’re investigating a mind flayer device in the tutorial or charming a talking statue into letting you pass, you roll a d20 and try to get equal to or higher than the Difficulty Class, or DC, of that challenge. 

Sometimes Baldur’s Gate 3 makes a big deal of the roll, as is the case when you click on that tub full of mind flayer goo. A big d20 appears, the DC you need to beat right there beside it. Behind the scenes, the same thing is happening when smaller d20s appear above the party’s head as you explore, only here it’s a roll to spot a trap or hidden treasure or the like. In combat the dice rolls are translated into things like a 55% chance to hit, but click the little arrows on the bottom-right of the screen and a text log will appear, summarizing the rolls.

A quite easy challenge might demand you to roll a 5 or higher, while something a bit trickier could demand a 10 or 12 or thereabouts (they don’t have to be multiples of five, but often are for simplicity’s sake). Think of DC 15 as a bronze-medal kind of challenge, DC 20 as silver, and DC 25 as gold.

How do you roll a 25 on a 20-sided die? That’s where bonuses come in. Characters in D&D are defined by abilities like Strength, Intelligence, and Charisma, and the higher an ability score, the higher the number you add to relevant rolls. There’s also a proficiency bonus to add on top of that, which gets counted for anything your character would be trained in based on their chosen class and background. A wizard like Gale might be proficient in the investigation skill, which along with his high Intelligence would make him better at examining alien technology. When it comes time to seduce a talking statue, however, the bard with a high Charisma and proficiency in the persuasion skill is going to shine.

One house rule Baldur’s Gate 3 adopts is that a roll of 20 is always a success, and a roll of 1 always a failure, no matter what modifiers you add or subtract. Normally in D&D a 20 is only considered an automatic success in combat—a critical hit, which lets you roll twice as many damage dice. (We’ll get to that.) Players love to see crits, so it’s a super common homebrew ruling to have a natural 20 always succeed and a nat 1 always fail, no matter the circumstance. It means anyone can try something godlike, even if it’s got a DC of 30, and have that tiny hope of success.

There’s another way of increasing your odds, and that’s with advantage, which is usually granted by outside circumstances or character abilities. If you attack someone while hidden, for instance, you gain advantage on your roll to hit, which means rolling two d20s and picking the higher roll. You might also get advantage on a roll to intimidate someone by knowing their secret and threatening to reveal it, or on a roll to recall an obscure bit of history by having access to a well-stocked library.

The flip side is disadvantage. Say you’ve made a custom dark elf character, who has severe sunlight sensitivity from living underground. When the dice come out to see who spots something hidden in the woods, you’d have disadvantage, which means rolling two d20s and taking the lowest. In situations where both advantage and disadvantage apply, the two cancel out and you roll a single d20 like normal. 

There’s no such thing as “double advantage” or “double disadvantage” either. If there’s more than one source of help or hindrance it’s ignored: you either have it or you don’t. In practice it’s just simpler this way, and prevents endless angling for more sources of advantage or quibbling over what counts and what doesn’t. It’s easier to remember too.

Finally, spells and abilities can assist as well. The guidance spell, which Shadowheart can cast at will, gives you an extra d4 to roll and add to the d20 when you make an ability check, while pass without trace adds 10 to stealth checks. The bardic inspiration ability, a mainstay of bards as the name suggests, also lends bonus dice to d20 rolls. Now you know why Geralt keeps Dandelion around.

Killing people and taking their stuff

That’s the core mechanic of D&D5E, and once you know that you know almost everything. Someone casts hold person and you need to roll a Wisdom saving throw to escape? That’ll be a d20 plus your Wisdom bonus, plus your proficiency bonus if “Wisdom saving throws” are a thing you’re proficient in. (If you’re a spellcaster you probably are.) Want to shoot an arrow at an imp that’s about to set you on fire? Roll a d20, plus your Dexterity bonus, plus your proficiency bonus if bows are a thing you’re proficient in. (If you’re a fighter like Lae’zel, a ranger, or a wood elf that’s probably a yes.)

Combat’s more complex, because this is a ruleset based on 1970s wargames, remember. On your turn you can move and perform an action. Actions are things like attacks, or most spellcasting. You can also use an action for an extra move, which is called a dash. You might get a bonus action on top of that, often to represent your class abilities. A barbarian going into a rage or a bard granting an ally bardic inspiration? Those are bonus actions.

Everyone gets a reaction too, which is spent if you get the chance to butt in and do something when it’s not your turn. Taking an attack of opportunity if someone tries to run away from or past you costs your reaction, and so does casting the shield spell to block an attack that would otherwise hit Gale’s frail wizard bones. You only get one reaction per turn, so once you’ve used it anyone can run past you unimpeded. Monsters only get one reaction each turn too, so if you need everyone to run past an ogre, have the toughest hero go first to use up its attack of opportunity.

This is the “action economy” of D&D5E, which regulates how much you can do on a turn. One complication is that Baldur’s Gate 3 bends 5E’s rules a little. Shoving someone out of the way to make room in combat, or hurl them off a cliff, costs an action in 5E, but just a bonus action in Baldur’s Gate 3. That makes fighting on ledges a riskier proposition—anyone can take their normal attack, and then do a shove as well. Since a shove also wakes up anyone who has passed out, it makes the sleep spell less effective too.

Baldur’s Gate 3 also lets you take multiple bonus actions in some circumstances, which is technically against 5E’s rules. The rogue subclass of thief can normally use their Fast Hands ability to disarm traps, open locks, or perform sleight of hand as a bonus action. In Baldur’s Gate 3, it gives them a bonus bonus action. Why? Ask Swen Vincke.

With a basic attack action, you roll that d20 and add your relevant bonuses. Ranged attacks like shooting a bow use Dexterity, and melee attacks like swinging a longsword use Strength. If you’ve got a weapon with the finesse tag, like a dagger or the rapier Astarion wields, you can use Dexterity for melee attacks. Ranged spell attacks are different again—if you’re a wizard you use Intelligence, if you’re a cleric or druid it’s Wisdom, if you’re a warlock, sorcerer, or bard it’s Charisma.

Rather than a Difficulty Class, the number you’re trying to beat is an Armor Class. Better armor and higher Dexterity make that go up, and so does wielding a shield. Even if a character like La’ezel or Shadowheart shoots a bow, it’s worth switching back to a sword and shield configuration before the end of the turn so that you get that +2 to armor class while the bad guys have their go. (In Baldur’s Gate 3 you can swap back and forth between two saved loadouts at will, where in tabletop 5E you can swap once for free as part of an attack action.) 

When you hit someone the damage dice come out, and here’s one of the rare occasions you roll something other than a d20. Dinky little weapons like daggers do d4 damage, while a greataxe uses a d12. Weapons with the versatile tag do different amounts of damage based on whether they’re held with one hand or two. That means if you’re holding a longsword and nothing else you roll a d10 for damage, but if you hold, say, a shield as well it becomes a d8.

Magic could be a whole article on its own, but here are the basics. Every spellcaster has a number of spell slots they spend to cast spells, so if Gale has two level 1 spell slots then that means he can cast two level 1 spells and that’s his lot. It’s a good thing magic missile never misses. Cantrips don’t cost anything but actions to cast, however, so Gale can sling fire bolt and acid splash all day.

Spellcasters get more slots as they level up. By level 3, Gale will have four 1st-level slots and two 2nd-level slots. If he uses up all those 1st-level slots and wants to cast one more magic missile he can, by spending a 2nd-level slot to do it. Slots are like spoons: you can put a smaller amount in a bigger spoon, but you can’t fit a bigger amount in a small spoon. Also like spoons, you get them back by having a nap. 

Union rules say we get an eight-hour long rest

Way back in the original Baldur’s Gate games you’d click on the closed eyelid icon and the campfire would appear, or you’d find an inn and see if you could afford anything better than Peasant-tier accommodation. When you did, the healers would cast all their healing spells, then go to sleep for eight hours. Everyone would wake up with their spells back, and one extra hit point on top of whatever they got from Jaheira using her last cure light wounds. If you weren’t fully healed? Time for another rest.

In 5E a full night’s sleep is called a long rest, and it not only gives back your spell slots, bardic inspiration, and barbarian rage, but also all your hit points. You never need to double-nap, and thank goodness for that. In Baldur’s Gate 3 long rests use up camp supplies, however, which is why every other barrel is full of cheese. You need 40 points worth of camp supplies to take an effective long rest, otherwise you get a partial rest and only get back some of those slots and hit points.

In between long rests you can take short rests. In tabletop 5E a short rest is an hour of downtime where you might tend to wounds and have a snack and a sit down, but in Baldur’s Gate 3 they pass instantaneously. You get back some of your hit points from a short rest, but only warlocks regain spell slots. Which sounds unfair, until you look at how few slots they get. A level 2 warlock has two spell slots. A level 10 warlock? Two spell slots. The level of those slots goes up, but the number of them doesn’t, so if you’ve got a warlock like Wyll in your party, don’t skimp on the short rests. He’s got a good reason for being so tired.

You can take two short rests between each long rest, and the other good thing about them is they don’t bring the tadpole any closer to dominating your brain and turning you into a mind flayer. Which is nice.

That’s enough to be getting on with, but if you’d like to learn more about D&D, one way to do that is with Before the Storm. It’s an online choose-your-own-adventure that introduces 5E’s rules, and you can play it in your browser. If you like the character you make in that adventure, you might even want to recreate them in Baldur’s Gate 3.