This comes up often enough in Baldur's Gate 3 that it deserves a straight answer rather than a thread to scroll through.

Short answer

In most cases the straightforward approach works. The exceptions are specific and listed below.

Testing this yourself takes a few minutes and settles it definitively. It is worth separating what the game does from what players have concluded it does. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different.

What to do instead

The mechanic behind it is simpler than the discussion around it suggests. Nothing here depends on a setting you are unlikely to have. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. Edge cases are genuinely rare, which is why the simple answer is usually the correct one.

Most of the disagreement online comes from people describing different versions of Baldur's Gate 3. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. The accepted community answer is broadly right and wrong in a specific way that matters here.

When the usual advice fails

Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration.

  • Revisit after a major patch if the behaviour changes.
  • Check which version any conflicting advice was written for.
  • Region and platform change more than people expect, so confirm both.
  • Test it yourself where testing is cheap.
  • Do not build a routine around an edge case.

Worth knowing alongside this

Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep.

Everything below is framed around the current state of Baldur's Gate 3 rather than a launch-week impression. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time.

The practical answer

Baldur's Gate 3 is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it.

Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first.

Why it works this way

Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional.

Where people go wrong

  • Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.
  • Assuming a guide from an older season still describes the current version.
  • Skipping the prerequisite because it looked optional in someone else's summary.

BG3 FAQ

Why do people disagree about this?

Mostly because they are describing different versions. Version drift explains the majority of contradictory advice about Baldur's Gate 3.

Does this change between platforms?

The behaviour does not. Where menu paths or prompts differ, that is noted above.

Why do other guides describe this differently?

Most were written for an earlier version and never revisited. Compare the steps against what your build actually shows.

How long does this take?

Minutes if it goes cleanly, an evening if you hit the edge case in the caveats list. Neither is unusual.

Come back to the caveats list if it does not work first time — the answer is almost always in there.