Baldur's Gate 3: How To Respec and Hire Custom Characters

Committing to a build that you’re not sure of can be tough, that’s why most games these days let you respec. No need to go through a whole new game with a new character, just change your stats and class on the go. In Baldur’s Gate 3, you can respec all you want just as long as you have the gold and the right NPC in your camp. Getting that NPC is the tricky part because it’s easy to miss!

In this guide, we’ll show you how to respec and even hire custom characters in the game. For those who want to fill a role in the party or just want to give a late joining coop friend a character! Now, let’s see where to find this NPC.

How To Resepc and Hire Custom Characters

The NPC that we’re talking about is an undead creature called Withers. If you already have him in your camp, then that’s great! You can just talk to him to resepc or hire custom characters. For those who haven’t met him then read on.

Here are the steps we’ll be taking to get this NPC:

From the starting area after the ship crashes go north.
(Optional) Go through a locked door with a DC: 20 Lock. If you succeed, skip to Step 6.
Head to the Ruins where there are treasure hunters, defeat or talk them out.
Go Inside the Ruins and fight through it.
Pull the hidden lever to continue through the ruins.
Take the Key from the Trap Room.
Use the key to go to the final area, press the button to start a fight.
Finish the fight and open the Sarcophagus.
Talk to Withers, be nice.
Go to Camp and Talk to him to respec or get hirelings!

This article continues with a detailed walkthrough down below!

Detailed Walkthrough

Like almost everything in this game the path to Withers can have a lot of different winding ways of going to it. We’ll try our best to cover all the paths you can go through so that it covers a wide range of builds. Now let’s find Withers!

Going Into The Ruins

When you go through the tutorial area and the ship finally crashes into the beaches head north. Use the image below for reference, the yellow path is shorter, but you’ll need to pick a locked door. That means you’ll need Thieves Tools, and you’ll need to beat the DC: 20 Lock on it.

If you’re not good with lockpicking, aren’t lucky or don’t want to save scum then go follow the blue path. This will lead you to the Ruins where there’s a bunch of treasure hunters. You can either fight them or do skill checks to make them run away.

At the very back of the Ruins you’ll need to interact with the door and find a way to get inside. If you can’t bluff your way in, the Ruins has a hanging rock that you can shoot down and it’ll fall to the floor. The floor will break and a hole to the ruins will open.

Whatever path you take go to the area where most of the enemies were, it looks like the one shown below. At the very back is a lever that needs a Perception Check to see. This will open the locked door shown above. Or you can just destroy the door with a strong character like Lae’zel. That room will lead to door that goes further into the dungeon.

Deeper Into The Ruins

Below is the map of the second area of the ruins. When you get into the map to the right is the Trap Room, to the left is a locked door that leads to another room. You’ll want to go to the Trap Room first, I call it that because it’s filled with traps.

In the middle of the room is a Sarcophagus. If you interact with it and touch it, the traps will trigger. In Easy and Standard Difficulty, you’ll automatically go to Turn-Based Mode to get some time to strategize. You can also go Turn-Based mode from the start before interacting with it but it might be harder since you’ll use your action to do so.

If you have high perception, you can see the traps and try to disarm them. The floor traps are grease traps, and if you place an object above it like a vase then it’ll actually block the grease. On either side of the sarcophagus on the walls are traps that shoot out fire. The idea is that the grease will cover the area and the fire will light it up, bad idea.

A trick to do this is to interact with the sarcophagus, go to turn-based mode, and as the grease appears shoot a weapon at the button shown below. That button resets the traps, if you’re quick you can shoot it or interact with it before the traps activate.

Inside the Sarcophagus is an uncommon spear and a key. The key is used to open the other door which was locked from the beginning. When you enter, you’ll see a bunch of skeletons on the ground. At the very back is a button that you can interact shown below that will open a hidden stone door.

When you press the button, the skeletons will reanimate. You can place your companions next to them and even loot their weapons before pressing the button to give yourself an advantage. Most of them are spellcasters though and don’t need weapons, but they have low HP.

Once you clear the room go to the room you just opened and interact with the grand sarcophagus there. A cutscene will play and you’ll meet Withers. Talk to him nice and he’ll say you’ll meet him again.

With Withers saying that you can then go back to your camp, and he’ll be there. He’s the NPC that gives you resurrection, respec and hireling services, just as long as you have the coin. You can also do this for your companions too. Now talk to him and respec as much as you want, just as long as you have the money!

Later on, he’ll also offer you hirelings, which are basically custom characters you can hire. They’ll follow your every whim and aren’t that interesting as the rest of the cast, but they can be great cannon fodder!

That’s how you respec and hire custom characters in Baldur’s Gate 3! Now go out there and try it yourself! Also go check out our guide on should you get the mark of the absolute if you haven’t already!

ALSO READ: Baldur’s Gate 3: How to Break Cracked Walls