Hirelings in Baldur's Gate 3 explained

Baldur's Gate 3 hirelings
(Image credit: Larian)

Baldur’s Gate 3’s hirelings have got you covered if there's a gap in your party that you're looking to fill. These undead NPCs, recruited for 100 gold apiece from Withers, are effectively blank slate characters of various races and classes that you can summon and put into your party instead of an origin character.

It allows for some wild party comps and combinations – want four Barbarians? You’ve got it, for the low price of 300 gold (or 200 if you already have Karlach). Read on and find out more about hirelings and how they work!

How do you get Hirelings in BG3 and what do they do?

Baldur's gate 3 Hirelings

(Image credit: Larian Studios)

Hirelings are resurrected warriors that can fight alongside you. Once you unlock Withers at your camp, either by completing the BG3 Dank Crypt dungeon or just by waiting it out, you'll be able to pay the mysterious man to recruit an extra pair of hands to help out. Simply speak to Withers and hand over the coin to choose your Hireling.

Being undead soldiers, if your Hirelings die in battle, they die for good. You'll have to recruit a new one if that happens, but luckily, Withers has quite a few on hand. 

So, what are Hirelings actually useful for? We have no shortage of Baldur's Gate 3 companions, so why would we want to swap one of them out for a Hireling? Well, the Hirelings are useful just in case one of your cohort ends up dead for good and you need to make up the ranks. Sure, Withers can resurrect party members in Baldur's Gate 3, but only under certain conditions. If any of your party end up dying by your hand (a very real possibility if you're playing a BG3 Dark Urge) or if they are killed by one another, Withers could refuse to resurrect them at all. That makes his supply of Level 1 undead soldiers just that much more useful.

You can also use Hirelings to try out different playstyles before asking Withers to help you out with a class respec in Baldur's Gate 3. Monks, Paladins, and Sorcerors don't feature in your core group of companions, so if you're curious about the powers they might hold, taking a Hireling out for a test drive could prove very educational. You can even respec and multiclass them, like any other character, if you want to try out a wild build. At the end of the day, though, Hirelings are temporary foot soldiers that you can take or leave in Baldur's Gate 3

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Jasmine Gould-Wilson
Staff Writer, GamesRadar+

Jasmine is a staff writer at GamesRadar+. Raised in Hong Kong and having graduated with an English Literature degree from Queen Mary, University of London in 2017, her passion for entertainment writing has taken her from reviewing underground concerts to blogging about the intersection between horror movies and browser games. Having made the career jump from TV broadcast operations to video games journalism during the pandemic, she cut her teeth as a freelance writer with TheGamer, Gamezo, and Tech Radar Gaming before accepting a full-time role here at GamesRadar. Whether Jasmine is researching the latest in gaming litigation for a news piece, writing how-to guides for The Sims 4, or extolling the necessity of a Resident Evil: CODE Veronica remake, you'll probably find her listening to metalcore at the same time.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.