Baldur's Gate 3: How To Increase Survival

Survival in Baldur's Gate 3 is just one of the many skills that players can utilize in order to ensure their adventure is full of excitement. As a Wisdom skill, Survival allows you to detect potential threats, or move safely through natural hazards. 

A high Survival could be what saves your party from taking bleeding damage from a particularly nasty patch of foliage, or detecting an Owlbear before it detects you. It's all about the character you play, and how you want your adventure to unfold. So, can you increase your Survival skill throughout your game?

Can You Increase Your Survival Skill In Baldur's Gate 3?

While there aren't a huge amount of ways to increase your Survival skill, there are a few methods to boost it slightly. Certain classes will already be proficient in Survival as a default, such as Rangers or Fighters, but you might want to boost them up a little more, or improve the skill on another character.

Survival Increasing Feats

The best way to increase the Survival skill, permanently, is through Feats, which are granted to characters every four levels. For single-class characters, that's a Feat at Level 4, 8, and 12. The best Feats to select if you're looking to raise or affect Survival, specifically, are:

• Resilient - Wisdom: You increase an Ability by 1, to a maximum of 20, and gain Proficiency in that Ability's Saving Throws.
• Skilled: You gain Proficiency in 3 Skills of your choice.
• Magic Initiate: Cleric: You learn 2 Cantrips and a Level 1 spell from the cleric spell list. You can cast the Level 1 spell once per Long Rest. Your Spellcasting Ability for all 3 spells is Wisdom. 
• Magic Initiate: Druid: You learn 2 Cantrips and a Level 1 spell from the druid spell list. You can cast the Level 1 spell once per Long Rest. Your Spellcasting Ability for all 3 spells is Wisdom. 

Survival Increasing Items & Accessories

Throughout Faerun, there are a huge number of special and magical items that provide various perks. Some are even able to increase your skills and profiencies. These items will increase your Survival skill:

• Explorer's Ring: Survival +1, Nature +1
• Amulet of the Harpers: Advantage on Wisdom Saving Throws Checks. 
• Fey Semblance Amulet: Includes Semblance of Fey, which grants Advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma Saving Throws. 
• Khalid's Gift: Inludes Odd Gift, which prevents Jaheira from being cursed. Grants Wisdom +1 (up to 21). 

Survival Increasing Spells

There are also certain spells that help with temporarily increasing skills and abilities. Ones that should help with Survival (and Wisdom in general) include:

• Beacon of Hope: Level 3 Abjuration Spell — Your allies will regain the maximum hit points possible when healed. They also gain Advantage on Wisdom Saving Throws and Death Saving Throws. 
• Enhance Ability: Level 2 Transmutation Spell — Bestow a magical enhancement upon an ally. They gain Advantage on Ability Checks with a chosen Ability.

Permanent Bonuses

Finally, there are some certain permanent bonuses up for grabs that'll help increase Survival:

• Auntie Ethel's Hair: Gain +1 to an Ability Score of choice.
• Mirror of Loss: Gain +2 to an Ability Score of choice.

And that's all you need to know about increasing your Survival skill. Naturally, the choices you make during your Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough are often difficult to rectify, but there's rarely only ever one clear solution to any problem. So, if you find yourself lacking in the Survival department, don't worry. There's plenty of other ways to achieve your goal.