There are some spells and effects that can only affect humanoid enemies, but, as players are discovering, there aren’t actually that many humanoids in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Turns out that a massive fantasy world is full of a lot of creatures that aren’t human. Who knew? The Sword Coast is populated by a whole host of magical beings, and it’s only natural that some of them aren’t walking around on hind legs, but the game seems to be very strict about what counts as “humanoid”.
This would be fine, except there are a bunch of spells and powerful abilities that only affect humanoid creatures. Spells like Hold Person and Dominate Person, which can come in handy for most encounters, can only be cast on humanoids, leading many players to complain that they’re just not worth it.
One player pointed out that Acts 1 and 2 is when you’ll be fighting the most “monster” type enemies, while the encounters in Act 3 are mostly humanoid.
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“That bugs me a bit since since the Hold Monsters spell comes much later in the game, when your run into the fewest monsters,” they said.
Additionally, some creatures that really look like they should be humanoid are actually something else entirely. For example, Raphael has a human form, and walks around like the rest of us. But for the purposes of gameplay, he counts as a Fiend instead. At least it’s in character for him to be tricky, although why this rule applies to him and Mizora while regular teiflings are still subject to humanoid spells is anyone’s guess.
