10 great Dungeons & Dragons games for when you (finally) finish Baldur's Gate III

For when: You just can’t get enough of the Forgotten RealmsGiven how well it’s selling, there’s a good chance that Baldur’s Gate III will be many a player’s first video game introduction to the Baldur’s Gate franchise, which dates back to BioWare’s original 1998 title—an attempt to create, as faithfully as possible, the Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition ruleset in a PC gaming environment. And while the original game doesn’t play nearly as smoothly as its latest sequel—even if you’re playing the Enhanced Edition released in 2012—it’s still one of the most expansive D&D RPGs ever created, allowing for a huge amount of freedom in character creation and combat. And the sequel (and its story-concluding expansion, Throne Of Bhaal) are even better, pushing past some of the original’s more generic fantasy edges to tell a more engrossing story that travels to the heights and depths of the Forgotten Realms setting. If the third game clicked for you, chances are good that a trip back in time is in order once it’s done.

For when: You want to stop talking, start swingingOf course, if you want to scratch your action itch, instead of indulging your “meticulously planning out where to use that Tasha’s Hideous Laughter scroll” side, Baldur’s Gate still has you covered. The two PlayStation 2-era Dark Alliance games (the original by Snowblind Studios, and the sequel by Black Isle) both translated the hacking and slashing of Blizzard’s Diablo games (along with a bit of Gauntlet) rather well to the Dungeons & Dragons universe, allowing players to shut off their brains and chop, slash, and cast their way through hordes of orcs, skeletons, and more. In the modern era, both games have been ported to Steam, happily; we give the edge to the sequel simply for being a bigger experience, with more characters to choose from for your carnage. (Meanwhile, the attempt to update the series with a sequel in 2021 was poorly received; probably best to stick with the old-school options here).

For when: You want to do some table-top gaming with your friends—but not like thatAn ideal pick for a group that wants more traditional board game fare to mix in with their tabletop campaign, strategy game Lords Of Waterdeep runs with an intriguing premise: Instead of controlling a cadre of adventurers, you play as their boss, competing with other shadowy lords to deploy your resources—i.e., the wizards, warriors, priests, and thieves who normally make up the ranks of D&D parties—on various quests to secure rewards, and real estate, for yourself. With adaptations on both mobile and PC, you don’t even need a table to get in on the fun; the blend of Eurogaming-style resource management and the tone and trappings of Dungeons & Dragons makes for a surprisingly great fit for nights when you want to game, but don’t feel like busting out the dice.

For when: You want to flex your Dungeon Master musclesAlthough never quite as narratively ambitious as the earlier Baldur’s Gate games, BioWare’s follow-up series, Neverwinter Nights, put its focus on trying to recreate the one element really missing from those earlier titles: The ability to craft your own adventures as a DM. The far-superior Neverwinter Nights 2 (which, happily, is light on narrative connections to the earlier game, making it a perfectly fine starting point) took that idea and ran with it in the 2006. The base campaign (and the more interesting of its two expansions, Mask Of The Betrayer) are both strong stories in their own right, but you can also benefit from nearly two decades’ worth of player-created content for the game, crafted with the included campaign editor. And if you’re feeling inspired, make the leap from player to virtual DM yourself…

For when: You want to take a break, turn off your brain, and kill some gnollsDespite the name, Codename Entertainment’s attempt to push D&D into the world of “incremental” games like Cookie Clicker is more active than most of its ilk: The core of the gameplay, available on both mobile and PC, involves creating parties and formations from a host of characters culled from Forgotten Realms lore, then leveling them up and customizing them to maximize their killing power. (Including, of course, the mascot-esque and boisterous Minsc, who Baldur’s Gate 3 fans are likely to recognize.) It would be hard to call Idle Champions “deep,” per se—and it pushes harder on its monetization options than we typically like to see in the free-to-play space—but it’s surprisingly engaging as a game, while also serving as a fun, breezy tour of the Sword Coast.

For when: You want to go really old-schoolGiven how much the role-playing game genre, as a whole, owes its existence to Dungeons & Dragons—with early titles like Wizardry and Ultima serving, in no small part, as efforts by their creators to bring the tabletop experience to the computer monitor—it’s not surprising to see official Dungeons & Dragons games popping up as early as 1988. But while the “Gold Box” and “Silver Box” games created by SSI and U.S. Gold in the 1980s remain fascinating as historical objects and relics, they’re also brutal to the point of nigh-inaccessibility. They’re interesting, beautiful in their own way—but only really “fun” for those prepared to meet them far more than merely halfway.The same cannot be said, though, for Westwood Studios’ Eye Of The Beholder, an early exercise in adding just a touch of action to the D&D on PC formula. Lifting liberally from FTL Games’ Dungeon Master, the game puts you in control of four heroic adventurers who move as one, traveling space by space through a grid-based series of ingenious labyrinths. (If you’ve played the far more modern Legend Of Grimrock games, you’ll recognize the shared DNA here.) Colorful, bright, and occasionally brain-bending, Eye Of The Beholder and its sequels drop some of the number crunching of earlier D&D games in favor of a much smoother, and more exciting experience. 22 years later, they still remain eminently playable adventures.

For when: You want to play two of the best side-scrolling beat-em-ups everCreated by Capcom during one of the studio’s multiple golden ages, the two Dungeons & Dragons arcade games are shockingly complex for their eras. (How many other side-scrolling beat-em-ups give you a full inventory to cycle through, allowing you to adjust your usual “run and smack” abilities on the fly?) Featuring branching paths, gorgeous and huge sprites, and a rudimentary experience system, Tower Of Doom stands head-and-shoulders over not just other Dungeons & Dragons games of its time, but also most other arcade experiences. And its sequel, Shadow Over Mystara, is only better, deepening an already robust experience to create one of the best Dungeons & Dragons games, period, one quarter at a time. (Or not, if you have the slick and well-crafted collection that ports both games to modern systems.)