As a classic role-playing game, Baldur’s Gate 3 offers players countless opportunities to make decisions – both in dialogues and when executing certain actions like pulling a lever. One of these decisions determines the fate of a gnome, who is either saved or learns to fly.
What is the lever problem in Act 1? In the first act of Baldur’s Gate, you encounter some goblins wreaking havoc in the ruined village. Some of these goblins have captured a traveling gnome and tied him to the crank of a windmill.
You now have the opportunity to rise to the occasion and save the gnome or leave him to his fate.
If you decide to save the gnome, you must enter the mill and pull a lever within it. The problem is: there are two levers, and those who are inattentive – or malicious – will pull the “wrong” one.
While the left lever stops the mill and brings it to a halt, the right lever triggers an acceleration of the rotation, causing the gnome to be flung away in a high arc.
This is demonstrated in practice by a clip on Reddit:
What does the community say? Players of Baldur’s Gate 3 find it amusing how the gnome gets flung away when the right lever is pulled. One user writes on Reddit that there is no wrong lever in the situation: “One lever is correct, the other lever is funny.”
Another player notes, however, that the gnome is one of his favorite “recurring characters” in the game, and one misses out on that when letting him fly. However, that is always the problem with “evil options” – for 5 seconds of fun, you miss content for several hours.
Nevertheless, many players agree that the gnome’s departure was amusingly staged.
One user on Reddit also raised the question of what would happen if he cast the spell “Feather Fall” on the gnome before letting him fly, and he wants to find out in a new playthrough.
Feather Fall is supposed to protect you and your companions from fall damage. Whether that would save the gnome is currently unknown to us.
If you want to test “Feather Fall” on flying gnomes, we have a Gale Build for you that includes the spell:
Baldur’s Gate 3: Best Gale Build – How to Play Your Wizard Right
