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I wanted to ask if we know what actions will be governed by dice rolls, and what the community thing of it. I don’t believe we have seen lockpicking or trap disarming in the demo, but we have seen perception checks and dialogue checks.

I am of a belief that dice-rolls rarely translate well from PnP to cRPGs. Having to invest heavily in lockpicking or trapdisarming, only to have to click continusly on door to pass the check or have the trap jammed/trap explode because unlocks, off screen roll sucks - result is not interesting, adds frustration and waste time, and encourages save-scumming, looking at you Wasteland2 and Kingmaker.

As to dialogue checks - I am more in favour of flat values (you can or you cannot pass the check) though Disco Elysium did show that rolls can be engaging if content for both win/loose is of high enough quality. Disco Elysiums “wind” check, however, also shows how a badly handled skill check can pull the game to a halt.

Constant “perception” checks is probably the one thing I am fairly fine with. However, I am not so sure about letting people know they failed checks. The biggest advantage of such roll system would be that players would be informed of a positive outcome only. I can understand that it might be useful in Coop setting, as it can allow players Who failed a roll, to drag a friend over. However, first of all that is silly. Character who didn’t notice something, wouldn’t know about it (I get that in PnP he would be asked to make a roll, but that’s a necessity not a feature)

Last edited by Wormerine; 27/03/20 11:02 AM.
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The entire D&D 5e system is a complex designed with pen and paper gameplay in mind, so Larian has a challenge on their hands to translate it into something that flows well and is fun on a computer. The dice rolls themselves, I'm less concerned about. Whereas some games may place a static skill level requirement to pick a lock, with D&D you are given a chance to succeed and fail based on your skill and there are numerous ways to influence the outcome (ie. 2nd level spell Enhance Ability) that promotes teamplay on top. Beyond that, Larian has stated they are mindful of the binary nature of success and failure and that they have gone to some lengths to implement a system that doesn't unduly punish players for bad luck. This would be inducive to better game flow and lead to less save scumming. I'm a shameless save scummer, but would love to explore what interesting twists and turns the dice roll might take me in BG3.

https://screenrant.com/baldurs-gate-3-save-scum-dont-use-larian-studios/

Last edited by Seraphael; 27/03/20 02:02 PM.
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Originally Posted by Wormerine
Ioff screen roll sucks - result is not interesting, adds frustration and waste time, and encourages save-scumming

Perhaps, but much less so when playing MP

Originally Posted by Wormerine
I am not so sure about letting people know they failed checks. The biggest advantage of such roll system would be that players would be informed of a positive outcome only. I can understand that it might be useful in Coop setting, as it can allow players Who failed a roll, to drag a friend over. However, first of all that is silly. Character who didn’t notice something, wouldn’t know about it (I get that in PnP he would be asked to make a roll, but that’s a necessity not a feature)

Perception checks should definitely be hidden. The rest? Maybe, but I don't think it can truly be D&D without rolling the dice.

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Originally Posted by Emrikol
Originally Posted by Wormerine
off screen roll sucks - result is not interesting, adds frustration and waste time, and encourages save-scumming

Perhaps, but much less so when playing MP

True, though in my selfish interest, I am mostly interested if it will be any fun without a buddy to roll your eyes at, when your dedicated thief fails an easy lockpick check. smile

Last edited by Wormerine; 27/03/20 04:56 PM.
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You do not really need to hide the rolls for perception, in D&D5e there is Passive perception so no roll is needed and the enemies´rolls are hidden anyway.
The only rolls for investigation and perception you have to roll are the ones you choose to do wilingly.

Last edited by _Vic_; 27/03/20 05:46 PM.
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Originally Posted by _Vic_
You do not really need to hide the rolls for perception, in D&D5e there is Passive perception so no roll is needed and the enemies´rolls are hidden anyway.
The only rolls for investigation and perception you have to roll are the ones you choose to do wilingly.

Interesting. It is not so in BG3 though.

https://youtu.be/B9hU6UJX_pc?t=3862

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Didn´t know that. Its good to know. Now I´m curious on how they plan to do it.

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I don't know if it would be worthwhile to make active searching a thing.
Thinking of previous games having semi-passive options (NWN / BG both passive if you toggled on), but it just lead to always having search mode on anyway. The only difference is it didn't tell you you failed and you could just stand around making a new check every round until you succeed.

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Yes, seeing the failed perception checks felt wrong somehow.
The point of a failed check is that you do NOT see something.

If there is a search mode, it will be always on, unless it has downsides.
Maybe you walk slower when you search, but many players will get angry that they walk so slow all the time.

So maybe you search all the time, like a new check every 6 seconds.
You would find everything when standing around forever, but you do not know where you have to stand forever.
So it would still be good to have high perception so you find everything by walking around without having to wait.


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Hello, i don't know if the question was asked before, but will i be able to fail a roll if i choose to?

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Originally Posted by Costin
Hello, i don't know if the question was asked before, but will i be able to fail a roll if i choose to?

I haven’t seen anything that would suggest that being possible.

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Why would you want to?

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Just to see what happens, or for the lulz. Sometimes it´s fun that way.

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

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RAW, every ability has a passive score - even though Insight, Investigation and Perception are the only ones that get talked about. A lot of times we (DMs) use these as an equivalent to the old take ten rule. Larian could implement this, though it sort of negates rolling for skill checks in many scenarios because presumably time is not tracked beyond the number of long rests in BG3.

Last edited by Annyliese; 04/09/20 06:56 AM. Reason: Slight clarification
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passive perception is indeed how you do it at the table.
Tho sometimes you want to have players rolling to build tension.

But the whole "Bullshit perception rolls" doesnt work in a video game

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Originally Posted by Gt27mustang
Why would you want to?



Because of the way i'd like my character and story to develop. Say i have a morally ambiguous scenario and if i make the roll it will take me in a direction. However i know for a fact that i want to go the other way, hence the ability to fail a roll.

Last edited by Costin; 14/09/20 09:16 AM.
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Originally Posted by Costin
Hello, i don't know if the question was asked before, but will i be able to fail a roll if i choose to?


It's against the basic rules of a roleplaying game with dices, which are the outcome of your actions are decided by rolling dices against calculated odds.

If you can choose to fail, you should also be able to choose to succeed, in which case it just becomes a branching story like Detroit become human or Life is strange, which is great for this genre of games. But BG3 is following other tabletop rules and choosing to fail isn't an option.

That being said, there might be a way to do it with the console, if Larian allows it in the future.

Last edited by Nyanko; 14/09/20 09:22 AM.
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Originally Posted by Costin

Because of the way i'd like my character and story to develop. Say i have a morally ambiguous scenario and if i make the roll it will take me in a direction. However i know for a fact that i want to go the other way, hence the ability to fail a roll.

So don’t pick am”direction” you don’t want to go towards? So far conversation trees seem to offer a pretty decent amount of choice.

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They can purposefully reduce the number of rolls by giving some things automatically *if* you have the skill.

Trained in Perception : some "secret" doors or things could be spotted as soon as a character is trained.

A character has the skill Arcana : fine, you automatically recognize x and y.

Do not get me wrong : only for some more trivial info and as a method to reduce the rolls. Actual DMs also do this once in a while.
"You are trained in Religion and do not need to roll : that symbol is for the entity xyz."

Also, the Inspiration points could be an automatic 10 or 15 instead of just another roll (as seen in one of Sven's gameplays). Rolling a 1 when spending an Inspiration point will piss off players I presume.

Last edited by Baraz; 16/09/20 03:21 AM.
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I think that when it comes to passive skill checks, the game should announce successes and completely hide failures. Announcing "Failed Perception Check" every time is only going to encourage people to exploit that.


Originally Posted by Baraz
They can purposefully reduce the number of rolls by giving some things automatically *if* you have the skill.


That kinda already exists in 5e with the idea of passive skill checks. That is the average d20 roll of 10 plus (or minus for skill penalties) your skill proficiency.

Passive Perception is already well known and demonstrated in gameplay videos, but you can actually use just about any skill as a passive.

"Because of your score in Animal Handling, you can tell that this type of creature will attack if it feels surrounded."

"Your study of the Arcane arts lets you identify those runes as belonging to the school of Evocation."

"You recall from your studies of Nature that those tasty-looking plants are actually deadly hemlock."



Originally Posted by Baraz
Also, the Inspiration points could be an automatic 10 or 15 instead of just another roll (as seen in one of Sven's gameplays). Rolling a 1 when spending an Inspiration point will piss off players I presume.


So will being stuck with an automatic 15 if you need a 16. It's a second chance, not a guaranteed success.

Last edited by Stabbey; 16/09/20 03:26 PM. Reason: hide failed checks
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