Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General I can't quite understand saves for my Wizard

If a spell requires a ranged attack, does it rely on a Str or Dex based attack roll like they did in NWN?

If a spell says its constitution based like poison, does that depend on my characters Con score or the enemies?

Casting in DD5 uses your class's spell casting ability for the range attack.

So as a Wizard it's an Range check with your Intel bonus.
When a spell says constitution like poison, it refers to the enemy saving throw not yours .

Some tutorial-type tips and hints would be very welcome to the first area! I am just about familiar with DnD 5e rules and sort of just roll with the punches, believing it should all work pretty similarly. But for people not familiar with the system, there is currently no real guidance available in-game.

That helps, I've dumped Str and Con on my Wizard then. I put 14 in Con, Wis and Cha to help with HP saves and social things and also took the friends cantrip which might be useful later.

My poison spells would be having a lower chance against enemies with high Con then.

There are also many spells that don't require a Spell Check from the spell caster as they automaticaly hit, those type of spells doing effect/damage only depend on the target's succes/failure on their Saving Throw.

Yes like magic missile, but I dont think there are any cantrips like that.

I think there might be a misconception forming so just to clarify, spellcasting classes have spell modifiers depending on the class, for a wizard that would be intelligence. When you check your character stats or under equipment it will show your spell attack and spell DC which is only modified by the ability score your class uses. Then, for example a poison con save would be the target's constitution save vs your spell DC.

You don't need to have every stat be good to get your various spell saves through, just consider if the enemy you're fighting would have a weak save or a strong save against it. Spellcasters typically are weaker on physical saves than mental, and typically fighters have weaker saves vs mental and stronger physical saves.

Hello,

There is no attack roll in 5e that "both" sides roll. Either attacker rolls against Armor class, or the defender rolls "saving throw" against that ability's difficulty check "DC"

So both fire bolt and a crossbow bolt is going against armor class. Hence AC is very, maybe too, important in 5e, hence increasing it is hard.

Attack roll is; if you are using your class ability, modified by class stat bonus. If it's 20 it's critical, spells can crit this way if they have attack rolls.
DC is again determined by stats. If you are wizard casting a wizard spell INT helps. But if you are using a wand /scroll of a different class on PAPER it does not help, i don't know the game yet.
Defender's saving throw is modified by corresponding stat. There is no special crit fail or crit success saving throw on 5e. You save or fail. (That's on pathfinder 2.0 Yay! )

Special situations can give you advantage or disadvantage, which means roll 2 d20 dice, take better result, or worse result accordingly.