Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General accuracy and dice rolls (hitting people)

i was just wondering what determines if you hit or not. for the life of me i can not hit people. my odds are always low and i was wondering what im doing wrong. ive made it to lvl 4 and im still having trouble understanding the whole ac and hit rate, ive never played dnd i would appreciate any help

Short version...

Every time you try to hit, you will roll a 20 sided die, add your modifiers, and try to get a number greater than your targets AC.

The typical modifiers you will add are:
Your relevant ability modifier
Your proficiency bonus (always +2 until level 5)

Relevant ability modifiers are:
Strength for most melee attacks
Dexterity for ranged attacks or finesse melee weapons
INT for wizard spells, cha for warlock, wis for cleric

So first thing you want to do, is make sure you are attacking in a way that uses your best ability. If you are a strength fighter using a bow, you will do poorly.

Second, there are several situations that will modify your chance to hit further.

If you are flanking an enemy in melee with a friend, you will roll with advantage, meaning you roll two dice and take the best result.

If you are threatened by an enemy in melee and you try to do a ranged attack, you will roll with disadvantage, meaning you roll two dice and take the worst result.

A prone enemy gives melee attackers advantage but ranged attackers disadvantage.

Also, cover and concealment will make ranged attacks less successful.

I’m sure there more but that’s a decent primer.

I would just like to add if you attack an enemy in melee, stay behind them (you do not have to be completely behind them). You will have a green indication that you are backstabbing when hovering the mouse pointer over the target, meaning they can't see you. This provides advantage (double d20 rolls). Even the cleric with her 14 str usually get around 80% when attacking from behind without bless.

And always try and use ranged attacks from high ground, as this also provides advantage.

Also +1 weapon are probably vastly superior to any other random cool onhit effect you might have on your non +1 weapons, it's 5% higher chance to hit without advantage and ever higher with.

I really try to never attack a target without having combat advantage in some way.