Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General How Does The Dice Rolling Work?

Because I had a Strength check needing a 7, my character had a +3. and I rolled a 4; Failed.

So I think to myself 'Maybe the dice is showing the roll + modifier?'

Next dice roll, I roll a 1. But I have a modifier of +3, so a 1 should be impossible.

So what is the dice roll showing; result or roll? And is it bugged right now?

They decided to have your modifiers and proficiency affect the DC target. If you hover over it it will show you. I really wish they just kept the DC the same, allowed us to roll, then show an animation of our proficiency affecting what we rolled.

Oh, so basically, the 7 DC is after my modfier?

Yep. They lower the DC instead of adding to the roll.

Basically they implemented the skill check system backwards as to how it works in D&D 5th edition and on top of that worded it so awkwardly that it reads a bit like you both add your modifier to the roll and subtract it from the DC

Honestly, it should roll the dice, show the number, then say 'Intimidation +2' and increase the dice result by 2.

I mean that's how the D&D ruleset does it. I really don't understand why they felt the need to do it "upside-down"

Agree, the DC should tell how much you need and then show you roll + modifiers.

Other than it being needlessly annoying and using a different form than it's source material, it technically also changes the mechanic:

D20 + modifier vs. DC is "open-ended", you roll your dice and add your number to it. It could theoretically go to +1.000.000 if that was the scope of the game.

D20 vs DC - modifier is "closed off", in the sense that you can never, ever roll higher than 20 on a skill check since the modifier is added to the DC instead, and DCs can presumably go no lower than 1.

It seems like a unneeded change that has the potential to actually complicate things down the line as well.

I was wondering about this as well, it's an interesting idea but I don't know how much I like this as a mechanic. I think the idea was to streamline it rather than in the interface showing you the required DC, then rolling and afterward adding your skill to it. This way is is much simpler, though as I said before idk how much I like it yet.

I would really like to see my dice rolls. There is no way I keep rolling consistent 1s and 2s with my proficiency bonuses. It is rare that I roll above 10. The dice rolling seems bugged.

It is an unnecessary change that is mechanically indifferent.

There is no mechanical difference between having a +10 bonus rolling a 1d20 and adding it to beat a DC10 check, compared to reducing a DC 10 by 10 (hitting the base floor of 1), then rolling 1d20.
In both situations it is impossible to fail, unless you hard-code in that a 1 of 1d20 is an automatic failure on a skill check.
Considering neither 1 being auto-fail nor 20 being auto-success is the case on skill checks under normal rules in DND 5e, this should not be an issue.

Auto success and failure on 20 and 1 respectively is a mechanic from attack rolls.
It is not part of skill checks unless the DM chooses to override the rules and make it that way.
At the moment I've not encountered any way of definitively determining if this has been applied to skill checks by Larian, but seeing as I've not received "critical failure/success" notifications from skill checks, it could tentatively be assumed that it is not being applied in this fashion, which is appropriate to the standard rules they're basing this game on. However it will be factually unknown for certain until someone encounters a DC21+ rolling 20, or DC1 rolling 1. The highest DC I've personally encountered is 18, I believe.

Thus, there is no mechanical difference for doing ability checks in this fashion. There will only be player confusion about understanding how this is being approached, which is a valid concern.

I'm pretty sure it's not, because I had one situation where my target DC was 1. I rolled a natural 1 and succeeded.

Specific situation:

This sounds like THACO all over again, displaying lower values for better results instead of higher values.

The nat 1/20 is not an auto success or failure for skill checks, but I disagree in a different way about auto success and failures. The game should have this, in a different way. If the DC of a check is being lowered to 1 then there is no way for you fail it at all, which makes the roll pointless. You know you are going to succeed, and the point of doing these checks is because there is a chance for failure. If one option brings about a definitive success, then like the checks that are done in the background, just give the popup that it succeeded and continue on.

Agreed.

Agreed.

I'm not from a D&D background, so I may not "get" it, but modifying the target score beforehand and then comparing the result of the dice-roll seems more straightforward to me...

Sure you got almost exactly the same effect in practice, but it's not the same system, even if it is very similar.
And you're right, there's no auto-fail or auto-success on skill checks and so far Larian hasn't added it either.

I'm not particularly invested either way. I don't mind the reduction in target number as a way of dealing it, but I wouldn't care if they left the DC the same and added the modifiers after, either.

That's probably better, because there actually is a difference in effect, though. If a check has enough modifiers to it, the "target" could be be reduced as far down as 1, in which case you could pass it even with a natural 1, which by the rules is an automatic failure.

I actually encountered one check with a target of 1, and that was where I rolled my first natural 1 (in dialogue), and passed the check. It was the tutorial for using the Illithid tadpole, so the check was easy on purpose, but it still exposed a potential weakness.