Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Several dicerolls for one outcome is bad

I can understand why Larian wants multiple Skill Checks in a dialogue and I am not necessarily opposed to that in principle but the Nettie conversation is a bit harsh.

I think that underlying problem with multiple Skill Checks isn't so much the risk of failing one or more of them in itself, but rather that the Skill Check Conversations has been designed so that any single failed check usually just means "NO" and will probably start a fight, and successful Skill Checks (especially the Nettie one) doesn't necessarily mean any measurable success or reward (reward for convincing Nettie is... not getting to kill her I guess? You lose out on her loot and XP and isn't really provided with any meaningful indicator of you just managing to succeed at what is maybe the hardest string of Skill Checks in EA).
As such, failing one of these Skill Checks will usually shut down any sort of player agency (which is important to have) and give you the "simple & boring solution" to the challenge you're facing.

What I feel like needs to be done with Skill Checks isn't reducing the amount (necessarily) but instead a bit of a different approach: Failing a Skill Check shouldn't necessarily just gate you off from it's related content, right now a failed Skill Check basically means "NO, FAILED!" but in a more dynamic RPG a failed Skill Check could also mean "Yes, but [incurring some damage or negative consequence to succeed at action]" or "No, but instead [narrative branch or other, less-than-deal opportunity for dealing with challenge]". I realise this is a lot tougher to design than simple YES/NO logic gates but currently the game engine is really designed as a very mechanical old-school DM who constantly makes you roll to succeed and provides little reward for success, or alternatives when you fail. This would also be a good reason to add Skill Check XP to the game, to provide some form of reward for actually succeeding at Skill Checks.

Of course, judging from their D:OS track record, dynamic and interactive story-telling isn't really one of Larian's strengths but hopefully they'll manage to improve a bit on the options we're presented with in this game

TL;DR: Currently failed Skill Checks are just hard stops, should let you progress at some resource or plot cost or provide alternate, less ideal options for progressing .