Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Ability check vs ability saving throw different?

When casting 'Hex' the target has disadvantage on ability checks for one ability of your choosing. Many spells have ability saving throws, for instance burning hands has a dexterity saving throw. If I hex dexterity first then burning hands should the target have disadvantage on its saving throw? I ask because it does not appear to work that way and before I report it as a bug I wonder if it's working as it is supposed to. Is an ability check different than an ability saving throw?

No, Skill Check and Saving Throws are different.

The Skills that use Dexterity are Stealth, Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand (do I forget one ?). If you do such a Skill Check, you are indeed doing a Skill Check.

If you are in the area where a Burning Hands or Fireball explodes, you do a Dexterity Saving Throw.

These are not the same things. In fact, Attack Roll, Saving Throw and Skill Check are 3 big, different things in 5E.

So, yeah, the part of the Hex spell that is related to skill checks is a bit useless in combat. There are a few skill checks that happen in combat, but mostly Hex in combat is just doing extra damage.
Which is why I suggested, here, that Larian steamline this compared to the 5E rules.

Ya, save throws are every attribute now right? Used to be you had three Fortitude=con, Reflex=dex, and Will=Wisdom in 3.5 if I recall.

I generally Hex strength or dexterity since they might play a role in combat if anyone chooses to shove them. The shove action lets you make an Athletics check against the target's opposed Athletics (strength ability) check or Acrobatics (dex ability) check. Though Hexing their wisdom might help your rogue by hampering their Perception (wisdom ability) check, should the rogue choose to hide with their cunning action.

To add to Drath's post; be aware that ability checks encompass more than just skill checks. Skill checks are ability checks, because they use the ability scores, but you may often be asked to make straight ability checks (make a strength check to break these chains); a strength check is not a skill check, because it's not tied to a skill, but it's still an ability check, and a strength-hexed person would have disadvantage.

In game, the only place where this would have much immediate effect would be if you opened with a dexterity hex on a target - they'd be forced to roll their initiative at disadvantage, since that is an ability check using dexterity. I don't believe the game *actually* gets this right however. Similarly we can't actually TELL if the game is using acrobatics or athletics to resist shoves at the moment, because the combat log isn't as robust as it needs to be... and stealth in combat doesn't seem to be making contested rolls against perception at all, at the moment.

I'm a bit late on the reply, but indeed, I forgot Ability Checks when I wrote my post. The 3 main "success/fail" roll types in 5E are Attack Roll, Saving Throw and Ability Check. Skills Checks are just a particular kind of Ability Checks for which a skill can be learned and proficiency bonus can be applied.

Also, to add to Niara's list, aside Initiative rolls, Shove/Grappling contests and Perception checks, there's also getting out of Entangle/Ensare-type vines which would require a Strength Check. Still not a massive list, and Hex doesn't shine for its curse half, but rather its damage-dealing half.