Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Confused with spells system

When you attack with anything that says "Attack Roll" in the description:



You need a dice roll that matches or exceeds the target enemy's armor class (AC). Right-click on the enemy to see its AC:



If enemy's AC is 14, you only have 35% hit chance. That's because only 7 out of the 20 numbers can win the dice throw: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 29, 20.

Your Strength raises your hit chance with melee attacks. If you have 18 STR, you add +4 to your dice roll. If you roll a 7, it becomes 11, and so on. 16 STR = +3 to dice roll. 14 STR = +2. 12 STR = +1. 10 STR = 0. 8 STR = -1. 6 STR = -2.

If you are "proficient" with your melee weapon, you add another +2 to the dice roll. Your proficient weapons are listed in your character sheet:



With +5 to dice roll, your hit chance is raised from 35% to 60%. That's because you only need a 9 to match the enemy AC of 14. And 12 out of the 20 numbers match or exceed 9, hence 60%.

60% is still not exactly a good percentage, many D&D fans would agree. So let's take this up a notch.

If you have an "advantage", you raise your hit chance further to 84%:



The above picture shows the word "Advantage" next to you, with the reason of the advantage ("Hiding") next to the enemy's health bar above.

An "advantage" gives a massive boost to your dice roll, because you get to throw the dice twice and take the higher value.

If you only a 9 to win, you can only lose if the two dice rolls are both less than 9. That's a much lower probability to lose (see below for exact math), and that's why your hit chance jumps to 84%. This is basically the single biggest key to winning this game: advantage, advantage, advantage. Try to put yourself in advantage and your enemies in disadvantage.

The exact math for advantage is here:

If you need a 9 to win, you have 60% chance to win and 40% chance to lose. If you have advantage and make two dice throws, the probability of BOTH throws losing is 40% x 40% = 16%. So your chance of winning is 100% - 16% = 84%.

The combat log shows you how each dice roll went down. You show the combat log by clicking on the round button at the bottom right of the screen. You see dice roll detail by mouse-hovering each entry:



Note the two entries: attack roll, and damage roll. All the logic I mentioned above is about winning the "attack roll," which only determines whether or not you succeed in hitting the enemy. If you succeed, then you make a SECOND dice throw to determine the actual damage, and that's a "damage roll." TWO DICE THROWS, remember. You can have 99% hit chance and ending up dealing only 1 damage. Vice versa, you can have only 35% hit chance and deal massive damage. That's just the way it is. It can be tough, but your enemies get the same deal.