Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General New to Baldurs games, quetions

Hello everyone

I just started Baldur's Gate 3 and this is my first time playing the series.

I am really enjoying the game so far.

So let me get something straight

every time when your in a fight and you go to deal damage a D & D die is being rolled behind the scenes?

every time an enemy is about to deal damage to a member of your party a D & D die is being rolled behind the scenes?

just trying to understand combat mechanics.

Thank you

Yes, indeed. The game tries to stick to the DND 5e combat system (with certain liberties taken). The success percentage you get when you plan attacks are indeed based on the chances you'd have of succeeding in that attack if you were playing real DND.

Since you are new, I'll also give a few tips I give my friends who play for the first time:

Long rest often, otherwise you'll miss a lot of camp content. You can rest without using supplies, too. Nothing bad will happen if you long rest even a thousand times in a row, so don't worry about that, but if you don't long rest much at all you will miss out on some scenes permanently.
My rule of thumb as to when to long rest is when you've wasted your short rests and are short on spell slots in your party, or after important story beats.
Use F5 to auto-save and F8 to load your last save.
Talk to your companions after events that you think were important enough (esp related to other companions or story events), they often will have things to say and you won't be notified with the "!" on their head so you'll need to check manually.

Thank you ! I appreciate the advise

In a fight there is a percentage which dictates whether or not you land a hit on your opponent. That percentage is calculated from your attack bonuses versus the opponent's defensive bonuses. So getting a magic weapon with a +1 attack bonus will help your chances of hitting, while wearing better armor will reduce chances of being hit.

Once a hit occurs, another dice is rolled to determine hit points of damage. This number firstly depends upon the type of weapon, and then can be augmented by other bonuses or magical effects such as dipping the weapon in fire before the hit.

Baldur's 3 goes way beyond standard D&D however, by adding all kinds of other factors such as being wet while enraged because your boots of tap dancing are making too much noise for you to sneak up behind a shivering kobold who has just been encrusted by frost. Thank goodness for computers, because otherwise I would never play D&D that way.

On the right side of the screen is a combat log which you can open and close by clicking on the "page" icon. When it's open it shows the attacks that happen in the turn, and if someone does damage you can hover the mouse over that line and it will show a breakdown of the number you rolled, all the modifiers that are applied on the roll, and the subsequent total of the attack roll. Same for the damage done.
The combat log also shows the banter between your companions outside battle, so if you couldn' t quite understand what they said you can open it and read it.

Yes, in D&D 5e you have to roll d20 (20 sided dice, so 1-20) to see if you hit. To the result you add any additional modifiers you might have (like bonus from a relevant attribute) and compare it to enemy AC (armor class). If you are equal or higher you hit, if you are lower you miss. Rolling 1 on d20 is always critical miss (even is subsequent modifiers would r bring the total above enemy AC), when you roll 20 it’s a critical hit - you always hit, and do extra damage.

There is also advantage and disadvantage - with advantage you roll two d20 and choose a better roll, on disadvantage you roll two d20 and pick the weaker roll. If Advantage and disadvantage both apply you roll normal (even if there are more advantages over disadvantages or vice versa).

The game translates it all into percentages when hovering over the enemy, but as someone mentioned above you can look under the hood through the battle log (expandable thing on the bottom right). You don’t need to worry about it much though - the game really doesn’t won’t you to think too hard on the mechanics.

Damage works the same way, but the die depend on the weapon. Worth noting that some weapons h do similar damage but have different RNG distribution. For example battleaxe does 1d12 (one 12ve sided dice) while great sword does 2d6 damage (two 6 sided dices). Maximum damage is the same, however battle ax has an equal chance to roll any of the 12 outcomes. Two handed sword’s minimum damage is a bit higher (2 rather than 1) but bellcurve nature of rolling two dices means it is more likely to roll mid damage than the extremes.

Similar system is used for spells, but there are differences especially for ones relying on saving throws, rather that’s attacks.

Be aware that the nature of the die roll system can make some fights highly variable, even with the same characters. For example, when my party reaches level 3 or 4, I test them against enemies that can prove a challenge at those levels (no spoilers). I give it about even odds that my party will trounce the enemies in two to three turns, with no one taking a dirt nap, or that I'll lose 3 of my party members in the first round with my remaining character less than one healing potion away from being knocked out.

Some people love that aspect of the game (as did I, back when I played table-top D&D). Nowadays, I save before and after every major fight.