Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Ditch the percentages

I understand that a percentage number is easy to understand.... but in DnD, you don't know what the AC of an enemy is, and therefore you don't know what your chance to hit is. Information about advantage/disadvatage alone should be enough, and the AC of an enemy can always be estimated roughly (are they using a shield, wearing heavy armour, etc.)

Do you guys have any suggestions on how Larian could improve/replace this system?

Dont know how your dnd experiences go but players can easily know what the AC to beat it. Some DM's just outright say it so the players know upfront it they hit or not to make combat go faster. In other cases the players find out themselves.

If a 13 misses and a 14 does hit its pretty easy to know what the AC is...

I personally think a percentage is fine but a 13/20 needed to hit could also work I suppose? So long as its clear to the player which target is easier to take down.

I don't really see the chance to hit being listed is really a game breaker. Also, you can't easily estimate enemy AC. Monsters have their own natural armor class, so its a lot harder to determine their AC. Also there are class abilities, combined with dexterity, that can make it hard to realize a lightly armored character is hard to hit. A Ranger with the right Fighting Style and Medium Armor can MATCH a fighter in Plate Armor.

So "eyeballing it" doesn't really work. I think a toggle to turn it off would be fine. Besides, any time you have to make a skill check in a conversation it tells you the target you need.

The difference with playing tabletop and this game is that Larian has incorporated the height and dark advantage/disadvantage system. Most of the time when I DM on tabletop I don't give bonuses or penalties for those situations, because they're not really in the rules. However here we have to consider it and it does make a degree of sense. So percentage is just an easier way to broadcast this to the player. I agree the element of the unknown is taken out slightly.

I think I said this in another thread, but their really should be a Bestiary of sorts like they do with many other games. Where at first you dont know the creatures stats at all (maybe not even its name) then as you attack it you learn its stats. Likewise you could find lore books, talk to NPCs or perhaps make nature/religion/arcana rolls ect to have a chance to learn a number of the creatures stats.




Arnt the targets already tagged with disadvantage or what not when you hover oven them? If not it should be.

I don't even look at it most of the time, really only when firing arrows at the extreme ranges (too close and long range).

This.

I agree with caveats. Maybe it's rose-tinted, and obviously makes no direct mechanical difference, but beating an AC vs. percentage to hit has always felt better to me.

Beyond making it simpler, percentages also make gameplay faster and target selection a breeze. Combine that with the fact that you can see enemy HP and a slew of tactics that DnD players would dream to have become possible. It essentially creates a new system, but when combat plays out in 5 minutes vs. 30 min of rolling, describing and laughing, these are necessary changes.

I honestly don't think there's a way to implement it without taking more than it gives. give a "?" for HP, remove the percentages and roll a dice above the selected enemies head with the roll, on success or failure given as the blue/red for other passive checks and saves. Maybe this could be in a future DM mode for people running their own campaigns? Very unlikely I reckon, since you're just taking away information without giving anything back.

There should be an option in the settings to turn the percentages on and off

My only issue with the use of percentages is how do you get a 99% chance with a d20? You'd need to roll a 19.8 somehow to achieve that.

Id rather they used something other than percentages to better fit with the DnD theme of it all, so far it just feels like Divinity: Baldurs Gate 3 due to how much divinity is all over it in so many places. Which while understandable due to the engine and developer. And isn't bad because the DOS games are pretty amazing. Isn't ideal when making a DnD game nor is it fitting with the theme.

Usually a 99% is for when you have advantage on a very easy roll but not one where success is guaranteed. If you'd need a 3 or better, that's a 10% chance of failure on one die, and a 1% chance on two.

There are rules for it? If you cant see your opponent but knows roughly where it is, you can attack; but with disaadvantage. Same applies for the blinded rules. Creatures that are blinded have disadvantage on all attacks that require sight while all attacks against them have advantage. Which incidentily makes colour spray really good on early levels.

Likewise just having an altitude advatage grats advantage on targets lower then you.

99% is rolling above 1 with advantage. The odds of getting a 1 with both dice is less than 1%, so 99% is the closest percentage that is a whole number.

EDIT: Technically it's 99.75%, so 100% would be closest, but that would be misleading because you can still miss.

I would personally prefer to more easily see if a roll has advantage/disadvantage (and why). I would also love to see the total roll value displayed on screen (and not hidden in a hard to navigate console). It would be great fun to see that you have advantage, see a 16 pop up as your roll to hit, then see the attack miss and start playing the guesstimating game of trying to figure out each enemy's AC as the battle progresses. I agree that the percentage makes things feel a little too video game-y and results in the player not thinking so much about what they are fighting in the moment.