The journey into Baldur’s Gate 3 can be a challenge for those unfamiliar with Dungeons and Dragons and the mechanics that govern it. One such concept, The Critical Miss, can cause a collective sigh amongst players sitting together or conversing on Discord. But what exactly does it mean?
Understanding the Critical Miss in Baldur’s Gate 3
Essentially, a Critical Miss is an automatic failure that occurs on a dice roll, regardless of any beneficial modifiers the player can use. For instance, even if you can add four +2 modifiers in an eight difficulty roll, a critical miss or a roll of one guarantees failure, resulting in a score of nine being irrelevant. In other words, a roll of one will always equate to failure, independent of any other contributing factors.
The mechanics of dice rolling
The game occasionally prompts you to roll a dice to execute particular tasks such as using abilities, gear, or taking specifically defined actions. Your stats base these actions and determine how complicated the given task will be.
At times, you may be perceived as having an Advantage or Disadvantage. In both cases, an extra dice will be rolled. However, the result is chosen differently: the highest roll for Advantage and the lowest roll for Disadvantage. In fights, if you surround an opponent with two of your characters, you gain an Advantage.
Also read: Top multi-class builds in Baldur’s Gate 3
Moreover, you have modifiers that come into play due to your class, active spells, or ongoing circumstances. These let you add or deduct values from the score, which can be fixed or dice-roll dependent.
In the screenshot above, the difficulty level of the roll is ten, which means we need to hit ten after applying all modifiers. We are neither at Advantage nor Disadvantage, so we roll one dice and use the result. We get a +1 to the roll due to our Charisma stat and a +1D4 because of the Guidance spell. This gives us a possible modifier between 2 and 5, contingent on that dice roll.
What signifies a Critical Success?
A Critical Success occurs on a roll of 20 and assures success regardless of the circumstances. Additionally, in an attack scenario, a Critical Success results in a critical hit dealing amplified damage. Depending on your abilities, class, and skills, the damage and chances of a Critical Success can further increase.
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