Baldur's Gate 3 Beginners Guide For New Players - How to Play Baldur's Gate 3

and this baller's Gate 3 beginner mechanics guide we're going to be talking about the game systems of Baldur's Gate 3 how things function how skill checks work how attacks work how spells work what are ability scores and ability modifiers what is advantage and disadvantage how all these things work in the game so that you can have a better understanding when you're playing through now before we get too far into the video I want to give a big shout out to lyrion Studios for sponsoring this video if you guys are playing Baldur's Gate 3 this week or you're going to be playing but you don't have the game yet make sure to use our link below to support the channel if you saw our guide series on 5th edition d d a few years ago when Early Access first came out then a lot of this will be familiar to you but this has been edited to fit the game specifically taking out anything that is not applicable and adding any needed information Baldur's Gate 3 is based off the 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons rule set which uses a system that involves the rolling of a 20-sided die called a D20 to resolve encounters and scenarios in the game World in combat this will be done behind the scenes by The Game's software but players will be able to see the results of their dice rolls in the bottom right hand corner of the screen ability checks outside of combat including dialogue however are handled differently and you can much more easily see the dice rolls what's really great about tabletop gaming on PC or console is that the game does all the mathematics for you eliminating the need to remember every single thing that affects your encounter however if you do not understand how abilities work you may find yourself having a tough time so let's start there in Baldur's Gate 3 attributes are called abilities this means that strength dexterity Constitution intelligence wisdom and Charisma are all referred to as abilities within Baldur's Gate 3's mechanics and context this can be quite confusing at first because just about every other role-playing game out there uses the term abilities to delineate the skills of a character or some other active or passive function they possess attributes or stats is usually what we'd refer to these as but in bg3 they are called abilities ability score is the number that represents each ability or Stat of your character and ability modifier is the bonus or penalty you gain from your ability score of each ability to determinability modifier subtract 10 from the ability score and then divide the result by two rounded down for instance if you have 17 strength then your ability score for strength is 17 and your ability modifier for strength is plus three if you have eight dexterity then your ability score is 8 and your ability modifier is -1 both your ability scores and ability modifiers will dictate how successful your character is at various things throughout the game and the reason we begin with ability scores and ability modifiers in this Baldur's Gate through beginner guide is that the D20 is rolled in three different instances ability checks attack rolls and saving throws all three of these will use your ability modifiers when determining their outcomes so it's wise to know how they are calculated ability checks are ruled when performing interactions within the game World testing a character's abilities and often appear in dialogue when lock picking or disarming traps and often when checking for hidden doors items or buried Loop ability checks are accompanied by something called a difficulty class or DC for short and that is the number you must roll with the D20 in order to pass the ability check Baldur's Gate 3 will determine the difficulty class of everything in the game and you'll need to have characters that have decent ability modifiers in order to pass them the Crux of the situation though is that you sometimes cannot see the difficulty class of a hidden object door or loot until you've passed or failed the check so it's wise to be prepared and save often in case you want to reload and try again you can see on the screen a general list of how difficult a task is based on the number of the DC you can see you only need to roll a 5 on a D20 to succeed in very easy difficulty checks well nearly impossible is 30. in order to even hit 30 you would need to have a very high ability modifier other bonuses like proficiency or even expertise or guidance and almost a perfect 20 roll on the die the second thing a building modifier is used for is attack rolls which is when a character is attacking another character when attacking with weapons or unarmed players will roll the D20 and if the role is equal to or higher than the target's armor class or AC for short they will connect with their attack melee weapons and unarmed attacks use the character's strength modifier to add to their attack role and ranged weapons use the dexterity modifier however there are some exceptions such as melee weapons that have the Finesse property allowing the use of dexterity instead of strength and the Monk's martial arts class feature which allows them to use dexterity instead of strength as well additionally your ability modifier is then added to your damage role if you successfully connect with your attack damage rolls are calculated by Rolling the die or dice of the weapon used and then adding ability modifier this means not only are you more likely to hit with a weapon if you have high strength or dexterity but you will do more damage if you do this makes strength and dexterity particularly important to characters that rely on weapons for damage though they usually focus on one or the other saving throws are used to calculate the defense of a character versus many effects or spells in the game each of these has its own DC which the character must make a saving throw of the die against in order to protect themselves these spells and effects will Target one of the six abilities of the character and they will use that specific ability modifier when rolling just like ability checks and attack rolls you must hit the target number or higher in order to succeed at a saber throw if you're making a spell casting character such as a wizard or sorcerer for example you want to have the highest difficulty class you can on your spells as this helps prevent enemies from successfully rolling a saving throw and increases your Effectiveness each class has its own ability and that is used to calculate this and this is called its spell casting ability modifier for instance clerics use wisdom to determine their spell DC and wizards use intelligence for theirs the DC to resist one of your spells is equal to eight plus your spell casting ability modifier plus proficiency note that some spells like guiding bolt or Eldritch blast actually Target the armor class of the Target and operate similarly to a weapon attack and in those cases instead of the target rolling to save against your spell you will actually roll the D20 add your spell casting ability modifier and add your proficiency just like a weapon attack so we've mentioned proficiency a few times but now I want to talk a bit about exactly what proficiency is all characters in Baldur's Gate 3 have what is called a proficiency bonus this is a positive modifier that increases as that character game's levels and works somewhat similarly to your ability modifier because it's added to your D20 roles each character Begins the game with a proficiency bonus of plus two by default at level 1. increasing by plus one every four levels to a maximum of plus four since the level cap for Baldur's Gate 3 is 12. this is The Game's way of making characters more powerful as their level raises increasing their likelihood of succeeding in roles note that proficiency bonus is the same for all characters who are all the same level and that class multi-classing and race have no impact on this bonus proficiency bonus is only added to the D20 roll of things that you have Proficiency in and these are determined by a combination of your race background class Feats that you take and potentially even equipment you find this means that you will not gain this bonus on all of your roles but instead only on the things that your character or the character you're using are proficient at the following is a list of things that proficiency applies to attack roles using weapons you're proficient with ability checks using skills you're proficient with saving throws you're proficient with Attack rules of spells that Target the armor class of a Target and the difficulty class of the saving throw that a Target must throw if you're targeting the ability of a target with a spell in Baldur's Gate 3 players do not receive a penalty for attacking with weapons they're not proficient with but instead they do not use their proficiency bonus in calculating their attack role additionally they will not be able to use the weapon actions of that weapon type this means ideally you will always be using a weapon that you have Proficiency in however when a character uses armor or a shield that they are not proficient with they have disadvantage on any attack rule they make and they cannot cast spells this is really really bad and means players should definitely avoid using armor or Shields they do not have Proficiency in at all costs we'll get into advantage and disadvantage shortly but for now let's take a look at skills skills in Baldur's Gate 3 are used throughout the course of the game to help characters overcome obstacles and challenges which skills you're proficient with will be determined during character creation and are usually tied to your class race and background each skill in the game Falls with an inability and skills are essentially a specific aspect of that ability for instance sleight of hand falls under dexterity because having faster reflexes and being more agile would help you steal things or for instance persuasion falls under Charisma because being charismatic would help persuade someone the following is a list of skills in the game and what abilities they fall under when players make an ability check that also uses a skill they will add their proficiency bonus to their D20 role if they have Proficiency in that skill otherwise they roll as normal including only their ability modifier dialogue lock picking and disarming are all handled with very visible D20 roles so you can see your proficiency at work or not if you don't have any however there are some instances where things are calculated behind the scenes like for example when trying to spot a hidden door or buried loot you can see the calculation on the bottom right hand side of the screen when this occurs but you won't have a D20 Roll pop up before you so you'll have to pay attention to what is happening on the screen while you explore if you succeed something will become visible that wasn't previous but if you fail you won't know what you missed out on sometimes if you want you can reload the game and try these checks again to see if you can reveal a hidden object as you might pass the role but other times the difficulty class of it will just simply be too high that you'll need something like guidance or expertise in order to reach a high enough number to pass the check and expertise is an even higher form of proficiency where the player takes their proficiency bonus with a set skill and doubles it you will most often find this with robes and Barts and one other thing to mention before we move on from skills is that tools or items in Baldur's Gate 3 that can help a player or do something they wouldn't otherwise be able to do but unlike skills they are not tied to a specific ability for instance thieves tools allow you to track a lockpick but if you don't have any then you cannot even attempt it and likewise I trap disarm toolkit is needed to attempt disarming traps other wise you can't even attempt it this brings us to Advantage and disadvantage there are many scenarios in the game where players will have either advantage or disadvantage and these make things easier or harder for the character depending on which they have like many things in Baldur's Gate 3 advantage and disadvantage are applied to the role of the D20 advantage means that you roll the D20 two times when making an attack roll ability check or saving throw and use the higher of the two values conversely disadvantage means that you roll the d22 times using the lower of the two values Advantage roughly doubles your chances for Success while disadvantage roughly halves it this Advantage is one of the worst situations you can be in while rolling in Baldur's Gate 3 and should be avoided at all costs while Advantage drastically improves your chances of success and so should be sought out keep this in mind when deciding how to proceed with situations in Baldur's Gate 3. up next is weapons weapons are a huge part of Baldur's Gate 3 and make up a big chunk of combat since not every character can cast spells but use weapons in this section we'll take a look at how proficiency is handled when it comes to weapons how damage is calculated and what weapon properties do and what they mean whenever you attack an enemy in Baldur's Gate 3 with a weapon you make what is called an attack roll which I already covered this attack roll is affected by your weapon proficiency so let's take a look at how this plays out in Baldur's Gate 3. you won't be penalized for using a weapon you aren't proficient in but the likelihood of you hitting the enemy is reduced because you don't get the added benefit of proficiency if you remember your proficiency bonus begins at plus 2 and increases every four character levels to a maximum plus four proficiency is particularly important at lower levels where you have less ways of increasing your chances of Landing attacks each character's weapon proficiency is determined by their race and class for example elves gain proficiency with long swords short sword short bows and longbows and wizards gain proficiency with daggers quarter steps unlike crossbows this means if you made an Elven wizard you'd have a proficiency with all seven of these weapon types each weapon in Baldur's Gate 3 falls under simple weapons or martial weapons simple weapons are things like clubs quarter staffs short bows and maces while martial weapons or weapons like long swords rapiers longbows and morning Stars some classes have very specific weapon proficiency like the wizard most classes have Proficiency in simple weapons and only a handful have Proficiency in Marshall weapons it's important to note that it is possible to have a general proficiency like Marshall and also have a specific weapon proficiency like longsword which falls under martial Proficiency in this case you don't gain any extra bonuses You're simply considered to have Proficiency in that weapon type every weapon in Baldur's Gate 3 has a damage die that is rolled when you successfully make an attack roll and this damage is then applied to the Target along with your ability modifier for example if you attack with a great Club you'll roll an eight-sided die or a d8 take that result and add your strength ability modifier to the damage that you get for your attack not every weapon uses the same die and some are much better than others so pay attention to what these are and use the highest damage ones you can additionally each weapon has a damage type which is either bludgeoning piercing or slashing or some special weapons have fire or psychic or other damage Types on them like that this is important to note because some enemies have damage resistance against certain types of damage and it's possible to gain damage resistance yourself such as by taking the heavy armor Master feat this means it's a good idea to have a variety of different damage types in your group so you don't have a rough time against a few specific enemy groupings nearly every weapon has a weapon property in Baldur's Gate 3 and those that don't are few and far between you'll see up on the screen a list of weapon properties with a description of what they do finesse weapons are melee weapons that let you use your dexterity instead of your strength for your attack and damage rules light weapons can be dual wielded with another light weapon range is the range of the weapon listed in meters extra reach increases the range that you can attack from Throne weapons can be thrown for the same damage as if they were used to attack normally two-handed weapons must be wielded in both hands and versatile weapons can be either wielded in one hand or both hands increasing their damage die if wielded in both Armor class or AC in Baldur's Gate 3 is what protects you from any attack that uses an attack roll and this includes some spells that use attack rolls like scorching Ray the amount of protection you gain depends on the armor you're wearing for example padded armor gives you 11 Armor class and chainmail gives you 16 which means that enemies must reach a total of 11 in the case of padded armor or 16 in the case of chainmail on their attack rolls in order to hit you note that if you are using no armor or are unarmored you're considered to have 10 Armor class and you cannot have lower than this unless by some in-game effect in addition players gain a benefit to their Armor class from their dexterity and how much benefit you gain is different depending on what classification of armor you are wearing when wearing light armor you gain the full value of your dexterity modifier at to your armor class when wearing medium armor you gain up to plus two Armor class from your dexterity modifier and when wearing heavy armor you gain no benefit from your dexterity modifier to your armor class including negative dexterity modifiers so if you had -1 on your dexterity that would not be added to your armor class and you would actually prevent yourself from losing armor that way note that medium and heavy armor limits to your dexterity modifier only apply to your armor class it doesn't apply to your attack rolls ability checks or saving throws so you can still use medium and heavy armor on dexterity focused characters if you want unlike weapons Proficiency in an armor type you are wearing is a must-have or you'll be facing some staunch penalties characters who wear armor they aren't proficient with will have disadvantage on any attack roll that they make and they can't cast spells however the upside here is that characters can cast spells while wearing armor they are proficient in even heavy armor but no penalty to attack rules or Arcane Spell failure one thing you do need to pay attention to though when deciding on what armor to wear is whether or not it gives you disadvantage on stealth checks generally speaking you want to use lighter armor on characters with high dexterity because lighter armors don't typically penalize stealth and dexterity Focus characters can use stealth better than most others and this brings us to Feats Feats for all intents and purposes work like talents and dos 2 or perks in Fallout and they give the character a very specific bonus in Baldur's Gate 3 characters will gain a feat every fourth level they take in a given class this means if you don't multi-class you'll gain a feat at a level 4 8 and 12. however if you do it'll be whenever you hit four levels in a given class the ability Improvement feat allows you to spend two ability points to improve your abilities in whatever combination you wish whether it's both points and one ability or split between the two this is the most commonly selected feat in Baldur's Gate 3 and it's the safe option if you're unsure what to choose many Feats will give you some benefit and increase the specific ability score by one like heavily armored this feat increases your strength by one and also gives you proficiency with heavy armor this can be good or bad depending on how you're set up if you have an even number of strength like 16 for example you'll not see any benefit from the strength increase since your strength modifier will not improve at 17. if you really want a feat but its ability score increase will not benefit you because of this I strongly suggest that you respect your character at Withers in your camp and set up your abilities in such a way that you can make use of it like setting your strength to 17 so it becomes 18 with a feet increasing your modifier by plus one and the last thing I'm going to cover in this video is the rest mechanic in Baldur's Gate 3. there are two different types of rest in Baldur's Gate 3 there is a short rest and a long rest and you can find these on the bottom right hand part of the screen if you click the little icon down there it'll bring up your rest mechanics you can either go back to Camp or click long rest or short rest short rest will not only regenerate some of the health of your party but they can also be used in places where you can't long rest there are danger zones in baller Skate 3 where you can't long rest but in these areas you'll still be able to short rest which gives them a little bit of an advantage now they won't replenish all the class features and spells of most classes in this game so they do have limited application and you need to pay attention to the class that you're playing and whether they regain their class features back on shorter long rest and to give you an example what I mean warlocks gain back their spell slots when they short rest this is one of the upsides of this class the downside being that they have less spell slots but they can gain them back more easily by short resting whereas like Wizards or Sorcerers on the other hand they need to Long rest in order to gain their spell slots back and when you go to full rest in Baldur's Gate 3 if you do not have enough camp supplies you won't be able to replenish all your spells and heal your characters so it's important as you explore through the game to pick up different food items and things like that camp supplies so that when you go to rest in your Camp however often that is that you're able to actually complete a full rest and gain back your slots and help and just one more tip I would give you about long resting in Baldur's Gate 3 and it's that a lot of players tend to hoard their supplies their camp supplies and food because they don't long rest as much as they should they are afraid that they won't have the resource that they need in order to replenish all their spell slots when they need it by using their camp supplies too often and they don't rest as much as they should absolutely rest every time your main spellcaster runs out of spells in this game just do it you will have plenty of camp supplies and food as the game goes on I've made it through about act two of the game at this point and I haven't had any issues resting whenever I've needed to so if you're worried about whether you should rest or shouldn't rest and you don't want your spell casters to feel Limited in combat just rest so that wraps out up our Baldur's Gate 3 sort of beginner mechanics video and if you're new to 5e or Baldur's Gate 3 I hope you got a lot out of this it's kind of ease you into it a little bit a lot of these things are not thoroughly explained in the game and again big shout out to larion Studios for sponsoring this video if you want to pick up the game or you're going to be playing over the next couple weeks or something like that make sure to click the link below to support the channel [Music]

Channel: Fextralife

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Keywords: baldurs gate 3, baldurs gate 3 beginners guide, baldurs gate 3 guide, bg3 tips, beginners guide, bg3 guide, baldurs gate 3 tips, baldurs gate 3 beginner tips, baldurs gate 3 starter guide, baldurs gate 3 beginners tips, bg3 beginners guide, baldurs gate 3 tips and tricks, baldurs gate 3 things to know, baldurs gate 3 tips for beginners, bg3 beginner guide, bg3 beginner tips, baldur's gate 3 beginner guide, baldur's gate 3 beginners guide, Baldur's Gate 3 new player guide

Id: jMQhlVsmS5I

Length: 20min 4sec (1204 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 03 2023