Baldur's Gate 3 Guide to Combat Mechanics - How to Miss Less, and Win More!

in this Baldur's Gate 3 combat mechanics guide how to succeed in combat will be covering all the details that go into combat things like initiative advantage and disadvantage spell slots attacks armor and more if you've been having a tough time in combat then this video is for you Walter's gate 3's combat can be quite complex to new players and those who are unfamiliar with 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons which is what the game is modeled after you might be wondering why your hit chance is so low or why your spells never seem to deal damage in this guide we'll show you what to do and we'll give you some tips of things you probably shouldn't do let's start with initiative as this is the first thing that happens every combat once combat has been triggered the first thing that happens is each character makes what it's called an initiative role which determines the turn order of each character once this has been completed and the order established this order will not change for the rest of combat accepting when a character is incapacitated damned or killed the dexterity modifier of each character is added to their initiative role so generally speaking characters that have higher dexterity will go first like Rogues and Rangers but this is not always the case since there's still a role made and they may roll poorly while other characters roll highly going first in combat is very important just like in DOS 2 because you can often eliminate or incapacitate an enemy or two before they attack you preventing a lot of damage to your party one great way to do this is by surprising enemies because surprised enemies won't gain an action on their turn you can surprise enemies quite often by hiding and attacking them before they see you you can hide your entire party outside of combat at any time by pressing shift C or clicking the icon on the left hand side of the screen below the character portraits once combat has begun each character gains one action one bonus action and a certain amount of movement per turn in bg3 acceptor of course if they were surprised this includes players and enemy characters if you've played pillars of Eternity 2's turn-based mode then you'll notice similarities almost immediately each character can move up to a certain amount based off their movement speed and they can move at any time on their turn regardless of what actions or bonus actions they've already used actions are usually attacks weapon actions found on weapons or spells but can also include throwing an object or even throwing an enemy hiding dashing which extends your movement or disengaging from an enemy which prevents attacks of opportunity or some other class specific feature bonus actions are usually specific weapon actions that deal less damage but have some other effect like shoving or dipping your weapon in a substance however they can also be spells and class features too good players will find a way to make use of both their action and bonus action each turn in order to maximize the impact their character has there are ways to gain more actions and bonus actions such as the Fighter's action surge the thief's fast hands or the haste spell pay attention when given a choice to select spells or class features and note whether or not something is an action or a bonus action this can help you plan better what to do in a given turn alright so you figured out actions bonus actions and movement but you keep missing your attacks in combat and this section will discuss why you might be missing a lot and how you can improve your chances of Landing attacks in combat but first the basics when making an attack you will roll a 20-sided die called a D20 and it will be rolled against the armor class or AC for short of the enemy enemies won't have lower than 10 Armor class which means that you at least need to roll a 10 in order to hit even the weakest enemies in the game this means by default factoring in no bonuses or modifiers you would have roughly a 55 chance to hit an enemy with 10 armor class since rolling a 10 or higher will all be hits this is not a very high chance in general but there are ways to improve this melee weapons use your strength modifier when making attack rolls and ranged weapons use dexterity these are added to the D20 that is rolled when an attack is made and help to improve your chances of Landing your attacks for instance if you have 16 strength and make a melee attack or 16 dexterity when making a ranged attack you'll now add plus three to your role so now you only need to roll a 7 or higher giving you a 70 chance to hit an enemy with 10 Armor class you can see this is already much higher note that 17 strength or 17 dexterity gives you the same modifier as 16 strength and 16 dexterity which is plus three because you only improve your modifiers at every even number pay attention to your ability scores during character creation When selecting Feats and choosing equipment and aim for even numbers on your strength or dexterity whichever you use for attacking finesse weapons are melee weapons that use either your strength or dexterity modifier so if you wish to melee and range effectively on a martial character you will want High dexterity if you're a strength character you should try to avoid making ranged attacks if you can melee instead and if you're a dexterity character you should avoid melee attacks with anything other than finesse weapons the one exception is monks who can use dexterity regardless of the weapon they are using as long as it's not two-handed there are more things that help to improve your attack rolls though and the next one is proficiency each character in the game will have proficiency with different weapons and ARA based off race and class choices and using a weapon you have proficiency with will grant you plus two to your attack rolls on balanced and tactician and plus four on Explorer as your character gains levels this will increase to plus three at level 5 or plus 5 on Explorer and plus 4 at level 9 or plus six on Explorer note this is the same for all characters in the game regardless of race class or multi-classic this means at the beginning of the game if you make a melee attack roll with 16 strength or arranged attack roll with 16 dexterity and your proficient with the weapon you are using you'll add plus 5 to your attack roll making it so you only need to roll a five or higher to land your attacks this is an 80 chance to hit against an enemy of 10 Armor class and you can see how this just keeps improving as your character gains levels and improves their ability modifiers their chance to hit will naturally improve but so will enemy Armor class you'll need to find more ways to improve your chances of success so let's get into how you do that besides having a good ability modifier with the type of weapon you're using mainly arranged and making sure you have Proficiency in the weapon type that you're using there are other things you should and shouldn't do in combat to improve your chances of hitting an enemy make sure you're not wearing armor you're not coefficient with because this penalizes your attack roll severely by giving you disadvantage on your attack rolls disadvantage means that you roll your D20 twice and you take the lower of the two values rolling two dice makes you much more likely to roll a low number with one die and then you will miss when you're forced to use it make sure to upgrade your equipment as you gain more equipment in the game you will find plus one and plus two versions of weapons which will add plus one or plus two to not all your damage rolls but also your attack rolls this lowers the number you need to reach when attacking an enemy and melee are at range with said weapon in order to trigger a hit bless is also a fantastic way to boost your hit chance or Leon in the game this spell improves the attack role of each character affected by plus one to plus four on each attack as long as the spellcaster this spell maintains concentration on it it's best used at the beginning of combat to affect as many turns as possible if you're a ranged character make sure you're not standing next to an enemy when making a ranged attack as this will give you disadvantage on your attack roll even if you target another enemy than the one that is standing near you either move away first risking an attack of opportunity or disengage and reposition your ranged character instead if possible note that distance gauge will consume your action so you won't be able to attack on the same turn but the enemy can't make an attack of opportunity against you if you use this Rogues gank hunting action disengage at level 2 allowing them to disengage as a bonus action so they can safely move away from melee units and make a ranged attack in the same turn or they can make a melee attack and then disengage and safely move away another thing that ranged characters should try to do every chance they get is to try to get above the target they're attacking being at a slightly higher elevation than your target will provide you with plus two to your attack roll which will change that 80 percent into a 90 if the target has 10 Armor class note that attacking targets that are higher than you will apply a minus two penalty instead so try to avoid this if you can also remember to move up if you're out of the range of your weapon because ranged attacks made outside the range of a weapon will also have disadvantage causing you to be more likely to miss another great way to improve the chances of your attack rules on a ranged character is by being hidden when you attack characters that attack enemies that cannot see them gain advantage on their attacks even melee characters allowing them to roll two dice taking the higher of the two values for their role and that's on top of all the other bonuses like ability modifier proficiency and whether or not you're above the target all of these things get factored in hiding is an action which means you cannot do this in combat and attack on the same turn but you can begin combat hidden easily enough giving you advantage on your first attack it's much harder for melee units to do this and it's generally easier to pull off from range pay attention to the Armory arranged characters are wearing though because some gives you a disadvantage on stealth checks and that can hamper this tactic tremendously Rogues also gain cutting action high at level 2 allowing them to hide as a bonus action so they can actually hide in combat easily and then attack with Advantage every turn if handled properly this is the easiest way to gain sneak attack with them and boost the likelihood they'll connect with their attacks at the same time melee characters operate very differently and they want to get as close to the enemy as possible when they can so they can get their attacks off movement and positioning are a huge part of playing a Melee character and knowing where to be and when to be there is not always easily understood enemies follow the same rules as the player for the most part so in position next to a ranged enemy for example these enemies have disadvantage on their attack rolls making your party less likely to be hit you will also have the option to do an attack of opportunity if they try to move away unless they disengage but then they won't be able to attack you if they do this which is great moving up to melee enemies also prevents them from getting to your arranged characters because of the attack of opportunity mechanics so sometimes your melee characters will also move to intercept enemies both are valid strategies that you'll need to employ depending on what is happening on the battlefield the best way to increase your hit chance against enemies with melee characters besides the things I've already mentioned above is by using weapon actions or class features against them for instance some weapons allow you to set the off balance status effect by using their weapon action and this makes it so subsequent attacks from anyone against the Target have advantage attacking prone enemies grants advantage to your melee attacks and some weapon action spells and class features trigger this effect gazing enemies removes the armor class bonus enemies gained from dexterity making them easier to hit sometimes these can be used as bonus actions and you should use them before your attack action to improve your chances of Landing a hit you'll see on your screen a list of class-related actions that will help your party land its hits in combat you have the Rangers and snaring strike either melee arranged the Battle Masters distracting strike fainting attack or trip attack the Monk's way of the Open Hand fluria blows topple Paladin's thunderous Smite barbarian's Reckless attack and the Rogues cutting action hide if you're playing any of these classes these are attacks to look out for that can drastically improve your party's chances of hitting enemies spellcasters work very similarly to ranged characters with some of their spells like Firebolt Eldritch blast and guiding bolt these spells all target the armor class of the enemy and so you'll make an attack role in casting them trying to overcome the armor of the enemy however in this case you'll use your spell casting ability modifier which is different for each spellcasting class instead of your dexterity modifier when you're adding to your role and just like ranged attacks you will still have disadvantage on these spells if you're targeting an enemy in melee range however there are some spells like the clerics inflict wounds that also work like this but they are very short-ranged spells so they do not gain disadvantage and actually must be cast at short range for instance if you are a wizard casting Firebolt and you had 16 intelligence you would add plus 3 to your attack roll and then your proficiency bonus is added and if you're elevated then you gain plus two to your role as well but not all spells work this way and some of them Target a specific ability of an enemy like sacred flame for instance which is a cleric cantrip that targets the dexterity ability of a character in this case the enemy has to make what is called a saving throw against your spell and they must roll 8 plus your spell casting ability modifier plus your proficiency bonus and if they fail you will deal one to eight damage to them you don't gain plus two from elevation with these types of spells because you are not the one rolling the enemy is there are many spells in the game that Target different abilities and you can read what abilities they Target in the description of each spell this will also help you define which one's Target Armor class and which ones Target abilities you can also hit t on enemies to see what their ability scores are to help you better determine what types of spells you should use for instance an enemy is likely to save against sacred flame if they have high dexterity since they add their dexterity modifier to their saving throw making it more likely they will succeed in their saving throw and one last tip before we wrap up this video which is on the defensive side remember that many of the inverse of these things are true as well the higher your armor class the less likely it is for you to take damage higher your ability scores are the less likely a spell can affect you if you're above the enemy they are more likely to miss if you're standing near ranged enemies they will have disadvantage and if you're prone they will have advantage on their melee attacks so that wraps up our combat tips video I hope you guys found this useful this is kind of a quick and dirty way of giving you some useful information that will help you land your attacks in combat more easily and if you're still struggling you're not sure exactly what to do I highly recommend you check out our classes video with class tips that'll kind of give you more specifics on what to do with the class that you're playing if there are other tips that I forgot to mention please be sure to leave them in the comments below for new players to help them get through the game and if you have questions let me know in the comments [Music] thank you

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Keywords: bg3 combat guide, bg3 combat explained, bg3 combat tips, bg3 combat mechanics, bg3 combat system, bg3 combat tricks, baldurs gate 3 combat tips, baldurs gate 3 combat explained, baldurs gate 3 combat gameplay, baldurs gate 3 tips, tips for baldurs gate 3, bg3 beginners guide to combat, bg3 beginners guide, bg3 beginner tips, bg3 best combat guide, combat guide bg3, Baldur's Gate 3 Combat Guide, Baldur's Gate 3 Guide, Combat Tips BG3, BG3 Combat Tips, baldur's gate 3, bg3

Id: BSLGMShwD-I

Length: 13min 30sec (810 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 06 2023