Baldur’s Gate III Prep 5th Edition D&D-Abilities and The D20

Updated October 10, 2020

WIth the announcement Baldur’s Gate III at E3 this year, we were given the opportunity to interview Swen Vincke, the head of Larian Studios. It was a great interview. revealed that Baldur’s Gate III would be based on the 5th Edition of Dungeons & DragonsThe most recent version of the pen-and-paper RPG was introduced in 2014.

Though many gamers have played other games based on D&D before, no video game to date has used the 5th Edition rule set. While you won’t need to know much about D&D in order to play Baldur’s Gate III, you will make fundamentally better characters if you understand some of 5th Edition’s core concepts. In this article I will attempt to educate you on some basics, so that you can create more efficient character’s upon the game’s release. This is the next article is about Proficiency, Skills and AdvantageYou can find out more at the DnD GuideSection.

Baldur’s Gate III Prep: 5th Edition D&D – Abilities & The D20

Dungeons & Dragons uses a system that involves the rolling of a twenty-sided die called a D20To resolve situations and encounters in the game environment. Playing Baldur’s Gate III this will obviously 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 corner of the screen. What’s really great about table top gaming on PC or ConsoleThe best part about the game is the way it does the math for you. This eliminates the need to memorize every detail that could affect your encounter. But if you are unsure, the game will explain it. Abilities work, you may find yourself having a tough time, so let’s begin there.

Ability Score & Ability Modifier

In Dungeons & Dragons Attributes are called “Abilities“. This means that Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma are all referred to as Abilities within the game’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 Skillsan attribute of a character or another Active or Passive function they have. Attributes or Stats is usually what we’d refer to these as, but in D&D they are called Abilities

Ability Score refers to each Ability (Stat), and Ability Modifier describes the penalty or bonus you receive from the Ability Score for each Ability. Divide the Ability Score by 10 and divide it by 2. So, for example, 21 Strength equals 21 Ability Score. Your Ability Modifier for Strength = +5. You have six Dexterity and you get 6 Ability Scores. The Ability Modifier is 2 for you.  The success of your character at different things throughout the game will depend on both your Ability Scores or Ability Modifiers.

Ability Score & Ability Modifier

How does your Ability Modifier affect you?

Because the D20 can be rolled in 3 different situations, such as Ability Score or Ability Modifier, I started with Ability Score. All three of these will use your Ability Modifiers when determining their outcomes, so it’s wise to know how they are calculated. Please note that I have not added “Proficiency” or other factors in order to keep things as simple as possible.

Ability Tests

Ability Checks are rolled when performing actions within the game world, testing a characters “Abilities”, and often appear in dialogue. Ability Checks are accompanied by something called a Difficulty Class (DC), and that is the number you must roll with the D20 in order to “pass” the Ability Check. Baldur’s Gate IIIThe Difficulty of the entire game will be determined by your characters. You will also need decent Ability Modifiers to get through them. Below is a list of the DC of each of these general categories, in case the game simply says “Hard” when you go to pick a lock, instead of specifying exactly what you must roll:

DC Task Difficulty

• Very easy = 5
• Simple = 10
• Medium = 15
• Hard = 20
• Very hard = 25
• Close to Impossible: 30

As you can see, you just need to get a roll of the D20 on a 5, to be successful in Very Easy DC. Nearly Impossible would require 30. For 30 to be possible, you’d need to have an extremely high Ability Modifier. Other bonuses and a flawless 20-roll on the die. To further illustrate how this works, let’s do an example of something likely to be in the game:

The door is locked and the Strength Check DC for it is 15. You are now with your party. You decide to make use of your Fighter to open the door. He has 18 Strength and an Ability Modifier (of +4). The character would roll the D20, adding +4 to the roll. If it is 15 or more, he would unlock the door. If he fails to roll, nothing will happen or it could be something very bad. You might find that the door jams and is now impossible to open. The game will calculate this and display it at the bottom of your screen.

Attack Rolls

Attack Rolls is the second purpose of Ability Modifier. It is used when characters attack another character. When attacking, players will roll the D20 and if their roll is equal to or higher than the target’s Armor Class (AC), they will connect with their Weapon. Melee Weapons add Strength Modifiers to their rolls, while Ranged Weapons have Dexterity Modifiers. There are some exceptions, such as Melee Weapons that have the Finesse property, allowing them to use Dexterity instead of Strength, but I won’t go into these here.

Also, your Ability Modifier gets added to your damage roll if your attack succeeds. Damage rolls are determined by rolling the die. Weaponadded Ability Modifier). You will be more likely to use a weapon if your Strength and Dexterity are high. Also, you’ll do more damage if they are higher. These Abilities make martial characters particularly strong.

The enemy Orc has an AC 13. Your Rogue attacks it. Her weapon of choice is a Longbow. She also has a Dexterity Modifier (of +3). After rolling the D20 she receives an 11 and then adds +3, giving her total of 14. The Orc was hit with her arrow, and she is now successful. After rolling a D8, which is the Longbow’s Damage die, she gets a 4. For a total damage of 7, she adds the +3 DEX Modifier.

Throws to Save

To calculate the character’s defense against various effects and spells, Saving Throws are utilized. Each of these has its own DC, which the character must make a “saving throw” of the die against in order to protect them self. This spells will only target the six Abilities that the character has, so they’ll use the specific Ability Modifier to roll. You must reach the target number, or higher for success with Ability Checks and Attack Rolls.

If you are making a spell casting character such as a Wizard or Sorcerer, you want to have the highest DC you can on your spells, as this helps prevent enemies from successfully rolling a “Saving Throw”, and increases your effectiveness. This is known as the Spellcasting Ability Modifier. Each class has its own ability that calculates this. Clerics use Wisdom for their Spell DC calculation, while Wizards use Intelligence. Your DC for resisting one of your Spells equals 8 + Spellcasting Abilities Modifier.

A group of Goblins is aided by the spell Call Lightning. His Wisdom is 23. He also has a Spellcasting ability Modifier (+16) This means the DC of this Spell is 14 (8+6), and any Goblin who doesn’t roll at least 14 (after all their Modifiers) will take 3D10 damage (the sum of 3 rolls of a D10 die), and any who does will take half that amount.

---

Knowing these things about Abilities, Ability Scores & Modifiers, as well as DC and AC should help you make more informed decisions when character building.

This was the first of several articles on the basics of 5th Edition D&D, basics that will apply to Baldur’s Gate III and prepare you for what’s to come hopefully next year. This article was written to help BG3 players understand fundamental mechanics and make informed decisions regarding character development. Next article: Proficiency, Skills and Advantage/DisadvantageYou’ll find out how these factors are incorporated into the calculations in the next section. You can find more information at the DnD Guidesection