How Advantage and Disadvantage Work in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3) Explained

There are many Dungeons & Dragons mechanics present in Baldur’s Gate 3 that aren’t common in most other RPGs. With this, a lot of new players will need to learn how these work to get the most out of dice rolling situations. One of these mechanics is a special Advantage and Disadvantage modifier that can impact everything in the game, from Charisma checks to smooth-talking your way out of a situation, to saving throws as you get wailed on in combat. Let’s explore how these mechanics work so you can be more aware of the dangers and benefits you’ll be facing in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3).

Advantage and Disadvantage in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3)

Advantage and Disadvantage are dice-rolling modifiers that you’ll come across frequently throughout your adventure with Baldur’s Gate 3. These are special modifiers that impact your dice rolling outcomes both in and out of combat encounters.

Advantage is, as the name sounds, an advantage to the outcome you’re rolling for. When you have advantage, instead of rolling a single dice and getting what you get, you’ll instead roll two dice and get to use the higher of the two rolls for the check. This is a pretty big deal, as having two chances to succeed in a check is much better than just the one.

On the other hand, Disadvantage is the opposite. When you roll for a check, you’ll again roll two dice, but in this case though you’re forced to take the lower of the two rolls. This makes it much harder to pass in checks, and can be a huge burdgen.

Advantage and Disadvantage Interactions in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3)

While you’re rolling two dice in both of these situations, it’s good to know that all modifiers will still apply to both dice rolls. Lets say you have bonuses to rolls totaling 5 and you roll with Disadvantage and get a 5 and a 10. The lower value gets selected, in this case 5, but you’ll still get your bonus added on to that roll to bring it up to a total of 10.

In situations where you’d have both Advantage as well as Disadvantage, then these modifiers would cancel each other out and you’d simple make a standard roll.

You can gain Advantage or Disadvantage through quite a few means. Some examples of each include the following —

Advantage:

• Attacking from Stealth, this adds Advantage to your chance to land attacks on enemies
• Using skills such as the Friends Enchantment Cantrip on someone will give you Advantage on your Charisma checks when talking to them

Disadvantage:

• When you’re inflicted with the Frightened status in combat most checks will have Disadvantage
• Using a weapon your character doesn’t have stats to wield properly results in Disadvantage when you swing it at enemies

There are a ton of situations all throughout Baldur’s Gate 3 where you’ll encounter Advantage and Disadvantage. Hopefully now you’ll know what’s going on the next time you run into it. And for more on BG3, check out our guides on how to respec your party members, as well as fixing any save bugs that might pop up. And if you’re just starting out, watch Destructoid’s excellent beginner’s guide to Baldur’s Gate 3.