Baldur’s Gate 3 lets you fail unfailable rolls

A Baldur’s Gate 3 player failed what should have been an unfailable dice roll, prompting a conversation on a core game mechanic.

Few things in Baldur’s Gate 3 are as frustrating as rolling a natural 1, especially when the odds of succeeding are high. One player learned this the hard way when, while trying to dive into an NPC’s thoughts, they managed to fail the DC 0 check.

The player took to social media, posting on the BG3 subreddit a screenshot of their situation with the title “Really?”

Considering that 1 is obviously greater than 0, the player was understandably frustrated by failing the check. This prompted a discussion on how Baldur’s Gate 3 handles nat 1s and nat 20s alike.

“I’ve gotten that too I’ve also gotten the critical success on the 99 one,” said one commenter, calling it “The duality of fate.”

In Baldur’s Gate 3, rolling a 1 or a 20 results in a critical failure or critical success, respectively. No matter what positive or negative modifiers you may have – or how high or low the DC is – you will always succeed or fail at what you are trying to do if you roll the highest or lowest possible result.

This sets it apart from tabletop Dungeons & Dragons, where it’s a popular house rule rather than a core mechanic.

While certainly frustrating in situations like this, many Baldur’s Gate 3 players say it makes sense under these circumstances.

“I don’t mind it as much in a video game as your options are inherently more limited there,” pointed out one player. “But in ttrpg, some things just aren’t possible. Like the famous example of a Nat20 athletics check won’t let you jump to the moon.”