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As you embark on your epic adventures inBaldur’s Gate 3, you’ll quickly realize that the game is all about rolling dice—a lot! And while ability score modifiers and proficiencies can help fine-tune your odds, the real game-changers in this game of chance are advantage and disadvantage.
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These two little conditions can significantly impact the outcome of your rolls, and can ultimately determine whether your character succeeds or fails during important moments of your journey. So, let’s break it down and explore exactly how you can use this mechanic and turn the tides in your favor.
What Is Advantage And Disadvantage?
Advantage and disadvantage aresituational modifiersthatdepend on your character’s current circumstances.This can include a vast variety of things, includingbackground and knowledge,status effects and conditions,the terrain and light level, and much more.
They can be applied toattack rolls,ability checks, andsaving throws(though those are rare). That said, they canonly affect d20 rolls, which means theycannot affect things like the damage rollof a successful attack, or thehealing rollof a Healing Words spell.
When you have either advantage or disadvantage on a roll, youmake the roll twice. If you have advantage, you take thehigher result; whereas if you have disadvantage, you take thelower result. For example, you rolled a4 and a 19—withadvantage, you’d go with the19, but withdisadvantage, you’d stick with the4.
It’s essential to recognize your own advantages, but don’t forget to level the playing field by inflicting disadvantages on your enemies. Try castingHex: Dexterityto force an enemy to reroll their initiative before a big fight!
Sources of Advantage & Disadvantage
There are countless sources of advantage and disadvantage throughout the game, but here are a few common examples.
You have disadvantage on:
How They Interact With Other Modifiers
While advantage and disadvantage hold a significant sway over your success, you shouldn’t overlook theimpact of other regular modifiersthat can affect the outcome of your actions. They stillapply to your total after the advantage or disadvantage rollis made, so be mindful ofbonuses from your abilities,skillsandequipment—they can still make a crucial difference!
If you find yourself stuck with disadvantage on attacks, consider using spells that force your enemies to make saving throws instead!
Additionally, it’s important to remember that advantage and disadvantagedo not stack. If you have advantage from three separate sources, it still counts only asone stack of advantage, and you will stillonly roll a total of two dice.
If you have both, they will cancel each other out. If you haveadvantage from one sourceanddisadvantage from another, thenyou make your roll normally, without advantage or disadvantage.
This appliesregardless of how many stacks of advantage or disadvantage you have—if you have three sources of advantage and one source of disadvantage, they still cancel each other out, and you would make theroll without advantage or disadvantage.
