Baldur's Gate 3 is introducing a new generation to the pain of terrible dice rolls

News
By
published

How come they always happen at the most ridiculous and inconvenient times?

Baldur's Gate 3 squirrel
(Image credit: Larian Studios)

As we dive into a weekend full of free time to play Baldur's Gate 3, it also means there's lots of neat things we'll start to see being discovered. And whilst there's the fun bits, like finding secret pacts hidden in the terms and conditions or Matt Mercer flexing his D&D muscles and stacking boxes to get over a very high wall, there's also the sadistic fun in seeing bad dice rolls.

Baldur's Gate 3 is quite possibly the closest a video game has ever come to emulating D&D, and it means that some people will be properly engaging with the rules of 5e for the first time, bad dice rolls and all.

A number of players have shown their attempts at the very first roll in the game, an Intelligence check, which landed on a natural one.

Latest Videos From

Welcome to D&D!

First roll of the game. from r/BaldursGate3

Not a great start to the game, then. Hopefully that isn't a sign of how the rest of their campaigns will go.

It's even more painful (and funny if you're really into schadenfreude) for those who get a critical failure on a skill check of two, as xAnaklusmosx on Reddit has found out.

"Try Baldur's Gate 3," they said. "It'll be fun," they said. from r/BaldursGate3

We're also starting to hear from players who are discovering the pain of failing rolls to save companions, meaning they've potentially lost that character for the rest of the game. 

Messed up with Gale from r/BaldursGate3

Oops… Well, at least there's always another campaign? Thankfully Baldur's Gate 3 has a lot of replay value.

These rolls only show a few of the game's numerous checks and if you're playing Baldur's Gate 3 you'll likely encounter a very badly timed critical fail at some point, but that's part of the fun of D&D. If you do fail a frustratingly easy check, what else can your character do to achieve their goal?

Our Baldur's Gate 3 review is still in progress, but it may well be the best D&D game ever made. If you're playing, here's our Baldur's Gate 3 guide hub to help you out.

Liv Ngan
Liv Ngan
Freelance contributor

I'm a freelance writer and started my career in summer 2022. After studying Physics and Music at university and a short stint in software development, I made the jump to games journalism on Eurogamer's work experience programme. Since then, I've also written for Rock Paper Shotgun and Esports Illustrated. I'll give any game a go so long as it's not online, and you'll find me playing a range of things, from Elden Ring to Butterfly Soup. I have a soft spot for indies aiming to diversify representation in the industry.