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Learn how to boost your damage with our Baldur’s Gate 3: Critical Strike and Critical Miss Explained guide!
In the world of Baldur’s Gate 3, combat can often be a game of chance, where the roll of the dice can determine the outcome of a battle. Two important aspects of combat are Critical Strikes and Critical Misses. Understanding these mechanics is crucial for success on the battlefield. This guide will explain what Critical Strikes and Critical Misses are, how they work, and how to optimize your combat strategy around them.
What are Critical Miss and Critical Strike in Baldur’s Gate 3?
When any character makes an attack in Baldur’s Gate 3 they roll a 20-sided dice in order to determine the strength of the hit. The game does this automatically for all combatants, each time they swing a sword, fire an arrow, cast a spell, or any other type of action taken.
Here is a brief explanation of what a Critical Strike and Critical Miss are in Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Critical Strike: The character has rolled a 20 on their attack roll. This results in an automatic hit, and your attack succeeds regardless of the target’s armor class or modifiers.
- Critical Miss: The character has rolled a 1 on their attack roll. This results in an automatic miss, and your attack fails regardless of your bonuses or modifiers.
So a Critical Strike occurs when you roll a natural 20 on a 20-sided dice (d20) during an attack roll. This is the highest possible roll and represents a stroke of exceptional luck. Thus, allowing you to deal maximum damage and potentially trigger special effects. When you score a Critical Strike, your attack’s damage is maximized. For instance, if your weapon normally deals 1d8 damage, you would automatically deal 8 damage on a Critical Strike, regardless of your usual damage roll.
A Critical Miss, often referred to as a “natural 1,” occurs when you roll a 1 on a d20 during an attack roll. This represents a disastrous failure, potentially resulting in unintended consequences. There’s no guaranteed way to completely avoid Critical Misses. However, some abilities, feats, or features might provide rerolls or ways to mitigate the effects of a Critical Miss.
Optimizing Critical Strikes
To increase your chances of scoring Critical Strikes, consider using abilities that grant Advantage on your attack rolls or lower the enemy’s defenses. Flanking, high ground, and careful positioning can also provide Advantage, improving your odds of rolling that natural 20.
Here is a list of passives you can use to Optimize your chance and use of Critical Strikes:
- Improved Critical Hit
- Savage Attack
- Brutal Critical
- When you land a Critical Hit, you roll an extra damage die as well as the normal additional critical dice.
- This is a class specific passive, which can be unlocked by Level 3 Barbarians
- Assassinate: Ambush
- Any successful Attack Roll against a Surprised creature is a Critical Hit.
- This is a class specific passive, which can be unlocked by Assassin Rogues
Here is a list of feats you can use to Optimize your chance and use of Critical Strikes:
- Lucky Feat
- Great Weapon Master Feat
- When you land a Critical Hit or kill a target with a melee weapon attack, you can make another melee weapon attack as a bonus action that turn. Attacks with Heavy melee weapons you are Proficient with, can deal an additional 10 damage at the cost of a -5 Attack Roll penalty. (You can toggle this on and off.)
- Unlocks for all classes at Level 4 and will be listed as an available Feat
- Spell Sniper Feat
Best Builds for Critical Strike
If you’re looking to create a character build focused on capitalizing on critical strikes in Baldur’s Gate 3, there are several classes, abilities, and strategies you can employ to maximize your chances of landing those powerful hits. Here are some of the best builds to consider:
- Champion Fighter
- The Champion subclass is designed to excel at critical hits, as they have an increased chance to score critical strikes due to their Improved Critical feature. Combine this with the Great Weapon Master feat for heavy-hitting attacks, and Sentinel to control the battlefield and capitalize on opportunity attacks.
- Oath of Vengeance Paladin
- The Oath of Vengeance Paladin can utilize their Vow of Enmity to gain advantage on attack rolls, increasing the chances of scoring critical hits. Combine this with the Polearm Master feat and Great Weapon Master for powerful melee criticals and the ability to protect your allies by stopping enemies in their tracks.
- Assassin Rogue
- The Assassin Rogue build is exceptionally adept at delivering devastating critical hits. With their adeptness for sneaking, stacked on top of a successful Surprise effect and the Ambush passive, Assassins deal extra damage when attacking enemies who are unaware of their presence or engaged in combat with their allies.
- Barbarians
- The Barbarian class offers a unique approach to capitalizing on critical hits. With their Reckless Attack feature, Barbarians can choose to attack recklessly, gaining advantage on their attack rolls. This increased chance to hit not only raises the probability of landing critical strikes but also synergizes well with the Barbarian’s high damage output. Furthermore, critical hits with Barbarian abilities like Brutal Critical can lead to massive bursts of damage, turning the tides of battle in their favor.
Conclusion
Remember that your build’s effectiveness will depend on your playstyle, party composition Experiment with different combinations of classes, subclasses, and feats to find the build that suits your preferences and enhances your critical strike potential. With a solid understanding of Critical Strikes and Critical Misses, you can enhance your combat prowess and increase your chances of victory in the dangerous world of Baldur’s Gate.
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