Baldur’s Gate 3’s Karmic Dice have become a hot topic of discussion, particularly after Larian’s role-playing game left Steam Early Access and enjoyed a massive launch.
As IGN’s Rebekah Valentine reported this week, Baldur's Gate 3 players may want to turn Karmic Dice off in the game settings. Karmic Dice, which are enabled by default, avoid failure streaks, while keeping the results mostly random. It’s a sort of bad luck protection in Baldur's Gate 3, a setting that effectively manipulates dice rolls to prevent characters from having long streaks of good or bad rolls.
As Valentine explained in her story: “So if you've been rolling especially badly lately, the setting will put a little finger on the scale to tip it in your favour. But it also seems to work against you if you're having a long streak of good roles, and also will help and harm your enemies in the same way.”
Should you turn Karmic Dice off? That’s the question Baldur’s Gate 3 players are wrestling with, with multiple threads packed with discussion across Reddit, plenty of posts about it on social media, and videos attempting to answer the question.
“I've been using it and I'm not sure how I feel about it,” said redditor Goldenkrow. “I get paranoid when I get hit, wondering if it’s because of the Karmic Dice or if it was a ‘legit’ hit. But at the same time I'm kind of worried about turning it off. If it is on by default, the devs must surely trust it to make for a good experience?”
Larian director of publishing, Michael Douse, addressed the debate in a tweet, encouraging players to consider Karmic Dice “a friendly DM”. Baldur’s Gate 3, after all, is an RPG based on the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition ruleset.
“FYI you don’t need to use Karmic Dice in BG3,” Douse said. “It’s an option. Options are good. If you feel like you’re failing too many rolls, it’ll balance it out like a friendly DM. Karmic Dice is a friendly DM. Like D&D groups, we give folks options to help hone the experience to their taste.
“The dice will always ensure you have a story to tell, but if you want the RNG gods to be slightly weighted in your favour, then Karmic Dice is for you.”
"Karmic Dice is a friendly DM.
Douse’s comments give us a good idea of where Larian is coming from with Karmic Dice, but it’ll no doubt remain a topic of discussion for months, perhaps even years, as more and more players dip their toes into the sometimes chaotic, sometimes infuriating random world of Baldur’s Gate 3.
In any case, if you feel like the RNG gods make a “bad” decision, if such a thing exists in Baldur’s Gate 3, then you can always consider save scumming, which has become a hot topic in of itself.
There’s so much going on in the virtual world of Baldur’s Gate 3, from a community debate about save scumming to players who are convinced they can “fix” Shadowheart. Find out what we think of the game in IGN’s recently updated Baldur’s Gate 3 review in-progress. Oh, and be careful when you Long Rest in Baldur's Gate 3.
For more info, check out how our guide to building a character in Baldur's Gate 3 as well as our guide to Baldur's Gate 3's races and subraces.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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