Baldur’s Gate 3is part of Larian Studios' fantasy RPG series based on the infamous table-top game,Dungeons & Dragons. In the fantastical world of the Forgotten Realms, your party must overcome obstacles by utilizing their abilities — a core mechanic of the game, building up six essential stats of your character. These stats determine how powerful your character is both mentally and physically.
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Abilities are also useful for navigating the world, quests, and surpassing checks. Within each ability are groups of specific skill sets that a character can become proficient in. What ability you choose, and which skills are consequently influenced, has a rippling effect on the outcome of your story.
6Constitution (Con)
Coming up at number six is Constitution. This ability influences the max number of damage you may take and the total health of your character. While this may seem like a very useful ability, Constitution is a verypassive trait.
There are no skills attributed to it and very rarely will you stumble across a Constitution check, which means it offers nothing beyond health and endurance. If you are clever with the other abilities you pick and invest into, you can easily evade serious damage and will not need to have such a high HP.
5Strength (Str)
If you are a combat-focused character, then Strength is a very useful ability that will prove its worth in the battlefield. Strength increases your chances to land an attack roll and inflict damage on your foe. For wielders of rapiers and long swords, this ability will also boost the damage these weapons inflict.
Strength influences your character’s Athletics skill, affecting the distance of their jumps and the capacity of how much they can carry. However, brute force does not necessarily mean you will be victorious. Play your cards right by honing other abilities, and you may just find that you do not need Strength to defeat the enemies.
4Intelligence (Int)
For those who play as Wizards, preferring wands to swords and magic over strength, Intelligence increases the likelihood of your spells landing. This is an apt ability for logic-based thinkers. Use this ability to make the most of your spell slots. Intelligence also allows you to clear checks on knowledge-based questions on lore, nature, and beings of the Forgotten Realms.
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Skills attributed to this ability are: Arcana, History, Nature, Investigation, and Religion. As Nature is the second most common check with locked items, harnessing this ability will help you uncover useful things. Other than Nature, the other skills are not as convenient to navigate the game. Intelligence is the most optimized if you play as a Wizard, which can be limiting if that is not your preferred class. However, Wizards are one of the most powerful classes in the game, so increasing the Intelligence stat of your Wizard character is likely to make you a fearsome foe.
3Dexterity (Dex)
For sneaky sleuths who are light on their feet, Dexterity is important for being able to outsmart your opponent. Similar to Strength, this ability increases your chance of landing a hit and heightens the damage from Dexterity-based weapons. As an added bonus, it also impacts initiative, which determines the order of combat and the enemy’s chance of hitting you. Since Baldur’s Gate 3 is turn-based, this ability sways the outcome of a battle.
Dexterity influences skills like Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth. This broad range of skills are incredibly useful for different aspects of the game. Acrobatics can help you cross troublesome terrain like webs, ice or plants. Stealth is beneficial for evading enemy attacks and Sleight of Hand allows for pick pocketing extra money.
2Wisdom (Wis)
Unlike Intelligence, which is used by Wizards, Wisdom is wielded byDruids,Rangersand Clerics as their spell casting ability. Higher Wisdom values means an increased chance of your spells hitting the opponent. This ability also enhances your senses, enabling you to uncover things that regular characters may miss.
Skills that require Wisdom include: Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Perception, and Survival. Insight and Perception are the two of the most valuable skills. While Insight is necessary for solving dialogue and non-combat quests, Perception is what allows you to find locked items.
1Charisma (Cha)
Taking the top spot is Charisma — a spell casting ability used by Bards, Paladins,Sorcerers, andWarlocks. In addition to increasing the effectiveness of spells, this ability can be used to convince or deceive characters encountered on your journey. This is an incredibly powerful asset. Your party should have at least one character with a high Charisma stat.
Deception, Intimidation, Performance, and Persuasion are the skills attributed to this ability. Most dialogue checks contain Deception, Persuasion and Intimidation as a choice. When it is done right, Charisma is the best ability as it allows you to play the game in an entirely different way. With a good Charisma build, you can opt for a more passive playstyle. Instead of picking fights, you can talk your way past encounters and hear things other players may miss. As a sweet talker, this also means you will have more companions.
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