Baldur’s Gate 3 Karmic Dice – How does it work?

Baldur's Gate 3 takes a step toward the traditional gaming of Dungeons & Dragons, where everything depends on dice rolls. A single lousy roll could spell doom for the entire party, as I found out after failing an intelligence roll against the wounded Mind Flayer right at the start of the storyline. Developers have given us Karmic Dice to alleviate some of the randomnesses and control the chaos. This has left many players wondering how they work exactly. This article will dive deeper into the mechanics of Karmic Dice and explain their function in the game.

How does Karmic Dice work in BG3?

The Karmic Dice in Baldur's Gate 3 works to make dice rolls less random and more consistent by tightening the statistical probability for extreme rolls and getting tighter averages. In practice, this means that you should have more stable and consistent dice rolls without continuing negative streaks. Everybody who ever played a tabletop game with a lot of dice rolling has had an experience where they failed three, four, or even more times in a row, cursing the gods of dice for their bad luck. Baldur's Gate 3 has dice gods engineered into itself as a game mechanic called Karmic Dice.

Related: Trap Disarming Guide (Baldur’s Gate 3)

To be clear, we don't know exactly how this option operates, but we work on the assumption that a certain algorithm is involved, detecting statistical aberrations before a roll is attempted, thereby skewing the roll in favor of order instead of further chaos. In other words, the game should not prevent you from dying because of one stupid decision, but it should prevent you from dying multiple times in a row.

Should you enable the Karmic Dice option in Baldur's Gate 3?

If you're looking for a more consistent playing experience like I do, you should definitely enable the Karmic Dice option in your Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough. You will have a more consistent experience without the random inconveniences of your characters missing rolls of the lowest difficulty classes too often.

Be warned that using the Karmic Dice isn't the same as using cheats in Baldur's Gate 3. The same rules that apply to your dice rolls will also apply to your enemies. Since the entire game is based on chance, both your party and your enemies are governed by the same mechanic, which works globally. Expect your enemies to miss less just as you make better rolls.

How to enable the Karmic Dice option in Baldur's Gate 3?

The Karmic Dice option comes enabled by default if you play the campaign on the Explorer difficulty. If you started the playthrough on a higher difficulty, you can still enable it by following the steps below:

1. Press the ESC button to enter the main menu screen.
2. Click Options to go into the Options menu.
3.  Under the Gameplay tab, scroll down until you see the Karmic Dice option.
4. Tick the checkbox to enable Karmic Dice in the game.

Looking for more articles to help you on your adventures in Baldur's Gate 3? You've come to the right place! Check out Baldur’s Gate 3 Finesse Weapons Guide and What are Wares in Baldur’s Gate 3? here on Pro Game Guides!