Baldur's Gate 3

If we're talking specifically about dice rolls, I generally accept failures. But I absolutely save-scum to get around anything I perceive as "videogame bullshit" such as an unexpected scene triggering a conversation on a character I would NEVER want having that conversation, even if they pass the rolls it feels icky to have someone like Lae'zel playing diplomat.

Surely the main point is rolling with dice rolls.

Doesn't save scumming kind of take the point out of having the rolls?

Feels like it would suck a lot of the fun out the game to me.

Depends on how devastating the outcome is, and whether I feel it's locking me out of the play style I wanted. It's my first playthrough, I'll prob be more into letting the dice fall where they will on the next go around.

I almost never replay games but with this one there's just so many different paths through, different characters. EG I keep seeing people talk about Karlach as a player character but... let's just say after meeting fairly early on I guess I chose wrongly, because she was not joining my party on account of

Failure had a massive impact on my story. I wasn't planning on going for an evil run, but I couldn't stop someone from doing something very bad and it changed everything, from characters, to main story, to even gameplay since a character's kit changed. People died, and probably the personality of the character changed, too (I'll find that out next run).

I hated it in the moment, but I'm glad I did it because it's made the run so memorable.

I've still been loading when dumb gameplay happens, like how Tav just walked into a room to cast a spell I thought she had range on, or I forget to bring the rest of the party into combat after I broke a party member off to ambush.

I don't reload combat unless I totally wipe, or want to start the fight over entirely.

I reload most of the other checks because failure is rarely interesting here, there's no fail forward or succeed with cost. It's especially irritating when my character flubs a roll they have like +10 on.

I don't typically reroll stuff that has a very high dc that feels like my character couldn't do. Like if there's a DC 20 check and I have a +1, I'll probably just accept the loss.

I'd rather it was like fo:NV where you either have the skill or you don't.

I reload a lot. If failures led to interesting outcomes more often then I'd stick with them, but they usually just lead to combat.

For dialog & ability checks, I feel like failing is part of character design, and if I've chosen to sacrifice charisma for constitution, then I should play the low CHA path. There's always revivify, but I have scummed over real death. Sometimes, I'd look up the game consequences of success/failure, and it's never game-breaking. For all the 'choices have consequences' talk, you still have to be able to finish the game. That said, years of RPG experience has taught me to always have a max CHA talker and a max DEX lockpicker.

I'm reloading a lot right now as I'm trying to figure out the "video game physics". I've misunderstood a few game mechanics so I've reloaded to try again.

I'll probably also reload to open doors and stuff just to see the content behind there. My game time is limited so I want to see as much as I can on my run through the game.

If by rolling I loose characters I'm invested in and my only options are 3 Charisma rolls on my 10 Charisma character, each with a 15 skillcheck? You bet I'm save scumming the fuck out of that! Otherwise I'll use Inspiration and only save scum if I have both proficiency and a high ability score and the dice decide they don't feel like rolling above 3 today.

I will roll with failures if they're narratively interesting. Failed to open a door and used my last set of lock picks? Reload.

Failed a roll and pissed off the NPC I was trying to charm? Them's the breaks! 😜

Glad to hear it's enjoyable to fail in BG3. I haven't played it yet due to lack of free time. But when I played Disco Elysium, there I had so much time wasted on reloading to roll again non-recoverable rolls. In DE they were often just cutting you of from enjoying the moment.

If I critically fail a roll that I would have succeeded on otherwise if rolling a 1 wasn't instant fail on a check with my highest bonuses, you best believe I'm using an advantage die to re-roll or reload my save if I am out of those.

If I fail a check for something I am not built to handle, I let it slide. Unless it's a forced dialogue and it chose the worst possible character for the interaction.

I don't reload dialogue failures, but honestly between Enhance Ability and Guidance I rarely fail, and when I do I usually have 4 Inspiration saved up for rerolls.

I've reloaded during fights to test interactions ("does throwing an unconscious person deal damage to them?") but not to, for example, undo a bad turn that led to an NPC death.

I try to roll with the punches, but I will reload when I get tripped up by not understanding DND things, or when I need an NPC to stay alive. Like, in Act 2, I failed utterly at something and was going to just roll with it, until I saw it caused the death of an NPC I needed for Karlach’s personal quest. So I reloaded again and again until I got it right. (Same with the tower defense section you need to finally recruit Halsin.) I’m not good at the kind of tactical planning you need for fights in this game, so it takes me multiple tries to figure it out.

I won’t reload for bad rolls in conversations, though, even if I completely whiff something with a Nat1. That’s the kind of thing that makes the game replayable for me.

I'll leverage the built in options to manipulate failed rolls with skills to improve the odds, but I only load saves if I die and have to,

It depends. Sometimes I'll save scum a success if I rolled with a failure previously. Just to see the outcome. Usually I just roll with my failures, though.

Mostly stupid mistakes and the big decisions, like accidentally starting a fight with an entire faction or a misclick causing something really bad. I try to keep it to a minimum though, because half the fun is being surprised and going with the flow. But I do have a general "theme" in mind, and the dialog options make following it a bit difficult sometimes.

I often save scum when I try out new things. This game is so complex, I often have no idea if an idea I have is even possible, so I set it up and try it out before reloading and playing for real.

I only ever save scum pickpocketting. Years of DnD has taught me that fucking rolls up can often lead to more interesting developments. That being said, I also try to maximize success chances with guidance, finding advantage, building characters to be good at their jobs, etc

The only time I can think of that I reloaded to get a different outcome was in act 2 where a party member wanted to do something and I failed at convincing them not to do it.

And another time where I used all of my inspiration to pass a check so I reloaded to see if I could do it without using all the inspiration…

But i think I go with it most of the time

In theory, I only reload when there's been an issue that's somehow mechanical in nature, like when I was first learning how stealth worked, or when a misclick sends characters running into stupid stuff. In theory, I roll with my failures, especially narratively interesting ones.

In practice, I need to work on playing this game less anxiously. I'm reloading more than I would like and part of why this game is so good is (I'm told) how fun and interesting failure is — that's where great depth comes from. I feel like by being too persnickety with outcomes, I'm nerfing my own experience

Worst comes to worst, there's always inspiration, which I'm never short on. I appreciate having the inspiration, it feels like a small endorsement of the instinct within me that makes me want to get the perfect outcome. It's like saying "a little retcon, as a treat", because all good things in moderation.

I tend to only reload when something buggy or unintended happens(misclick) or if it's a really risky/story related thing I feel my character would be good at but got a nat 1.

But this has been one of the few games I've totally rolled with most of my dialogue/skill failures just because they still feel decent narratively. I'll save finding out what the successful/alternate outcomes are for next playthrough!

I'm coming from more FO:NV where I'm used to skill checks, not random chance... So I'm scumming like crazy on my single player save.

On my multiplayer save we're aiming for Chaotic Evil so we're rolling with the punches.