Baldur’s Gate 3 Abilities

Every creature in Baldur’s Gate 3, from the lowliest rat to an end-game, level 12 adventurer, has their core attributes expressed in Ability Scores. These Ability Scores affect basically everything your character does: they influence Attack Rolls, Saving Throws, Ability Checks (naturally) — if a die is getting rolled, it’s very likely one of your Ability Scores is influencing it. Depending on the Ability Score, it can have a positive, negative, or neutral affect on associated actions.

All classes have a Primary Ability — the one that impacts their damage dealing and/or spellcasting the most. Every skill in the game is also tied to an Ability, with Ability Score Modifiers either adding or subtracting to the related Skill Check.

Ability	Affected Skills	Primary Ability	Description
Dexterity	Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth	Monk, Ranger, Rogue	Agility, reflexes, and balance. Affects your effectiveness with ranged and finesse weapons. Also affects your Initiative and Armour Class.
Strength	Athletics	Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin	Muscles and physical power. Affects your effectiveness with melee weapons. Also determines how far you can jump and how much you can carry.
Intelligence	Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, Religion	Arcane Trickster, Eldritch Knight, Wizard	Memory and mental power. Improves spellcasting for wizards.
Constitution	None	None	Stamina and physical endurance. Affects your hit point maximum.
Charisma	Deception, Intimidation, Performance, Persuasion	Bard, Warlock, Sorcerer	Force of personality. Improves spellcasting for bards, paladins, sorcerers, and warlocks. Influences traders’ prices.
Wisdom	Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Perception, Survival	Cleric, Druid	Senses and intuition. Improves spellcasting for clerics, druids, and rangers.

Ability Score Modifiers

The above Abilities will modify various rolls, with the Ability Modifier Bonus (see below) being applied to the relevant roll. Ability Score Modifiers are added to:

• Ability Checks
  • Any time you are in a dialog, attempting to pick a lock — basically any time you have to roll the d20 — you’ll be doing an Ability Check. These can also be tied to a specific Skill, in which case you’ll be able to add both your Ability Score Modifier, plus your Proficiency Bonus — if you’re proficient in that skill.
• Attack Rolls
  • Any attack with a weapon or spell that doesn’t automatically hit requires a roll. The Ability Modifier applied to the roll depends on your character’s class (for example, a Wizard uses Intelligence on Attack Rolls for their spells, while a Warlock uses Charisma).
• Damage Rolls
  • As with Attack Rolls, the Ability affecting damage will depend on your class.
• Saving Throws
  • These are intuitive — Charisma saving throws are modified by the Charisma Ability Modifier, and so on.

Ability Score Modifier Bonuses

The following chart indicates the affect that a given ability score will have on an associated check. Scores below 10 will subtract from dice rolls, while skills above 11 will add to them.

Ability Point Buy System

In character creation (or when respeccing), you can freely distribute your Ability Points as you see fit (although you cannot go lower than 8). However, the cost to raise your Abilities is not a constant. When raising an Ability from 13 to 14, and for every point beyond 14, you must spend two Ability Points in order to raise that Ability by 1.

The exception to this is the two bonuses you are allowed to apply to your Abilities — you get one +1 bonus and one +2 bonus, and they can be placed on any Ability regardless of its point value. It’s worth noting that they cannot both be applied to the same Ability.