In Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3, the dice control every move you make. Whether it’s the invisible dice that determines if your attack hits, or the visible D20 that rolls during dialogue choices, it’s always there. As it turns out, Baldur’s Gate 3 save scummers see the dice as their mortal enemies.
In a thread on the Baldur’s Gate 3 subreddit, players were asked how much they save scum in the new Dungeons and Dragons RPG. As it turns out, a large number of fans are safe scumming, fighting the choices the dice dish out.
One player revealed that they don’t usually save scum in the game. However, some choices do require the use of save scumming, such as making sure the Owlbear Cub stays in your camp.
“[I] only [save scum] for some choices. Most things I just accept, but things like comforting the Owlbear Cub? You better believe I'm save scumming the sh*t out of that, that good boy deserves it,” they said.
Some fans believe that save scumming should only be done on low rolls for low score scenarios. For example, if something requires you to roll a six and you roll a three, you shouldn’t feel bad about reloading your save.
“I make a point of living with negative outcomes if they seem reasonable,” explained another Redditor. “But having Astarion roll a 1 on a 5 lock with like +10-15 bonus points just feels like ass. Really wish they had gotten rid of 1 as an auto fail.”
Other players explained that they are not only save scummers, but avid ones. While they live with combat follies, they dare not let the dice stop them from getting the choices they want.
“Hellyeah brother. I save scum the sh*t out of this b*tch. I'm slowly trying to cut back and just live with the choices but after seeing how things go when you succeed a roll vs fail one, the experience is just straight up better succeeding,” said a Redditor with a name I’m forbidden from putting here. “As for combat I've only had to reload once.”
In our review of Baldur’s Gate 3, we discussed that failing in the new RPG often leads to more rewards than you’d expect. Compared to other games, failing opens up new opportunities and questlines than other games in the genre.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is currently available now on PC with a PlayStation 5 release coming on September 6th. An Xbox Series port is in the works.