Baldurs Gate 3: Can I repeat ability test? Baldurs Gate 3 guide, walkthrough

In BG3 you can easily fail a skill test. Our guide explains if the game allows you to repeat them freely, and tells you how to protect yourself from a negative test result.

Last update: 26 July 2023

This page of the game guide for Baldurs Gate 3 answers the question can you redo skill checks. This is important information in terms of wanting to get a positive result after a test that has failed.

• How to prepare for a skill check?
• Factors affecting success rate
• Can all skill checks be redone?

How to prepare for a skill check?

1. Skill checks are dice rolls that can be activated when you interact with an object or talk to an NPC. They determine how well your character does at something.
2. Each check is tied to a specific Skill or Ability. Often, you'll be able to choose from several different checks (e.g. intimidating the other person or deceiving them). Usually, these different techniques bring the same result (such as freeing a hostage), but not always.
3. The skill check is done by the currently selected character. Use this to your advantage - choose the character with the highest skill relevant to the check. Unfortunately, even if you prepare well, a lot's up to luck - you can fail even near-guaranteed checks.
4. Before triggering a check, you can move your cursor over the stat's name (example pictured). You'll learn how many dice you'll roll and what bonuses you'll get (in our case, +1 from Wisdom).
5. You should save the game before skill checks. That way you can redo them, or at least not spend any resources.

Factors affecting success rate

1. Triggering a skill check will take you to the dice rolling screen, where you'll need to roll one or two dice.
2. There are many factors affecting checks. In our example, our chances are worsened by our character's low charisma, but also increased by their intimidation proficiency. You can also manually add other bonuses before rolling to increase your chances.
3. You'll pass the check if you roll equal or higher to its difficulty. In the example pictured above, the difficulty is 10. The final score is the die roll and the aforementioned additional bonuses added together (in our example, we have +3 to the final score).

Can all skill checks be redone?

1. Most checks can only be attempted once. After a failed dice roll, the game may block the skill check but could make an exception if you were very close to succeeding.
2. If there were several checks to choose from, sometimes you can try a different one.
3. Most repeatable checks are tied to the environment, such as disarming traps and lockpicking. If you fail, you can spend Inspiration to reroll. We've described how to gather and spend Inspiration on the Inspiration page.
4. If you roll a Critical Failure, that is a 1 on the d20 die, the game may not allow you to reroll even if you have Inspiration to spend.