Baldur’s Gate 3 streamer blasts “broken” dice rolls after dealing 9 damage with lightning bolt

A Twitch streamer playing her way through Baldur’s Gate 3 became frustrated with the game’s unpredictable magic system after dealing just 9 damage with Lightning Bolt, one of the most powerful spells in the game.

Twitch streamer Stormfall33 was doing a playthrough with a custom wizard character when a combat encounter went south, with her character’s Lightning Bolt dealing almost the lowest possible damage.

Because the combat in Baldur’s Gate 3 is based off of 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, dice rolls are a core part of almost every interaction, including spell-casting. This means that despite being a level 3 spell, and one of the strongest AOE spells in the game, Lightning Bolt can deal less than 10 damage if you low roll.

Streamer Stormfall33 rants about “broken” Baldur’s Gate 3 magic

This mechanic clearly frustrated the streamer, who didn’t even need a high roll to kill the enemy in question. To make matters worse, the enemy passed their save check, reducing the damage dealt by even more.

Storm said: “I want you to realize something really fast. This attack has a chance to do between 8 and 48 damage, and it just did 9! I’m done. I’m done. Oh my god, magic is so trash. They should have called it the ‘only go melee character’ game; because that is the game that this is. magic is so f*cking bad.

“Dude, Karlach would have killed this guy, spit on his grave, done the yoinky-sploinky, dabbed, and killed everyone in this room by now, by the time I save scummed in order to do f*cking any damage with magic.”

While the dice rolling stays true to the DnD roots of the Baldur’s Gate series, it’s clearly not for everyone, and the game has also faced other criticisms, with other players calling out a final act that isn’t as polished as the rest of the game.

For a taste of what the magic in Baldur’s Gate 3 is really capable of doing, check out this player’s wizard build that puts out thousands of damage per turn.