luck vs saves

Gelsomino

which one is more valuable stat/buff, +1 to luck or +1 to all saves?

Khyron

If memory serves.. +1 to luck translates to +1 to everything, saves included. Anything that can be rolled, will have a bonus of +1

That also means critical hits.. an improvement of 5% per swing, for chance of Crit.
So you could Crit on a 19 instead of 20
Or if you already use Two handed weapon style, you could Crit at 18-20.

Gelsomino

https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Luck

if i understand correctly luck improves:
physical attack
defense vs magical/elemental damage
and some minor things...

jmerry

Khyron wrote: »

If memory serves.. +1 to luck translates to +1 to everything, saves included.

Saves not included. Or that player who had high-level characters die to Quivering Palm on Easy wouldn't have complained.

So luck is not strictly better than saves. It's usually better - I'd rather have the reduced damage from luck than slightly better saves against most "save for half" spells - but you need the raw saves for those "save negates" effects.

FredN

A difficult choice; both are good. Also, are we talking permanent buffs, or temporary? If permanent, I would tend to go with saving throw bonus. There is a spell called Luck, which does pretty much what you want. Now, it only affects one character, and is pretty short lived ... 3 rounds if I recall ... but it's a low level spell, so even a relatively low level caster could pack several of them. Or you could carry around a couple of scrolls with the luck spell on them, if you so desired. As always, YMMV.

Gelsomino

does luck affect debuffs and instant death spells?

jmerry

Already answered.

Now, the thing about this question is that luck bonuses are so vanishingly rare that you're practically never choosing between them and something else. Let's see ... Luck, Chant, bard songs, Alora's trinket, one of the random options on that Priest of Tempus spell ... and I can't think of anything else.

Gelsomino

i wanted to make sure that there are no exceptions.

sometimes i wasted time casting Luck and Chant mid-fight. from now on i will only use Chant as prebuff