Skills in Baldur’s Gate 3 are passive bonuses your characters have that determine how successful a certain action will be. Shoving enemies, figuring out how to deal with magical artifacts, or even tricking NPCs into believing your lies, all of that is controlled by how strong your character is with a certain skill. One of those skills in Baldur’s Gate 3, Perception, controls how easily your character is able to spot something amiss in the environment, like a trap, hidden treasure, or ambushes.
How does Perception work in BG3
Perception is a Wisdom scaling skill, so the higher your character’s Wisdom ability score, the higher their perception will be. Some classes like Barbarian, Druid, Bard, and Rogue start off with the perception skill unlocked, while others can unlock it through other means. The Sailor background during character creation also unlocks the Perception skill.
Can Perception be increased in Baldur’s Gate 3?
Yes, like every other ability skill, Perception can also increase its effect. While some can have a permanent effect, others are more useful for a short time and can help in crossing small areas that require the skill to be used. As some classes already have Perception skills due to their Wisdom ability, they might not need to upgrade it much as it is not a combat skill. But for others, a few easy tips can help with this problem.
Use Spells
There is a level 2 spell called Enhance Ability, which is used to enhance the advantage for certain ability checks. This means that if used on Perception, the Perception checks will have the chance of having higher numbers more often than fail.
For it to work on perception, choose Owl’s Wisdom as it is a wisdom skill. The effect of the spell works until the player decides to have a long rest.
Feats that increase perception
Every four levels, your characters get a feat that can be used to grant points to skills according to the feat. Some feats are for a certain ability, while others can be used on any one of your choice. Here are the Feats that can increase Perception:
| Feat | Effect |
| Ability Improvement | Increase ability by +2 or two abilities by +1 (max 20). |
| Dungeon Delver | Gain an advantage on Perception checks for hidden objects. Also, for saving throws used for detecting traps. |
| Resilient | Increase any ability by +1 (max 20). Also gain Proficiency for that ability’s Saving throws. |
Using Ability Improvement or Resilient, you can invest points in Wisdom ability score to increase your Perception skill in BG3.
Use Expertise
Another way of increasing Perception is by using the skill of Expertise. Now, this skill is not available for every class, so this can only work for specific ones. This restriction makes it a strategy for a small group. If you have the Rogue, Bard, Gnome, or Cleric class, you can use Expertise to increase your perception in BG3.
Proficiency in Perception is quite important. Having proficiency, you automatically have the bonus from it, which makes Perception at +2 from the start. This is a good start, but for more, you can use Expertise and double it. Having Expertise will now turn this into +4.
Also, once you increase Proficiency or Expertise, the number can easily reach +6. This makes having Expertise a good asset for Perception skills.
Items that increase perception
Lastly, there are several items in Baldur’s Gate 3 that can help you increase your Perception skill permanently. These items are a little hard to find, but their permanent effect is worth searching for them.
| Item | Effect | Location |
| Mirror of Loss | +2 to ability of your choice | Found inside the Temple of Shar. Costs 1000 Gold to reach it. |
| Necromancy of Thay | +1 to all wisdom checks and throws | In Blighted Village |
| Auntie Ethel’s Hair | +1 to ability of your choice | Found in Ethel’s lair in Overgrown Tunnel. |
Is it useful to improve the perception skill?
The use of perception is highly class-dependent and on your party composition. Any Wisdom-focused class will obviously already have Perception bonuses and will benefit from them. Some other classes, like Monk, can also benefit from perception as it shows their knowledge about the world, which can be handy during conversations. If an NPC seems shady, perception can help you figure out if there is more to their story or not.
For exploration purposes, Perception is a great skill to have as you can discover hidden treasures, switches that enable or disable traps, or hidden entrances to vaults and such. However, even if you fail a perception check, if you have a general idea of where such things might be, you can interact with them, like digging for treasure, even with a failed perception check.
As perception isn’t a combat skill, you don’t have to worry too much about it for combat scenarios, and there are other ways to deal with situations even if you fail perception checks, so there is no hard and fast rule about whether you should increase perception or not.
