Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Spells:Visual/Chant unique to each School of Magic

In the older infinity engine games the various spells have schools of magic.
Evocation, Abjuration,
Illusion, Enchantment,
etc.
There are many subtle things we have to get exactly right.
Evocation spells for example has its own unique visual cue when it's cast, so for example if an enemy caster use Evocation on you, you get this visual cue in front of the casters hand, which enables you to hit the pause button, and think about what the spell possibly could be, then unpause and react with a qualified guess.
For example if the enemy cast Evocation, and you guess it's Fireball, you can then react by dispersing your party from the Area of Effect.

The Primary spell animation is magic which forms around the casters hand, or in front of the caster.
Then the Secondary animation is magic which forms around the Area/Point of effect. These are are often the more unique animations.

Furthermore Evocation also has its own audio cue, which is likewise different from the other schools of magic. Some spells are cast instantly without the chanting, so you only get visual cue.
Other spells are cast relative fast so you only get maybe 40% of the entire chant.
Then there are spells that takes 9 rounds to cast so you get the full chant.

These subtle things can seem very minor and random, so there is a possibility some of the developers might not notice.
But it's so important we get this one right.
Spellcasting is such a vital component to this setting.

Good luck Larian Studios!
I know you can make a great game for all of us.

None of this makes any difference (and I agree all of it is important) until we know if the game is TB or RTWP.

It would be a shame for sure if the old system isn't kept.
Here is a few other situations:

You have a thief in Stealth, and a Mage with invisibility.
Suddenly you hear the enemy mage do the Chant for Divination spell,
You pause the game,
You recognize the chant, and you can see the very characteristic flow of magic for Divination form in front of the enemy caster.
You instantly know your invisible mage and stealth thief will be in trouble if they don't act quick, or they could also escape from the scene,
The tactical choice is open after you unpause.

Another situation where you recognize the Conjuration chant.
You know there is a probability the enemy caster might be summoning some creatures to help him, but you can counter act by timing a Fireball or a Skulltrap to land 1-2 seconds after enemy spell is landed.

Many small things like this is what made Baldur's gate great.
They are very subtle features in the game, but they can add a whole new layer of tactics for spellcasting for those who are familiar with the system.

Not really related to this thread, but your post about your party preparing to counter an enemy spell makes me remember: it would be good if the game included reactions, as in the tabletop.
A reaction is an instant response to a trigger of some kind, which can occur on your turn or on someone else's. When you take a reaction, you can't take another one until the start of your next turn.
In NWN you had the attacks of opportunity but also the counterspell feature, so when the enemy casts a spell you dispell it if you have the correct spell available to you. It is a mechanic established in the tabletop long ago but It was also done in videogames too. It would be nice if you can react to the enemy´s spells and movements as in D&D.

I agree, the chants and glow colors of spells are pretty neat in the old BG games. When you're familiar enough with the games, you can counter/avoid hostile spells by relying on the chants and the glow colors. There were a couple times I used Dimension Door to teleport out of a Wail of the Banshee because I knew it was coming (Sion fight, Guarded Compound). Felt pretty good.

That said, Artagel is right in that, this won't matter much unless the game is RTWP. Chants and VFX for spells will still be nice, but they won't have any gameplay value in TB.

Reactions are part of5E so i guess it will be in the game.
And work like this: on the enemies turn it uses fireball.
Your character has the option of using a reaction or similar like luck.
You get a message that you can choose to use your reaction/skill/feat.
You choose. Computer calculates outcome then it goes back to the normal turn order.

Other example: on your turn you miss.but you are a battlemaster and can choose to use superiority dice to turn a miss into a hit.
So before your turn is over you get the option.

In hard mode you could give players say 5 seconds to choose to use their optional reactions/feats etc.

If I wanted a reaction for my mage, I would just cast Contingency.

What you are describing is not related to this mechanism. You are offering a pre-planned mechanism, something BG2 already had aplenty.
What I describe is a greater depth to the spellcasting, a mind-game in real time between two mages.

Consider how much potential this would have if the a.i. was immensely clever.
The situation could be reversed, the a.i. might even take a guess of what I had cast among the Evocation spells and counter with a Protection from Elements spell.

This is a mind-game mechanism, we should have both this, as well as the pre-planned mechanisms like Contingency and Reactions.

The thing about reactions is that, unlike contingencies and such, you can decide if you use it or not. And how you use it.
There are plenty of prepared actions used in RPGs like POE, NWN, DAI, Tyranny, etc: Ripostes, counterspells, contingencies, etc, but all of them you prepare before but when you do, It happens, you do not get to decide if it happens or not, it's automatic. You also cannot decide against what enemy do you react, for example. Maybe you prefer to avoid the savage slash from the ogre, not the one from the goblin.

We know reactions are extensively used in tabletop, but mechanics like that are also used with success in some games. Sadly mostly are TB ones, from the Last remnant to Forged of blood to Fire Emblem to Armello. Basically, it allows you to act in the enemy´s turn in various ways.

I am not sure how you can fully implement reactions in RT, it would be more complicated than inspiration and advantage/disadvantage, indeed.
Larian is widely known to innovate and implement new mechanics in their games. Sometimes they hit, sometimes they critically miss, but let us see what they do (or if they even wanted to do that, because they still have their "closed doors" policy against giving details about actual mechanics).