Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Halfway solution to reactions

Hi all,

Reactions have been a hot topic and discussed often here on the forums. There is a group that wants to be able to control your reactions and be prompted when you can take a reaction and a camp that whishes the game to feel smooth and not be bothered by pop-ups. Here is my vision on how reactions could be handled.

My idea is to meet halfway an create a hybrid system that offers some control but does not use pop-ups or prompts. The idea is simple. When you select your reaction to take, you can select which enemies may proc that reaction. This way you can guarantee your reaction won't be wasted on a enemy or creature you don't want it to. The downside is that you still don't have full control but at least more control than you have now. Using this method would mean that there are no prompts needed, so nothing that slows down combat besides the initial target selection.

What do you think of this idea?

It's better, sure, but still not great. And given that Larian STILL hasn't allowed us to select targets for Bless, I'm somewhat skeptical they'd implement an even more complicated creature selection system--with an unknown allowed number of selections--for (p)reactions.

My oft-repeated hybrid suggestion is that reactions should have 3 settings. Pop-up prompt / Use at first opportunity / Off
Simple. Fully customizable. Intuitive. Everyone can play the way they want.

I agree with mrfuji3.

The original post's idea would requiring going through every Reaction-using ability in the game, and looking at what sort of target it would need (I suspect it's not always 1 enemy creature). And using the system would require thinking about it each turn. For instance a Wizard would have to think about pre-loading Shield during each of their turn, and select what enemy would cause it to trigger. And that would still leave open the "question" of whether the spell should be cast as soon as said enemy hits the Wizard, or only if a +5 AC can turn the hit into a miss. Basically, the idea doesn't sound to me as if it really solves much.

There is no need to create a unique middle ground. With optionality, those who want to set up a given Reaction-ability on "always ask" can get pop-ups. Those who don't want them can keeping using the current states, i.e. "use at first opportunity" or "off", depending on how they want to prioritise their Reactions.

bump

Things like smites, when they are introduced, should have an option: pop-up on critical hit (for those who like to optimize their smites).

totally agree, new players can set it to proc at first opportunity, more expirienced would have full control => everyone's happy

Seems like a convoluted workaround to a self-inflicted problem that would have a much simpler solution, if I have to be perfectly honest.

Honestly, the reaction system for Paladins will be easy enough.
Give two "turn-on" keys in their hotbar.
1. Smite on next hit
2. Smite on next Critical

Then, you simply choose which one you want to use. There, pretty easy and doesn't slow down combat at all.