Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Dissonant Whispers' forced movement

Does anyone know or heard why this (the forced movement part) is not in the game?


https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/dissonant-whispers

http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell:dissonant-whispers

Probably because of Larian logic... the movement part is actually the key reason for this spell to exist.

They removed the forced movement from the Fighter Battlemaster frightened dice during EA because allegedly it seemed to be too strong due to the opportunity attacks triggered. Maybe here the same reasoning applied.

That battlemaster manoeuvre doesn't have any forced movement tied to it in the dnd rules. It just deals bonus damage, applies disadvantage on attacks while the target can see the fighter and prevents the target from moving closer to the fighter (which can be useful when your fighter uses polearms). So of course adding forced movement to it was too strong.

But dissonant whispers doesn't apply any disadvantage to the target and deals less damage than other first level single target spells, so the movement was the main reason to cast it.


Many of the deviations from the DnD rulse that Larian added make me think, that they don't understand some of the DnD rules and why they are needed for a somewhat balanced game.

Additionally, Larian's old implementation of Menacing Attack caused the target to run away on their turn, losing their standard action while doing so. This was incredibly unbelievably overpowered for a maneuver and could invalidate entire encounters with a single successful strike. It wasn't the same as "immediate forced movement [using the target's reaction]."

Does anyone know of an ability in BG3 that actually causes a target to *immediately* move away on the attacker's turn? If not, then I'd argue that Larian didn't implement this for Dissonant Whispers because they'd have to create an entirely new mechanic for it (which they didn't judge high enough priority).

I believe both the spell fear and the oath breaker feature make enemies run away as their reaction.

tl;dr: I'm finding things consistent with my guess that "Larian didn't implement immediate forced movement of Dissonant Whispers because that'd require introducing an entirely new mechanic to BG3."

I'm finding (mainly by reading the wiki or looking up gameplay videos) that neither of those abilities should make enemies run away as their reaction. Here I'm using "reaction" as a technical term referring to the game mechanic: a resource you gain once per round at the start of your turn and can be used (or be forced to use) outside of your turn. Dissonant Whispers forces an oppenent to use their reaction to immediately move away.

The BG3 Fear spell "makes the targets Fearful," which says that you are forced to run away on your turn. Thus, it doesn't use up your reaction and you don't move until your turn comes up. Is this not how it works in the current patch? (This video as of 7 months ago shows it working as I understand it.)

The BG3 Oathbreaker feature Dreadful Aspect should "frighten nearby enemies," which shouldn't require them run away at all. Is this not how it works in the current patch? (This video as of 7 months ago shows it working as I understand it.)

You're right. I tested both again and all of the above checks. Fear is also only 3 turns.

IDK why Larian decided to reduce the time on a bunch of cc spells. They all have their pros and cons.

Hypnotic Pattern is only 2 turns i believe. Tons of creatures are immune to it. And if i'm not mistaken npcs should be able to wake each other up.
At least they use to do it when they had an ally under the sleep effect. On that note, sleep is also only 2 turns now. That spell should be strong. Because is only strong for 2 levels, lol. After level 2 it's pretty much useless.
Fear is 3 turns and can be saved on every subsequent turn.
Also have to account for concentration checks.
Makes me reconsider taking war caster or resilient if my ccs will only last 2-3 turns anyways.

But with all that said, I would rather they added the fearful condition (same one from the fear spell) to dissonant whispers than leave it as it is. Because now is kinda trash.

The other explanation would be they think they can reblance the whole system of 600+ ability and spells from the ground up... so its either way... the result is quite underwhelming so far. Naturally that's just my opinion and everything about BG3 implementation is great.

Implementing it without the forced movement doesn't really make any sense, though. It's the entire point of the spell.

Another explanation is that they simply noted that players hate their implementation of forced movement on fear, so they just removed forced movement from everything and didnt give a second thought to any of that.

Implying 5e is balanced.

Laughs in winged boots and phb monk

Yeah, it would be nice if Dissonant Whispers caused the target to run away, similar to Command: Flee.