Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Disable spell VFX for items/avatars when outside of combat

I would like to see a simple toggle on/off for visual effects on the avatar when outside of combat. Things like flaming swords or shadowspears or stuff which lights up our avatar's marquee like a glowstick with swirling spell-like animations.

To me this stuff is great as a temporary visual when a spell is cast or when an item is first equipped. When drawing weapons or entering combat, again looks great, sure, but if I'm not in combat I only need to see these effects briefly. I mean like a couple seconds there, when casually exploring it looks particularly goofy for Lae'zel to have a flaming sword on her back ya know.

The clear analogy here would be spells like Barkskin or Stoneskin from the original BG1/BG2 games, which would just paint over the entire avatar to make them look like a solid color. The first Weidu mod I ever downloaded was simply to get rid of these sorts of "perma" spell visuals for buffs, which tend to get a bit tired after a while hehe. You can still have all the flavor and scratch that itch for visual flare, while still allowing the player to visualize their avatar as if the spell effects were more subtle. Similarly for arms and armor which glow or which have been illuminated via magic spells and such.

I think a nice option would be a setting for these VFX called "Pulse" where we could set a much longer delay for these animations before they repeat. So on one end of the spectrum VFX would only apply when the spell is cast or the item is equipped, at the other end VFX would be always on, somewhere in the middle it might show once per minute or by turn/round.

Not all spell-like VFX are the same, certain vfx like invisibility and temporary status conditions you want to lock a visual. Spells with more limited duration like mirror image are different than mage armor (which is handled how I'd want most things), ie I see the animation when cast/and the status icon shows, but don't need a constant vfx going on for the avatar to know what buffs are in play. Seeing this stuff for hostiles or npcs is different, and that's fine, I mean for the party/characters. Basically anything with a very long/constant duration, or buffs which last the whole day, always on when equipped that sort of stuff. Weapon and armor effects or spells that light up the avatar would be my low hanging fruit for that, where I'd be happy dialing down the glow to pretty much never or very low, or where it can effect the environmental lighting without needing to fire up the avatar, if that makes sense.