Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Combat and "Downed" characters.

So, in general I'm enjoying my time with BG3 but seriously, screw the Bulette and Minotaurs! In one jump the Bulette down two of my characters.

In regards to the Bulette, on its second blast where I actually get a chance to fight it, once turn-based action starts, everything is kind of paused. It's my turn, but I all I can do for all my characters is end the turn because I can't target the bulette or use any skills or abilities. Is that how it's supposed to be or is it broken? I've done this fight 3 times now and it's been the same every time.

And in regards to down characters, how do you deal with helping them up? It seems utterly pointless to me because they have such low health that they desperately need to drink a potion or something, but so far, no character I've helped up has managed to stay standing long enough to have their turn to drink a potion. So, what's the trick?

Thanks.

Ah, the old death spiral. It is a tricky thing for sure. "Help" is often not useful for bringing back downed characters in combat because you are trading your action for the hope that the character you help will get its action later. As you say, that often doesn't happen if that character loses their precious hit point before they get to act. It's best to only use it if the character you are helping is up next in initiative (or very soon) and has some abilities you don't that can start to turn the tide.

The best way to help downed characters is with healing word. This is a bonus action spell that can heal at range, which is super amazing. Your cleric can cast healing word, bring the character back with 4-7 hit points, and then use their action to keep messing up the enemies and/or further buff the party. Action economy is everything, so taking out enemies one at a time while preserving your own actions is the goal. It's usually easier said than done!

One of my peeves about downed characters is that enemies will continue attacking someone who's down in order to kill them. Then, of course, it's annoying that anytime you get a chance to "help" someone, they are immediately downed before their turn so you wasted a turn for nothing.

I'm also hating concentration spells. Anytime I've cased a concentration spell with Shadowheart, she's immediately lost it before the party could benefit from it because she'll get targeted right away and fail a check.