Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Held/Ready Actions and Dodge

Simply put there are times where the only option is to hit end turn. It would be nice if there was a held action or dodge option. Held action can be simply like an Overwatch feature where if someone steps into your threat you melee attack or in your LOS you can tag them with a range attack. Even better if you can go more complex like queuing an action to trigger when a condition is met. As for dodge; well that's pretty self explanatory.

This would make for fewer wasted turns and hopefully hasten combat a bit as well.

here f'n here, especially with the homebrewed height=advantage rule, we need a counter to archers as we move towards them

+1.

Dodge is really usefull and for melee classes sometimes the only viable action they can take. Also advantage and disadvantage are already in the game in alot of place so should be managable, right?

WTB proper action economy please!

Dodge seems like such a trivial thing to code in. Disadvantage on attacks. And it doesn't even have a placeholder icon in the UI. It's like they left it out on purpose. Tactically it would be a very nice last resort to have if a PC is getting overwhelmed.

Then again why would you dodge when all classes can just jump away to disengage as a bonus action... This has something to do with some Larian design philosophy that everything must be active. I bet they are allergic to a passive defensive mode.

Right but i don't want to doge to disengage; i want a standing dodge like a full defense option or something. For example; say you are baiting a mob and want them to advance on you, you can turtle up and make them come to to and mitigate the impact.

They are going to need to tweak the AI to be less of the "Obnoxiously bad DM" that it is right now. Essentially the AI just metagames and targets lowest health or lowest AC in a lot of situations. The AI has no concept of monster personality, its playing with the same brain in every battle, each and every monster is equally intelligent with the same strategic priorities in combat... even the brainless beasts seem to know to target the low AC character first, or will take an opportunity attack to get in range of a weaker target rather than just attack what is in range.

Defense action would probably lead to your tank being ignored... but it would be great for that low HP chracter that is just going to be tanking by proxy because the AI for all monsters shares the same HP driven target selection protocols

Held action would be interesting but I think, for what Swen said in a few interviews already, trying to get your characters in the same initiative circle by killing enemies in between, as a puzzle of some sort, so you can swap them as much as you like is what they are aiming for. And so if you could delay your turn, it would make it too easy maybe?

It wouldn't be delaying your turn in the sense of DOS. You would still have to burn your reaction to use your action out of your initiative order.

Ready action does seem hard to implement, but it would be cool to see it in for release.

Dodge should be in because it should be really easy to implement. It'll also help even out the advantage from high ground.

I'm sure we all agree on a dodge.

As for delayed or held action I really just want "overwatch" at the very least honestly. I see it in a lot of games like Xcom or Shadowrun so it shouldn't be too hard.

it costs you a reaction to do it. So you are essentially giving up a lot of options every time you do it. You only ever ready an action when you dont have a better option but you know there will be an option before your next turn. Usually this is because theres no target in range, but you know they will be moving toward you



I think Ready action would vastly improve the "1 action per turn" system. Its jsut a matter of implementing it in a manner that will not be ridiculously convoluted. Bumping yourself down in the queue may in fact be more complicated to implement than a proximity targeting command(Overwatch). Either way the goal is to provide a dynamic action, it will work with every spell/ability in the game and will improves options for your turn. I think the limitations would pop up if they try and make sure that the AI has the option to do this as well. Thats where problems for readied actions would start to flourish

I totally agree with you; good luck keeping Gale alive in any encounter where you don't have mage armor; mirror and stealth him every conceivable round (I'm exaggerating but just barely)

Note you can cast mage armor on Gale right after leaving camp. It stays on him all the time.

very true; I was being hyperbolic to highlight the fact that low HP and low AC get targeted by the PC to the point where it does feel like the computer is cheating.

On that front, they stayed true to tabletop. Cause I remember when I was playing DnD, if I hadn't told the DM I had cast mage armor in the morning, when a fight was breaking, he was reminding me that as I didn't tell him, it meant I forgot to cast it :P

And as well, squishy mages being targeted all the time, well, that's also what basically happens to you when you start a new D&D campaign as a mage. Positioning and preparation can save your life.

Also true, totally kill the heals and mages first; however, that's what mediocre DMs do. not all creatures will know to kill the healer or mage first. Even some goblins have no clue. you can hear as much when you go to the goblin camp and overhear them talking about healing magic as a foreign concept. I don't want to be too hard because over all i love the game and these are things they are still working on. I just want to see some of this stuff implemented because it's fun and improve QoL.

also i know it's a game AI not a real DM so my hopes aren't incredibly high on that front and by that nature it will be more like player vs DM rather than the DM trying to build a narrative through combat. but this is the best time to put out feedback.

Adding Dodge to would Be technically game would Be quite easy because it would be a action required just 1 button some better defense optiona would Be welcome because at current state all on offence seems only viable tactic. Giving disadvantage on attacks is very Life saving on My table top D&Ds. Dodge would Be good defence but making it require action balaces it out so players don't want use it unless apsolute nessessity. good vs mass of low attacks bonus minions.

+1 would love to see this implemented.

Yeah, there is no real held action just a ready action, and it is real specific and would be hard to code. But maybe heal if Gale drops to 0 HP. Attack after this character. Attack after this enemy moves, or after you are attacked. Maybe like 5 scenarios. BG2 had contingency spells and we are in 2020. I think I dropped Gale from my party because he's too squishy. When all I really wanted to do was "Fire Bolt," his "Grease" spell with my High Elf Light Cleric that had "Fire Bolt." I could have readied "Heals" for him and "Fire Bolts," for Flavor.

Don't think it would have made the game too easy having the ready action. Make the mobs harder if necessary to achieve balance. Like throw in a few Orcs in the Goblin camp, etc. I still owned everything by simply changing Gale out for Lae'zel. I just used the Light Cleric as my main spell caster and she was sitting at 19 AC without buffs.

Dodge action should be implemented absolutely. All my characters had range, but sometimes yeah you want them to approach, they are out of range, or enemies are obscured and your turn is wasted. Dodge action is an easy fix as well.

I see what you mean and I totally forgot the contingency spell! also you are right it's supposed to be ready action so i updated the thread title.