Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Opening attacks on wizards (Gale)

No matter how far down the Initiative order Gale is, he is always the first target (unless deliberately hiding). Why? He is standing way back behind the lines, did not make any move yet against any enemy, other party members already attacked the mobs and right in the mobs faces, yet, without exception, the first target is Gale.

Makes no sense neither narratively (they can not even see the guy clearly) not mechanically - he is not even the dangerous and not an immediate threat with others standing much closer. Looks like the combat script needs some tweaking here.

The AI right now is a little simple which makes it both extremely dumb and too smart. It is essentially targeting Gale because he has the lowest AC and saves thus he is the easiest to hit. Put mage armor on him and you might see them switch targets a little bit if someone else is squishier.

I believe it makes sence ...

Narratively:
That guy with no armor, who is holding back ... is logicaly either spellcaster, and therefore dangerous ... or civilist and therefore easy target.
Mechanically:
He have lowest AC > therefore attacking him have bigest chance to success.

But i get it ... i was also kinda dissapointed when i find out that my Dwarf Shieldmaiden Fighter is not as tanky as i expected. :-/
But there still are ways to force enemies to fight your tank ... one of them, even if kinda cheesy, is save your Bonus Actions and hide your ranged dps at end of their turn ... i know it dont work for first round, but after that its like a charm. (Unless you are direcly on sight ofcourse )

But dead Gale does more damage than a live one!

It's probably borrowed AI script from Divinity: Original Sin 2. Enemies go for Gale like they would if a character in D:OS2 had the talent "Glass Cannon".

In D&D Wizards can be the most powerful threat. It's actually tactically smart, to take out that threat first. I always target spellcasters first, then archers, then melee. The skeleton fight is a prime example. If one of them casts Sleep, it takes out one of your party, it makes the fight more difficult.

Right, but it's not immersive to have every enemy be tactically savvy.

When I DM I use the Int modifier to prep how the enemy behaves against the party. If there's an Int of +2 I'll add in smarter tactics, and +3 (and up) I consider capable of leading an army with success. +3 int would think about prioritizing the wizard at the start, +2 would probably understand after sleep has been cast. -1 and below, it's all uncoordinated and they'll have too much tunnel vision (or be too scared) to strategize.

While the DM has perfect information on the battle, the enemy doesn't. The AI needs to react to the players actions, not innately know there is a wizard somewhere. (Of course the inverse problem exists with stealth where the enemy forgets they were attacked).

Examples:
> Should hungry gnolls look past Tav, and everyone else? Gnolls should be attacking the nearest meal.
> Are goblins smart enough to act cooperatively? Base goblins no, but they could follow directions from a Hob-goblin.
But hob-goblins aren't the smartest either, so their directions would be misguided.

Exactly! Nor be so mindful as to immediately identify a wizard in the group of a complete who ambushed them.

I think

That must be it Yet another DOS mechanic that was "carefully" introduced to the DnD system.

Whoever the "lowest AC" character is at the moment, it's ridiculous that enemies will basically ignore everyone else and focus fire them or even suicide through a melee wall to get to them.

It doesn't help that every enemy also seems to have a ranged attack now.

Which helps not one bit. There needs to be a taunt skill in the game specifically for tank characters. This is the first RPG I've seen without one.