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

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!