Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General My frustration with BG3 combat

While I generally want to like this game, I find myself at odds with basically every mechanic that is combat related and after having played a few of the bigger fights now I do feel like I have to vent a fair bit, and elaborate why I am so frustrated:

1. The initiative system. I just do not get it. So it is a roll that sets the turn order. That is an issue for me, because it is just not planable. If you are outnumbered in a fight it might very well be that 6 enemies will move and attack before one your people can act. When your roll is unlucky it is also hard to use synergy. So your general strategy is to grease the ground, make enemies fall and then set it on fire before you move in? Well you need to be lucky with your roll. I would very much prefer to have a set order to act according to your portrait order and a balanced turn order according to number of enemies (8 enemies, each member of your party acts before and after 2 enemies). So fights are more predictable and planable. Prime example is the matriarch fight where you might have to fight up to 18 spiderlings, 2 phase spiders and the boss, that all can teleport freely and attack.

2. The number of enemies: You are often outnumbered by enemies that also have a lot of HP. That makes it hard to decide priorities. Taking out a key character might take a turn longer, which again emphasizes the power of numbers. Again the spider example is great.

3. The all-knowing AI: The AI always has perfect knowledge of the situation and what can and will happen. They know if they can reach your character with their movement or if your movement is not sufficient to reach it. It also knows your capabilities. They also have "cheats". The player can only make an educated guess, if their 9m will be enough to reach that player and if a jump is included whether enough will be left. I also do not know what the AI is capable of. In the hag fight a spawn cast whatever on my Laezel dealing 10 damage now and another 10 damage upon her turn. I have no idea what that was. I am also not aware what certain enemies can do, redcaps for example can attack three times with their sickle. The hag herself and her clones also seem to have 40m range or so on her spells, certainly further than I can, which brings me to:

4. Movement and range: I think 9m is way too short for movement, I think it should be 12-15m and/or jumping should not cost movement. I also think that 18m is about 7m too short for spells and ranged weapons. Many enemies can teleport freely and still act, so keeping up with them can cost whole turns, especially for melee fighters. Also there should be an option (or standard) to show how far you can go when using optimal pathing and including jumps. Basically a planning option before executing movement. I also found myself about 30cm away from my attack range, so I could see a slight increase in melee range as well. Tying into that is:

5. The out of combat movement: For a game that makes combat all about positioning and planning, actually doing so is just plain awful. Your party moves in a blob. There are no formations or distance options. You can unchain one character and have to enact special movement (jumping, stealthing) individually. If you want to position beforehand you have to enter turn-based mode and with great care individually place your companions, which takes way too long. Why is there no group movement, actions and unchaining of all individuals? This is further emphasized by most enemies having AoE spells, yet starting formation for ambushes is a tight blob. Counterintuitive. The possibilities you have are often not clear. You can destroy the eggs of the matriarch beforehand, however they never lit up and the whole place is pretty dark. Possible elevations are not highlighted either or not very prominent. Some are also to thin to stand on apparently.

6. Glitches, bugs and exploits: While this is EA I understand it, but at the moment each fight can easily be cheesed or bug out on you. Whenever I wanted to place my party beforehand the hag would simply not appear. I had Mayrina fall to death in her burning cage, because no character could have realistically reach the button in two turns, and even then it would likely have needed a turn of her to get out of it. Throwing water barrels from certain positions did not work multiple times, it would simply not throw for no apparent reason, or it would deal damage to the cage, making it fall. It worked with the Water spell, though. The fight was so frustrating, random and glitched, that I just initiated combat with one character and while no enemy could move because of turn-based, my rogue sneaked in, which makes no sense, and pushed her into the underdark. For the Matriarch I just destroyed the eggs from stealth and her as well. I do not know if this was all working as intended.

This surely all sounds pretty grim and borderline like mimimi, but currently for me it does not seem like I am playing a game, but constantly fighting and coping with it's mechanics that are mostly counterintuitive, intransparent, slow and cumbersome. So what are your own thoughts on the combat mechanic, the setting up pre-fights and the general state of combat. Do any others have the same or other issues with fighting in this game?