Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Reactions in BG3

So far there are 2 ways reactions can be made:
- A toggle on the right for attacks of opportunity, battlemaster manoeuvres
- Pre-casting a spell (Hellish Rebuke) without using an action.

I think this approach makes sense, because adding a separate turn for reactions will slow down the combat.

However, there is a problem with reaction spells. Would I have cast hellish rebuke if I got attack by an enemy with 1 hp left - most likely not. Yet it can happen.

I feel like a confirmation message should pop up when a reaction spell would be triggered.

This is particularly necessary with spells like shield/absorb elements that I hope are implemented eventually.

Does anyone have a prettier solution to this?

The only thing I can think of is instead of using the spacebar to trigger a turn-based mode, turn it into a pause button, and while paused to be able to activate or set any reaction. Still, it requires you to pause before the thing happens. Your mention is similar in the aspect of pausing but requires the game to do a check to see if you still have your reaction available and if you can use it in that circumstance which is a good idea to me.

Though the only problem with pausing in the game as it is currently is that multiplayer mode doesn't support it. A lot of the game's features for turn-based combat are also about fluidity and multiple people being able to do things at the same time if they roll the same initiative, etc.

They may decide to make the shield spell work just like hellish rebuke, casting it on your turn and making it a +5 ac boost until your next turn. This would be disappointing, but it is what looks like what will happen.

I dont think it would slow down combat too much to have a pop up message plus it would work closer to table top dnd5e rules.
For multiplayer if you are worried about it slowing things down too much simply give a time frame (say 5 seconds) to respond otherwise the 'default' reaction takes place.

While it would make sense to have the confirmation. It would be annoying as hell to have it pop up every time you were attacked.

There could be a separate area to configure reactions.

In this area we could say:

Trigger this spell if enemy hp above x

Trigger shield if my hp below x

Some things are already filtered in the spell/skill like to react against mellee or ranged or certain spells.

Imo I think this would be a good solution, though require a little bit more work.

Hei, I know I'm super late but...
I would rather have a confirm popup for the reaction/s too, I don't like to pre-cast spells like Hellish Rebuke since you might need that spellslot for something else, what if they don't attack you at all?
The popup could show only IF the reaction is toggled on the panel AND triggered AND effective (example, Shield would ask confirm only if you could avoid the attack by casting it or if targeted by Magic Missiles). Everything you could use as a reaction should appear toggleable on a panel (if you have the spell prepared etc)
The Confirm Popup would just show the list of the possible reactions (if toggled + triggered + effective) and a button "skip".
Probably the game will be slightly slower, but for sure more precise and if you don't want to take this kind of reactions you can just toggle them off.

I personally don't like the idea of "configurable reactions" cos it would need too many cases, what if Shield is triggered by the last mob with 1hp attacking with a dagger? How'd you configure Counterspell?
I'd be ok if this is an option but I'd still prefer a more "manual" approach.

The "It slows down the game" response to reactions being implemented properly is an utter fallacy. It doesn't slow down the game, at all. certainly not more than the game slows itself down with its combative UI, endless circling and leap-frogging combat mechanics and ponderous AI.

A prettier solution to "Pre-cast the spells and then have it pop up a message asking if you want to spend it" would be just plain and simply implementing reactions properly - so the prompt comes up when appropriate (such as shield only when it would be effective) and you can say yes or no or in the case of spell reactions, select the level to cast at, all with one click, in less than a second.

Remember that you only get one reaction a round - one - and *most* rounds, *most* characters won't end up using their reactions anyway because the right circumstance won't show up. It does not slow down play at all, and indeed, it slows down play MORE to have to pre-cast reaction spells, because players will more frequently have to debate over whether to burn a spell slot or not on something that might or might not happen that way... as opposed to them not having to worry about that and only making the call specifically when it's relevant.

Agreed. Larian, please implement reactions properly. No good reason not to. Give the reaction prompt a time limit, for all I care.

What they could also do is implementing reactions the same way they are in tabletop games: by the player getting active and reacting to what the DM is telling him/her. "Wait, I'm going to use my reaction!"

What I mean for the game is that reactions are neither triggered automatically nor does the game hit the breaks and asks you every single time if you would like to use your reaction now.

The round just plays out, all enemies taking their turns, unless you hit a reaction button to pause the game and select an available reaction for what has happened within the last couple of seconds.
Got hit real hard by that goblin? Hit the reaction key and select uncanny dodge for the last damage value you received. The damage then gets retroactively halfed and the rest of the round may continue.

There are already threads about this, including a lengthy one that I started but yeah... I think Solasta did excellent with their reaction system.