Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback MORE surface effects? Really???

D&D is all about action economy. The entire system is based one turn one action (with a few bonus actions here and there). Action is literally your resource.

The way that Larian is using surface effects and cantrips completely nullifies the action economy of D&D. BG3 is generic RPG turn based game with Forgotten Realms skins.

Dunno if you have just given up and converted to being sarcastic now ( in which case /s would be helpful) but to answer your question: yes, having a limited amount of spell slots per fight at your disposal as a caster - the slots being your resource and being limited - makes it a resource based combat system.

I think you guys are missing my position. I’ve stated multiple times for Larian to go DOS or 5e and stop with the hybrid. Now of course since the game is “based” on 5e there is some blending but I always believed they should push more towards one side.

We can see now they want more DOS.

5e is about action economy. DOS, from my understanding, not as much.

You can already heal, cast spells, backstab and perform multiple actions on your turn with any character. Why all of a sudden stop now? By giving some spells surface effects and not others, it will only confuse players not familiar with 5e.

So I say, give all elemental spells some form of surface effect to be consistent.

Not giving up but being realistic.

I say barely resource based because you can replenish them almost every battle. Rest is unlimited so far. Everyone has access to food, scrolls and special skills like free backstab and advantage.

Seems we can toss everything and the kitchen sink every battle so let’s just go big and get more flashy. Balance isn’t the consideration. Big fun is.

I see. In that case your point would have been more clear if you would have just said they should get rid of spell slots being a limited resource and just revert back to abilities simply being tied to cooldowns like they were in DOS.

Well it is still “based” on 5e but your suggestion has validity.

I used to think that surface effects weren't really an issue, and that they were just another tactical option in this game.

I'm starting to walk that stance back, because now Larian seemingly pushing it even more with this latest patch means it's going to lead to some pretty wild imbalance among the classes later. The thing about field effects in D:OS2 was that every kind of build had the ability to utilize them in some way. But BG3 with its much more strict class system? It's largely left up to the casters, everyone else has to resort to items to contribute to the system in some way. And that's going to be a very, very worrying long term problem. Sadly, we're at a point where some would treat the definition of the word 'problem' as a subjective thing.

I wouldn't be surprised if the metrics from here on out either start showing players using Gale in nearly every party, or rolling Wizard/Druid MCs themselves, only because they're the only characters that can really interact with this entire facet of the combat system in an easily accessible way.

Hype for the rest of the classes is going to be pretty deflated once that realization sets in. For example, Bards better have some really good meaningful dialogue interactions that the other casters can't replicate, because their spells are largely entirely focused around overall utility/social interactions, and barely interact with the environment at all. They will need something to justify the fact that they won't have anything to do with an entire aspect of the combat system unlike the rest of the full casters (until Lore Bards reach level 6 and will likely overwhelmingly grab something from the Wizard spell list that has something to do with field effects, while every other Bard archetype has to wait until level 10, which was the original stated level cap).

Granted, Bards would probably be the most busted class in the game if Bardic Inspiration gets changed to how I think it will.

For uninitiated, Bardic Inspiration allows the Bard to give a 1d6 Bardic Inspiration die to a party member, who can keep it until they decide to roll it to add to an attack roll, skill check, or saving throw. Lore Bards get the ability to essentially apply a reverse version of Bardic Inspiration to enemies instead (Cutting Words), while College of Valor Bards get Bardic Inspiration upgraded into Combat Inspiration, which allows the party member to add it to their AC and damage rolls as well. The amount of uses per day is equal to the Bard's Charisma modifier, but once Bards reach level 5, they get to recharge all uses after a short rest instead of a long rest only.

Since it's highly unlikely Larian will be able to implement it in this way, Bardic Inspiration is most likely going to be changed to apply *all* of its potential effects over a full round or longer, making Bard the undisputed best class in the game for manipulating RNG in your favor.

You mean apart from the AI pathfinding...

I was using Witch Bolts with Gale, when i tryed Druid ... and didnt notice any surface effects. O_o
What am i doing wrong?