Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback The Help action should stabilize the dying at most, not outright revive them

While it's good that characters auto-stabilise after combat ends now, within the current system, having to go over and help-action them afterwards is just pointless busy work and time waste for no benefit; I agree with others here that downed-but stable characters should just recover to 1Hp when combat is over, since that's what your post-battle help actions (which are free and cost no resource) do anyway. ... But I do feel that we should not leave turn based combat initiative while there are unstable characters in play, and they shouldn't auto-stabilise as long as that is the case instead.

There is a problem with their system design right now, in that they're trying to make the help action do too many things, but by virtue of doing that, they're also locking players out of many things they should be able to do. Help currently is the 'tool' you use to break someone out of a removable condition - anything that has the clause "an ally can use an action to do 'X'," the result of which is you waking up, or being cut loose or untangled etc., has all been put into the help action... but this currently means that players can't then do those things themselves - you can't take an action to free yourself from vines or webs when you should be able to (and I believe there are spell cards that even say you can in game right now... you just can't), for example, because you cannot access that function - it's bundled in the help action which you cannot use on yourself; you can't use it on yourself because it's also bundled with the ability to clear other afflictions that don't necessarily rob a sufferer of their action, but aren't allowed to simply be shrugged off alone.

I'm on the fence about some of the minor minutia, because we have to consider the translation into a video game format here, and there are certain elements of flow and progression in combat in particular, that do benefit from tweaks when we make that jump.

I'm fine with a single action to auto-stabilising characters in combat, without a check, as long as they don't heal.

I'd consider having a stabilise check make a medicine check (dc variable by number of failed saves perhaps), when they do stabilise someone in combat, and if they pass it, then the character can get 1hp back...

At the same time, I can feel the sense that that takes away from the exciting moments when you roll to on your death save, and regain 1 hit point and wake up... this game can't emulate that at the moment, because getting that boon is no big deal in the current game-play.