Swen comments that Bard is a really hard class to sell to people (this is news to me; it's probably hard to sell to Swen, because it doesn't have explosions and massive damage-dealing, and is characterised as a support class), but that he thinks they've done a really good job of it.
It doesn't seem like a hard sell to us, but it's absolutely a hard sell to the wider gaming community, whose only real knowledge of Bard is limited to all the 'fuck everything that moves' stereotypes surrounding the class, along with how it is a support class with most implementations in other games being on the experimental side.
Even now you can go on the Steam forums and see complaints about Larian adding in a 'joke class' over Paladins or Monks. Or, really, don't waste your time going there, for obvious reasons.
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So I will explain how Cutting Words and Combat Inspiration actually works in-game.
Cutting Words affects ALL applicable rolls that the target makes until the start of the start of the Bard's next turn. This is both a huge buff and a slight utility nerf - the tabletop version of it only works on one parameter at a time and one applicable roll. The BG3 version of it essentially massively neuters an enemy reliant on non-saving throw-based physical attacks for their whole turn. The utility nerf is when you consider that you have to pre-cast it, which means you need to predict exactly what the enemy is going to do in the upcoming turn.
It's only listed as a reaction because the act of casting Cutting Words actually uses your reaction resource for that turn, even though the way you use it in BG3 is nothing like what you'd expect from a reaction ability. Awkward, eh?
Combat Inspiration, as a consequence of basically being an upgraded Bardic Inspiration, basically got kicked down and shot in the head in comparison. Let's go over how Bardic/Combat Inspiration works in BG3.
1) A party member that is given a Bardic Inspiration/Combat Inspiration die has the option to toggle which parameters they want to expend the die on.
2) The saving throw and AC boost effects actually share the same toggle.
3) The toggles to boost attack rolls and ability checks are toggled on by default. The boost to damage rolls and saving throws/AC are toggled off by default. This remains if you recast Bardic Inspiration on the same character and even if your toggles may have been different on the previous use, meaning the game will not record your previous preferences for these toggles.
You also cannot swap to that character holding the die while it's not yet their turn to toggle how the inspiration die is used (which may have been possible in earlier patches, but someone brought this up in another thread, so I went out to test this. it appears it's no longer possible to do this, if it ever was).
This actually presents an extremely awkward situation in regards to using Combat Inspiration defensively.
If you intend to use Combat Inspiration to increase a party member's AC in an effort to save them from an attack that might knock them out, and an enemy moves before that party member's turn rolls around, the AC/saving throw increase effect toggle being turned off by default means that Combat Inspiration actually can't do anything to mitigate an incoming attack or spell from the enemy in this situation. Even more if you're really unlucky, an enemy can simply move away from that party member and trigger an opportunity attack, which will eat the die as it is automatically expended on the attack roll, all before you get any control over how you want to use that die.
