Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback The way Reaction actions are implemented right now means Paladins will suck.

It already makes Lore Bards nerfed to hell. In the TTRPG, you get to decide to use Cutting Words after you know what the enemy rolled on an attack roll or saving throw, meaning you want to save it for rolls where an enemy succeeds, but by just enough so that reducing it by a d6 might make them fail. So in this game you will NEVER use Cutting Words, because you don't want to use it on an enemy who rolled a 2 anyway, and it costs a use of Bardic Inspiration which you only get to use as many times per day as your CHA modifier (not a whole lot).

But PALADINS will really get the short end of the stick here. The reason you would play a Paladin vs a Cleric is probably for the Divine Smite feature, which you use by expending a spell slot. Like Cutting Words, in the TTRPG you get to decide if you want to use it after you see your roll, so you really want to save your meager spell slots for crits (Paladins are half-casters, unlike Clerics) so you can deal as much damage as possible. So by making players decide beforehand whether to use a smite, it basically turns the one major feature of Paladins into a worse version of Sneak Attack. You can't use it nearly as many times as Sneak Attack, and whenever you do use it, you sacrifice one of your few spell uses. It's a really, really raw deal.

tl;dr: the implementation of reactions in BG3 turns Paladins' arguably best class feature into the worst class feature of any other class in the game. Paladins will just be a fighter-y cleric that's worse than both.

Exactly...Ima start bumping all these reaction threads whenever I come in.

Ist Bump

Yup. Reactions need a firm rework for sure.

+1, really hope that it will get to Larian evetually. Even their reddit is full of reaction-system-rework posts

Hopefully new reactions have been at work for a long time already, and just aren’t ready to be shown just yet. Hopefully

Lore Bards in BG3 are plenty strong. Reducing one enemy roll by d6 is often weaker than reducing all attack, damage and ability rolls for entire enemy turn. Larian removed the saving throw part from Cutting Words, so you can't team it up with a save or suck spell, because they probably realized it made it way to strong.


Lack of crit fishing doesn't really affect Paladin as much as you imply in terms of their power. Saving for random crits, while looks good on theory-crafted DPR, it really isn't that good in actual play. If you want to kill something as quickly as possible, you would just expend spell slots whether you crit or not. And if Larian implements it as an attack action you still can pair it with Incapacitated to guarantee the highest burst. Besides no crit fishing actually makes Paladin more interesting class to play rather than just a single gimmick Fighter.

While I'm all for implementing reactions in BG3, the exaggeration used to argument for it is not helpful.

There has never been a saving throw for Cutting Words. It's on page 54 of the Player's Handbook if you want to check.

There's no crit fishing *yet*. The game isn't even close to complete.

Also, consider that Divine Smite only matters if you hit something. Having to use DS before you attack means there's a real possibility you'll spend a spell slot to miss. Even if Larian makes it so DS will proc on your next *successful* hit, you still have to wait a whole round before you get another chance to use it. By then your other party members may be able to down the BBEG before it even comes back to you, and you'll have wasted one of your few spell slots for nothing.

It'd be vastly superior if Larian implemented it such that your spell slot is refunded on a miss. Otherwise it's decently likely you'll waste it on an opportunity attack. Or, as you say, the combat might be over by the time it gets back to you.

Cutting Words can be used on an enemy saving throw roll in PnP, while it doesn’t affect enemy saving throws in BG3.


You are right, game isn’t complete. So why use Paladin sucking as an argument?


Superiority Die is not spent if BM fighter misses in BG3. It would be surprising if Divine Smite would be implemented differently.

It doesn't affect enemy saving throws. If you googled that, the first result is wrong. I know because I made that same mistake when talking about it a month ago.

You’re right. MB

Think the Reaction system, if Larian wants to keep the current implementation, can work if the engine is allowed to know what the roll is in advance, in the background, then check if the Reaction has a chance of succeeding. If so, go ahead and burn the Reaction.

Also, if multiple Reactions can be used in a single point in time, use Reactions in the following order: free non-spell, non-action Reactions (Bardic Inspiration/Cunning Words) > non-spell Reactions > spell Reactions. If a Reaction can't pass the current check to be used against, move to another Reaction by priority. If a Reaction as used and didn't pass the check (d6 but only rolled a 1 when a 5 was needed), restart the priority and check against if another Reaction can help pass. Continue until both no free Reactions or a Reaction action is available to perform. Obviously only checking against currently toggled On reactions.

Bardic Inspiration and spell Shield when moving away from an threatening enemy with an available AoO comes to mind.