Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback BG3 Should Not Copy Solasta Reaction System

I read a bunch about how great the Solasta reaction system was, so I finally broke down and bought the game to see how it was. I made sure to throw a paladin in my party because the most common complaint I see is that paladins won't be able to time their smites with crits.

This might be an unpopular opinion here, but the way Solasta does reactions is horrible. Every time I swing my sword and hit with my paladin or my cleric, I get a pop up that asks if I want to smite or strike my enemy. If it's 10 weak enemies in a battle, I'm not gonna waste spell slots and strikes on that, so I have to click pass 3 times a round minimum. That doesn't include all the opportunities I have to use my counterspell, or every time my thief gets hit I have to pass on taking half damage, or when enemies walk away from me without disengaging first. Initially, I thought it was nice, but after 10-15 hours of clicking pass, I decided neither game has an ideal reaction system. In Solasta, I get annoyed at how many pauses there are in combat, and in BG3, I almost forget my reactions are even there, because it's so unpredictable when they'll be used.

Sadly, I can't think of a better option to find a happy medium between the two reaction systems other than a toggle to switch between them, but I will say that the Solasta reaction system is over-praised and not as good as everyone says it is. I only have inner-peace in Solasta after I burn all my spell slots on my mage and paladin, and strikes on my cleric.

Really crossing my fingers Larian can find a good way to find something between the two systems, because I can't think of anything that would give the benefits of both.

I'm not here to argue, I'm just here to post some feedback.

I agree Solasta can be painful to play. Abilities like Paladin's Smite could easily be changed into an active ability that wouldn't interrupt your attack every. single. time. I passionately hate the freezing of the game mid attack animation right before impact. They could have at least placed the roll and Smite choice before the animation starts. And I don't like crit fishing mechanically. It makes much more sense to charge the weapon before attack than somehow injecting divine power into it in a nanosecond AFTER it lands in a soft spot.

They should just convert as many Reactions as they can into active abilities, and only keep the reactions that really have to be reactions.

Other uses for Reactions came up in other threads as well, like catching a potion thrown at you. A potion somehow affecting you through armor, clothes and skin is probably the dumbest home brew in BG3 and it really has to go.

I was under an impression that happy medium is what most are campaigning for.

Smite and other stuff like that aren't reactions - in general I don't mind stuff like that getting streamlined a bit as they are manually initiated by players - even if I loose a bit of control it is still a decent tradeoff. With bardic inspiration I don't mind attack buff, as it's easy to see its impact and I have control over it - it is actual reactions, an action initiated during enemy's turn, that are a problem.

I never minded stuff like rogues dodge - either I don't care what I use reaction for, and will use it when the occasion appears, or I want to use specific reaction for specific enemy and am glad that I am able to do so. I can imagine xountetspell being of annoyance (base campaign had very few Spellcasters, didn't get deep into expansion enough to see those). But:

I still believe that Solasta implementation and presentation is the problem, not the system itself. The reaction popup is placed very poorly - on the top of the screen, place your mouse is unlikely to be anywhere near around as interactable UI is at the bottom. Dismissing it is a hassle but not because it asks yes/no, but because it does it poorly. Make it easier to dismiss the prompt (like RMB anywhere on the screen) and present it better and it will be just fine.

Agreed that Paladin's Smite (which as @Wormerine noted, isn't actually a Reaction) should be an activated ability you use prior to attacking or a toggle. Similar for all reaction-like that you could potentially use multiple times per turn/round or on practically any ally/enemy action (e.g., Sneak Attack, Cutting Words). For your cleric's stikes...I'm seeing that these are usable 1x per turn and don't cost a resource, so I'd categorize them as similar to Sneak Attack and thus should probably also be a toggle. (Since it doesn't cost a resource and clerics don't get Extra Attack, it makes sense for it to be used automatically on your first successful attack each turn.)

+1 for a hybrid type system where, for each possible Reaction (or reaction-like ability), people can choose to leave it on "Prompt Me" / "Automatic Use" / "Don't Use"
I'll also echo the UI suggestions other have; using different-than-Solasta UI where you could e.g., just press space bar to ignore a prompt and/or it shows up on the bottom of your screen, maybe in your hotbar.

Yes.

Anyway, there's no need for worry, because we are NOT getting a good reaction system.
If we never got one so far in EA it's because it just isn't an option for them.

And what's the only argument in favor of reactions, really? That they are a fundamental part of the action economy in D&D and define the flow of several encounters?
But Larian so far made abundantly clear to have nothing but genuine contempt for the license they obtained and the way D&D plays.

I'm sure Larian will come up with some abortion that let you switch a couple of toggle to replace every reaction into a fire surface under the feet of our opponents or something like that.

+1
Happy medium = preset reactions (select target + toggle) AND some reactions becoming active skills.

I agree Solasta's system isn't perfect, but I think it's far better than what Larian currently has in place. I'd much rather see Larian starting from Solasta's base and iterating on that, producing a polished, improved version than what we've gotten thus far.

Thanks for adding your feedback, Rezeki. There are several threads, including a pinned feedback thread in the mega-threads section - You might do better to post your comments there, rather than making a new thread for it; the collected threads exist for a reason, after all, and that is to gather feedback on their specific topics.

If you don't get mad at me, please, but it seems to me that if you read it on this forum, you probably didn't read it very thoroughly... that's basically understandable, that mega treat is insanely long.
Because this exact problem with smith has been brought up here about a million times and in all cases it was solved by one of the two usual methods:

1) Smite is not a reaction so it should work the same way Battle Master Maneuvers currently work

2) the ask/auto/off method allows the player to completely turn off any reaction or use of Smite in this case at any time and not resolve
I am personally of the opinion that if the soloist implemented this option, their reaction system would be absolutely perfect

Totally disagree.

This suggestion mostly mean "use Solasta's reaction system" or "use the current bad BG3 toggle system".

Basicaly, yes ... it was also presented as "at the very least". O_o
I keep saying, as long as i get my popups, and will have full control without any previous settings ... i dont give a shit about whatever semiauto nonsense they implement aswell.

Yeah, that's just because you seem somewhat unable to accept that you can't have your cake and eat it too.

You either get a reaction system that does reactions properly and attempts to stay faithful to the D&D rule system OR you have to come up with some (probably stupid and ineffective) new made-up mechanic to replace it entirely, like automation or abilities that work completely differently.


This imaginary promised land that you are chasing where you can save face claiming to stay "true to D&D" AND not have some form of confirmation for reactions from the player simply doesn't exist.

And both the OP and your recurring arguments against prompts are a a struggle to solve a "problem" that doesn't even exist for many, on a premise that these same "many" disagree with.

I absolutely don't care AT ALL if it's not "true to DnD".

I perfectly know your opinion and you mostly know mine.
Don't feel obliged to shout your disapproval when I give a different opinion than yours on the matter... Especially if it doesn't add anything to the conversations we have already had.

Do you like how you need to select the type of damage for chromatic orb every time? Spell level for spells? Confirm selfcasts?

I believe that the problem is not that something does not stay true to DnD, but that we are deprived of the ability to make decisions due to unwillingness to implement new functionality(new for DOS2 engine).
For example, I like weapon abilities. They add depth to the game and at the same time they cannot be spammed.
I also like the advantage from high ground (when it's a minor buff, not a roll with advantage)

My ideal variant would be to have a preset system with toggles.
In such system you only need to show toggles {popup||disable||auto} for abilities/spells of specific party member.
This way you can have several presets for each party member. You can switch between them for easy fights, boss fights, etc.
In our case we can {disable} smite, {auto} opportunity attack for an easy fight and {popup} smite , {popup} opportunity attack for a difficult fight.
Then you can switch between presets

+100. Solasta is a chore to play because of all the reaction nonesense. It is very tedious. The only way I would tolerate reactions in BG3 would be if they where automated similar to dragon age origins. In that game you could tell your companions to use X or Y when Z needed to be. In practice how would this work in BG3.

For each PC, add a new tab called tactics. Here are main types

1) When targeted by a spell of [abjuration / necromancy / fire / storm … etc], of spell slot [X], use react A
When targeted by a projectile by <sorc>, <hunter>, etc, on pc use spellslot level [X], to block

2) when hostile, uses [X, eg: sleep], use reaction to dispel
when hostile uses [stagger or shove] cast feather fall
When hostile uses poison: cast delay poison

3) On hostile using arrow [sonic, blasting, fire, etc], trigger feat <evasion>, or block

Tactics that work like this are very easy to code, and larian has 0 excuses for not adding them in such a manner. If dragon age origins could do this 10 years ago. They can do so as well.

I think that there is some utility for automatic reactions, but specifically as a setting which determines when you receive Solasta-like prompts.

I almost never want my Wizard character to use their reaction to take a swing at an enemy leaving melee range. But on the other hand I also don't want them to automatically counterspell a Fire Bolt from an Eldritch Knight when there's a full caster crackling with power who has yet to act.

I don't want my Rogue to spend their Uncanny Dodge automatically when moving past a caster, but I do want to have it when that Ogre smashes them.

I think a system which allows you to have settings for when you receive prompts would both cut back on excessive prompt spam, and still allow you to have a fine-grain control over the things you do want to save a reaction for.

I thought this would be great for BG3 too, but then I realized that tactics fit so well in DAO because it is RtwP and the companions you're not currently controlling are always acting and being acted upon. Thus, they *need* tactics in order to not do completely idiotic things. Giving them tactics allows you to worry less about and do less micromanaging of the others, enabling you to have more fun actually playing the game.

BG3 combat, however, is TB where you're given specific time to control characters one-by-one. You're expected to dictate every one of their actions; making decisions for every character *is* the gameplay. So adding Tactics for reactions only wouldn't fit with the TB nature of BG3, and it'd be a loss of this control.

This would be fine with me! It's a more complicated solution, and probably should *also* include an the "automatic use/promptless" option, but yeah. Set Uncanny Dodge to not prompt me if the incoming damage is under 5; set Counterspell to never prompt me if the enemy is casting a cantrip; etc. Similar to @GM4Him's suggestions but the end result is still prompts, not auto-use.

BG3 should copy Solasta's reaction system (or, one might say, dnd reaction system).
Solasta reaction system is perfect.
Toggling presets would be very tedious as well as it will never be able to cover all cases anyway.
Solasta reaction system is perfect and BG3 should just use it. Even if Larian studios hates dnd, Solasta just plays better.