Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Non-spell icons still need work

The spell icons are clean, colorful and evocative. The same can’t be said for other icons.

[This post contains no pictures as that’s not in my skillset. Sorry in advance.]

Wyll’s imp can become invisible. However the icon looks nothing like the invisibility spell (a humanoid silhouette made of horizontal blue lines). It’s a detailed sketch of the imp’s face, 20% of which is drawn in dotted lines. The small icon just looks like an impish face. The larger icon looks ok, but it can only be seen in the tooltip, along with the ability’s name and description.

If I need the tooltip to see what the icon does, the icon isn’t doing its job.

The fix for this one is easy: make the icon a silhouette of the imp drawn with horizontal blue lines. Some will be harder to get right.

The battlemaster maneuvers are a mess. They have a bunch of angry lines, most of which don’t help distinguish them. The difference between ranged and melee maneuvers are a few lines lost in the fray representing a weapon. The difference between types of maneuvers are the many white lines behind the weapon which don’t scan when the icon is small.

Though those two are the worst offenders (to me), all non-spell icons need more iteration to make sure they’re legible as small icons on the hotbar, without need for the tooltip to tell them appart.

So true. The Batlle Master icons all look the same and muddled.

+1 ...
Not on top of my priorities list, but still 100% true.

+1
The examples given are spot-on.

+1 not something I thought about, but you are probably right!

I took the time to add a few visuals to the examples given by OP :

1) Piercing Shot (Range) vs Piercing Strike (Melee) :


2) Trip Attack (Range) vs Trip Attack (Melee) :


3) Invisibility (Imp) :


Note :
Of course, when taking the time to compare the icons or using tooltips, it's possible to differentiate "Range" and "Melee".
However, I think players should be able to recognize skills at first glance (meaning without the need of tooltips and without having to compare the melee and range version of a skill).
It's frustrating otherwise (especially in combats) and, in my opinion, a not-ideal UI design.

Suggestion :
"Melee skills" keep using the current color scheme (red/orange) but "Range skills" could use another color scheme (forest/verdant green?).


Two more examples with spells :

1) The worst (Disguise Self) :

I can't express how frustrating this one is to me 😅

Suggestion :

• using different colors for the different races?
• having a logical order (see current issue in picture)
• having a fixed order. Currently, it's random. Recasting the spell means a new order. It could always be in alphabetical order.
  (this is also an issue with other spells like "Chromatic orb" or the skill lists of conjured entities)

2) The ok one but I'm a detailed-oriented person (Shatter) :

Just to be clear, that last one in particular is absolutely a minor "issue". The others not so much.

Very nice comparisons and highlights Melivy, I also often get confused by the piercing icons ^^

Thank you so much @MelivySilverRoot!

I hadn’t realized the disguise self spell was so awkward. As you mentioned, a logical order would help, as would keeping all females and males on their own row (on the picture, the two races on the right break this rule).

It would help a lot if the icons didn’t move around on the hotbar. I could maybe learn the icons by position if I knew where to reliably find them.

Excellent idea!

Fully support everything you said MelivySilverRoot ...
Except this one:

This makes me worry a little ...

Bcs even tho it hide that icon a little ...
I for one am really glad we have spell levels on our icons ... even tho it would be thousand times more usefull if that roman number would show lowest possible level the spell can be casted, rather than highest ... i mean every spell can be upcasted right?
So whats the point?
All we get from our hotbar at first slance is what we have X II. spellslots left and Y I. spellslots left ...
While all of our spells can use II. spellslot ... and some of them (wich we dont know, unless we remember) can use I.

If we would get lowest level showed instead ... well, that would be actualy usefull.
Since we would at first glance see that we have X II. spellslots left and Y I. spellslots left ...
While having X' spells that have to use spellslot II. (or higher) ... and Y' spells that can be used with spellslot I. (or higher).

So, i really hope that will be updated ... but not removed in order to perfectly see nice icon.

Oh...I wasn't suggesting removing the level indicators at all! I understand you worrying, I should have added that.
This issue I was pointing out is the loss of details when the icon get smaller (so when in the hotbar). Which I admitted, is a minor issue.
Yes, the level indicator is covering the icon but I would never suggest removing vital information of course 😅

An organised post, illustrated, with details and notes? Yes please!
Thanks for the feedback o7