Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Reactions and Level 5 confirmed!

Well, all these new additions means I'll get around to playing the patch as soon as possible, after I'm done with Chained Echoes. I couldn't be happier to be more wrong about the way reactions are now implemented in the game, it's the only remaining real criticism I had for this game.

That said, due to the sheer amount of things being added making this the most robust patch thus far, everyone has a reason to test this patch out, not just the people who want to play Paladins. So it might be prudent to document the changes and new additions. We have about 8 months to go before full release, so even minor concerns should be brought up as soon as possible. I for one am going through as Bard as usual, but sadly I don't think my game will finish patching before I have to go to work today, when I'm most curious to see how Bardic Inspiration works under the new reaction system.

Also other things to check...

Reactions that are implemented with prompt options:
- Bardic Inspiration
- Hellish Rebuke
- Counterspell

Reaction-like abilities that are implemented with prompt options:
- Divine Smite

Reactions and reaction-like abilities that are currently fully automated:
- Attack of Opportunity
- Protection Fighting Style

Reactions and reaction-like abilities that are not yet implemented in any form:
- Shield spell
- Absorb Elements (?)

Reactions and reaction-like abilities that are currently implemented in a completely different way (or non-reaction abilities implemented under the old reaction system):
- Feather Fall (currently a pre-cast spell instead of something you cast to prevent a party member from taking full fall damage)
- Sneak Attack (well this isn't supposed to be a reaction, but it's currently implemented through the old toggle reaction system, which supposedly makes it so that if your main hand attack misses, you can't use an off-hand attack to trigger it from what I understand?)

Other abilities to investigate:
- Evasion
- Battlemaster maneuvers
- (I know this isn't all of them, these are just the ones that currently come to mind)

Obviously none of us is likely there yet, but I'm very curious as to how Haste interacts with level 5.

I.e. are we getting a full action and thus seeing double Extra Attacks?

Hmm, there's a report from Reddit indicating that attacks of opportunity are still fully automated. That could be problematic (especially from the standpoint of purposefully baiting it from enemies so they can't use a reaction on something else). Though I guess even if they weren’t automated, enemies would still use it first chance they get.

I assume we still have the option to toggle it off for ourselves though, which means it isn't that big of a deal from a player character standpoint. Though if they removed said toggle from us to accommodate the new reaction system, I would hope we don't see enemies baiting AoOs from us to avoid our own stronger reaction abilities.

Looks like Sneak Attack doesn't have options for it either, though to be fair, it was also fully automated in Solasta. (And I'm not sure it's meant to have options? IIRC it's supposed to automatically apply on the first successful hit no matter what, unless I'm missing something here about what people mean about wanting control over this, as I don't have much familiarity with rogues.)

Are the patch notes correct that lightning bolt is not in the game (because it was in the trailer, and I wanted to combine it with create water )

Also, it seems that agonizing blast is now automatically added to warlocks, giving them effectively an additional invocation slot
Can somebody test if devils sight + darkness works correctly now?

Nah, I read this as: the damage from Agonizing Blast is automatically added to the damage from Eldritch Blast, rather than them being separate instances of damage. It affects # of concentration saves made, abilities that deal extra damage when you deal damage, abilities that can be used to halve damage from a single source of damage, etc.

Ah, I understand
That also makes sense. I thought they changed it, because basically 100% of warlock players take it and it should have been a class feature anyways

Since I only have Stadia for now, I sadly can not test though

I hadn't had time to watch the PfH due to real life interferring. But reactions are a really great addition and as soon as I have time again, I might make another bard to test reactions with my favorite class.

No Shield spell, unfortunately. I hoped to have access to at least it for Eldritch Knights, as they suffer considerably from not having access to the weapon attack cantrips from Sword Coast Adventurers Guide.

Well, at least they've put in the basis for which the Shield spell can be added, so this is definitely a step in the right direction.

From the little I've seen of that new reaction system, I like it. It seems to be the hybrid system which has options for automated or "always ask" which many people (including me) suggested.

Hmm, now that I think about it... I wonder how this works in multiplayer? What do pauses to react look like to other party members in this game? Could it potentially break something if, let's say, someone outside of combat did something to one of the characters involved in the reaction while the target player is deciding what to do?

Solasta had desync problems when multiplayer was implemented there, but this specific concern was never a thing there since everyone was pulled into combat no matter where they were on the map. Here though? Since characters outside of combat are treated very differently from those that are... That's something worth testing.

I assume it will potentially break. Seeing multiplayer kind of creates two parties with companions linked to a seperate main character, which leads other players unable to take for let's say astarion if linked to another custom char. I mean technically you can stealth snipe from outside the engagement of the other PC. I know Sven has stated to the point that this seperation within multiplayer is going to change, I assume multiplayer will be finally considered one party xD. Overall I think the reaction system works, though I really think they should have added shield spell as well, so we could have tested this alongside counterspell.

@Saito Hikari, do you know if solasta's ready action mechanic is a DnD 5e thing? or is that just homebrew tactical games did?

Overall happy that we got lvl 5 to muck around with and with 11/12 classes there is quite a lot of characters you can build now at least. What I do remain curious about though is, how will Larian handle reactions from here on out. I feel it would be a good idea to open up maybe a few more subclasses to the existing classes though before they hit 1.0. I know they have playtesters for acts 2 and 3, but I do think using the enxt x months gathering feedback from the EA crowd on other subclasses could be a good idea as well. I mean, wizard is missing 5 or 6 subclasses still, and cleric at least 4 . I like wizards finally being unable to learn cleric spells too. No more gale leeching all spells under the sun

I don't see my Paladin's 'protection' as a reaction I can control? This is a key ability from the 'protection' style of play, where you can impose disadvanatage on a foe attacking a party member nearby.

It is listed under my abilities, but it doesn't show up on the reactions menu - unless you have to drag it there somehow?

Is that a skill connected to shield perhaps? I know Solasta has a similar mechanic for shield users to allow a nearby party member to 'block' incoming attacks and give a disadvantage to enemy dice rolls. Just list it as a suggestion perhaps.. I am running a sorcerer, cleric, wizard and rogue party currently and have not discovered any reactions In said menu as of yet either

Yep, it reqires a shield, which I have equipped - although perhaps because I last used a crossbow, it isn't showing up (seems a bit weird if that is so - will check later).

Wolmerine pointed out in some other threats that new system seems to be only working on things that consume additional resources ... like spellslots.

Old reactions like AOO seems to be still set on auto with no option to control them.
Maybe protection fighting style is one of them?

The ready action mechanic is a real thing, Solasta's implementation of it is actually a bare minimum sort of thing, restricted to attacks and offensive cantrips against the first enemy that enters your attack range. Under actual rules, you could ready anything so long as your declared trigger condition is met.

Of course, something like readying actual spells is complicated as hell and not really feasible to program, the overall amount of work needed and the sheer potential complexity might be a few leagues beyond the reaction system. The reaction system itself could be considered a pre-requisite for a full ready action system to even exist in some ways. I would be happy with just readying attacks like how Solasta does it, anything beyond that is a bit much.

In regards to protection fighting style (the ability to impose disadvantage on an attack being directed at a nearby party member), it's a reaction that is currently fully automated. It'll probably be redesigned under the full scope of the reaction system to include a prompt option later.

I just started a new playthrough to see what options Bardic Inspiration has. I keep trying to open the reaction window for Lae'zel, but the window auto closes on me after a split second. Is it just me running into a bug, or is it happening because Lae'zel isn't considered a full party member during the tutorial, and technically you shouldn't have access to her reaction settings the same way you don't have access to her inventory yet?

Hmmm I noticed another thing in the prologue too, in multiplayer you can no longer asign laezel or shadowheart to other peoples' control. I assume these are patch 9 bugs. As I also encountered a bug with the ilithid encounter in the crashed ship. In walking into the room, the 3 fishermen were not there. and when approaching the area the mindflayer should be, it fell dead from the sky xD. So I wouldn't be surprised if they somehow broke some things in the tutorial. As I am sure I could assign SH and Laezel to my friends' control under patch 8 during the prologue. Also, killing the devil commander, didnt spawn his reinforcements either. so yeah hotfixes are needed.

@Saito regarding protection fighting style does the shield bearer need to be right next to another player for this autoreaction to trigger? will need to test this it seems.

That other party member needs to be a certain distance from you. Since standard DnD and Solasta uses grids, it might be harder to visualize the range in BG3 which measures purely by meters. I am assuming the range might be similar to attack of opportunity range? I won't get the chance to see it for myself as my party comp won't include anyone with access to protection fighting style.

The patch notes mentioned that the interaction with the fishermen at the crashed ship was removed. I wonder why?

There's someone on the Larian discord indicating that Combat Inspiration may be massively bugged in this patch, to the point where you can no longer use it to enhance the rolls of other party members during dialogue at the moment once you pick College of Valor subclass. It'll probably take several days for me to progress far enough to observe that for myself, but for any Valor Bard ahead of me, can you confirm that observation?

Ok, played a bit more - seems protection is a toggle a the moment - so you can toggle off all other auto-reactions (only AoO at the moment, for me) and then hopefuly it will fire off when you want to it to. Not an ideal situation - Solasta allowed you to control exactly when protection was invoked and for which characters. Why not allow this if they allow popups too? Seems weird.

It's clear the reaction system is basically in a beta phase. Some reactions act like proper reactions while others are still fully automated. I expect the ones that are currently fully automated will be adjusted with time. We should probably compile a list.

Reactions that are implemented with prompt options:
- Bardic Inspiration
- Hellish Rebuke
- Counterspell

Reaction-like abilities that are implemented with prompt options:
- Divine Smite

Reactions and reaction-like abilities that are currently fully automated:
- Attack of Opportunity
- Protection Fighting Style

Reactions and reaction-like abilities that are not yet implemented in any form:
- Shield spell
- Absorb Elements (?)

Reactions and reaction-like abilities that are currently implemented in a completely different way:
- Feather Fall (currently a pre-cast spell instead of something you cast to prevent a party member from taking full fall damage)

Other abilities to investigate:
- Evasion
- Battlemaster maneuvers
- (I know this isn't all of them, these are just the ones that currently come to mind)

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Re-reading patch notes... I really wonder what Daylight looks like in this game.