Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Thrown Potions

A goblin just threw a potion of sleep at laezel and missed. Laezel fell asleep anyway.

Why is an item that should have no effect unless consumed more powerful than a spell that costs a spell slot to cast?

Please remove all effects from throwing potions. It feels campy and comedic which is totally off-tone for the forgotten realms.

+1. Drives me nuts. Not only is a potion a bonus, but you can throw it and heal people. Why do you need a cleric? Why do you need a mage?

Those things bug me to no end. Classes are a moot point because you have tons of potions and scrolls that everyone can use and they do more damage and are more effective.

I do feel like mechanics-wise, BG3 is all about everyone gets a trophy instead of each class having its place and everyone works together as a team.

+1

Duergar threw a healing potion at another, missed, but the target was healed anyway.
This is beyond ridiculous; this is an open mockery.

+1 doesn’t make sense thematically, isn’t good gameplay wise.

I for other side dont think that throwing any potion is necesarily bad thing ... but it could be done better and there should be some rules indeed.


No effect when miss shoud go without saying ...
Personaly i would like if caching a potion would cost reaction and ideally include dif 10 roll for either sleight of hand or acrobatics ... note here please that this would also give some use to Hex: Dexterity

Interesting idea, but the key here is "catching", which should be different from "consuming" / "drinking". Even in BG3, the latter still costs BA, and BA is unavailable out of turn (should be?..).

Otherwise, if 10 Duergars will decide to heal one of them together, sure it will take them all their turns in a round, but the recipient will effectively become unkillable for that time.

+1

Well, actually, if throwing a potion to an ally then required the ally to expend their reaction to catch-and-drink it, otherwise the potion is lost with no effect, that would be workable - after all, you only have one reaction per round, so no matter how many allies a target has, it could only benefit from that once per round, and at the cost of not having their reaction for anything else. It would also mean that throwing potions on downed players from across the field would no longer work (can't use a reaction when you're downed), which I'd be happy about.

But, catch 22, this would, once again ,require a properly functional reaction system in the game, which we do not really have right now.

+1

+1000000

I appreciate that Larian thinks outside the box and tries out things like throwing potions, but ultimately, I'm not sure it works.

I think misses still take effect because the "arc" only goes to the target, and any miss still hits the ground at their feet.

+1000

Even a reaction is too broken.

Reality check. How fast can you drink a flask of anything? Toss a corked flask to someone. Have them pop the cork off and then drink it.

A reaction is meant to be a split second moment. As an enemy is retreating, you seize the opportunity and stab. It is not meant to be you catching a bottle, uncorking and guzzling. Catching, yes. Using, no.

And again, it completely breaks the need for a cleric or wizard at all. You can throw potions that work better than spells. What do you need spells for?

Wizards and clerics get the shaft in BG3 because of items. Just like Rogues get the shaft because they have no expertise and everyone can sneak as bonus, drink potions as bonus, pick locks with just as much skill, etc.

The game breaks classes. Take fighter. Everyone can perform special combat maneuvers now based on weapon type. So fighter maneuvers are no longer special.

Over and over again, they are breaking down the classes so it is kinda like, who cares what class you pick. It really doesn't matter much.

I see what you mean, but I wish the margin for mistakes was wider. There are plenty of professional sports based on throwing things accurately, and even the pros occasionally shank their throws, especially in high intensity situations. Why aren't the throws ever off by meters in BG3?

I would disagree. Not sure about other potions but healing potions should work if you are willing to expend your action to throw them. I like Shadowheart but there are people over there who would rather play without a cleric. A self-made character is a waste of space and story. I think throwing healing potions are an alternative albeit a costly one. Let it exist.

I disagree. You already have shared magic pocket inventory. A character can heal themselves with a bonus action. You use potions for healing and you completely negate the point of a healer.

And if you allow one potion to be thrown, you allow all. Thus, you negate all need for spells.

Potions were never meant to be poured on, as if by merely touching them they affect you, but that's what we have in BG3. If a poison touches your boots, you're poisoned. Likewise, if a healing potion hits your clothes, you're healed.

It breaks everything and what you get now is that classes are meaningless. Items are EVERYTHING.

Yes, its cost BA when you youreself wish to drink a potion ...
It WOULD cost Action of first person, reaction of second person and still it would have fair chance to do litteraly nothing AND lost a potion ...

Seems like quite fair trade to me.

That is the most funny thing about this all ...
Concidering that Larian starts to agree with us (and yes im part of this group surprisingly ) and set Shove and Stealth as Action instead of Bonus Action ... and (yes im supporting this idea too) they will remove Bonus Action weapon maneuvers ... what will those 10 Duergars do?

Scenario A:
All 10 Duergars will attack in their turn, or shove ... then, since they are injured they will drink a potion ...
Result? 10 Healed Duergars ... and 10 Attacked enemies.

Scenario B:
All 10 Duergars will throw a potion to heal their comrades ... then ... what?
Result? 5-8 Duergars will be healed ... up to 5 (50% chance) of them will completely waste their turn, since their comrade didnt roll enough and nothing happened, just Action gone.

Scenario C:
All 10 Duergars decide to heal one of them together ..
As Niara allready mentioned ... result will be 1 heal and 9 wasted potions, since that Duergar have only one reaction per round.

Dont be mad at me, if you have any other scenario in mind, please share ...
Even so amazing and flawless (kidding) creature like me can potentialy make misstake, so its possible that i forget something.
But right now ... no matter wich side im watching it ... it seems to me like throwing potion would be the most uneffective thing you could do in combat, IF at least Larian would delete that part where potions have effect if they miss ... after all, that hit chance is in fact substitute for catching roll.

Wich Larian is allready working on.
Dont be affraid to dream big.

Immersion again, huh?
Tell me, please ... does "catching, poping off and gulping a potion" take more time than
- catch an arrow, call for your body natural magical energy and use it to throw the same arrow to someone with simmilar intensity as if it was shoot out of bow?
- noticing that somoene is casting on you, so you recite your magical formula, do apropriate gestures and surround your WHOLE body in magical shield?
- noticing that somone is attacking you, so you reach your patron and surrounds this sime his WHOLE body in hellish flames?

I mean come on.


[sarcasm]
Why would i take Wizard with me, you know ... the dude that can cast almost litteraly any magic spell that is in the game, including brutally damaging spells, guaranted hit spells, AoE spells, crowd controll spells and most of them is even able to affect multiple enemies, when there is single (again litteraly, since i didnt even found second sleep potion in my last play ) item that i can throw ONCE at SINGLE target and get the same result as one of those spells?
Totally useless class indeed.

Why would i take Clerict with me, you know ... the dude that can curently cast two different heals per run, can ressurect my unconcios friends, give us blessings to boost our combat capabilities, have lots and lots crowd controll, debuffing, and damaging spells ... and also can nicely work as a tank for us ... when i can simply throw a potion that can heal single target only, once per round only, while he is conscious only and wich would take the reaction from him for the rest of that round?
Totally useless class indeed.
[/sarcasm]

[deadly serious reaction]
I mean ... come on.
[/deadly serious reaction]

I agree with premise of this statement ...
But the form seem overdramatic to me. :-/

It feels a little like going to jail for yelling at my dog ... yes we all will probably agree that i should not done that, but its also not so big deal.

We discussed this a while back but it's good to bring up again.

I also applaud Larian for thinking outside the box. But this one really has to go.

The potion throwing is nonsensical, unnecessary and it eliminates any motivation to play a combat healer Cleric or Druid to heal your team mates and feel important and useful because of Healing Word and Cure Wounds. You're not. Anyone can just smash a potion in someone else's face from across the battlefield and heal them.

Also, the missing but still doing full effects or landing an AoE with surgical precision has to go. Effects that completely bypass saving throws have to go. Most of their homebrew stuff just ignore D&D rules even though this is supposed to be a D&D game and somewhat balanced.

If we didn't have magic pockets, then throwing a potion to an ally (as a bonus action, maybe they use their reaction to catch it) could be interesting and cool. But we do, so there's no need to use Throw to share inventory.

Thus, the only function of "Throw Potion to Allies" is to use the potion on the ally, which I agree steps on the toes of casters. It would be better (more balanced, less intrusive on other classes) if the receiver had to use their reaction to catch & drink it, but I'd prefer it if potion throwing simply dealt 1d4 damage upon a hit and the potion splatters uselessly on the character/ground.

For the whole game of EA (I've completed it once), I have used throwing potions twice: in both cases on unconscious characters. Just saying.

It uses a standard action for some healing... most of the time it is simply not worth it. And there is also the risk of healing an enemy.

The whole idea is that no class is irreplaceable but some classes are just better in doing certain things. Clerics have number of buffs, so they are not simple healers. They can also heal sb else as a bonus action (!), which is also very important. So throwing potions will not make them redundant. Not a must either. Which is fine by my accounts.

Whatever they do with the potions, I will still keep Shadowheart around. First, her personality does fit the character I want to play in my first game once it is released. Second, her domain is excellent for sneaking and sneak attacks and she has nice defensive spells. Healing is a plus but not all she can do.