Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback How many buffs can we have at once

Hello,

A little back story, im playing a Dark battle clr of shar.

While in Grym forge I casted resistance to energy on myself, inspected myself and there was the buff.

Then I cast bless, but the resistance in inspection was gone and bless was there.

Am I correct in assuming im missing a buff or in the UI only show the most resent on cast?

I guess I could jump in the lava and see.

Every caster, can maintain ONE spell with concentration, and alot of BUFF spells is concentration, its why spells like mirror image is really valuable as a defenceive spell as it dosent need concentration... so you can have several buff spells, but the limiter is often concentration... hope that helps !

Aid is another

Thank you,
I really haven't played any Dnd other than my 3.0/ mixed with some 3.5

I'm used to just buffing up with everything I have lol

Cheers

I'm in the same boat
I also was surprised at first that I can't cast BLESS and several other buffs at the same time.
BTW - take note that the Cleric has zomg lolwoot offensive spells!!!111

Shadowheart need not cast BLESS and then hang back and hurl stones from sling (BTW - no slings yet), but can blast away with the flamey cantrip (cantrips are inexaustable, another big change) as well as an offensive 1lvl spell.
Although Soothing Word - a RANGE healing spell is The Best!
BTW - she can use a short bow or crossbow, but she usually has a better chance of hitting with the cantrip, so I use ranged weapons to loose magical arrows/bolts (no need to worry about mundane arrows and bolts either) only.

Having also been used to 2/3e games before BG3, concentration caught me out to begin with too! But now I’ve got my head round it, it’s one of my favourite innovations of 5e, as I find prebuffing with everything available tedious, repetitive and flow-breaking. Only being able to have one concentration spell active per caster avoids all that, and leads to some interesting and varied choices about how we need to support our party at specific points in particular battles and how we balance offence and defence (given offensive spells that have multi-round durations tend to require concentration, too).

It’s not perfect, particularly as some spells are pretty much pointless as they are never going to be the best use of a single concentration spell, and there are probably some spells that require concentration that shouldn’t and perhaps vice versa. Plus sometimes the logic of what requires concentration isn’t clear, and it’s bloody annoying when you forget you have a concentration spell up or don’t realise your new spell requires it and accidentally break your old spell. The spell descriptions will tell you whether or not they need concentration, but this takes a while to memorise or even get in the habit of checking.

The system could certainly do with refinement, though that’s probably mainly a job for WotC in the next edition of D&D than Larian, and there are issues with its implementation in BG3 that lead to concentration being too frequently checked and too easily broken by, eg being knocked down, that have been discussed here before. But I heartily approve of the overall direction and motivation. Hopefully you’ll come to appreciate it too, Doomlord .

What she wrote +1 <3

Thanks Red Queen,

you are right about repetitive buffing breaking the flow, Ive played a Cleric in an MMO for so long im ashamed to say how long. Ill get use to it. Ive been playing just about every class other than bard and druid, still dont know what IM going to play once we go live.

Best wishes

it also depends on the buff, like for example the antimagic buff kills all others but it is great for melea Fighters

I understand your reasons, and in general, in the tabletop game, it does indeed simplify the lives of players and game masters. However, in video games, where the computer keeps track of every variable, even if there were 100 buffs, it unfortunately diminishes the depth of the game and strategies. It also represents a significant nerf for all arcane and divine classes. This becomes evident in the vast difference between a high-level encounter in D&D 5E and a battle in BG2 against Demogorgon or Melissan, for example.

I am very thankful for 5e way of handling status effects, especially after playing the latest Pathfinder game. Things got so convoluted so quickly that I had to download a pre-buff mod to keep my sanity before each encounters. Like seriously, this is what the average end-game buffing system looks like :



Yup, that is about 30 buffs on a single character. The worst is that at core difficulty and beyond, you have to abuse of this system in order to have a chance at victory. Multiply this by the number of character (6 in this case) and the end result can just be summarized as a silly meta-game of finding the combinations that will break the game rather than something strategic.

:)~

It's not about abusing the system, but it's how the game works and how it encourages you to create effective synergies. However, it's also true that Pathfinders are particularly hardcore, so it's not the only example that should be brought up within the topic.

I greatly dislikes pre-buffing in D&D and D&D-likes.

I can understand the appeal of synergies but mechanically I found it very unpleasant - having to recast multiple buffa per character just isn't a very fun thing to do and isn't interesting gameplay to me. If they are expected to be cast on every occasion they either need to be automated or need to provide some tradeoff.

As such I am in favour of making buffs a part of gameplay loop. While it was very artificial, PoE1&2 made butts buffs only usable in combat that made them part of action economy - you could buff but you could also do something else instead.

Concentration is an interesting idea, aside from specific issues that Larian introduced through homebrew additions. I do agree though it greatly limits potential combinations making synergies a rarity rather than a norm. Still, at least I think if I want to buff or not, which to me is straight more interesting than casting a set of generic buffs before most encounters.

:juvenile snigger:

That typo/autoincorrect made me nearly snort out my coffee!

Indeed, implementing a simple command chain (which is already present in games like PoE2) can help avoid the tedium of having to prepare all the different buffs every time.

Didn't BG2 having something called "sequencer" to cast a shitload of spells in one turn?
Good Old Might&Magic VI and VII had a higher level spell called "Day of the Gods" - it simultaneously cast Haste, Featherfall, Stoneskin and several other buffs on the entire party. There was another spell with another collection of buffs the name of which I do not remember.


On another forum, in a "what do werewolves talk about with one another" thread, a wit suggested that the go-to conversation opener at lonewolf bars is not "comest thou hither oft times?" but "sniffed any interesting butts lately?"
:P

Yes, various sequencers and contingencies. However, they need to be prepared for each use. So in terms of time management, it's not a huge saving. Nevertheless, they still provide incredible spells because of how fun they are and the effects they can combine. A wizard/cleric can even add divine spells to the sequencers!

In PoE2 I played a wizard-fighter multiclass and all I would do is buff myself with spells and then just wreck shop with a two-handed weapon. It was genuinely so much fun.

In dungeons and dragons online, I would play a wraith Tank, buff and kill so much fun as well. However going into a raid as a cleric or caster you are basically a buff bot, in the early years any way.