Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback 4 Party Formations We Should Have

These party formations would be very helpful.

I used the hopscotch crosswalk in the Blighted village to try and and clarify what I want in an image...



1. Wedge: similar to what we have currently, but tighter, and where the position of each party member within that formation is determined by their leadership order (order of the status portraits). Top Left

2. Short Line: single file path. All party members attempt to trace the leader's steps. Top Right

3. Long Line: also single file path. Here the scout walks point but at a further distance, with the rest of the party holding back at a remove before following after. Bottom Left

4. Square: This is effectively our formation for walking 2 by 2, or to circle the wagons. In order for it to work properly, the circular marquee needs to have each party member's space overlapping. Currently you can get 3 inside the space, but not 4 (note Wyll is outside Lae'zel's circle). Bottom Right

Just like we can about face and change direction with a selected character (provided they're not stuck on hazardous terrain) party members should be able to switch formation or position (1-4) within that formation, by passing through friendly space. Meaning we shouldn't need to jump to get around a controlled teammate or take extra movement to get into position by travelling the long way round. Instead everyone should appear in ghost mode while this is happening, similar to the action preview we see before you click confirm for an attack or jump etc. Unless there are hostiles within the space we shouldn't be hindered from passing through a teammate to say enter/exit a doorway, climb up a ladder, or do things of that sort.

Of course there are other formations, but these would be the most common I think and the most useful for the current default party size. When combat ends, the game should remain in Turn Based mode, with the party only forming up in position again after a manual confirmation. This is to avoid downed party members bleeding out or running into environmental effects, traps, accidentally hitting a ladder and getting thrown in jail, just from trying to line up, that sort of stuff. Mostly formations would be a non-combat/exploration movement type thing. Once the battle is joined, or TB mode is engaged, it's relatively simple to issue commands, this is more like QoL for everything that happens outside combat, which is still the majority of the game. This one still needs some love.

Personally, I don’t think the party needs to move around in formation at all. The only time it matters is the very start of combat, so it might be easier if characters just quickly move up to position (as well as the terrain allows) before we start taking turns, instead of freezing miles behind whoever is in the lead. Got used to giving everyone time to catch up when moving into new areas though.

+1 for not having everyone run through the cloud of daggers or whatever I’m still casting when it ends.

I absolutely agree. I love the game, but it is incredibly frustrating to constantly have to micromanage my party movement due to lack of formations. For example, when I want to throw a health potion on all the party members at once after a big battle, I need to micromanage them into a specific formation or the potion might miss someone. It would be very convenient if I could just click a button and get the formation I need - instead of spending 2-3 minutes positioning everyone in a perfect square.

Or when I am walking in a trap infested area, it would be nice if you could choose to put some distance between the characters and make them walk in a line behind you. The way the current and only formation works makes it incredibly easy to activate a trap by accident. A simple formation could easily remedy this problem.

These are just two scenarios where formations would definitely help - not to mention how this would make it easier to prepare for battle ahead.

BG3 is like The Black Pits. Your formation matters very little. Many opponents just go for your squishies anyway, no matter the formation.

Thankfully at least the defense magic in this game is friggin powerful.

For every encounter that matters, you place your characters well spread out and control them individually anyway. It doesn't matter at all.

Nice to have.
Personaly I'd be happy with "loose line" - when scouting out an area for traps, and "bunched up" at all other times

Personally, I absolutely DO and the urge becomes even more apparent for anyone playing the game modded to support a party larger than four standard characters.

The default formation, a spread-out triangular one, is absolutely dreadful to maneuver around the scenario when navigating in real time.
Especially in tight spaces/inside buildings and around traps.

The times it matters THE MOST is when exploring OUTSIDE of combat.


EDIT - here's an example of what it looks like.




"Encounters" are not the core issue, here.

I don't get if some of you people are simply completely oblivious of standard quality of life features introduced in the genre two decades ago or so invested in defending the game no-matter-what that you would overlook ANY flaw.

Here is another related issue it has to do with targeting to avoid Allies/Enemies. So one common annoyances is when Friendlies or Hostiles are getting in the way of simply trying to move around or cast a spell or interact with an environmental feature (like say a lever or ladder etc). Left clicking to initiate dialogue when all you want to do is move to a certain position, or where multiple bodies are obstructing each other or covering the thing you want to click. I think we should have a way to isolate out Hostiles for spells or actions which provide boons, and isolate out Allies for attacks or spells which give a malus. For the purposes of targeting it should require a double confirmation to perform actions that are likely to just be errors most of the time, like attacking a teammate or healing and enemy. Then to do the same for conversation, so the player has to click the "speech" button before left clicking again to engage in conversation with someone who is in the party. The last is to avoid a lot of frustrating accidental clicks which then pull us into cinemascope view, usually just cause someone was jugging into our sightline at an inopportune time during exploration. Left clicking on a party member without an action should simply let out a little flavor bark.

In practical terms, when the party is in formation, we should have a quickbind that allows us to target only party members, or prevent targeting party members. Most spells and actions cannot be cast on the status portrait, you need to click something in the field of view (an avatar) to confirm, but often this is just really hard to get a line or, or even to see, cause the bodies pile on. There are many instances also where I simply want to target the ground, and where it would be very helpful if we could isolate out target types with an alt + click or shift + click. A similar issue arises when I want to target spells or ranged attacks where I don't want to move at all, vs situations where I want the character to close whatever distance is required to bring a target into range. If this could be done with a alt-click or shift-click that would also be very helpful. To me most of this stuff is not about encounters or combat pre-positioning, laying ambushes and the like, it's about managing how the party gets around the rest of the time, outside of those set piece encounters, since that is most of the game. But I still think it would be nice to have these when entering/exiting turn based mode from the more casual walk about mode.