Originally Posted by Flooter
Originally Posted by GiantOctopodes
It honestly doesn't matter the relative initiatives, if the boss is the only enemy all players will always go between the boss and the next time the boss has a turn, and players adjacent in initiative can always choose their turn order. So while one could argue over the realism of the setup which is primarily done for convenience, based on the game mechanics it's actually not too far off from a standard scenario, based on how turn mechanics work in the game.
Yes… one could argue… Don’t threaten me with a good time ^^

The thing is, I don’t freakin’ know. If I were to argue, I’d say that having 16 strength on your level 7 great weapons master is a misallocation of ability scores, that initiative swapping isn’t a reliable assumption given how many mobs usually surround bosses (in my limited experience), that Hold Person requires maintaining concentration (which isn’t necessarily a problem, provided initiative order lines up), that facing a boss seems like the perfect time to use rare consumables or that poison has low opportunity cost and the benefit of immediate payoff, reducing the odds that something goes wrong between a failed save and whatever horrific fate you have planned.

All that said, you kinda sold me on Hold Person. The fact that, under favorable initiative conditions (I can’t really let that go - but it speaks more of me than you) you’re 60% to land 6 crits with your fighter seems deece.

I still wish Larian would change the saving throw trigger be at the end of turn rather than at the beginning. But so many threads are claiming BG3 is too easy, I don’t know if boosting a spell that clearly already has a following is a good idea.

In the end, I’m glad you love this spell, OP. I’m sure Larian are, too. What’s life for if not strong feelings?

They should change it to be at the end of its turn because even if a spell like hold person at least allows you to get SOME benefit if you pass one roll but fail another, so long as you have other characters with turns in between, a spell like confuse gets literally NO benefit, and the bug essentially means "All creatures roll with advantage against this spell." This is on top of OTHER bugs that hurt the power of CC spells.

As for too easy, let's split it into 3 sections:

Low levels (1-4) feel not that bad; some fights are even relatively challenging on tactician.
Mid levels (5-10) start getting easier, because you start to get equipment that is too powerful, and because haste gives you a full action instead of +1 attack (which means that martials, who double their number of attacks, start being able to do a good deal more damage than they should), and because around this time, if you explore everything, you will consistently be overleveled for the content you are facing.
High levels (10+) you become stupendously overpowered because of the absurd items available to you, haste making martials even MORE powerful, and (if you bother with them) OP tadpole powers.

I really, REALLY don't think we should build in what seems to me an OBVIOUS bug in CC spells, to make up for the fact that the game is too easy due to a bunch of other things.