Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Latest News Panel From Hell + Patch 9

Quick question -- if Santa played D&D, what class would he roll?

If you wanna find out, you’ll have to join us on December 14th @ 10am PT / 6pm GMT / 7pm CET for a very special Panel From Hell featuring Video Games’ Own Geoff Keighley!

https://panelfromhell.baldursgate3.game/

Twitch

So it's the Paladin after all...I am actually a bit shocked. I thought they would wait until release. You win this time Paladin fanboys! :P

I guess this also means we get to see how they are going to handle reactions. That IS exciting!

I don't get it.

What indicates it will be the Paladin and the reaction changes will be revealed?

Also - Geoff Keighley is the Game Awards guy and the Game Awards are the week before on the 8th. I have a feeling we are likely getting a new trailer (or something like that) and a release date at the Game Awards given his presence.

EDIT: Oh - I see. Holy Knight, gotcha.

What about reactions though?

Paladins rely heavily on reactions for their 'smite' ability

The use of the words "Holy Knight" is a pretty obvious clue - since the Paladin is a Holy Knight.

Haha - yeah. I edited my post. The giant "HOLY KNIGHT" in the middle of the screen somehow eluded me.

So you are assuming the reaction overhaul will be included just because Paladins rely so heavily on them? That seems like a reasonable guess - was just wondering if there was anything else I missed!

Exactly. basically RAW - Paladins can choose to use their smite ability after they hit an enemy and after they have determined that it is a Crit or not - its not like the old system where you choose to smite for an attack and the smite is lost if you miss.

So how do you implement that in the Divinity Engine? A lot of people have mentioned a system where you get a pop-up that you have to choose to use or not - however there are questions to whether the existing engine will support it or not.
If NOT then what do you do to buff paladins to make up for it. Although hopefully they have a reaction system in place that will allow that to happen, or allow you to set conditions to use smite or something...

Its pronounced Swenta. :P

Cant wait! ^_^

//Edit:
I still hope for super special surprise Christmas gift named Monk.

Well, I'd assume you make it a toggle that activates if you hit.

Yay! Can’t wait!

Right but what if you want to save your smite for when you Crit, not just hit? Now Technically, Smite isn't specifically part of the reaction system since it doesn't expend your reaction, but its considered part of it anyway since - you know - its a decision that occurs within an existing action.

Monks have a similar thing, and there is also the matter of Counterspell...

Great!😊

Woo! That was a long wait, glad there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

I don't really care much about the next class. I'm more interested in other things like multiclassing, a reasonable custom party creation system with one or two additional party members from the very beginning, more spells, more deities and patrons, a blowpipe etc. pp. and many other stuff listed here: https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=829690

Imo, not being able to save Smite for crits is fine. In Solasta, it's mainly the psuedo-reactions (smite, metamagic) asked after every attack that can get at all annoying, so I'll take the ease-of-use in a toggle Smite in exchange for the loss of being able to crit-fish smites with a pop-up.

Plus, you can rest whenever in BG3 (and the game encourages you to rest after ~anything significant to get cutscenes), which restores all your slots. So there's not a need to save slots up for crits - just smite on every attack against an enemy with more than ~10 hp and then long rest after the fight.

Please, please release the Mac Patch before the holidays.

to get it finished before the end of next year they prob should add Monk as well now but i'll be happy to see just a Pally class

OMG I'm going to cry I'm so happy 😭
Can't wait to play Paladin Holy Knight

But also to try everything that will come in this upcoming patch ^^

Yessss, Paladins. Looking forward to try this class.

Well, with regard to a toggle functioning for smites, that would be way too convoluted. Would one have a separate toggle for what spell slot level one wanted to expend when smiting? I mean. I admit, I wouldn't put that type of design past Larian, but elegant design it is not.

But, a toggle to turn off pop-ups is fine of course. One would simple check the option that says: All class features that function outside a unit's turn are crappily implemented.

I hope they went with something like what was suggested at one point - presets that are based on certain criteria.

Smite Level 1 - Use if enemy HP is 10 or more
Smite Level 2 Use if enemy HP is 20 or more
Etc.

You set the value.

Also, Use Smite if Crit as a preset option too.

OR

Just make Smite like Fighter Combat maneuvers. You decide before you attack if you're going to use it with a single preset button to turn on Use Smite for Crits.

Or something like that.

One of the worst offenders of popups in Solasta is the paladin because of Smite. It really does get tedious when you are asked every flipping attack whether you want to smite.