Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Spell Durations and Descriptions

One thing that's a bit confusing is there is no indication on how long a spell will last when I cast it on the spell description/spellbook. Am I missing something? I can see a duration when I cast something, debuffs on enemies, and on self, but not before experimenting.

If it says requires concentration, then it seems to persist until something breaks concentration in the same ways it breaks in normal 5e rules; I.E. casting another concentration spell, resting, dying, or failing a check when you take damage.

The difference from tabletop, is they don't seem to have a time limit other than the time between rests if you don't break it another way. I'm not sure if this is intention to make the gameplay less tedious with micromanaging rounds outside of combat, or if they just haven't gotten the timers working yet. I hope for the most part that it's the former, because I think most spells lasting one minute or less is one of the worst changes from earlier editions. In 2e you were invisible 24 hours for example, which was nice, and 5e's concentration created a way to balance it nicely without even needing time limits at all.

The side-effect stuff like cantrips lighting people on fire is more ambiguous how long it will last until you look at the debuffs. And the abundant surface elemental damage seem to be holdovers from DOS games, since the load screen tips imply there should be less of it than in their previous games.

They do need to add duration descriptions to debuffs, though. It's very hard to evaluate some spells without knowing how long the debuffs they place last.

It varies, eventHandler; spells like Blass last a minute (ten rounds in combat), for example. The issue right now is that the spell information we're given is woefully lacking. It doesn't tell us nearly enough on almost any front.

A lot of the changes to 'last until you rest' are actually okay, or good 'for-video-game' changes. For example, mage armour lasting until you long rest (unless otherwise dispelled), is a buff to the spell's normal duration, and is a valid and worthwhile tweak for a video game. Sleep's duration being decreased to two rounds, on the other hand, is not.

If you look throug the spell focus thread, I point out most of the places where durations have been changed from the 5e rules, in case you just want to check for your own benefit.