Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Suggestion for improving spell list UI

As it stands right now, the only way I know of to have easy (any) access to your spells is to place them on the hotbar. As you progress through character levels you will quickly outgrow the hotbar and will need to employ the other hotbar tabs to even have access to your spells. This clutter and confusion is compounded with spells being able to be cast at multiple levels, as now I may have five different slots on a hotbar dedicated to one spell at different spell levels. I suggest a different, completely unique, UI menu purely to list your memorized spells. You already almost have this implemented in the form of the spell book, however you cannot cast spells from the spell book and it is purely for choosing which spell to prepare. If anyone has played Neverwinter Nights 2, you'll know what I refer to as the quick cast menu. The quick cast menu was able to be opened or closed by a hotkey, and listed every prepared spell clearly organized by their spell level. This menu made it incredibly easy to have a full compliment of spells at a glance without having to search through layers and layers of hotbars to find the spell you need. With the addition of being able to cast spells at a higher level, I suggest that you could click a spell icon multiple times, each click increasing the level the spell is cast at as appropriate, or perhaps a right-click menu to cast at a higher level. You could even just make it possible to cast spells from the current spell book and I'd be happy, though I wish when I open the spell book it only opens the book for the character I'm on and not the entire party. I've included an image of what the old Neverwinter Nights 2 quick cast menu looks like for reference, as you can see it is abundantly easier to see your spells at a glance than the current hotbar option.



The level up spell list is an entirely different issue as well, as it appears to list every spell available to pick on a level up without clearly defining which tier the spell is. This could lead an unobservant player accidently unlocking a lower level spell instead of one of the highest level available when leveling up, because all the spells are listed together without tier categories. I suggest a tiered menu that clearly represents the level of a spell, so that you know at a glance which spells are of a higher tier than the others without having to mouse over them to read the tooltip. I hope you take these suggestions under consideration as anything to help alleviate spell clutter in D&D games are greatly appreciated.

I'd like to second this. Magic is one of the more complex and extensive parts of D&D and a quick spell menu like that would make it much easier to view one's arsenal at a glance. My party is only level 3 right now, meaning Gale and Shadowheart just got access to level two spells. However, if the hotbar is unlocked, memorizing a spell will automatically place it there, and since you seem to be able to spontaneously use higher level spell slots to cast stronger versions of lower level spells, the higher level version will automatically be placed there as well. Add usable items, like potions and scrolls and this will quickly clutter up the hotbar.

Not sure if the exact solution from NWN2 will be ideal, due to how spells work in BG3 but something like that would really make spellcasting more accessible.

P.S.: I'm really enjoying the game already, even though it's still early access, so keep up the great work.

P.P.S.: Will there, by any chance, be sentient, talking swords in the game? Asking for a friend.

I've said pretty much exactly this in other threads as well. Even with just level 2 spells the hotbar gets crazy for wizard and cleric. Even with just level 3 spells, not to mention the rest, the hotbar will be basically unmanageable.

Love this idea! Upcasting make the current UI totally confusing.

It does clearly state the level of the spell, but you have to read the mouseover popup.

Yeah, this is driving me nuts. I'm all for having a couple quick-access slots I can assign, but managing the hotbar is already a time consuming chore at low levels. I'd personally like to see buttons for each spell level that brings up the same level spells, and an option to view the list of all lower level spells so that we can upcast them. (Sometimes you need that damage, sometimes you're just out of 1st level and really need Jump.)

+1

I agree,there is a dire need for better spellcasting UI

Yes +1 for sure..

A system like that is exactly what is needed. Organizing spells from the main quickie hotbar seems like craziness.

Right now its a multi step process of draging from one screen/slot to another, when it could just be casting from the 'spellbook' directly via a tab or some kind of radial menu or whatever.

I'd like to see the same for Potions and Scrolls, which would probably cut down on some of the chaos and tedium of inventory management.

Like couldn't we just have a quick tab for that too, instead of having to open another seperate UI screen just to move that stuff around for use? I don't know, but the high drama of playing 'toss the health potion' doesn't really do it for me hehe. Seems like a lot of clicks with no real game play interest upside. Plus left click drag is stubborn enough as is. You really got stick that left click to drag, so moving spell stuff to the hotbar constantly is clunky. Having quick cast from a full spell list with the cleanly tiered sp lvl organization and such would be ideal.

Another spell related thing: active effects like Witch Bolt targeting need to appear next to basic attacks or replace "attack". The Witch Bolt activation getting buried somewhere in the already messy quick bar is nonsense.

+1

Yeah, this is absolutely needed. Spells on the hotbar are an absolute mess right now. Just show me my memorized spells in one tidy place where I can access them without having to use the mess of a hotbar. Also fix the hotbar because it is unusable.

I would suggest doing it the "Find Familiar" way. Where you just have the spell icon, regardless of level. If it can be cast at different levels, as mall pop-out window appears with the different levels you can cast the spell at.
"Find Familiar" does this already, when you cast it, it opens a small bubble-window with the different types of familiars you can cast.
Using that bit of existing UI and populate it with the different spell levels (perhaps even a ritual cast button; or even an active effect (such as witchbolt to keep using the same lightning stream) ) would make it a lot more organised in the hot bar.

Yeah exactly! Something like that

Though I actually think the simplest solution would be to just organize it all by LvL. Just having tabs along a hotbar, each listing the spell level...
I
II
III
IV
V
etc

When clicked it expands to show the known/prepared spells at that level. You could use roman numerals for the spell level icon BG nostalgia vibe and arabic numerals for the number of casts where that makes sense. Would be pretty simple and cover pretty much everything. Basically just like the image above with the familiar example, except to bring up the full spellbook list from the interface and cast like that. Still leaves plenty of slots for the most frequently used spells or consumables to add on top, but taking the main spell management/casting system out of the general hotbar and placed into its own dedicated spellcasting hotbar.

Not having a separate interface specifically for casting feels really bizarre when there are so many spells. Trying to do it all from the main hotbar, and keep things organized as you go, is pretty onerous. Feels like a missing UI element in combat