Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Spells Need Drop Downs For Spell Slots (ie Hex)

I just find that my spell bar gets way to cluttered with each slot being it's own entry. Makes the spell slots feel more like charges than it does actual tiers of power. Spells Should be like the Hex spell, it shows a box after you click the spell to choose what ability to target. I dont think it would be much of a leap to be able to click on a spell and then select the level you want from a similar drop down/pop up

LOL I made a post that says basically the same thing .

I agree that spells in general need this, but Hex doesn't because Hex is a warlock spell and Warlocks always cast spells at max level. Otherwise the hotbar key gets very cluttered.

I made a post saying something similar, totally support this!

I agree 100%, this is something which should be changed. It's no good putting higher level casts of spells onto the hotbar, that only makes it more cluttered.

Yeah, I think this is the way to go, particularly if we have up to 5th level spells

It's not asking for hex to have this, it already does
Take origin character for a spin if you want a first look at the UI used in this case, to have 1 quickbar slot instead of 6 (you know, since it targets attributes), you'll see how well done it is, and why it's pertinent to the original title of this thread
<3

Exactemente.

+1 : the same way some spells offer options, each spell that can be cast with a higher slot would have that extra window if you have a higher spell slot.

The current approach is definitely less than ideal. It took me about 30 hours of playing to figure out how to cast spells using a higher slot! I knew from the rules that you could do it, but I thought they just hadn't implemented it yet.
So I wouldn't use hot bar clutter as the justification -- I think it would just make it far more obvious. Especially to non-D&D players who pick up the game because they heard it was good, but haven't ever played 5e before.

That said... the pop-up window could make spell casting very cumbersome so if they did this, it'd be nice if they made it "smart".
Things like:
- do not show if there are no spell slots of a higher level available (either because you've used them up or the spell uses your highest level spell slot already)
- do not show if it makes no difference to the spell (e.g. Mage Armor, which is always AC +3 for 8 hours even if you use a 9th level slot)

The other thing to consider is how would they do spells where there is both a choice and a level adjustment? For example, if they implement Chromatic Orb, you get to choose the damage type (acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison or thunder) and then you can also cast it with a higher spell slot for extra damage. Would we see two dialogs, one after the other, or one dialog that has potentially 6/12/18/24/etc. icons in it?
Not an insurmountable problem, but something to consider.

But yeah... if not for the clutter, they need to do something to help noobs figure out that the feature exists and how it works. Right now, it is not that obvious.

agree, mage hotbar is curently a mess.

wasn't it in pathfinder kingmaker where you cast a spell like protection and that you could open a 2nd window to select against what alignment or against what type of damage?

Something like that would go a long way in reducing clutter in the hotbars.

+ 1

The mage bar is very cluttered and even if it’s infrequent changing spells can switch around your hot bar. Minimizing the amount of icons that take up space for the wizard would be a great qol improvement. Especially if they don’t implement a spell specific hot bar.

selecting the slot to use for the spell would be ideal, yeah.

I'm going to disagree with both of those in part, and explain why

1) Disclaimer: This one might be us imaging the interface differently, we could be thinking of the same thing.

You should show all the spells levels, but if you have no slots of that level, the option is greyed out and unselectable. If you, say use up all your second level slots, and just simply remove the second level from the options, there could be a problem of wanting to cast at second level, but forgetting you used all those slots up already, so you accidentally pick the second option - which is actually third-level because the secdond level option was removed - and you unintentionally cast at third level.

2) Sometimes you're out of low level slots and need to use higher ones even if it makes no difference. The problem you describe can be solved by tooltips explaining what casting at different levels of the spell effects, so you can see that there's no difference between the slots at a glance.

Had a similar thought and think this sounds like the simplest as well as effective UI. Having the same spell multiple times in the hotbar but without any visual indication of which one is the higher level spell means you have to hover over the spell, wait for the pop up (I know it's relatively quick, but doing that a hundred times over adds) and then determine if that's the level you want to cast at.

level 1 spells look like they do, level 2 spells have II in them.

As for clutter I sort and seperate all my spells for quick use, ones I use are nearest the left side of the screen on top. because I do this I have no problem knowing which is which and if I oops, I oops. Greying out, or completely removing spells from hotbar means that if you pick up a throwable it's going to take that slot more then likely. So it is now in the wrong spot and is causing clutter, which I then have to remove, and put in it's proper place.

Poping up means I now have to click twice, when once it was just a single click. Five fights thats ten extra clicks. 10 fights 20. why would I want to click that many times? My poor mouse is already over loaded do to what I do with inventory, and hotbar.

Hotbar itself = alot of my personal issues with the hotbar was resolved when I switched my resolution. Now I can play with the hotbar maxed on size, and it keeps everything where it's spose to be, as I have placed it. Yes mages get alot of spells, scrolls etc. but thats mages. It's just like in pnp were you keep track of all your spells, and do extra research, make extra notes. Mages by very design are spose to be 'extra' in every thing they do, because of their spells and such.

After switching the resolution, I find the hot bars to be far easier, and less cluttered then other games that have hotbars. Far more then MMO's for instant WoW which you can fill up to six I believe hotbars with just crap. You have the option and it's very easy to do to set the hotbars the way you want them to be set up. Thats logical for you, thats really not clutter, it just takes a bit of time. Also if you say switch out your fog spell with something else, the something else replaces the spot for your fog spell. If you have random spells next to potions, in between scrolls thats on you the player, to sort the clutter. Its standard on every game, with hotbars, you gotta do a little extra to have the joys of melting faces, or shocking scum.

As I've told several players I've played with (mostly because I'm a dick) who were always going on about being unable to find stuff. 'Organize your shit. Clutter gone. Shouldn't take long to know witch bolt lvl one is in third slot, witch bolt lvl 2 is in fourth slot. Both are between Mage Armor which is in the second slot, and Firebolt which is in 5th slot. Health potions are in the first slot. Sleep is in 6th slot.

or did you want my Warlock slots without me looking at them as well. thats not clutter it's organized. most times I don't even look at my hotbars since I changed my resolution, and organized them.

but thats my 2 coppers