Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Suggestion: Only have one button for each spell

What I am getting at is instead of having Sleep, Sleep II, Sleep III, etc., just have one button for each spell. When you hit the button for a particular spell, you can make a dropdown box come up by the mouse cursor to select the level you want to cast that spell at. The hot bar is a mess already and none of the spells can be cast at higher than level 2 yet. I can only imagine how bad it will be when we are able to progress further. I don't need nor do I want 5 different buttons for Sleep (or any other spell) on my bar.

Yes i desired something similar to this. Also make 'recast' just be the same button as the spell and not a new button altogeather

I think that's a good idea. My current work around until they implement something better, is to put spells onto different hotbars corresponding to their level. Unfortunately the hotbar cycle hotkeys aren't working yet, but It feels neater anyway.

+1 to this or any other UI change that unclutters the hotbar a bit more.

They should all work like Hex does for Warlock. You click on the symbol and access to the levels.

I was going to say like Arcane Recovery but Hex is a good example too.

Yes please!

I like and don't like this. Some spells I want to have more than one level on my action bar. Others a drop down would do nicely. Maybe make both options viable. Like a drag and drop from your skill page of each type of button.

I'll bite. Why would you want to have more than one level of the spell on the bar when the drop down is going to give you all the levels to choose from at once? Please don't tell me it's just to save one mouse click.

I do quite like how the hotbar currently shows you at a glance all your current available options as lit and greyed out if you’ve used your slots or actions. I can see why some would prefer that.

The method they are currently using cannot continue. What is going to happen when you can cast 5th or 6th level spells? 5 or 6 icons for each first level spell? They must come up with a better way

I agree, one button per spell x_X My wizard has a bar that's a freakin' nightmare and I haven't hit the level cap quite yet so I think it will be WORSE at lvl 4 on, especially once you start working in Metamagic stuff.

I can tell even with no spell icons how many spells of each level I can still cast as there is another indicator for that in the UI. Besides, having a dropdown box come up could still have unavailable spells greyed out. It would just prevent the icon bloat we currently have.

I challenge anyone that thinks the current implementation is fine to play through as a wizard PC and once you get to 3rd or 4th level, change your slotted spells several times. It's a clusterf*ck.

How do hotkeys work in this situation? Press hotkey then still required a click from the mouse to select spell level? I know that something needs to be done about spell level/hotbar clutter but I dont see a drop down menu solving every problem, some people like their most commonly used spells to be quick casted without the requirement of clicking hotbars, thats kinda what the point of having hotkeys is in the first place. Something is wrong with the bloat for sure, but there is such a thing as bloat in the actual process of utilizing something as well as looking at it. Utilizing a popup menu every time I cast a spell that can be more than one level is going to be AS annoying as managing a hotbar that fills itself with everything I pickup.Sometimes you just want to press a button and it cast a spell with a single click of the target.

it is a clusterfuck. especially since not every spell can even be cast at higher levels. You have your spell slots listed right about the hotbar too, perhaps as an alternate option to the hotbar, you could just click the little area that shows how many spell slots you have, and THAT would bring up a menu with spells specific to those spell slots. This would let you just say "hey, I have a level 2 slot left.... (clicks the thing showing the slot is avail... clicks a level 2 spell... clicks a target). This as an alternative to altering the hotbar menu. This would allow players to turn off everything that mods the hotbar in the settings, and still constantly have the ability to click cast every spell that is prepared within 3 clicks. (best of both worlds, hotkeys AND popup menu)

@pill0ws Yes, it would require a mouse click after pressing a hotkey but is that really such an imposition? We aren't talking about a game where input speed is of the essence. It's a turn based RPG. You have all the time you need to input your commands. I realize some people may want to minimize inputs but I don't think pressing hotkey + a single mouse click is asking too much of them. It beats the alternative of when you're able to cast up to level 6 spells and almost every 1st level spell has 6 hotbar icons tied to it. I suppose a compromise would be to have the dropdown box come up and you can right click a given spell level above level 1 and select 'add to hotbar'. I wouldn't use it because I have no issue whatsoever with spellcasting requiring 2 to 3 inputs but those that would, more power to them.

I like the over all idea but in practice this will interfere with hotkeys like pill0ws said.

That being said and i have no idea who this would be coded so this would be "in a perfect world" talk. have an option that if you tap the hot key it readies the last used spell in that group that was used and you just have to right click the spell or ability to change the level. because it would be nice if the Hex for example remembered the last debuff that i chose as well.

why not just leave hotkeys alone and then add a popup menu when clicking on the "remaining spell slots" section located immediately above the bar and adjacent to the clock?

I don't see how that would help with getting rid of the 5 or 6 different icons for the same spell which is the issue that needs to be addressed. Don't lose sight of the fact that we can't have more than 2 icons for each spell right now but when the game is released and you can go to higher levels, you're going to have 4 or more icons for some 1st level spells. The hotbar is already a mess unless you go into settings and turn all the auto add stuff off. The problem will only be exacerbated at higher levels.

I dont think you understand what I am suggesting. You want to have a simplified menu system right? You dont want to see 3 or 5 versions of each spell on your hotbar? You cant avoid seeing it in the spellbook, if you are trying to remove it from the spellbook I am going to call you crazy, nobody is opening their spell book to cast spells.


1. Immediately adjacent and to the right of the "enter turn based mode" = icons that show how many spell slots you have. these icons cannot be interacted with. each icon refers to a spell level in which you have slots for. Currently this only shows level 1 and level 2 spell slots remaining. (Its right above the yellow bar showing remaining movement, its directly to the right of the clock... little box with a Roman Numeral at the top and smaller little boxes in it that are purple for each open slot and grey out after you cast a spell from that level... ya cant miss it)


2.Suggested change: You click the icon showing the number of spell slots, it shows spells for only that level. This is because these icons only show you remaining slots for each level, there is a seperate icon for each collection of spell slots, each icon representing each level (do you follow yet?). You click the icon for spell slots remaining, it brings up a pop up menu with only spells that will use that spell slot. This will only show level 2 spells when you click on the "Level 2 Spell slots remaining" icon.

3. I click the (level 2 spell slots) it shows ONLY level 2 spells. I dont see any level 1 spells in this list or level 3 spells, simply level 2 spells.


4. The hotbar is no longer used to store every spell. The hotbar is used for whatever the player wants, items, cantrips, favorite spell from whatever level. Every spell is within 3 clicks of the spell slot icon, and the levels are seperated via the separate icons representing the remaining spell slots for that level. You want to cast a level 1 spell, you click the icon for level 1 spells that already exists in the game right now and just select the spell.


if this doesnt provide a solution then I simply have no idea what you are complaining about, but my complaints are resolved with this change. I want a clean hotbar, with this change I dont have to put a single leveled spell on that hotbar, only what I want on the hotbar, goes on the hotbar and the multi leveled spells are usable without using the hotbar at all

You're right, I didn't understand what you were talking about in your first post. This fleshed out response makes it clear though and having read it, I would be cool with that. Anything that gets rid of the multiple icons on the hotbar for the same spell gets a thumbs up from me.