Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Concentration Loss Jackassery

Can we please do away with the Concentration Checks when one of your companions path right through a puddle of acid or poison or whatever? I thought in DnD you only did the Concentration Check when you are first hit with a melee attack or spell, NOT when your party likes to path right though a puddle of acid rather than path around it. Also even if it is not accidental, for instance. Lets say you eventually get to roll a Paladin and you cast some Concentration required buff on your self. Now you have to run through some fire in order to go smack a mob, while running through the fire (mind you I would expect the Concentration Check is they just bombed you with a fire spell) you Lose your Concentration???? This sucks. If this is part of the DnD ruleset then I will live with it but if this homebrew jackassery, please remove it from the game. Please let me know if this is part of the 5e ruleset or not.

It is supposed to be whenever you take damage but with how an enemy can throw something and miss or shoot an arrow and miss and create a surface that breaks concentration, it is supremely frustrating. Technically fire making you lose concentration is not homebrew, but the amount of surfaces and how easy it is to make them is homebrew, so it is genuinely frustrating.

5e rules have you make a concentration check every time you take damage. If someone punches you three times on their turn, you make three concentration checks. If you're standing in a fire that deals you damage every 6 seconds, you make a concentration check every six seconds.

That said, all of the puddles and ground effects that are in this game are really obnoxious; I'd be happy to have them all go away.

Concentration checks are frustrating but they cut both ways. When Nettie drops her Flaming Sphere in the Druid Grove the only way to stop that thing is to get her to fail a check.

And I feel like they have toned down the surfaces quite a bit. A lot of spells and abilities don't create temporary surfaces unless there is something to react to anymore.

Isn't there supposed to be a Feat that helps with these?

EDIT:

Yes, War Caster
- its not in game...yet?

-Gives Advantage on constitution based Concentration checks
-Can perform somatic components even when you have weapons or a shield in your hands
-Can cast spells as an opportunity attack.

About surfaces, It's more about arrows and potions than spells (for now, AOE spells incoming. I doubt the fireball won't create any surface...)
A lot of ennemies can still create damaging surfaces and even if they miss, the surface is created. It can be frustrating and on top of that, they can throw their potions very high so your position doesn't really matter.

A better AC won't help and if I'm not wrong you cannot avoid surface damages so it's a new check every turn.
You take damages more often than you should so concentration is broken more often.

And it's even more frustrating when your companions are just walking on the damaging surface i.e because the combat is over and the characters just regroup due to the chain mechanic...

But there are other source of damages that doesn't belong to D&D... I.E minotaurs can jump and deal damages in a AOE. Gnolls have 3 attacks/turn,...

Concentration is definitely a problem in the game. It may be one in D&D (I don't know) but it's really one in BG3 according to me.

I have to admit you may have a good point. I realized I mostly just stopped using spells that require any kind of concentration because it is too easy to have it knocked off. Something really egregious is a spell like Mirror Image getting knocked off due to something like this.

Maybe a good rule of thumb is if the damage is homebrew then it doesn't affect concentration? I mean the biggest problem to me was the inclusion of all these spells that suddenly require concentration. I guess they don't want mages stacking certain spells anymore.

All surfaces (from arrows, consumables, cantrips, and other basic things) should allow a Saving Throw to take 0 damage at the very least. It'd be better if you had to choose: either target an enemy against their AC or the ground around them leading to a Saving Throw, not both. Currently, a single fire arrow can cause two concentration checks immediately and more if you remain in the surface which is way too powerful. The Saving Throw DC of surfaces created from consumables & arrows should be low to compensate for the surface remaining for multiple turns: 10 or 12 at most.

Additionally, going prone shouldn't break concentration. I'm not sure if this is still in the game, but the last time I played it was.

Concentration is fairly balanced in PnP 5e, since there a) aren't that many surfaces, b) typically casters in 5e are in the back and enemies don't exclusively target low-AC characters, c) casters often have mirror image (not concentration) or blur up, and d) feats like War Caster and Resilient are used to improve Con checks. The concentration mechanic does certainly limit the stacking of spells, but that's a whole other discussion.

Honestly, Larian should remove all of the surface affects that they've haphazardly thrown on top of their hamfisted 5e adaptation.

Being healed by walking through a puddle of healing potion with boots on is beyond dumb, just like being poisoned from walking though a poison puddle from a dead spider that you killed yesterday poisoning you.

Going prone breaking concentration is still in BG3 because falling prone inflicts you with 'unconscious' which is ridiculous. Unless they fix the mess with status conditions, this isn't likely to change - and it means that right now in bg3, a goblin over the other side of the camp, can shoot at you with disadvantage from long range, roll a natural 1, miss you entirely, and STILL break your concentration because they used one of their magic arrows that still knocks you down even on a miss. How they thought that giving common enemies a *literally guaranteed* way of breaking your concentration whenever they want was a good idea is beyond most people here.