I don't want you to feel like you have to defend something, GM, I really don't... I know you've put a lot of energy into trying to think of something that will bridge the gap between what Larian are providing at the moment, and what we should have, and I do appreciate the effort you're taking, truly I do... but you're indealising your scenarios and worst-casing others in order to make this idea seem more palatable than simply being asked when it's appropriate - and it simply isn't palatable, and, more importantly... It just won't ever be, for a large number of people, myself included.

Presets would need to be designed for every situation where a player might be asked if they want to do something. We're using a few examples right now, uncanny dodge, opportunity attacks and counterspell, for example... but in practice, you'd be requiring that they make and program this preset system individually for literally every reaction ability in the game system, because each one is different, and that's more than you may realise.

Even if we stick to just Uncanny Dodge, for conversation's sake.... You seem to presume that we know the damage we're going to take before deciding whether or not to us uncanny dodge with rogues: actually you *don't* know how much damage you're taking. You have to decide when you would be hit, before you know how hard. You don't know - you are guessing, and that's why it's a reaction and the player is asked; so they can make that decision; so the player can weight up how hard they think this target might hit, what their current hp is, whether they need that reaction for something else, whether that will happen before their next turn, and so on... all things, the value and threshold of which are fluid depending on the combat situation. the number of things that you automatically consider when deciding to make a reaction or not would all, individually, need to be controlled by their own preset variables, each of which the player would need to set... and then change, on the regular, for different situations and scenarios. It would be far more complex and far more work to do that acceptably than simply being prompted when appropriate.

That's *one* type of reaction. Just One. There are MANY. Do we set up and revise them *Every Battle* (because an overarching global rule is absolutely not going to be appropriate for every battle, and a conscientious player would still need to double check this)? No thank you. Do we have the ability to change what we set up in the middle of an encounter if situations change? If so then it'd be faster and smoother just to be prompted naturally the whole way through, rather than going through the full list of preset options and variables for every reaction type we have access to.

Don't get me wrong - I actually appreciate being able to set up complex AI behaviour in detail - I loved FFXII's gambit system, in fact, and spent a lot of time carefully crafting gambit sets for my party to run in the background and handle all the little things while I made the bigger and more important decisions. It was great. Reactions ARE the bigger, more important decisions, however, and the PLAYER needs to be able to make that choice in each and every unique situation.

All of your examples rely on the player choosing not to use their reaction at any point, in order to make them sound bad - because as soon as they use it, that's it for the round. Your examples also involved stacked houses of situations to create the maximum amount of prompting possible, which is exactly when you DO want to be able to choose tactically. I DO want to control exactly who I try to counterspell, or, if it permits me to know the spell, which spells. That won't always be the same, combat to combat. I won't know until the moment that it happens; that's when I NEED to make that choice. Nothing else will do, for me.

If you take "a few seconds" each time to decide whether you're using a reaction when presented or not, then it's a damn good thing it asked you, because clearly you had to think. If it's a simple question that you don't need to think about, then it will take you less than a quarter of a second to give your answer. Saito's videos demonstrate this wonderfully.

Quote
And again, Counterspell. By the Nine! I absolutely do not want them to implement that with a popup every time a spellcaster casts any kind of spell.

Correction: Every time that a spellcaster cast a spell,
- within range of you (easiest defence against coutnerspell - cast from further away)
- and is also in line of sight
- while you are controlling a spellcaster
- who is the type of spellcaster who has access to counterspell
- and has it prepared that day
- and who has third level spell slots available TO use counterspell
- AND has not used their reaction yet this turn for anything else.

Those are the conditions. AND THEN, for it to be a prompt that happens more than once, there need to be several casters in range of you at the same time, AND they all need to choose to cast spells on that SAME turn, AND all but the last one of them need to cast spells that you personally decide that you DON'T want to counterspell. If all of those conditions are met, then, and only then, do we end up at the perfect storm of being prompted for counterspell multiple times during a single round.... and in that situation, I absolutely do want it to ask me each time, so I can make the tactical decision that is best for the specific situation. I'm not underestimating how littered with spellcasters the early game is so far, and even so, I absolutely want the right to make each choice myself, as I should have. I'm not against there being options for automation for those who want them, and I never have been - but not to the detriment of players having the right to control their own characters and make the tactical decisions for them that they should be able and allowed to make. If your idea contains a setting that is simply "no automation; prompt me for every reaction" and includes as part of that all reaction abilities correctly implemented and working as intended in the game at the end of the day, and it never bothers me again once I've checked that option, then just ignore everything I've said, because I missed that, and that covers my desires perfectly.