D&D 5E What battle system would you prefere for Baldur's Gate 3?

[HarbingerX]

Nope you cannot. Think attack by a mob. According to the 5e rules you got the option to use your reaction to cast shield e.g. as a wizard. So tell me pray, how should this work out? Hit a button on your keyboard as fast as you can to get your reaction in? With 4 PCs or so?

Typically systems will pause to give the player an opportunity to react, or defer. And you're making a real assumption about the game needing to adjudicate a mob attack.

 

[Horwath]

Nope you cannot. Think attack by a mob. According to the 5e rules you got the option to use your reaction to cast shield e.g. as a wizard. So tell me pray, how should this work out? Hit a button on your keyboard as fast as you can to get your reaction in? With 4 PCs or so?

auto-pause feature as an option when one of your reactions is available. simple.

 

[Horwath]

I would like an option to vote that I don't care which system they use. So instead I'm voting for their current system.

that would be option 4.

 

[Ristamar]

I'm totally fine with turn-based combat. Most of my combat time was paused in the old Infinity Engine games. I typically only let the battle roll out in real time when I was steam rolling an encounter due to an obvious mismatch in power (which wasn't all that often).

 

[Nebulous]

Just how will they incorporate reactions on another NPC turn? I'm thinking the Shield spell specifically but there are other examples.

 

[Nebulous]

auto-pause feature as an option when one of your reactions is available. simple.

Oh nevermind, it will autopause

 

[Horwath]

One more problem would be agonizingly slow combat.

It will depent how long a "turn" will be in real time. If all animations for a turn lasts 6 seconds + whatever time you need to issue orders. Lets say that you are really fast and you only need 1 second per character;
6 man party(or whatever) that is 42seconds per round, plus whatever time is needed for AI to play their characters.
what if you fight against 10 opponents and there is no "cheating" from AI with simultaneous turns of faster "combat animation"? 102 seconds per round? 3 round average encounter = 5 minutes?

 

[Gladius Legis]

It is Baldurs Gate. Baldurs Gate is defined by the RTwP system.

Oh really? I thought Baldur's Gate was defined by its setting, its writing and its characters.

If BG1 was remade as a robust turn-based system, but kept the city of Baldur's Gate, Candlekeep, Gorion, Sarevok, the Bhaalspawn, etc., it would still be Baldur's Gate.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I have no preferred combat method for the game. As long as it has interesting NPCs, a good storyline in the Forgotten Realms, and relative adherence to D&D rules, it's a Baldur's Gate game. The combat method is immaterial.

 

[slobster]

I voted for turn-based, because I think it's the most strategically rich options. As others have noted, XCOM and Fire Emblem are great examples of very popular strategy games using turn-based mechanics, and I've always been a big fan. As I mentioned elsewhere, I'm surprised that a AAA title in 2020 has the cajones to go with turn based combat (I guess the reaction in some quarters shows how ballsy a call that is), but I couldn't be more delighted.

That said, I'd hardly be up in arms if they went pausable real time a la Dragon Age, full ARPG, or any other system you could name. I've played great games using a ton of different systems, and you can enjoy each one for what it does well or uniquely compared to others. I think BG3 could have been made using any of the above, and would still have had a chance at being a great game depending on the strength of execution plus all the other factors like story, character, faithfullness to FR lore, etc.

I'm very excited for this turn based BG3!