What's the point of having a tank in your team ?

[Bonom]

If the AI always targets your character with the lowest AC ? Larian, why did you do this ? Have you ever played an RPG before ? Combats in this game feels more like an Hike & Seek party with your mage than a real dnd fights.

[Damphair]

It's about positioning, have your ranged play from a high ground as far away from the enemy as possible, and have your ''tank'' in the middle. Or drop the tank mentality and have your front line people equip two-handed weapons and obliterate what they can. It's a fighter-class advantage to have more health and higher AC since they will be in the middle of it, so there's a stronger possiblity that they will be hit with more attacks. I play as barbarian though and don't give a ♥♥♥♥, I jump into their backlines with him and drop the archers and spellcasters, and have my mage and cleric CC the high hitpoint frontliners.

[NixAhmose]

Generally speaking you want at least two front liners in your party, one dedicated to tanking high threat melee enemies and another to aggressively pin down ranged enemies.

[RawCode]

because this is not some mob grinder and somewhat symmetric game, mobs can and will do exactly same things as you can, especially noticeable with shopkeepers, who will use stockpile of potions and scrolls if you try to attack them, severely limiting possible loot if you not planned your attack properly.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by mrbonhomme:

What's the point of having a tank in your team ?
If the AI always targets your character with the lowest CA ? Larian, why did you do this ? Have you ever played an RPG before ? Combats in this game feels more like an Hike & Seek party with your mage than a real dnd fights.

Youngsters these days...

[thawn4444]

this is D&D. . .not World of Warcraft.

[Dailao]

Originally posted by mrbonhomme:

If the AI always targets your character with the lowest CA ? Larian, why did you do this ? Have you ever played an RPG before ? Combats in this game feels more like an Hike & Seek party with your mage than a real dnd fights.

My tank is doing well, not sure what the problem is. You either harass the ranged fighters or the strong melee enemy. Use jump and dash and/or spells to get where you need to be.

[jk2l]

tank in dnd act as frontliner. their role is to take attention of the enemy and try to take the damage and hope they don't focus on your squishy.

also having a tank is good for rogue, as their sneak attack can trigger on enemy near your ally

[Windwalker82]

That's the thing... you don't always NEED to have a tank on your team.

This is not a hack n slash. Situation, environment, positioning, initiative, are at least as (if not more) important than how much damage you can soak.

This is more realistic anyhow. Any enemy with a decent INT score would know a wizard can ♥♥♥♥ them up royally, and from a distance no less. So hells yea they're gonna go after them first.

https://i.redd.it/hfu7x41geq931.jpg

[Bonom]

Originally posted by RawCode:

because this is not some mob grinder and somewhat symmetric game, mobs can and will do exactly same things as you can, especially noticeable with shopkeepers, who will use stockpile of potions and scrolls if you try to attack them, severely limiting possible loot if you not planned your attack properly.

Mobs aren't supposed to know your characters' AC. Especially when it's just some dumb undead or animals. It looks like playing DnD with the most terrible DM at this point.
And Yeah, you can place your tanks and other frontlines in front of rangers but they don't care and the disavantage doesn't apply to them, because this seems buggy.

[ACS36]

Originally posted by mrbonhomme:

Originally posted by RawCode:

because this is not some mob grinder and somewhat symmetric game, mobs can and will do exactly same things as you can, especially noticeable with shopkeepers, who will use stockpile of potions and scrolls if you try to attack them, severely limiting possible loot if you not planned your attack properly.

Mobs aren't supposed to know your characters' CA. Especially when it's just some dumb undead or animals. It looks like playing DnD with the most terrible DM at this point.
And Yeah, you can place your tanks and other frontlines in front of rangers but they don't care and the disavantage doesn't apply to them, because this seems buggy.

Yeah, they really failed on this aspect of the experience. Every creature seems to act like it has the same intelligence capabilities while in in combat and even in some non combat scenarios.

[Pinkspring]

This is why my tank has goading strike.

[Windwalker82]

Originally posted by mrbonhomme:

Originally posted by RawCode:

because this is not some mob grinder and somewhat symmetric game, mobs can and will do exactly same things as you can, especially noticeable with shopkeepers, who will use stockpile of potions and scrolls if you try to attack them, severely limiting possible loot if you not planned your attack properly.

Mobs aren't supposed to know your characters' CA. Especially when it's just some dumb undead or animals. It looks like playing DnD with the most terrible DM at this point.
And Yeah, you can place your tanks and other frontlines in front of rangers but they don't care and the disavantage doesn't apply to them, because this seems buggy.

Here's an idea: don't leave your weakest members to fend for themselves. Use chokepoints, let the enemy come to you. And if you are forced into combat in an open field, guard that squishy party member with your tank, as is their job. Guard, as in, keep them right next to eachother. Enemy tries to hit the squishy one first anyway? They get an attack of opportunity in their face for trying.

[Kelset]

In general the AI seems very focused on characters with low HP and most of the time reactions aren't that effective, at least to the point where I got at lv4.
Overwatch doesn't exists (aka ranged reactions) and locking into combat some characters in melee is rarely usefull.
I'm playing with a team of ranger/mage/cleric/Barbarian and despite being able to pull some good moves when I use stealth most of the time (even if 98% of the time the enemy doesn't get surpised anyway) in a plain fight where my team should perform better instead of relying to stealth only they suck big time.
there's no zone control or ambush so far (for melee that wait for an enemy to enter their area of efffect , like in Mordheim for example, you have to do it manually and it's very hard when the game is half turn based half real time with no pause when controlling stealth characters)as I leveled up so the AI while moving tends to have always the advantage no matter your planning.
Also there's no meaning in positioning, like in Pillar's of Eternity for example where back attacks or flanking was a thing.

And your characters MISS A LOT, and the enemy doesn't, despite having high ground, shields or whatever.
Stealth is the only way you can get things to work the way they should.

Again, so far.

P.S.: the only thing that really gets aggro is the magic weapon you can conjure with the cleric, you cast that and everybody is focused on it.

The game is fantastic, but the combat system has very cheap mechanics that I don't know why they have been overlooked.

[Rin Palora]

WOW Tanking in DnD is hard, you need to dedicate a build to it with proper abilities and feats to get the enemy to attack your tank (goading), punish them if they don't attack the tank (attacks of opportunity or disadvantage) or proper tactical positioning to make the tank the only possibility to attack (because everyone else is out of range or out of sight). It's actually a bit easier in BG 3 than it is in PnP.

You can't just keep your squishies in the open and count on "computer stupidity" to go after the closest target in full plate armor hiding behind a shield over the dude in a robe with a dagger that is casting spells.

That said low intelligence enemies (like animals) should do just that, it's a bad sign if they arn't doing it.

[Kai]

Since they are using 5e, which they simplified a lot more for the game, yeah you don't have advanced tricks found in other tactical games.

What you do have is 'Jump, Dash, Shove, Grab, Throw, Hide, and Dip'.