How "tactical" is the combat?

[Dr.Acula]

As someone that love turn based strategy games like XCOM and just recently Jagged Alliance 3 I'd like to know how many tactical aspects are involved in Baldur's Gate 3.

I know BG3 uses turn based combat but are there elements like positioning, taking cover, using the environment to your advantage, flanking enemies and so on or is it more just centered around rushing in, swinging axes, throwing spells while rolling the dice hoping for the best?

I don't really want to go into guides or extensive video footage regarding the content but at least have an idea of what to expect in terms of the combat.

[morph113]

I have only limited playtime, but things like cover and positioning etc. aren't as important or even non-existent. It's more about using skills of which there are a gazillion different skills to use among all classes. Combat is very different from the combat in XCOM or JA3.

[screamingpalm]

Quite tactical yes. Positioning, cover, using the environment, height advantage for ranged attacks, and other modifiers are all at play here.

[otakon17]

Originally posted by Dr.Acula:

As someone that love turn based strategy games like XCOM and just recently Jagged Alliance 3 I'd like to know how many tactical aspects are involved in Baldur's Gate 3.

I know BG3 uses turn based combat but are there elements like positioning, taking cover, using the environment to your advantage, flanking enemies and so on or is it more just centered around rushing in, swinging axes, throwing spells while rolling the dice hoping for the best?

I don't really want to go into guides or extensive video footage regarding the content but at least have an idea of what to expect in terms of the combat.

It's mostly basics but there is no flanking in this game far as I can tell. You'd think surrounding an enemy would make them easier to kill and dogpile but they axed that. Elevation for ranged attacks, *always*.

[TheShadowHatter]

Tactics I've noticed so far playing include either seeing oil on the ground, or throwing it yourself and using fire magic to ignite it, if you're higher ground than your enemy you get advantage with ranged attacks and disadvantage for being below enemies or too close. You can throw items like potions to allies or bombs to enemies (even extra weapons you've picked up you can throw at an enemy for damage including your own equipped weapon so be careful). Rushing in would be ill advised especially when you're usually outnumbered and you have just as many hitpoints as your enemy does and they have equal opportunity to kill you before you kill them if you're not careful.

EDIT: also in terms of cover and positions, while they're no intended feature for this, you still could technically create barriers by moving stuff to hamper enemy movement. I did it once when I had some enemies in a room next to me, and so I blocked the door with barrels and crates to make it harder for them to reach me.

[Mad Max]

Using the environment is the most important thing you can master in this game.

As far as I know and have played so far, there really isn't any kind of 'Cover' mechanics but positions are also very powerful. High ground and low ground are taken into account for example.

For the most part the battle plan is to focus each enemy down as fast as possible to reduce the incoming damage. Crowd Control spells and abilities are also king and can turn difficult fights into cake walks.

[screamingpalm]

Originally posted by otakon17:

It's mostly basics but there is no flanking in this game far as I can tell. You'd think surrounding an enemy would make them easier to kill and dogpile but they axed that. Elevation for ranged attacks, *always*.

Flanking is pretty much gone in 5e, replaced with advantage and sneak attacks, etc.

[pascal.difolco]

Didn't find much tactics there, it's rather "unleash maxxxxed damage" using all possible combinations of minmaxing char abilites and items, as any other "tactics" end up with the party dead ...

[Mad Max]

Originally posted by Dr.Acula:

You'd think surrounding an enemy would make them easier to kill and dogpile but they axed that.

Rogues can Sneak Attack enemies and gain advantage that are in combat with an ally.

So yes, you can Tank and Spank.

[🍀]

its like xcom. really.

[Tomas Mac Mordain]

There is no cover system - and there is no grid. It's a bit like DoS2 with more gimmicks from DnD 5e. Not bad, and there are a few encounters that are actually properly 'designed' with an arena that is non-trivial etc. - so you can take advantage of choke points.

If you know the DnD spells/abilities you can start building some nice synergies in your team too. On tactician difficulty you pretty much have to.

On Normal it is smooth sailing with the exception of some boss encounters that will wipe you first time when you get to see their abilities for the first time and don't happen to have the right countermeasures to hand. But 2nd or 3rd try will usually be pretty straightforward then...

[screamingpalm]

Originally posted by Tomas Mac Mordain:

There is no cover system - and there is no grid.

There is no cover *system*, but there is still cover to use to avoid enemy ranged attacks.

[Nix]

Covers a la X-com no, but there is covers, In the sense that trajectory of projectiles and spells are also showed and may impact with objects along the way and even your own teammates causing friendly fire. Using the enviroment in this game it's much more important than on x-com, I'm a barbarian and killed an enemy that immobilized me throwing at him the dead body of his friend and a chair, in the desperate attempt to save someone else; in another occasion I hammered a pillar that fell on a group of enemies, saved myself and the team against tons of enemies boarding my ship by literally pushing them in the ocean and I could say more, but I'm being careful to avoid any possible spoiler.
If you can think of something, you can most likely do it in BG3.

[Dr.Acula]

Thank you for the responses. It gave me a general idea of what to expect.

[super_jqp]

It's quite different but it's tactical enough.

[Micasa]

I'm 60hrs in near the end of act 2. The combat feels very good as a Turn based gameplay enjoyer I guarantee you own't regret it. You need to manage your positioning. Your spell slots. Theres high level spells that you can use once or twice so you need to make choices on what engagements to use them. The different bosses and their fights are mostly unique. I haven't fought a fight yet where i felt like i'm doing the same over and over again. The exploring between the fights gives you a good moment to chill before another amazing fight happends.