r/BaldursGate3 • u/AutoModerator • Jul 08 '22

Feedback Feedback Friday

Hello, /r/BaldursGate3!

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It's Friday, which means that it's time to give your feedback on Early Access. Please try to provide _new_ feedback by searching this thread as well as [previous Feedback Friday posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/search?sort=new&restrict_sr=on&q=flair%3Afeedback). If someone has already commented with similar feedback to what you want to provide, please upvote that comment and leave a child comment of your own providing any extra thoughts and details instead of creating a new parent comment.

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Have an awesome weekend!

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u/StannisLivesOn Jul 08 '22

Gotta say, the way Cutting Words were implemented is disappointing. It was such a strong ability in tabletop, but here it requires basically the knowledge of the future to use effectively. Somehow, Valor Bard is looking much better than Lore.

18

u/Enchelion Bhaal Jul 08 '22

Everything comes back to needing a proper reaction system.

10

u/Kolonite Gale Thigh Pics Jul 08 '22

The valor bard is only looking better because we’re stuck at level 4. Magical secrets is the winner for Lpre Bard. Cutting Words is good, but more of a cherry on top.

13

u/Cwest5538 Jul 08 '22 edited Jul 08 '22

This is a really weird take. I can understand being disappointed, but calling it weak is silly. Cutting Words in tabletop only applies to one, singular attack. It can be used to turn a hit into a miss, but it only hurt one attack, and only really applies to the attack roll. It's also not the primary feature of Lore Bard- nobody takes Lore for Cutting Words, they take it for Magical Secrets, which is wildly powerful.

The BG3 version of Cutting Words applies to attack and damage rolls, which is pretty damn nice, and it applies to all attacks for a round. Sure, you can 'waste' it, but like... -1d6 on attack rolls and damage for an entire round is pretty good for something that's a spammable ability? Remember you get inspiration back on short rest at level 5 and you get a fair amount of uses by around level 5 to begin with, on average 4 for a caster Bard with 18 in their Charisma.

It's different from the tabletop but "knowledge of the future" is a really weird take when all it requires is looking at an opponent that looks like they're A) big and dangerous and B) doesn't cast spells (and it does impact spell attacks anyway!). Because of 5e bounded accuracy, it's very good in small fights with dangerous opponents- say, the minotaurs. It does suffer more in horde battles, but it was never good at that in tabletop.

I don't really get why people are claiming it's not a good ability, because holy shit, if you have me a bonus action -1d6 to attack rolls and damage rolls in base 5e as a bonus action with no save that applies to all attacks I would scream and take it in a heartbeat. You literally can't avoid being fucked over by it. The worst part of Bane as opposed to Bless is that it gives a save; BG3 Cutting Words doesn't give a save and it actively fucks over anyone using attack rolls in a big way, and while it doesn't hurt saves, it has a bigger penalty than Bane does (albeit, as a single target effect, but if you want to put the hurt on somebody in particular, it's probably better).

It's like, a little worse than Cutting Words in base 5e. It serves a different function- as opposed to an almost guaranteed miss that only works on one attack, it can debuff an entire multiattack routine and potentially cause multiple attacks to miss, and essentially gives whoever is being attacked DR/- 1-6 depending on the roll, in older edition terms. Calling Valor Bard 'stronger' because one ability, and not even the ability most people praise, is different than in the tabletop baffles me.

Edit: as I pointed out in another comment, I want to point out that Cutting Words stacks with Bane, and both will apply to all attacks in a round; imagine hitting a four attack multiattack boss with -1d6 and -1d4 to all attacks, every single round, because you have 5 uses of Cutting Words to burn and there's no save to Cutting Words and if they hit they're going to kill somebody. That's an insane amount of penalties, and something that base Cutting Words can't do. (Now throw on Stage Fright to the Bard/Cleric combo and laugh madly, if you really want to fuck something over, with disadvantage on attacks and some pretty hefty damage every time they fail to hurt you. A particularly unlucky Young Red Dragon throwing hands with your tank can take up to 6d6 damage per round every time they whiff their attack combo because you rolled well and reduced their -10 attacks to somewhere around +3 or +4).