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Dungeons and Dragons makes use of an Action Economy that is based on when a character’s turn their turn. This is because it is a lot easier to track than having something like a cooldown. The rules of Tabletop games and their sourcebooks tend to differ wildly from video games, since video games are able to manage many different values in the background.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the many video game adaptations of D&D, and it aims to capture the heart and soul of the tabletop system by changing some of the rules to streamline some of the crunchier elements that tabletop fans are used to dealing with.
What Is The Action Economy?
The Action Economy is a way of measuring how much one character should be able to accomplish in a given amount of real-world time. This makes it more believable that someone would be able to pull off what they did and that all the other characters didn’t just wait around for them to finish. This breaks up actions into different categories, and characters can fill each of those categories with what they want to happen during their turn — or even outside their turn later.
How The Action Economy Works
You will have a pool of resources available to you; you will be able to spend these resources just like currency to “buy” what you want to happen during your turn in the form of “Actions.” Imagine in your hand is various colored coins. You will see that all the Action options you have also will have different colors for their costs. You will spend your resources by paying these costs, and once you have run out of coins, you will have done everything there is to do for your turn. You then discard the remaining coins. At the start of your next turn, you get more of these coins. Some Action will have requirements you will need to make before you will be allowed to even pay their cost — think of these as products you need to phone ahead to reserve before you can have them.
All Action Economy Resources
Action
This is the main resource you will make use of. It is how you will cast your spells, swing your weapon, and carry out strenuous tasks. This is represented by a green circle.
Bonus Action
A Bonus Action is something that doesn’t require a lot of effort or time to pull-off and can be performed either in a short amount of time around another Action, or during the same time as the Action itself. A Bard can use their Action to sing, but if they put some pizzaz into ‘how’ they sing the song, it can have a bigger impact. This is how a player can narrate their character getting their Bardic Inspiration out while they are using their Action for something else at the same time. This is represented as an orange triangle.
Reaction
A Reaction is something you do in response to something else happening. It’s like a large orc blocking someone from getting around them, watching them to keep them in check. The moment that person tries to make a run for it, the orc is ready to stop them by reacting to how they have moved, rather than the orc making the choice to attack and have them dodge out of the way. This is represented by a pink sparkle.
Spell Slot
In order to cast spells in Baldur’s Gate 3, You will need to spend Spell Slots. These come in various levels, and you will need to spend higher-level Spell Slots to cast higher-level Spells. They are represented as Blue Squares.
Class Specific Resources
Some classes and subclasses have special resources unique to them; this can be a Champion Fighter’s Superiority Dice, a Paladin’s Oath Charges, a Monk’s Ki, and so forth. All of these work the same as other Resources — you just need to have enough to spend to use the Action that requires them.
Movement
Different characters can have a different amount of movement available to them. Some may only be able to move a maximum amount of 7.5 meters per turn, while others could move 10.5 meters. This amount of Movement will use its own resource represented by a yellow square.
Spending Resources Outside Of Combat
You will have plenty of moments where you are not in combat and can find yourself exploring the vast maps of Baldur’s Gate 3 in real-time. In real-time, you can select actions, attacks, and spells just like in combat. The way this Action Economy works is to simulate how much you can do in the span of a couple of seconds, so you will not have to worry about waiting long after using an Action that will be ready on your next turn.