D&D rule BG3 refused to touch will appear in Solasta 2

Ready Action is getting expanded in the upcoming D&D-based RPG

"Get ready to get ready" could be a good summary of the latest dev update released for Solasta 2, the sequel to Tactical Adventures' successful 2021 RPG that strove to faithfully reproduce the tabletop combat mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons. During a community stream, the developers explained that Solasta 2 will present a more faithful implementation of the Ready Action, a D&D rule that I'm never happy to see show up at my gaming table.

Combat in D&D is based on action economy. Both players and monsters have a preset number of things they can do during their turn, usually Move, use an Action, and use a Bonus Action. Players also have a special resource called a Reaction, which is always triggered in response to something. To Ready an Action, a player essentially delays their Action: rather than acting in their initiative order, they will name a circumstance as a trigger, and then "burn" their Reaction to take an Action specified in advance. Common examples include "If the cultist steps on the trapdoor, I'll pull the lever that opens it," but a Ready Action can be more elaborate, including casting a spell.

The first Solasta included the option to use Ready Action to hit an enemy with a melee or ranged attack, or with a spell cantrip. However, according to the devs, Solasta 2 will expand this function, aiming to have most actions compatible with Ready Action over time. At the start of the game's early access period, Ready Action will also work with single target spells, besides the aforementioned weapon attacks. Later, the devs plan to expand it to area of effect (AoE) and multi target spells too. And this tactic won't be limited to damaging your opponents either. The stream showed a character using Ready Action to cast Cure Wounds on an ally as soon as it moved closer.

I appreciate Tactical Adventures' continued efforts to make their games as faithful to the D&D experience as possible, but I also believe that Ready Action suits a video game much more than a tabletop experience. As a DM, I sigh every time one of my players says they're readying an action. The description of this rule is just too vague, and its potential applications too vast to keep it under control. Moreover, it allows players to exploit the initiative order even more than usual. (Which is why you should try some initiative house rules.)

For example, let's say a melee-focused character is facing a monster who can only use melee attacks. Both are too far from each other to move and attack in one round. If the player goes first in the initiative order, they can simply move closer, and use Ready Action to attack the monster once it enters the player's range, potentially killing it or incapacitating it before it can strike. Of course, there are ways to prevent these exploits, but the rule remains wonky, and it requires some houseruling to work better at the table.

Baldur's Gate 3 developers Larian Studios probably shares my disdain for Ready Action, as this option does not appear in the studio's popular RPG also rooted in D&D. That game, however, wasn't trying to be extremely faithful to the D&D rules, and it's more of a successful marriage between the latter and Larian's in-house system. Solasta, on the other hand, found success by giving players an experience that's as close to the tabletop as possible, but even its developers are aware that there are limits to that.

"Now, we would have loved nothing more than to make it exactly like on Tabletop and give you all the possibilities you could imagine on how to trigger Ready Action," the studio wrote in an update shared on Steam, "but this would be a liiiittle overwhelming - if we did, we’d have to code a puzzle game inside your tactical CRPG."

Solasta 2 will be released in early access on Windows PC via Steam on March 12.