the problem with the hazards is basically, that there are also "turns" while out of combat. You can for example heal someone for 3 turns, or set something on fire for 2 turns out of combat, what makes the effect tick down in seconds i think (i dont know how long one turn/tick is out of combat exactly).
this is an issue i think, but it is imo really hard to find a solution, because every solution may add new issues. For example:
1. adding a pause button:
if they would add a pause button, this may create some issues in multiplayer (who is able to pause the game, who is not, what happens when the party splits up?), also it may enable the player to bypass some obstacles or puzzles in a way that is not intended by just walking into the poison surface/trap/lava and pause every 2 seconds to use consumables to heal.
2. trigger combat every time you get damage:
this would mean that combat starts every time you or your party step into poison or lava or a trap, what gives you the time to use heal spells or food and move your characters out of the hazards. This creates a new issue: now the combat ends as soon as there are no enemies left. What would now trigger "combat ended"? Also now there are a lot of beneficial effects too. Would combat also start every time you heal? There is a trait that lets you heal trough poison, what about that?
3. increase the duration of turns out of combat:
this would give you more time to heal or move your character before he dies, but would be especially annoying if you want to "heal your party quickly" before entering the next battle, because you would have to wait much longer for your spells to recharge, also putting out a fire with rain and then wait a bit until you are not wet anymore...
imo, the only things that may help make hazards less annoying would be:
- remove the hazards you or your enemies created during combat as soon as combat ends. this would help because you would not die in the remains of your own fire elemental after combat anymore. Traps and puzzles would be as dangerous as they are now, what is fine i think. The only disadvantage would be, that also beneficial effects would stop after the combat ends (such as buffs, rain, healing...), but since you can use all spells also out of combat, this is fine. You could also still die in hazards you created out of combat.
- ressurection-teleport: give us a spell or scroll that is either able to teleport or move a corpse in a certain range towards you or ressurect a character near you instead of where he died.
- improve the KI. In the end, forcing the party to restore the formation directly after combat makes them walk into the lava, mostly. If the characters are unable to do this without being poisoned, burned and such, they should simply not move at all. If you want to force madora to step into the lava you should have to take full control of her, for example.
