User conclusion could then be it sucks to not use it, making it the same as disallowing it.
That's exactly what we have right now. That's the status quo. That's what I'm trying to solicit ideas on how to change with this thread.
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The problem Larian is having is that it's incredibly difficult to make an AI which can deal with a character who enters Sneak. With the AI too smart, Sneak becomes useless. Too dumb (the current problem) and the AI can't handle Sneaking characters, making it ripe for exploitation.
They do not WANT to disallow Sneaking in combat, but the way it is currently set up is to technically allow Sneak, but restricted and underpowered so much that it's not practical to use. They are trying to have it both ways.
Skills like Assassinate and Mortal Blow (or rather ONLY those two skills), and the talent Guerrilla, suggest that it is intentional to use Sneak for damage in combat.
But the exorbitant cost of Sneak at 4 AP completely undermines actually using Sneak. Assassinate would cost 7 AP to do 1.725x regular damage, but 2 regular attacks would cost 4 AP to do 2.0x regular damage. Guerrilla is even worse - 1.4x regular attack damage at a cost of 6 AP, when you can spend 6 AP to do 3.0x regular damage without it.
Even using Sneak for purely defensive purposes is sabotaged by the 4 AP cost. You can't get very far using only the Pawn to find a place to hide, nor does it do a lot of good since at 4 AP you can't heal or cast an armor boosting spell and still Sneak.
Larian doesn't want to forbid using Sneak in combat, but they only have three choices:
- Completely ignore the issue, leaving Sneak as useless, Guerrilla as nearly useless, and Assassinate as underpowered and broken because it requires using the useless Sneak,
- a radical revamp of how AI behaves which will take a lot of time and effort and still probably won't actually work right, or
- disable Sneak in combat and re-balance the associated skills and Talents based on that.
