My point was that most games don't even give you the option of anything but death when you hit zero HP, so you're already ahead in D&D.
Are you referring only to pen and paper, or are you including videogames in that statement? Because dying in pen and paper is a lot more punishing than hitting "load last save".
I was only referring to video games
Ideally, AI should use tactics a human would. Creatures don't go unconscious, but if they did, you know we likely wouldn't leave them there to finish them off after the fight, lest they get revived.
We would if there were still other, more immediate threats. Now, if we knew that they would be revived back to full health, then we'd finish them off. But healing brings someone back wounded, and easy to knock back down.
We might, which goes to my earlier point about varied AI. Also, just as we could know "that they would be revived back to full health" so might the AI, and they should act accordingly.
The issue is the AI priority seems out of whack. It's still apparently using D:OS 2's AI 2.0 , which was programmed to ignore high AC targets and go for squishy characters. However, D:OS 2 and BG 3 have very different action economies. D:OS 2 was classless and let any character use healing spells and scrolls, and healing spells were both more powerful than they are in BG 3, and limited only by cooldowns. In addition, there was resource and time-free full healing for all living characters out of combat using bedrolls. Different gameplay styles should have different AI styles.
Yeah, I agree, which is why it does need to be balanced. I just don't see leaving unconscious characters alone as the best way to do that.
You set up encounters specifically to be attrition battles. Its not the first battle thats hard, its the 3rd, and then you dont have time to rest before you fight the boss. Thats why they are at the end of the dungeon, you have a hard time sleeping without getting jumped and losing almost as many resources as you just got and now you have to fight something powerful that is going to go full force until they die, cursing you with their last breath.
Unfortunately, unless resting gets heavily revamped, it won't be like that.
Again, I see what you are saying. I think that requiring us to manage downed party members is better than having the AI ignore them. Just make sure we have the tools to do so.
