Has anyone else had this issue?
I've been playing around with some people on MP. I understand why this game is TB rather than RTwP, but it feels like Larian hasn't struck the right balance on some of the larger fights. It's easy to throw a ton of enemies at the player in RTwP, and craft these epic, prolonged engagements (it's something I think DA:O does very well on its final level). The problem with TB is that each of these enemies needs a turn.
I've had several encounters run up to 45 mins due to poor RNG, snowballing aggro, enemy reinforcements, or environmental factors (one time our Fighter got pushed off a ledge, and had to spend 3 turns of double movement just to get back into the fight).
This issue isn't quite as exacerbated in single-player because the player controls 4 characters. On 4 player though, it really can get arduous. We had one encounter with about 12 enemies. That means that per player, the turn ratio boils down to 1:15, which means most of the player's time is spent sitting there, not playing the game.
I get this is a faithful representation of PnP rules, but this is where a DM can step in and maximise fun and engagement for the players. If an encounter is dragging because it was poorly conceived, poorly balanced, or the RNG gods have decided to smite your players, you can intervene. Maybe that Clay Golem moves and provokes an attack-of-opportunity. Maybe its maximum health is now 70 instead of 90. Maybe that NPC you helped out earlier joins the fray and tips the battle in your favour. Or maybe all the enemies run away when your Fighter dispatches that enemy he's been wailing on for 7 turns. You can't really do that in a video game.
Personally, I think some of the larger encounters need some rebalancing? I'd rather face a smaller group of slightly higher tier enemies in MP. I don't feel like an encounter should be 45mins, unless its a boss with dynamic stages to mix up gameplay/tactics. I don't necessarily think tighter, more focused encounters would necessarily harm the single-player experience either.
Any thoughts?
