Characters that move next to each other should engage in combat (shuffling, jabbing, feinting, etc...) That would make the battles SO much cooler and would reflect what's going on in the game. The combatants are NOT standing in place.
One of the innovations of Neverwinter Nights when it followed BG2 was for the characters to dodge attacks, or block, etc. They looked like they were fighting instead of just taking their licks while someone attacked.
The "backstab" issue got me thinking. Characters (in the game world) aren't standing in place, facing one way. They are bobbing and weaving through combat, threatening the space all around them. That's why the current backstab shouldn't be there.
Also, if an attack "misses" because of armor, have the animation reflect that. I saw a streamer complaining that he kept "missing" an ogre and he couldn't understand why because the ogre was as wide as a barn. He had no idea that armor (or natural hide) was deflecting his attacks. Animations could show that. We could also get more nuanced messages instead of just "miss" you could see "blocked" "deflected" "couldn't penetrate" and that sort of thing. Make it obvious to the player what's happening both in messages and animation.
