Well, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. It is relevant, even if you think mine is not - which it is because it's my opinion. :p You're entitled to yours and I'm entitled to mine.
The current mechanic would be fine with me if it didn't break so many other mechanics.
1. Able to travel from one end of the board to another in a single 6 second round because 1 character is engaged in combat.
2. Able to steal countless items while enemies in a single round of combat. Did this in various places.
3. Able to kill enemies of untold power if your stealth is high enough to constantly shoot enemies from outside of detection range while they are stuck in a single round of combat. I killed the bulette before using this method, and the spider Matriarch. They never got in a single attack.
4. Characters get stuck in combat without you even realizing it or in conversations. There have been times when I have cleared out the entire Grove having conversations over and over again only to realize one of my characters is stuck in a conversation with somebody in the Grove because they thought that person was stealing or something. Not just the Grove either. Other places too like the underdark. One character is stuck in a conversation or in combat while the rest of the party is roaming everywhere else.
5. Able to use the fact that frozen enemies can't stop you to position other characters in better positions they wouldn't normally be able to get in simply because the enemies are locked in a single round of combat.
6. And the worst part? Many times I accidentally exploit the mechanic before realizing I'm exploiting it... Or that it's happening.
I actually could go on, but I won't right now. Got stuff to do.
Bottom line is, too many things are broken simply because they don't pause the world for the few players who want to, for some reason, play this game by splitting up and NOT adventuring together. Why the flip play the game together only to not play the game together and separate and do different parts of the story?
And I totally disagree. Just because someone wants to play the game a certain way doesn't always mean it should be allowed. If my play style is the minority, I would expect them to ignore my play style, not try to adapt the entire game to try to please everybody no matter how small the number of people who want a certain play style.
But who knows, maybe I AM in the minority.
