The other day I was trying to do quest with Nere in Grymforge... But each my try I was ending with 9 hostile duergars with much higher initiative, so I found that battle just impossible for me. So after several tries I start abusing game mechanics by killing non-hostile npcs *before* doing last quest dialog. I was sneaking to the NPC, hit with knifes to remove like 2/3 of hp bar, then persuade them that I meant no harm ("Yes, I just hit you twice with knife in back, but that was just a friendly sparring, don't pay attention!"), then quickly hit again before they heal, and then persuade everyone around that it wasn't me ("How can you think about me that badly? I am a tender peace lily, I never harmed anyone in my life! Well, yes, I am a drow and I stand on the corpse of your friend with a bloodied knife, but I assure you it is 500% not me!"). Or just push them in lava. 30% chance to push is not big, so I was pushing, persuading that I just did it by mistake, then pushing again, persuading, pushing, persuading... Then persuade everyone around that it wasn't me.
That was absolutely absurd and silly situation that had nothing to do with role-playing or having fun. And I would have never done that under any normal game circumstances... but I just stuck with the quest and was not able to play further. Someone enjoys such gameplay. I don't. I play such games for story and rpg. And from rpg point approaching NPC, talking and, maybe, fighting, is normal. Sneaking behind, positioning companions in sneak on high ground *before* talking, moving characters around to hit while main character is in dialog mode, positioning explosive barrels with magic hand around NPC etc. has, imho, absolutely nothing to do with role-playing. Or with immersion. The immersion is just blown away completely.
Waiting for the story mode. So I can enjoy the story without abusing mechanics and without companions who are "missing" while trying to hit an enemy in the back with knife from sneak standing 10 cm away... I have no idea how they manage to do so.. Probably they are just completely blind... though I am not sure that even a blind person would miss from such a distance
