Looks like a very good usage of the toolset by the AI. Shove is like a glue that makes AI act relatively smart and creative in a sneakless combat. But of course I can understand your frustration here, but I hope they don't just dumb down those mechanics but make AI differ through difficulty levels. As of now you can actually counter it by athletics and acrobatics, rogues with expertise can have +8 in acrobatics and are very well protected from shove. You can have +5-7 in athletics with any character as well - with some strength, metallic boots and a proficiency.
The AI iis systemic, so it has been trained to find the best tool among the ones it has access for and make use of it. Which is *precisely* the issue here, because Shove being a bonus action and not an action becomes incredibly appealing to use compared to most of the alternatives the AI has at its disposal.
If it was a matter of choosing between attacking/casting OR shoving, the AI would have to weight its options, but right now it can do both and it DOES, generously.
it doesn't help that the range of shove has been exponentially increased (from 1.5m/5 feet suggested by the rules to... the range of an artillery cannon or something?) which also makes any idea of "careful positioning" fundamentally a waste of time in a lot of scenario (like the boat fight) where you simply cannot be placed anywhere where you'd be "safe from the risk of being shoved".
Not that any of this is new and something that was never discussed before, but as they say "repetita iuvant". Or so it seems, given that we always find ourselves making the same points across the months.
Wait, did we just confirm that featherfall is not trash but a spell worthy of use in a start of a fight??
Assuming bottomless pits (and there are aplenty) and/or water/lava are not involved.
