OK. This just came to mind after discussing camera angles, so I thought I'd throw it out here.
We really need dialogues to freeze the world and the entire party to be fast traveled to the dialogue without running into poisons, traps, to be stabilized and no longer dying, etc. This would save players from a lot of issues.
1. Blocking during cutscenes. If all characters stop moving during dialogues, you won't have random characters wander into the cutscene and block the camera angle. Thus, Larian could stop zooming in so close during dialogues, but they could have more dynamic camera shots for each scene without having random characters or even party members blocking the shot. Basically, freezing the world would allow for more cohesive cutscenes where I can actually see the characters who are speaking instead of having grass or rock walls or various characters in the way.
2. Scenarios like this one would no longer occur: I beat Ethel and was immediately thrown into a cutscene. Wyll tried running over to meet up with my MC and ran through a poison cloud. He only had 5 health. He died before the cutscene ended and I even knew he was in trouble. Another similar scenario. Shadowheart was on the ground dying. She'd failed a save. She was SO close. I could have saved her. Cutscene was triggered, however, and by the time it was over, Shadowheart was dead. I couldn't even switch characters to use one of the others in the party to save her. The cutscene didn't pop up for several seconds to even allow me to switch characters, and by the time I did and rushed to her aid, she was dead.
3. It would prevent things like my MC being in a dialogue and suddenly some nearby monster spots my party and initiates combat, thus kicking me OUT of the dialogue.
4. It would make it so my entire party could be involved in dialogues. My Rogue has better Deception but Gale has better Arcana. I am talking to the guy at the door into the first dungeon. My MC is better at Deception so I keep her out front to trick him into opening the door. Next scene, I'm dealing with the Book of the Dead and I have no good skills with it. I switch to Gale to deal with the book and tell me what's inside. Ah, but Shadowheart has better Religion, so when it gets to that part, SHE makes the roll. So, regardless of where the other characters are, have them fast travel to the dialogue, position them just right, and let them participate in the dialogue. Then fast travel them back to where they were prior to the dialogue so that they can return to the position the player put them in when the dialogue started. In multiplayer, do the same. All players participate in the dialogue, each time, and allow players to interact and decide together what they are going to say to each character and who will make what rolls. D&D is meant to be a TEAM game. This current dialogue situation prevents that, and each dialogue needs to be triggered by each player for it to count. It's slow and cumbersome.
5. This would prevent players from doing things like triggering a battle so that an enemy is facing one direction and then casually allowing another character to slowly move up behind them to backstab them. They could wander around the entire lair, steal everything, go take a break outside, roam the whole map, and return all while one character is locking an enemy in combat. This might not make a lot of players happy, but let me offer an alternative. Want to sneak up on an enemy with the help of another character? Initiate the Help action and select a character to aid. Player is then given control over the character who is being aided. Character who is being aided right clicks on target and selects Attack. Character who is aiding rushes out and initiates attack. Character who is being aided then immediately chooses Stealth Attack or Normal Attack. If Stealth, the character makes a Stealth roll with advantage because he or she is being Helped by the other character. The other character is creating a distraction. If successful in Stealth, the character is shown sneaking up behind the enemy on the most direct course to get behind it. Then they automatically attack from behind. Even if they cross paths with the character's line of sight, because they made the Stealth roll, they succeed in sneaking up behind them. If they fail the Stealth, the enter combat right away. The target spotted them. If Normal attack is selected, the character just fires at the target or rushes up to them and attacks with advantage. Either way, the one character helped the other make an attack roll against the target, whether stealth or normal. Still, the world has frozen so characters aren't bee-bopping around doing whatever they feel like while one character is in combat, but you still can do stealth and such with the aid of another character. For pickpocketing or stealing from a chest, the same would take place. Select Help, click on the character you want to help, auto-take control of that helped character, right click on target, select Steal, the helping character initiates small talk with target, the thief is showing sneaking up behind to pickpocket, Stealth roll is made with advantage, and if successful the rogue gets up behind and makes a second roll to Pickpocket, again with advantage. DC is target's Passive Perception.
So, basically, lock dialogue so if you're in it everyone is in it. Fast travel the party together for the dialogue. Allow characters to switch during dialogue to utilize skill proficiencies better as a party. Then if you want to have one person distract a character so a thief can rob them, implement a Help function similar to the spell help they just added except Help provides advantage to the roll. Astarion attempts a pickpocket, Gale is allowed to Help, Astarion receives advantage on his Stealth and Sleight of Hand rolls, show Gale chatting with vendor about nothing while Astarion attempts to pick his pockets or take his stuff from a chest behind his back. Success, Astarion gets away with it. Failure, vendor turns and catches him, arresting both or calling the guards to do so.
