Slimjimjohnson

I always hated how you could do unlimited resting in other games. It made wizards too powerful and every battle was just an alpha strike away with your strongest spells until the next rest.

I have no issues controlling six party members in real time with pause. Maybe you should break your cherry on some of the total war games. This system is very similar to the ie systems imo and they all play rather similar. This style of game doesn't appeal to you possibly. It doesn't mean it's bad.

I had trouble with them when I first started. The scripted party members suck. After watching a few of sensukis videos and playing the game for about 13 hrs I got a better handle on the mechanics and strategy. I play on hard and I took the temple of eothis with my pc at lvl3 and my mad party members at lvl2. Basically rogue with arbalest and a monk destroys shades. Get that sneak attack on a shade and throw the monk at them. Tie everything else up with tanks and destroy them with mage arcane encounter ability. Kill shades first they are priority number one!

There is an option you can tick off in combat options that makes your characters not move in combat without your input. I don't use it myself and still have no problems maintaing choke points. I have one gripe about the game and it's not really a gripe. I have the game set to autopause when a characters endurance gets low but when I summon something with my chanter it pauses when the summon has low health too. That's annoying lol

My rogue has a fine arbalest. Stealth up blind shot biggest baddest dude. Sliver of hp left and blind. I love it

My barb has 12 con 9 perception 9 resolve 17 might 16 dex 16 intellect (I'm doing this off the top of my head so numbers might be off by one) He wears no armor just runs around naked and he is a two hander. He's pretty awesome and drops things super fast. Just don't let him engage until my two tanks have everyone locked up

Clear out the main hall first. Then have your characters chill in the doorway your tanks on each side in front durance aloth and the chanter behind. Go talk to raedric with your pc. Then run away at start of combat between your tanks. Bottle neck them at the door and focus fire on the priests and archmage first. I did this on hard with a rogue pc at lvl 3 the companions you can find up to that point and a customised barbarian two hander

There are shades which are level five and shadows which are level one. Shades can summon shadows. Kill them first.