Why is ally NPC AI so stupid but enemy AI smart?

[The Seventh Son]

As the title says. Nothing really puts this on full display like the Moonrise assault fight. I'm watching the enemy AI do smart things, like cast hunger of Hadar then have the unit go hide. Then ally AI is just so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid. Zrell made 70% of the Harpers dropt heir weapons, AND THEY NEVER PICKED THEM BACK UP. Jaheira is capabel of healing, but she never heals herself. On the contrary, she healed my near full HP Wyl, then ran into range of the last enemy alive with 1 HP and of course got killed.

I've had so many moments of fighting the enemy AI and respecting their intelligence, how come allies don't get the same AI or treatment? Why are legendary characters idiots in combat? How come AI has -zero- self preservation on my side and when they will hide themselves and stay out of line of sight on the other side?

In short: What the ♥♥♥♥ Larian?

[Henry-NYC]

If Jaheria (being an active ally in combat) dies, consider it as a failure on the player's part. I would not blame the game AI for a player failure.

The "Assault" Moonrise Tower mission is not a convincing case for showing how good/bad the AI is for player allies. On the contrary, it should be part of the challenge for *the player* to keep these allies alive, regardless what they do or don't do (unless the player prefers to let them die).

Regardless how Jaheria performs in combat, if a player wishes to keep her alive (as a legit part of a mission to be carried out in a player's preferred way) but she is dead in the end, the player has just failed this part of the mission/challenge.

I would rather believe it is a deliberate decision on Larian's part not to make Jaheria smart in combat (had she been made smart, that would be equivalent to lowering the combat difficulty for the player once she joins in the same battle - a player can always lower the game difficulty by going to the game's option menu).

Additionally, by my experiences, all harpers in BG3 are very weak - more so than they were in BG2. For example, out of curiosity, I found out this: after all surviving Harpers turned "temporarily hostile" (after Moonrise Tower's ground floor was cleared), my 4 party members dashed and left the tower, leaving only summons behind for them to attack. They could not kill all my summons in a reasonable time. In the end, I found out: my Dryad (22HP), her own summon (40ish HP), a familiar (11HP), and an animated dead (only 1HP) were able to eliminate all 6 Harpers + Jaheria (a total of 7) by leading them upstairs to a Mistress of the Soul, thereby creating a 3-party dogfight. The last one standing = my Dryad. A Dryad (22HP, level 7) has no problem killing a couple of Harpers. Jaheria (level 8) could survive too, if she lost track of my Dryad and ceased to be hostile. The only way she could surely defeat my Dyrad was by using Ice Storm (she can cast it twice per battle prior to becoming a companion). Note: none of my summons was ordered to fight back against the Harpers/Jaheria until they were the only hostiles left.

Also, 3 companions (Shadowheart + Astarion + Karlach) are more than enough to kill Isobel + wipe out the entire Last Light, while making Jaheria to be the only hostile alive in the end (despite Jaheria turns hostile after my Dark Urge chooses to be honest, she does not attack my party or summons). My Dark Urge is not needed. Not even healing is needed.

All the above is on Tactician difficulty.

So, I would not expect Harpers/Jaheria (as allies) to help much in any battle. They merely serve as distractions. They are not there to remove the challenging nature of combat. It's okay to let them (all) die.

[Kaisha]

The AI is REALLY bad in this game, for both allies and enemies. It's so laughably bad it really makes me wonder who they hired over there for AI?

As for keeping Harpers/Gondonian's alive (the two hardest fights in the game BECAUSE the AI is so dumb), there's a few tricks.

I went the sleet storm route. Get some boots (like hoarfrost, etc...) on your melee's, then sleet storm everyone. They all fall down and do nothing giving you TONS of time to run around mopping enemies up. It's also absolutely hilarious.

Abusing darkness is another tactic.

A life cleric spamming her aoe heal can also keep the idiots up through black hole/hunger, again giving you time to work through the mass of enemies.

Another trick is to stack radiant orb gear on shart, cast spirit guardians + mobility pot/boots, and run her around so everyone gets a huge stack of radiant orb and can't hit anything.

[gungadin22000]

I'm reminded of Solasta. It has the option to turn the enemy AI ruthless, which basically means that it WILL push your characters into instakill chasms.

At every single opportunity, which is about half the fights in the game.

I play with this option turned off, but I respect the hell out of an AI capable of being just as much of a mechanics-exploiting ♥♥♥♥ as the player can be.

[Humpenstilzchen]

Yep sometimes the ai does weird things.

The funniest I have seen so far was at the ambush site in the shadow cursed land. A harper archer climbed down the ladder to ground level to shoot an arrow at a nearby target and then went back up again all in the same turn. It was baffling.

I also love it when a companion warns me of a trap and then steps right into it before I can react.

Or looting.. You stand right infront of a crate with some other crates next to it. You can literally touch the crate you want to loot and when you click on it your character starts walking around all of the other crates and then climbs over all of them and then ontop of the crate you wanted to loot. This drives me mad.

[Jdôvid]

The ncp just likes taking hits. Why else would they provoke an attack of opportunity on themselves just to go back in threatened range and do nothing?

[voldlifilm]

I agree. I really don't care for this game, and part of that is that the AI is just so dumb. They'll trigger traps, walk into noxious fumes and all that stuff. Combine that with the fights around every corner and traps all over the place the end result is a game that seems to actively try to be as tedious as possible.

[Mike]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.