Stupid question

[Aleddra]

But how should i use spells or abilities?

I see them listed and i can use them, but do i have to micromanage them in combat? I would rather not play in turn mode, but i'm not sure how this is supposed to work. I noticed it... does something when i Rclick an ability like charge. But it doesn't seem to auto charge.

I'm used to Dragon Age where there's an AI using them. I'm guessing this is more D&D style.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Aleddra:

But how should i use spells or abilities?

I see them listed and i can use them, but do i have to micromanage them in combat? I would rather not play in turn mode, but i'm not sure how this is supposed to work. I noticed it... does something when i Rclick an ability like charge. But it doesn't seem to auto charge.

I'm used to Dragon Age where there's an AI using them. I'm guessing this is more D&D style.

That is no stupid question.

In general it is as you assumed. More or less micromanagement while using pause during battles.

But you can also set spells as cantrip casting to make it easier. E.g. you want your character to throw Controlled Fireballs multiple times without caring for accuracy: right click on the spell, it gets auto cast.

But aside of that the AI cannot make independent choices which spell to use when.

[Aleddra]

Thanks

[Gregorovitch]

Generally speaking you can't afford to spam your main per-rest spells willy-nilly, you need to save them for when they are really needed, nor can the game AI realistically choose the correct spell and target for the myriad of combat situations you encounter.

For caster it is normal to assign a cantrip, which you can spam infinitely, to auto-cast. A typical position is therefore that your caster will plink away with a cantrip until you decide that a specific spell cast on a specific target or position is required and issue your caster with a manual order. After they've cast it they'll go back to plinking away with their cantrip automaitically.

You can also use auto-cast in difficult battles to deal with boss enemies. For example if your caster is loaded with Snowballs or Scorching Rays you can temporarily assign such a spell to auto-cast and select the boss as target. Your caster will then repeat the attack automatically. You have to remember to de-activate the auto-cast when it's no longer needed.

[Dixon Sider]

The best way to learn how to do things is to go and do it. Charge is a very particular skill and not like anything else. You can not have any obstacles in between you and your target. If you auto cast charge (sometimes an excellent idea) then your character will stand there and wait until your GCD fills up.

As far as spells go, you will end up auto casting them later once you get 12 casts per spell level per rest.

In Dragon Age, you have that abysmal "programming" feature that only does boolean logic. It is impossible to implement input validation. There is no "if" "while" or "try" conditions, so your left killing your own teammates with aoe and wasting spells constantly. Its a cool concept, but it has never been implemented well. I would love to see a game that lets us actually program our companions.

[seeker1]

The AI in Dragon Age let you set what kind of spellcasting you wanted them to do. "Controller" meant (for example) focus on control spells, "Healer" to focus on healing. It wasn't more sophisticated than that. Personally, I thought the default spellcasting AI was meh. However, modders came up with scripts that were better. I used those. Also, BTW, you could go in and edit the scripts too. It beats nothing.

It also let you set very basic behavior for fighters. "Offensive" - go after everything in sight. "Defensive" - focus on protecting themselves and the party. It beats ... nothing. Again, modders added more options.

At the end of the day, of course, it usually came down for me to letting spellcasters follow those scripts in fairly routine encounters, but taking charge when tougher encounters showed up. I wouldn't expect any different in any game. AoEs and things that need to be targeted, need to be targeted. If it's a zap a target, and zap nearest, well that are most of the WoTR auto-cantrips.

Look, scripting is what it is. Telling your healer to heal if anybody's hp falls below a certain threshold, ... well, that's what you want them to do ... no? I found they did it pretty reliably and kept the party alive. And the AI could always be over-ridden, sorta like your Tesla AI car, the driver can jump on and take over at any point. That's good.

I doubt there will ever be a spellcasting AI you can just leave on autopilot the whole game. "Once in a while" is satisfactory. WorR has close to zero, an option to use consumables that doesn't seem to be doing much, and you can pick one spell or cantrip and keep using it over and over, but ... eh, as always, could be better.

[dwarner]

Originally posted by Aleddra:

But how should i use spells or abilities?

I see them listed and i can use them, but do i have to micromanage them in combat? I would rather not play in turn mode, but i'm not sure how this is supposed to work. I noticed it... does something when i Rclick an ability like charge. But it doesn't seem to auto charge.

I'm used to Dragon Age where there's an AI using them. I'm guessing this is more D&D style.

You can use RTwP and the v button to choose an action each turn when the timer comes up. If you don’t enjoy doing that this probably isn’t the game for you outside story mode.

[seeker1]

Do you have to hold the v key and keep holding it, press it repeatedly ... do I have to hit v before I unpause ... after ... ?

Eh, I've seen this said, and never tried it, I play on RTwP and just hope the new action I'm choosing didn't over-ride the last one that hasn't finished. It's SO why I wish there was an action queue.

Maybe the V key will spare me from this constant ... annoyance ... but again ... tap repeatedly? Hold? How exactly does it work ... I've now seen this mentioned several times, and I did three playthroughs without using it.

Maybe I should have, so I want exact clarity about it.

Maybe I too am "stupid" in asking this question, but I didn't know you could do this before seeing it mentioned here on the forums. Now I just wanna know exactly how it works.

[dwarner]

Originally posted by seeker1:

Do you have to hold the v key and keep holding it, press it repeatedly ... do I have to hit v before I unpause ... after ... ?

Eh, I've seen this said, and never tried it, I play on RTwP and just hope the new action I'm choosing didn't over-ride the last one that hasn't finished. It's SO why I wish there was an action queue.

Maybe the V key will spare me from this constant ... annoyance ... but again ... tap repeatedly? Hold? How exactly does it work ... I've now seen this mentioned several times, and I did three playthroughs without using it.

Maybe I should have, so I want exact clarity about it.

Try it.

[seeker1]

That's cool. An answer would also be nice.

Found the answer.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_Kingmaker/comments/potq1j/psa_you_can_hold_v_to_slow_down_rtwp/

Press and hold, it slows down passage of time in RT by half.

Don't know if it totally solves my issue. But good to know.

What I really would like is being able to select an action without it over-riding a previous one when that wasn't what I wanted to do.

Still seems no better solution to that than an action queue.

[Dixon Sider]

Originally posted by seeker1:

That's cool. An answer would also be nice.

You got an answer equal to the effort you put in to figuring it out yourself.

V is incredibly useful. I tap it normally but you can hold it if you want to continue in slow motion.

[seeker1]

Originally posted by Dixon Sider:

You got an answer equal to the effort you put in to figuring it out yourself.

Absolutely understood. Every question could be answered here with "try it yourself" or "figure it out for yourself". Wouldn't seem terribly friendly, but then what do I know.

V is incredibly useful. I tap it normally but you can hold it if you want to continue in slow motion.

Thanks. If I go do another playthrough, I'm gonna try it.

[Aleddra]

"RTwP" is the turn based mode? I might have to try that. I don't know what's going on and then i lose 1 or 2 character.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Aleddra:

"RTwP" is the turn based mode? I might have to try that. I don't know what's going on and then i lose 1 or 2 character.

"RTwP" = Real Time with Pause

You could use a semi-real time by turning the option on which pause every six seconds during combat ~

[seeker1]

There are a lot of auto pause options you can set. I don't find many of those criteria all that useful. The game will ALWAYS pause when an enemy sees you (though I think that default too can be turned off.)

But I like to pause, and I let my own neural network decide when to hit it, which is often. Survey the situation, figure out which new "orders" I need to issue, and/or who can "just keep at it".

The turn based mode you turn on with what looks like the rook or the T key. In that mode, all enemies, and all of your party, each take turns, round-robin, based on initiative.

You can freely switch back and forth.

BTW, I agree with my Kanji friend, there are no stupid questions, people should be forgiving about people not knowing what they don't know. Some things are obvious if you played Kingmaker, I think. I didn't. Etc.

[Aleddra]

I changed it to turn based. I, understand what is going on a lot better.