I'm confused about skills such as "Hold the Line"

[Jarilo]

Anywhere to get a good explanation on this? it says to get an extra engagement? I don't remember any kind of engagement things in BG1 and on, I remember combat agro to get more character to attack your fightter. I'm guessing that's the same thing renamed ?

[Pimpollo]

more or less. he has an ability that grants him one more engagement, plus hold the line would make 3. it's super handy.

[Jarilo]

But how does it work? it's so vague. Do they have to be near him? what if they are attacking my wizard already? What's really the benefit of this? thanks

[Flo]

Enemies engaged with a character will take attacks of opportunity if they try to move away from him. So usually enemies won't leave a character they are engaged with.
They can attack anyone in attack range, though. Engaging just means they won't move away from the character they are engaged with.

Hold the line allows you to engage one more enemy at the same time (to a total of 3 I think? or 4?)

[Tza]

That's the green lines coming from your guys during a fight (and the red ones coming from your enemies). That's basically enemy lock-on + attack of opportunity if movement.
So things like Hold the line and the defensive aura thingy that gives +engagement are pretty good for a tanky character.

[Planeforger]

Engagement is a way of 'locking' enemies to your melee fighters, punishable by high damage if they move away.

Whenever your melee guys attack enemies, they'll engage their target and 1-2 nearby enemies (symbolised by the lines between characters).

The AI will usually not break engagement, so it's a great way of keeping enemies away from your casters.

Also, your party's AI will try to avoid breaking engagment as well - so if you're running away and the enemy catches up to you, you'll stop and fight them by default (unless uou specifically order the party member to break engagement and run away again).

[Jarilo]

Huh, I never noticed any lines connecting characters. I'll play with it and see how it works, thanks for the help guys.

[StaleMarshmallow]

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Melee_Engagement

This wiki page covers the engagement mechanics pretty well

[HozzMidnight]

A lot of people run down the engagement system/mechanic but its far superior to the way the IE games handled zone of control/engagement, which was not at all.

Also, the AI seems to hold being engaged as a fundamental truth. I have not seen an enemy break engagement. So anything you can do to increase the engagement limit on your tank is a good choice.

[PoohPus]

The last point is wrong. The AI will break engagement with impunity under the right conditions. For me those conditions have included caster classes, and especially if they have low DR and deflection. This becomes frustrating when your tank is build for survival so much he doesen't deal meaningful damage (I.E. carries a shield).

[Skeena]

You cannot send in 1 character to block every enemy(unless it is a door), this lets them take on 3 at once. I have it on 2 of my guys and sending them in first works pretty well.

[Matthew]

From what I can tell, the enemy will break engagement if it is scripted to do so (shades) or if you are close near by and have lower defenses than what it is currently engaging. Though that is more just switching targets than a conscious move.

In most other cases, if something is engaged and you are like ~2 meters or more away, you seem to be safe.

Also a tip: If something is running towards your back line and one of your tanks is already engaged, don't be afraid to manually click to intercept. The free attack is a minor hit on a tank, and you are far far worse off having something sneak by and start sniping your back line than a tank taking a free hit or two.

Another tip: If you have a back line getting beat on, try and cast defensive spells instead of running. For example rogues have a move that allows them to teleport a short ways with zero engagement hit.