Used: Contingency

I will preface this suggestion with the acknowledgement that I have no clue or idea
if it would even be possible to implement thri the scripting engine...

With timestop disabled, as well as the player pause function, in combat one
is forced to rely on the default player AI to act in one's stead during the
decision making process, or during phases where the player is clicking various
interface objects to provide input for this character to act on.... and often,
the only thing the AI handles well is melee combat.

I find that as a spellcaster, this is my undoing many times when
I have the resources needed to deal with an issue, but the process
and time needed to give the game the correct input to
utilize those resources is too lengthy and results in my defeat.

In the single player game, this could be easily dealt with by the
pause function, or a quicklotted scroll of timestop, or a spell
sequencer'ed time stop.

If a caster were able to access a dialogue to set a predetermined spell
to fire under a predetermined circumstance (perhaps chosen by
a dialogue menu), this migth alleviate part of the issue...

Yes, something to consider. I'll have to see what's possible.

Thinking about it some more... some things occurred to me...


I know that the Baldur's Gate series had a contingency spell script, and it used the
Infinity Engine.... but the spells worked differently in 2E, as did most of the combat system...

I do know that there was a menu to select from a small number of
circumstances or events that the player could select when casting
Contingency, and that the player could put any spell that could target them
into the contingency trigger...

I would have to load up the old game to see what the trigger choices
are... but i know there were options for 75%, 50%, and 25% remaining
hps.... i think there was also one to trigger upon entering combat...
I cant remember if there were others... but it strikes me that
the scripting engine must still be able to handle these sorts of
things, as NPC spellcasters have spellscripts that do much
the same thing... ie. cast protectives immediately upon entering combat (instacast
like a spell sequencer), and also use spells or items to escape or heal when
reduced to a certain amount of health...

Check here for a little something...