Alternatively, detect combat properly and have separate in-combat and out-of-combat modes. Incidentally, like Pillars of Eternity :-P

...and slow doesn't mean turn-based.

:)

Well... That's not really much of an argument, is it? Besides, it's not factually correct either - Pillars of Eternity doesn't utilize cooldowns (anymore) for example. There are many RPGs featuring magic without coodowns.

See, cooldowns are an attempt to balance spells. Mana points are also attempt to balance spells. Combining the two is utterly redundant and unnecessary if you design your system well enough - cooldowns are literally a way to fix a problem with a piece of duct tape instead of actually fixing it.

I agree Pillars of Eternity is great game and after playing BG, NWN and IWD; it seems a good progression. However, Baldurs Gate with mods for Widescreen etc (check the great guide) is a great game and I never played any D&D games until a few years ago.

I would just give a D&D game a go as you can get them for a steal in a sale and see what you think but it's worth checking for mods to improve the user experience. For example; boot up Baldurs Gate using the original engine and then using TuTu is such a great improvement.

I would not delve too deep in recommended build for a character etc as for me that takes the fun out of working it out for yourself and becomes a bit of a slog through otherwise great games.

I second Dragon Age Origins; very much enjoyed that even though I agree it had its flaws.

There are a couple alternative approaches as well:

1. Balance spells against physical attacks well. Physical attacks would work well against single enemies, with spells doing less damage, but capable of hitting multiple enemies, for example.

2. Decide that physical attacks are not going to be a primary means of combat. In this case, there would be no dedicated fighter characters, and everyone would be using spells all the time.

I should point out that there are some effects that simply can't be balanced without cooldowns or some other strong limitation. Romancing SaGa 2's Quicktime spell (appearing later in Romancing SaGa PS2 with the English name Hasten Time) is an example of a spell that pretty much needs a cooldown to be balanced at all; otherwise, the player can just cast it every round and the enemies will *never* get a chance to attack. (In both the games mentioned, it is actually quite easy to kill the final boss (in RS:MS, the strongest version) with this strategy, though in English RS:MS, you need to do some tricks to ensure that you don't run out of BP or Chalice DP.)

The difference between high charisma is better deals from shops and better rewards from guests (except for the classes who need high charisma ofcourse). Well, Imoen has 16 charisma and only the party leader effects the results so you personally dont have to have a high charisma to get better rewards. So for me its pretty useless if you are planning to take Imoen with you.

But ofcourse this is a Role playing game and you dont have to power your character. You may want to think that you are the leader of the party so you should have high charisma.

The pathfinding in Baldur's Gate drives me up the wall every time I play it, especially when in those narrow corridors in certain dungeons and warrens (don't want to spoil). But even in open terrain, it's frustrating to see characters in the party bump into each other and some running off in an entirely different direction for a round or two, when you just want to move the entire party from A to B.

Overall, however, I love the games and even the game engine, and especially the ruleset. Could never properly get into IWD2 because of the new rules, and had some of the same issue when playing NWN2. I've yet to complete both those games, and probably never will.