I just finished my play-through of the game with turn based-mod (TB). It took me about 200h hours

I just couldn’t stand the game with RTWP (real time with pause).

The whole play-through was done with challenging difficulty. I tried with unfair first, but I can’t seem to be able to get through act 1 and I don’t see the point of trying until I get through. I think it may be less of a problem later on with more levels and more tools to deal with the encounters, but the penalties to hit just means all the fights would take longer. It may not be so much of a problem with RTWP, but each fight is already much longer with TB on, so it just means it gets even more time consuming.

A few things to take into consideration when playing with TB mod on :

Interface gets in the way. If an action is selected by default (it gets a green shining border), it means when left clicking an enemy, the character just tries that. That’s how I tried to cast freedom of movement on a wild hunt archer once. It’s only useful for magus to get spell combat by default.

* Pathfinding is problematic (duh!) : most of the time, it is possible to use the charge action even when no straight line exists. Sometimes it should be possible to charge but the charge action is not allowed for reasons unknowable. Sometimes the charge action is possible but when charging the character just seems to run around trying to find a way to get to melee, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not (and losing its round, and getting a lot of AoO in the way). So most of the time when there is a doubt, it is better to just move and attack, if possible (losing the +2 bonus of the charge).

* 5-feet steps : it’s really a god-send for TB. Always enable it before making a full-round attack or you risk losing most of your attacks. I think the game decides that if you move only a little, it counts as a 5-feet step for AoO, but even moving a little bit consumes your move action and prevents a “full-round attack” action.

* When using an attack spell that requires touch, if the attack fails, the spell is not lost : it can still be used in the next round, there is now a corresponding icon in the center panel.

* If the character is not able to act despite still having actions, it means you may have selected another character by mistake (or because of the interface). Just reselect the character which is playing its round.

* when using enlarge/legendary/righteous might, the character gets much bigger, and its hitbox is even larger, meaning that it gets really hard to select anything else near them. It may not be an issue with RTWP, but it is really annoying with TB.


Many thanks to InEffect for his excellent guides, it was a great help as it prevented a lot of frustration.

Early-game on unfair is hard for more reasons than one and would be almost impossible in TB cause you'd lose initiative a lot and be murdered for it. A lot. Surprise rounds would help, but not so much as to negate the problem. Yep. Less of a problem with RTwP, no surprise there. Both cause 1 round matters little for it and cause it's easy to hit pause and manually correct if something weird is happening. Hold Ctrl. That'll do it. For movement that is. Targeting enemies might be a bit fiddly, but usually is not an issue. Thanks!

I'd mention a small thing, just as an FYI that is probably well known, but I found it by accident.

5' step can be put on the right button of the mouse. It's just a small thing, but when you use it allot it helps allot.