ussnorway: no in this case it does mean not happening... the game engine is basically the same as Ds1 and Ds2 which is not designed for what you are calling 'real time with pause' so what you want would need a much bigger rewright than a simple patch job
multiplayer over the internet doesn't like pause systems and Larian is not making a single player [offline only] game because Wizards of the coast don't want that... WoC are backing this project i.e, paying the bills so its not happening mate
Multiplayer is not representative of the majority of players who will play the game (Steam charts 93,350
all-time peak for DoS 2... the game sold millions of copies)... so unless Larian state that pause and play cannot be implemented, it is still a possibility albeit small (hell even PoE 2 was able to retro fit turn based).
edit the Pillars engine was not an old Infinity Engine, where on earth did you read that? it was built with the Unity engine.