I cannot comprehend how ANY of them think that it's fine to run away from a mob of 4 skeletons, incurring attacks of opportunity from all of them, to run across the map to hit a lone archer that poses no threat.

I've looked for AI replacements for the companions, but they all seem to be directed at issues that were "fixed" in some prior patch or for NPC idle actions.

I *like* the idea that they should be able to stab random dudes, but it seems like the *only* viable companions would simply be a pair of rocks, one that spammed Eldritch Blast at random targets (the warlock you get is too stupid to do that) and another that just spammed Mass Heal.

I don't remember them being this bad.

Am I stuck with having them in puppet mode for all of combat? I don't like that, as they won't even auto-attack.

I'd be happy if they'd just fixate on a single opponent until it's dead.

edit:
Oh! OH!!! AND YES! *PLEASE* run straight through three traps to get at that zombie that we haven't even agro'd yet WHEN YOU HAVE A BOW!

Well, there's the Tony_K AI mod on Neverwinter Vault, but as far as I can tell it only really makes them do a few things more intelligently (like switching between ranged and melee weapons) while not really fixing the existing issues.

Also, it clutters up your contest menus with garbage and offers some fairly unnecessary options in the characters' Behaviors tab. I uninstalled it for the clutter alone, but you might find some use out of it?

Like any decent CRPG you have to micro manage your party. This isn't Mass Effect.

[edit] Okay, that's a bit of a broad statement. In a lot of modern games you don't need to micro manage your party, but that just means that you have the difficulty too low. Similarly, in pretty much any RPG, even the Mass Effect games, you have to manage your party for opitimal effect. Since I play ME as an RPG instead of a shooter, I micromanage my party so far as to tell them what to shoot and where to stand with power usage turned off.

I think my great frustration from it comes because the Companions clearly *want* to help, but they just...

So... I ended up doing the Graveyard (after Fort Locke and before the Bandit Camp) with both Neeshka and the dwarf at 1 HP, zero CON and zero DEX, and diseased. They'd run into stuff, die, and I'd blast everything away myself. It was easier that way.

I contrast this with my memory of having played NWN2 years ago (before any of the expansions were out) and don't remember the frustration with them being so dumb.
I *also* contrast this with KOTOR where you float from person to person in a turn-based fashion, where I never had any of those problems.

It may also be relevant that I didn't like Secret of Mana or Chrono-Trigger very much because of the gameplay. I struggled through it to get to the story in SoM, but never got past the first parts of CT.

Thanks for your responses... I really need to vent about this. :)

Edit:
Why is ME an RPG? Wouldn't that make Dead Space an RPG? (That's rhetorical. Don't answer that.)

In my opinion, Tony K's AI mod almost makes the game too easy. Spell use is massively improved and in general I think that you can almost avoid micro-management entirely if you compose your party well. But that only highlights another problem - that NWN2 does not have very good combat.

If you're using the AI and not controlling them directly, then give them general standing orders with the "voice commands". The voice command menu items "Hold", "Attack", "Follow me", "guard me", and maybe also "Heal me" are what you want to switch between. If there's a trap, tell them to Hold, so you can disarm it, or send your rogue to do it. If you don't want them running off to attack everything, tell them "follow me". Etc.

You can also drag those commands onto your hotbars, and assign keys to them, but I usually do it by hitting the shortcut keys in sequence, like V-W-E.

Yeah. My main issue is that with AI off they don't even follow you or auto-attack, they just stand there. It means I have to constantly turn AI on and off, which is annoying.

I've played the original campaign through twice and gotten to part 2 on two other occasions. The AI always breaks on me when I am doing either the warehouse mission or a manor mission in Blacklake (can't remember which). It just dies and my companions refuse to move at all.

Best thing to do is turn on puppet mode from the start and never look back. You get used to the micromanagement pretty quickly, and battles you win feel like more of an accomplishment.

Leaving you to deal with the real asshole in the game, the camera.

I agree with you, turn puppet mode on, and learn to manage the party independently. I really got tired of getting a fireball thrown into the middle of the group, against 1 enemy, or the caster going hand to hand melee combat.

Alternatively, if you want to use the AI, then set your caster not to use "overkill" casting mode (overkill is default) in that character's character sheet (in the "behavior" tab). "Scaled casting" tells the caster to use spells according to the level of threat of the encounter.

Also, either set her behavior to "disable melee attacks", or give her a ranged weapon, like a crossbow, so she will stay at range even if she runs out of spells, and not run into melee range.

There are a lot more options there for controlling what your individual party members do. Set each one to your liking, and try the voice commands.

Or, puppet mode, but I personally prefer using the AI.

Yeah if you set Tony_Ks AI up properly its one of the best companion AIs out there. You pretty much only have to order them to use strong spells since scaled casting is a little bit to defensive.

Even with tonyk, its better to let the AI control the non casters while you manage the casters manually on difficult fights.

On easier fights I actually find tonyk adequate and control the fighter to minimize tedium as the AI handles all the spells (and thank god, the buffing... manual buffing is boring)

For the record, I'm not using Tony K's AI mod, aside from the parts of it that were incorporated into the official game through Storm of Zehir. The options I mentioned (and more) are in the normal game.

Use Tony K's AI. The clutter is worth it and sometimes even useful.