I don't know if this has bothered anyone else or maybe I'm in the vast minority in regards to this but it can be a pain to control the entire party when going down corridors and opening doors. A lot of times I'll have my wizard ending up somehow in the front of the party when opening a door and entering combat even though he's listed on my formation as being in the back. Other times I'll try to line my party up outside a door before entering and one of the characters will end up opening the door and entering combat. Personally, I wish the party would just WALK (not run) down a corridor in the formation that they're supposed to be in (for example, 2 side by side). I guess there is no way to fix this? Maybe I'm the only one this bothers. It's a minor annoyance to an otherwise excellent game.
No I am with you and have to be careful as you explore indoor locations. Heck, even outdoors if you are not careful, as different characters will move at different speeds. If your not wary, when you go after the Giant in Emridy, your arcane guys are at the front. Ig the Giant and the Bear get initiative, you may well have a flattened wiz splattered all over. The thing that is also a pain is when you are careful, have the group all lined up and open a door, the initiative order can screw you over. Get a Temple Bugbear with a great sword or polearm charging in while berserk, and you may have a toasted character on your hands.
Well, I have experiencing this more than once too; this and sometimes a stop to let someone that have left behind 'cose of short legs... I solved this in a simple way: My spellcasters and archers are just smaller than the other warband members! Elven archers smaller than the beggining height, spellcasters being Gnomes (and a halfling, once, but those things are TOO smalls!), and the rest of the troop - the frontliners - as tall as possible for their race. This makes the things run more properly about the formation thing, but I always keep an eye in who is running in the front of the warband, anyway.
After about 20 play throughs under many different mod versions and different character combinations, I have found out a couple of things regarding party movement and formations. First, the party order at the bottom of the screen means nothing vs the formation, except when changing screens! Even numbered characters appear on the edges of a "+" formation, if possible based on the area you end up in, if it has room for you to form the cross. Like exiting the moathouse from the secret back door or coming off the world map, like at the river north of Nulb. So putting your weaker characters in odd numbered slots, usually keeps them toward the middle. My usual formation for most of the game is 3 melee-ers in a row across the front line, mostly with big hitters on the flanks and a secondary hitter, like a cleric, ranger, or rogue in the middle on the line, backed up by arcane casters in the middle of the pack who are usually flanked by characters using reach weapons, with the back row of rogues or rangers using ranged weapons. Goes something like this: X X X (Fighter, Cleric, Barbarian) X X (Wizard, Druid or Cleric using longspear) X X X (Rogue, bard, or ranger using bows, animal companion-in the back to keep him out of trouble) But when you hit the temple and its narrow corridors (and sometimes in the moathouse) this doesn't work and the formation gets jumbled and your squishies end up at the front-but not for all the reasons you think. First I change the formation to something like this: XX (Frontliners-2 spaces ahead of everyone else) XXX(everyone else who uses a weapon) XXX(spell casters and missile weapons) But this only works if everyone's movement rate is the same! Here are the problems i've faced-first off most animal companions are much faster than people, so they run ahead and get into trouble. Even a pure druid with improved summoning has animal companions who can't survive encounters after level 8 or 9. I have to waste too many spells-stoneskin, mage armor, magic fang, to keep them alive and remain a valuable member of the party. Heck I sometimes just drop them in favor of a charmed or dominated monster-a troll need very little baby sitting and heals on his own and hits hard against everyone. Secondly, later in the game you may have your frontline fighters and clerics in heavy armor, or at least someone is using Lareth's breastplate. Movement is hampered in some medium and most heavy armors-20 vs 30 in light or medium armor. I have found keeping everyone in light armor helps all around-they keep their speed up and become encumbered less often. There are plenty of great light armors in the game to spread out among the party-3 different elven chains, chain shirts, mitral chain shirts, add in some great shields or bucklers and you can achieve good AC numbers without going full plate. Especially if you give everyone a decent DEX score, why wear full plate if you have a 14 DEX with a +2 to AC, except when wearing armor with limits to DEX scores. So if everyone has the same speed numbers, they will usually stay in formation, unless you have barbarians and monks, who screw up the formation.
Well speaking of halflings, it is true they are tiny. Especially when you make them as small as possible, them arm them with large weapons like a long bastard sword or a heavy crossbow. Makes for a funny picture as they trot along or charge into battle. I know it is a total munchkin feat, but I wish TOEE allowed Monkey Grip and watch a hobbit weilding a glaive or zweihander. Or just two Bastard swords at the same time.
I gave my halfling rogue a level in Barbarian just for the fast movment so he could keep up. Well it doesn't work! He still lags behind, even behind my heavily armored cleric. I do love raging and charging with him though, it's pretty funny.
