Sneaking is op because you can start a battle with a sneak attack from Astarion and then the combat tracker is just Astarion and the enemies that saw him, or maybe only the little pillar of light that shows up.
Once Astarion gets locked into the combat tracker you can still maneuver everyone else around the enemies sight lines and get a few more alpha strikes in outside of the combat tracker. My paladin – in full plate – can walk right up to an enemy that’s frozen in the combat tracker as long as he doesn’t walk into the sight cone.
I beat dror, m, and gut in the goblin camp all without any of them taking any turns because I was able to alpha strike them into the dirt by just starting combat with the whole party sneaking, and then walking them right up outside of the combat tracker.
Is there a party that can really exploit this? Ranger, wolf barb, shadowharts +10 party sneak, and an assassin rogue? Just alpha strike everything.
And here I always thought combat was proximity based, not just sight based. Is it really the case that party members remain out of combat until they are seen or choose to engage?
Setting the combat tracker to be based on proximity to engaged friends/foes seems like the simplest solution.
Anyone far enough from combat doesn’t get pulled in. Anyone in hiding as long as they aren’t in sight lines won’t get pulled into combat. If they are in sight they have to pass a stealth check to remain hidden. Anytime they move they’ll have to pass a check as well to remain hidden. You can abuse this during the Cazador fight to keep Astarion from being sacrificed. Leave him at the door and start the fight with Cazador then bring Astarion down to the fight. Cazador won’t sacrifice Astarion.
Works even better with invisibility. You can waltz right through the middle of an ongoing battle and assassinate that hard to reach mage in the back.