I’ve never played an isometric RPG that didn’t feel better with turn-based combat, so it’s really neat to hear that Pillars of Eternity will be testing the more tactical option in the weeks ahead. It’ll hopefully be more intuitive for some players than the game’s existing “real-time with pause” combat, and get more people to check out where Obsidian Entertainment’s big fantasy series got its start.
Testing on the new mode will begin November 5 for the PC version of Pillars of Eternity, with plans to add it in a future patch. Game director Josh Sawyer called it a big undertaking in a video blog announcing the update, and said it was inspired by the positive reception to the addition of turn-based combat in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire back in 2019. That said, fans had criticism of the system which Sawyer said will be addressed for the version coming to the original Pillars.
“One of the major changes is that action economy is a lot more accurate to the real-time with pause game,” he said. “It’s not a one-to-one translation of time because we did try that. But it does match the spirit of what dexterity should do, what recovery time should do, everything like that. The number of turns you get to take per round is no longer tied to the round, but to your speed and recovery. That feels like it has much greater parity with the real-time with pause mode.”
To keep combat from feeling slow, lethality has been buffed so that fights aren’t super drawn out. Obsidian is also looking at a HUD toggle to let players swap combat modes on the fly, but there will be an option in the game settings menu that players can change at will either way. Fans are taking the news well and already demanding a sequel. “Please give this man the budget of BG3 to make the next Pillars,” one wrote on YouTube.
Pillars of Eternity might be an older game at this point but its universe is one that keeps getting carried forward, most recently with 2025’s great first-person action-RPG Avowed. The turn-based mode will make it easier for players to revisit where the fantasy world of Eora got its start. It would be nice if it eventually comes to the console version of the game as well.
