Controlling the movement of characters in and out of combat

[WolfSpider]

It was touched upon in a much earlier thread of mine, but since the main theme was not about this in particular, I figured I would ask it out right and get the definitive answer.  Is there a way to control the other characters in your party?  Make one lead, other than the one you chose at the beginning or even outright leave the weaker ones behind on command, like in an RTS?  Being a shaman I am finding myself easily exploitable in battle, compared to say the warrior.  But I can not find a way to make him go first.  My shaman always leads.  This is not so bad until I start to want to explore and go for an unopened chest (And quite possibly a locked door, I can not remember.).  Then my entire party stays behind for some odd reason with their head in the sand, leaving my shaman completely by herself.  It's not so bad while in a peaceful area, but in dungeons or even just the outside world, it leaves her completely vulnerable for a few turns for the rest of my party to catch up due to the forced measured movement of the combat mode.  If next to an enemy combatant now I can not even retreat while waiting for the remainder of my allies to show up.  The quick solution is not to go for a chest with out first having the entire party not right up on it.  But that is easier said than done in my old ways of playing games.  😅

 

And in saying that, how does that actually work?  I want to take my warrior who is in no way shape or form surrounded and back track to cover a more vulnerable character, but he can only painstakingly move one grid square at a time, until the immediate danger he is in is eliminated.  No way to force it to move faster?  I guess I could use the bow in that instance, but still a little annoying.  It really becomes apparent when I just want to walk a few extra squares from where I am to get into a better position to fight off an enemy attacking a weaker character, like literally just walk across a tile or two, instead of around actually which can take several, but I am basically glued to the tile I am on and only allowed to go one over?  Is that going to be a constant thing or higher levels or abilities allows for more movement even when enemies are right next to you?  Thank you.

[googoogjoob]

There's a button on the character info panel that lets you move party members up and down in your party list, with whoever is first in the list walking ahead. I think your primary character is still the one who moves forward alone to open doors or chests, etc, so you just have to get all your party in position before opening a door that might have enemies behind it; since you always go first in combat you can then walk your primary character back from the door and set up your warrior in the gap before any enemies can get through.

 

Only being able to move one tile while adjacent to an enemy is a universal rule that never changes; however, there's a scarab that lets the wearer teleport to any visible tile (and sorceresses and shadowwalkers get teleport skills naturally). (Also, of course, the same rule applies to enemies, so they can't just run past your warrior to kill your weaker characters.)

[WolfSpider]

Ahhh… thank you. 😅 Not so much a visible button, as a grey looking short line of words of sorts.  Yes it does what I want now thank you.  At least when my warrior leads I do not worry as much, if I forget to not click next to the crate or door before attempting to click on it.  Old habits die hard.  😁  I find the same frustration simply wanting to go from my inventory to my abilities or someone else's inventory without having to shut down the one screen to get to the next.  Maybe I am just spoiled, but I sometimes curse under my breath as for the umpteenth I try to click on a box I am so used to normally opening in most other games, at least more modern ones anyway.  Although apparently the problem was not that I could not get to the other characters inventory from my inventory, but that me trying to click on their bag (inventory) would do nothing, but simply clicking on their portrait will do the trick.  Still can not get to the abilities screen without first shutting down the inventory one though.  🤔