RtwP worked for the BG series because basically all the physical damage characters were right-click and forget. Yeah, you could do tricks with rangers, paladins, w/e, but face it, the only classes worth controlling in detail were dedicated spellcasters, so that you were basically microing 1-2 characters while the others auto attacked. In fact, it was even easier than that, because the spell limitations in D&D forced you to use spells sparingly, so even though you were microing the spellcasters, at the end of the day all you actually want to do is cast 2-3 spells per character per fight. The actions/minute were low.
I remember the way I played through BG was that I'd pause-buff whatever buffs I need, then I'd send all my guys on a target, then I'd pause the game, click the mage, set up spells I wanted to be cast, then click the cleric, set up the spells I wanted to be cast, and then unpause and watch the fireworks. At times, I didn't even need to pause because I'd cast so few spells after buffing that it isn't even worth it. RtwP worked for BG because of how little you actually needed to do to win fights. Indeed, for power gamers who knew how to build overpowered characters, 80-90% of the game could be completed with 1 fighter dual wielding Cromfaeyr and Flail of Ages with the proper buffs from his caster supports. Indeed, I remember spending a decent chunk of the game just sending in my one fighter guy with boots of speed, -10 ac, and multiple immunities demolishing all in his path.
Coming back to PoE: the issue with PoE is that there are too many abilities for RtwP to work. RtwP was designed for a low actions/minute game, in which you didn't need to do a lot to begin with. PoE, however, loads you with per-combat abilities for every class, such that even though there wasn't a lot of diversity in skills, you still ended up wanting to queue up 3-6 actions every round off the bat. For such a system, you'd rather have TB, because otherwise you'd be pausing every round anyhow, in which case, you're getting the worst of both worlds - no laziness benefit from RtwP, and no combat nuisances from TB.
I was trying to remember what exactly Activision did to royally fuck up the release of Bloodlines.
