I like the idea of playing these RPG games but can’t stand the combat. This is why Disco Elysium is my favourite game of all time. It had RPG elements, great story, narration, dialogue and voice acting and wasn’t bogged down by a combat system I didn’t like.
I have tried Divinity I and II, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, Pillars of Eternity. I left them at some point because I did not enjoy the combat one bit. With Pathfinder I even tried story mode to trivialise the combat but since the combat is such a big part of the game, I didn’t enjoy it even then.
If anyone here has played Baldur’s Gate 3 please let me know of your experience. Even if I end up not liking it I would really like to hear what you all think of it.
If you like role-playing games but not so much the combat maybe check out Age of Decadence and Colony Ship by Iron Tower. The combat in those games is intentionally brutal to incentivise thinking ways around it if you can, and I’m pretty sure you can make it through the whole game avoiding combat entirely.
Age of Decadence especially is complete and has many branching paths depending on your build, and Colony Ship is still early access but planning on releasing fully later this year.
The settings are pretty awesome for both, with AoD set in a post apocalyptic land with tech analogous to the late Roman Empire, and Colony Ship being set sometime during a centuries long generation ship voyage.
Great suggestions. Thanks very much.