History ArtificialStupidity / RPG

** Though greatly improved from previous games, NPC AI still has its issues. Friendly [=NPCs=] still like to charge into melee combat against superior opponents, including ''dragons'' (the ridiculousness of which is lampooned in [[http://cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/75/75179.jpg this comic]]), occasionally getting in the way of your own attacks. It's terribly disheartening to accidentally murder your own party member while aiming for a bandit.

* Mages in the ''Franchise/BaldursGate'' games don't play well with allies, freely dropping fireballs and meteor swarms on them. And then there's Gate, which summons a powerful demon. They do have the sense to cast protection from evil to stop it attacking them. However, because it still qualifies as an enemy, they'll attack it. Sometimes it's possible to just move away and let the two of them get on with, then move back in once the mage has expanded a bunch of their spells killing the thing it just summoned.

* In ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' the computer is unable to predict whether it will be able to fire on one of your units with a given one of its, it will therefore spend actions moving units backwards and forwards along the same path every turn to no effect. Similarly, they also have an unusual tendency to rush troops straight into certain death, possibly for want of any other move.
* Because of ''VideoGame/VandalHearts2'''s unique turn-based system - where moving each friendly unit is accompanied by the AI opponent moving one of theirs simultaneously - a considerable portion of the strategy involves outsmarting the predictable [=AI=], such as moving a character to attack an empty region safe in the knowledge that the computer will move an enemy unit straight into it.

* Wild Ghost-type Pokémon love the use the move Curse at the wrong time. Curse is a unique Ghost-type status move that works differently based on the user's type. If a Ghost-type uses Curse, it sacrifices 50% of the its maximum HP to inflict a curse on the opponent that [[DamageOverTime automatically drains 25% of its max HP every turn they stay in battle]]. While this can be a useful effect in longer battles or when fighting trainers, the AI does not account for how much HP the user has before choosing Curse. Wild Ghost-types with Curse tend to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard take themselves out instead of your Pokémon]] by using the move when their at or below that 50% HP threshold.

** Also in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'', the Earthen Peak area is full of jars containing really strong poison. It is also full of big, beefy hollows with [[DropTheHammer enormous hammers]], who just blunder towards the Bearer of the Curse regardless of whether these jars are in the way or not; they are ''not'' immune to the poison and will generally die fairly quickly, since poison in DSII is pretty nasty. To be fair, it ''is'' appropriate for a hollow, a mindless zombie in all but name, to behave in a stupid fashion.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'', boss Trainers always save their ace for last and Terastalize it for the climactic finish. What Pokémon does Geeta, the Top Champion of Paldea, use as her ace? ''Glimmora''. A Pokémon ''explicitly designed'' to be sent out ''first'', as its Toxic Debris ability sets up Toxic Spikes when it gets hit by a physical attack. Additionally, she also has a Kingambit on her team, a Pokémon designed to be saved for last due to its Supreme Overlord ability giving it a power boost for every fainted Pokémon on her team. She typically sends it out about halfway through the battle, which still gives it a boost, just not as big of a boost as it could have gotten. She smartens up a bit for her rematch in ''The Indigo Disk'' -- she now sends out Glimmora first and Kingambit last, with a Tera type that removes its biggest weakness to boot.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'', boss Trainers always save their ace for last and Terastalize it for the climactic finish. What Pokémon does Geeta, the Top Champion of Paldea, use as her ace? ''Glimmora''. A Pokémon ''explicitly designed'' to be sent out ''first'', as its Toxic Debris ability sets up Toxic Spikes when it gets hit by a physical attack. Additionally, she also has a Kingambit on her team, a Pokémon designed to be saved for last due to its Supreme Overlord ability giving it a power boost for every fainted Pokémon on her team. She typically sends it out about halfway through the battle, which still gives it a boost, just not as big of a boost as it could have gotten.

** AI-controlled Calculators can be frustrating. The bonus to letting the AI control Calculators is the AI is usually good at maximizing the damage dealt every turn. However, there are two problems. One, the AI will prioritize hitting more enemies for higher total damage rather than making sure the strongest enemy/enemies get damages. Two, the AI is willing to let one or two allies get hit so long as most/all of the enemy team gets hit.

** In ''Tactics Advance'', AI-controlled archers will frequently waste their turns shooting at enemy units who have the Block Arrows ability. This isn't limited to enemy archers, either. Ally archers, such as Shara, will do the same thing.

** When one of your party member gets KO'd, the rest of your allies would rush to revive and cure said member, only for that newly-revived ally to get KO'd by enemy again. They'll basically waste more turns and items on reviving the ally instead of dealing with the enemy, especially when the enemy can be easily defeated.

* ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'': The boss Barbarossa has two special attacks: Shell Split (which lowers your defense) and Double Damage (which causes you to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin take double damage]]). These two moves are deadly when used on one enemy, but his AI doesn't realize this; more often than not, it will use Shell Split on one party member and Double Damage on another, which is far less effective.
* In the second battle against Aimee and Angelo in ''Videogame/BravelySecond'', they will bombard your party with Fire-based attacks after Angelo uses an ability that makes the party weak to them. However, they will continue to do so even after you set up a buff that reflects all Fire-based attacks right back at the user. You can even buff their attack power so that they hit themselves harder. In all fairness, Fire is Angelo's only source of elemental damage, but Aimee has no excuse as she has access to all elements.

* ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'': The boss Barbarossa has two debuffs: Shell Split (which lowers your defense) and Double Damage (which causes you to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin take double damage]]). These two debuffs are deadly when used together, but his AI doesn't realize this; more often than not, it will use Shell Split on one party member and Double Damage on another, which is far less effective.

* Wild Ghost-type Pokémon love the use the move Curse at the wrong time. Curse is a unique Ghost-type status move that works differently based on the user's type. If a Ghost-type uses Curse, it sacrifices 50% of the its maximum HP to inflict a curse on the opponent that [[DamageOverTime automatically drains 25% of its max HP every turn they stay in battle]]. While this can be a useful effect in longer battles or when fighting trainers, the AI does not account for how much HP the user has before choosing Curse. Wild Ghost-types with Curse tend to[[HoistByHisOwnPetard take themselves out instead of your Pokémon]] by using the move when their at or below that 50% HP threshold.

*** This is the standard method of beating the final boss of fan-made game ''VideoGame/PokemonUranium''. Its Nuclear-type moves will crush just about anything except for Nuclear and Steel pokemon, and its Overheat move will devastate either of those two types. However, by swapping back and forth between a nuclear-resistant or immune mon (eg Hazma), and a fire-resistant mon (eg Pajay with the Flash Fire ability), you can make the boss waste its moves -- and as a bonus, Overheat will rapidly erode its own stats.
** After confusing your Pokémon, enemies will continue to pointlessly use attacks such as Confuse Ray. Although they might just be doing it [[SpitefulAI to make you waste the item used to heal it with/switch in a new Pokemon at the beginning of the turn]].

* It's not unheard of for Pokemon, whether wild ''or'' trained, to spam self-damaging moves such as Take Down until they knock themselves out, with little to no help from you.
* In [=HeartGold=] and [=SoulSilver=], the Champion of the Pokémon League (the second most powerful trainer in the game) will regularly get down to his last Pokémon and use [[SuicideAttack Perish Song, which KOs both Pokémon in the battle 3 turns after the attack is used unless they switch out]]. This would be run of the mill SpitefulAI, except for the fact it will still do this even if you have more than 3 Pokémon remaining, making it impossible for the AI player to win.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2''[='s=] Mix Tournament, which involves your opponent and you trading one Pokemon to each other for the battle, the AI will sometimes make staggeringly idiotic decisions, such as the Gym Leaders that are competing taking the one Pokémon on your team weak against their main type in trade for a Pokémon that can one-shot it.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', trainers show a remarkable disregard of the target Pokémon’s ability or forme if that makes it immune to certain moves. It does not matter if it's the only ability that Pokémon can have, or if the ability had been revealed before, they will keep using the move the target is already proven to be immune to. Even in the Battle Tree, you'll see instances of opposing Pokemon using Water-type moves on Pokémon with Water Absorb, or status moves on a Shield Forme Minior. They are even willing to use damaging Z-Moves on a Mimikyu whose Disguise was not broken, [[EpicFail dealing no damage at all as a result]].
* The hostile AI in ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' is spot-on about attacking your weaknesses with actual moves and some even use advanced strategies against you. The friendly AI in Max Raid Battles, on the other hand... Game Freak apparently wanted to make absolutely sure that the players were motivated to work together at all costs just to avoid ever having to deal with these computer-controlled idiots. When you get to 4* and 5* raids, calling in human players is a necessity because relying on the AI is a crapshoot at best and an exercise in masochism at worst. They are chosen completely at random by the game, so there is no way to even know which ones you’d be stuck with until the battle begins. Meaning that you can’t even reliably prepare to counter their idiocy. You can’t even use them as meat shields because the battle ends once four Pokemon on your side are knocked out. They revive after knock out in a turn or two, but even that works against you since teammates will happily revive themselves just to get knocked out again repeatedly until you reach the cumulative limit of four and automatically lose.

*** Black Belt Oscar has a Hawlucha, which is a fast and strong (albeit frail) Pokémon with three attacking moves. Unfortunately, for reasons beyond comprehension, it will often forego using any of these moves to use its fourth move, Feather Dance, a move that harshly lowers the opponent's Attack stat. The problem is that Raid Pokémon in 3-star raids and higher, once they take enough damage, put up a barrier that nullifies moves that lower stats, with 5-star Raid Pokemon putting up barriers twice.

** Alfie has a Wobbuffet and no clue how to use it. Wobbuffet's gimmick is that it can't deal damage directly, and instead relies on counter-attacking with Counter (for physical attacks) or Mirror Coat (for special attacks). This already makes Wobbuffet a terrible choice for a Max Raid Battle, as it's hard to tell if the opposing Pokemon will even target it or not, and what moves they'll have. To make it worse, Alfie often spends the fights either spamming Safeguard (which is nigh-useless considering a lot of Raid 'mons never even use status effects) or Amnesia (a stat-boosting move, which is useless because (1) Wobbuffet already has high defenses, and (2) the Dynamaxed opponent can and will get rid of all stat boosts on your side of the field). He may also spam Counter against a 'mon who uses special attacks, or keep picking Amnesia (which boosts its ''Special'' Defense) and Mirror Coat against a physical attacker.

* ''VideoGame/RadiataStories''
** The FinalBoss has a wide-range [=AoE=] attack which your party are hardly be able to dodge, thus result in large amount of healing items used in order to keep them alive. The deal is, the boss's attack is extremely predictable, and it's easier to just solo the boss and even come out unscratched.
** Once PlayerCharacter Jack gets his own squad, you can issue commands to your AI partners, such as "attack that enemy," "heal that ally," etc. However, once they're done doing that, the AI will just stand still and do nothing. The "Go Nuts" and "Everyone Go Nuts" commands snap them out of this, but it's still a pain to have to issue a command just to get your allies moving again.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Summoner}}'', this is almost essential to win in some random encounters. Simply lay down a wall of fire and observe as the AI monsters barbecue to death, staring serenely at the horizon...
** There is also a {{Good Bad Bug|s}} which allows you to cast offensive spells on certain ally [=NPCs=], who don't seem to notice or care that you're attacking them and, if there are no nearby enemies, may well stand around doing nothing while you kill them.
* The most viable way to avoid the enemies in ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'' wasn't sneaking but ... jumping on the nearest table or otherwise elevated position, because the AI only checked the floor for targets. While this can be {{handwave}}d with performance reasons considering all the objects on the tables this can be quite immersion breaking in a SurvivalHorror game with BreakableWeapons and scarce ammo.

* In ''VideoGame/ShiningForce'', there are many cases where an enemy will move to a certain spot, then never move from it. Such enemies can be easily defeated by simply hitting them with ranged attacks, even if they'd only have to move one square to trounce the attacking character(s). This was alleviated in the second game.
** Most bosses in the original Shining Force never move. They also automatically heal every round. An easy way to level up ranged attackers in the first game is to plant them a square away from a boss and pelt them every round. They'll heal the damage done, and they won't take a single step to kill off said attackers. Probably the best boss to do this with is Balbazak, the final obstacle in Chapter 4.
* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'''s auto-play is quite up-front that it's not meant to be a full AI, but just a kind of "training wheels" until you can wrap your head around playing two screens at once. Which means they didn't bother making your partners choose attack branches intelligently, or take any kind of defensive action. You can easily get better manual results [[ButtonMashing just mashing left or right]], because even if you do the same as the AI and only ever take the middle branch, it'll still be significantly faster.

* ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'' suffers from this with your characters. One problem is, since it was meant to be a multiplayer game as well, is that the characters can only move so far before an imaginary wall blocks them. The [=AI=] has a tendency to run into the nearest dead end, forcing you to go back to "unhook" that character. Also, it's probably not a good idea to let them attack, even if you set their [=AI=] to aggressive.
** The boss Mech Rider 3 is programmed to always attempt to cast Speed Up on himself if he doesn't have it active. Unfortunately, he's also programmed to cast Wall first, meaning he'll spend the entire fight bouncing his own Speed Up spells onto your party! Though given plot-related reasons, this has disturbing implications: it's possible he's doing this deliberately because he wants you to kill him.
* In ''VideoGame/XMenLegends'', the AI is fairly competent. But they won't dodge, use any shields, and sometimes will just beat down the enemy (even if it's in their best interest to stand back and use their mutant powers). AI controlled teammates are also prone to hurling themselves off cliffs to their deaths.
** Some very specific mutant powers of some A.I. controlled party members won't trigger whenever you spam the "call for help" button, forcing you to make some party member switch back and forth.
* This is not fixed in ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance.'' No, ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, you can't fly. Stop trying to follow ComicBook/IronMan across the BottomlessPit.
* ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'':
** ''VideoGame/Persona3'':
*** There's some issues with what your AI teammates would or wouldn't do. One particularly loathsome example is their reaction to barrier spells. If an enemy casts a barrier that blocks all physical attacks, your allies will ''refuse'' to attack it head on, forcing the player to do it themselves to get rid of it. However, an enemy near the end casts a special barrier that goes away over time instead and attacking it usually means dropping dead on the spot, but unlike before your party doesn't stop attacking. You almost have to ''physically restrain'' your party to avoid them killing themselves.
*** Have fun battling with Mitsuru if her tactic is Act Freely. She'll just spam her UselessUsefulSpell over and over, even if the enemy is weak to Bufu.
*** [[ArtificialBrilliance If you scanned an enemy for its elemental strengths and weaknesses your characters would almost never use a useless attack on that enemy again]], and even if you didn't or the enemy was immune to scan (most bosses in Tartarus) they'd learn their lesson after a single failed attack. However, AI characters will never learn their lesson if someone ELSE uses an ineffectual attack, even if they logically should have seen it.
*** Even when they know enemy weaknesses, the AI characters are completely oblivious to the nuances of strategy (most obviously that making enemies lose turns is a good thing, causing them to attack enemies who were already knocked down and causing them to stand up again). They may also choose to cast a mass effect spell to damage one enemy... but also heals another. Mastery of the combat system in ''Persona 3'' was determined by how well you could use the strategy system to railroad their Artificial Stupidity into achieving the desired goals without screwing up too badly. Fortunately ''VideoGame/Persona4'' (and later ''[[UpdatedRerelease Persona 3 Portable]]'') gave you the option of controlling your entire party manually. The AI will opt to knock down enemies, but only if you give the order.
*** Though even the Tactics Menu is hardly perfect. If you tell a character to heal/support, they will not cure poison on a character if said character is at less than perfect health. They will not heal anyone else, either, even if the poisoned character is at 499/500 hp and another party member is at 1/500. This has less to do with the characters than the programming -- the protagonist is the only one with antidotes and anti-charm items... except the player can't access anti-charm items ''while charmed.'' So if the protagonist gets charmed, you effectively ''lose control of your party''. You just watch helplessly as your character begins attacking allies.
*** It gets worse than that. The Charm status will drive the AI absolutely crazy: if the team's healers are Charmed, healers will give the enemy and other Charmed characters absolute priority, even if they are at near-perfect health while non-charmed ones are dying. This is especially irritating as it might sometimes be better to let the Charmed characters fall unconscious instead of having them healing enemies/attacking allies. Oh, and only rarely will a Heal/Support AI randomly realize that it is much more efficient to just dispel Charm instead of continuously replenishing health. And if the AI chooses to use a healing item, it's a crapshoot as to whether they will use Medicine or Medicinal Powder, no matter how much HP they need to heal or how many of each you have.
** ''VideoGame/Persona5'':
*** The last request for Mementos seems like it's going to be pretty hard, being the only mission that's ranked "S" and located at the very bottom of the 66-floor dungeon. However, repeatedly casting Dekaja or using a way to lower the boss's Attack stat will have him waste his turn trying to buff it back up, turning the fight into a joke.
*** The allied AI is certainly better than previous entries, but it can sometimes still waste turns when it really shouldn't. Especially with [[MagicIsRareHealthIsCheap how rare SP-restoring items are]], a turn wasted charging or debuffing the enemy can really mess with a player's plans for a Palace. Even if an enemy would need just one more hit to take down, it'll sometimes waste their turn doing something that will cause an enemy to get a turn, causing all kinds of headaches. It's almost always more advantageous to command each party member yourself instead of letting the AI do it.
*** Even when you know one weakness of an enemy, the AI will occasionally test other elements against that enemy, even when you could easily wipe out the encounter with the known weakness. It also picks who tests elements at random, meaning you may have the party member who could one-shot the enemies opting instead to throw out a weak spell that may end up absorbed or reflected.
* In ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' the computer is unable to predict whether it will be able to fire on one of your units with a given one of its, it will therefore spend actions moving units backwards and forwards along the same path every turn to no effect. Similarly, they also have an unusual tendency to rush troops straight into certain death, possibly for want of any other move.
* Most {{Roguelike}} games avoid using path-finding algorithms for the monster AI since doing so would make the game very slow, meaning that monsters will head for you in a straight line and then stop as soon as they hit an obstacle. If the obstruction is not a wall but something like deep water or a chasm then you can use distance attacks to kill the monster while it just sits there.
** Also in most {{Roguelike}}s a monster with a distance attack which will harm anything between it and the target (like lightning bolts) will use it even if the attack will harm or even kill allied monsters between it and its target.
** In some of the variants where monsters can use magical items the monsters will prefer to use weak magical items over their more powerful innate magic, like demon lords in ''VideoGame/NetHack'' which choose a Wand of Striking over their much more powerful infernal magics.
** In variants where monsters can flee from their opponent they never analyze their opponent's strength at the start of the fight and decide to flee if the opponent seems too strong, but rather wait until they're almost dead to flee.
* ''VideoGame/Quest64'' has some of the ''worst'' AI ever seen, to the point that bosses become easier and enemies don't even use all of their available attacks. One boss in particular uses a close range attack that won't hit you if you're ''too close''. All you need to do is stand on his feet and beat him to death with your staff.
* ''VideoGame/VagrantStory'' has the unique condition where its anti-casting technique, Silence, is canceled in the event that a spell of any kind hits you. Similarly, you can afflict most spellcasting enemies in the game with Paralyze, which prevents physical attacks. If you Silence yourself - or let them Silence you - and then Paralyze them, they will more or less stand there and let you kill them, as they're programmed to not under any circumstances break your Silence effect by hitting you with another spell. Similarly, many enemies will refuse to engage you until they've cast all possible enhancements on themselves, and by countering their enhancement spells they'll do nothing but try and cast them, over and over, while you get in free attack after free attack.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'':
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'':
*** Garrus Vakarian had a strange habit of using Adrenaline Burst to re-set the cooldown on all his skills right at the beginning of battle, before he'd done anything. Squad members would try to stay near the player unless told to go elsewhere (even if they were Snipers and the player was a close-quarters fighter, or vice-versa), and sometimes, trying to tell them to go elsewhere resulted in them telling you they couldn't get there- because there was a corner (or a box, or similar) between them and there. They would also switch to weapons they were untrained (and therefore did much less damage) with after cutscenes (though Shepard did this also) and repeatedly fire into walls and other obstacles in an attempt to hit enemies that had ducked behind them.
*** The faults of both enemy and ally AI can be seen if you play as a sniper and, in true sniper fashion, take out all your enemies from several hundred feet away (for example, picking off enemies from the top of a mountain while on the ground on a random planet). Actually hitting an enemy from that distance will automatically put you into combat, which can lead to allies using ''shotguns'' (the effective range of which is about twenty feet) and enemies firing wildly in your direction, landing maybe one shot in fifty. The enemies, however, will never get any closer to allow you to ventilate their heads with all the time in the world aside from occasionally dodging easily seen rockets and the energy balls Geth Armatures fire (yes, it works on them just the same - though it does take a while) by moving to one side a bit.
*** Rocket troopers and geth colossi tend to focus fire on the Mako instead of the player and their squad so long as you stay close by, even if they have a perfect shot at the player. This can be exploited thoroughly to get max XP out of fights with armatures and colossi that ordinarily would be done in the Mako--cut down their health with the Mako's cannon, then get out, hide behind the Mako, and it's easy to take down otherwise near-impossible enemies. Because the Mako usually won't be destroyed unless you're inside, it can take nearly unlimited amounts of damage... just be sure to take out every enemy before getting back in!
*** Anyone complaining about Thresher Maws have probably never tried taking one out on foot with a sniper rifle. Approach the Thresher's spawn point in the Mako, disembark when it pops out of the ground, and stand a fair distance away. Snipe, sidestep the painfully slow acid spit, snipe, sidestep the painfully slow acid spit, snipe... See, the difficulty with the Threshers is that they can instantly gib you in the Mako; but will forego the burrow attack for the slow acid spit if you're on foot. Plus, you get less XP if you kill something with the Mako, so farming Threshers on foot is easier and more profitable.
*** Armature-class geth have heavy machine guns as well as the '''incredibly''' slow directed energy weapon. They almost never use them except at extreme range. Get in close, and they continue to blaze away with the snail-gun, despite the incredible ease with which it is dodged.
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' usually averts this with excellent AI:
*** However, a fun way to kill enemies with rocket launchers (on lower difficulties), or if they are the only enemies left, is to simply walk right up to them. They fire their rocket launcher at point-blank range. The resulting backblast will kill them.
*** Squadmate stupidity does happen though, usually with bad cover choices (or none at all). Questionable power usage is a big irritation though, especially since all a character's powers share a {{cooldown}}, which is much longer than Shepard's. Jacob is by far the worst offender once his Barrier skill is automatically unlocked, he will usually spam the ability as much as possible if left to the AI, effectively removing his ability to use his offensive powers. Fortunately, there's an option to turn off AI power usage.
*** Most types of enemies immediately take cover at the start of a fight. However, the AI is not particularly picky about WHAT it uses for cover, leading to many enemies attempting to hide behind [[MadeOfExplodium Explosive Crates]].
*** The AI is especially stupid against a Shepard with Tactical Cloak. Use it, and the enemy will immediately turn its back and seem to forget you were ever there, and will not be able to see you until it wears off, even though there's clearly a flickering outline of a person walking around. By ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', however they've improved. Cloak now, and the enemies will continue to fire at the last spot they saw you at, and they will eventually notice the obviously cloaked person standing nearby if you get too close to them.
*** Your squadmates have similar problems spotting Geth Hunters in ''2'' when they cloak, even though [[HighlyVisibleNinja a geth hunter's cloak doesn't conceal its]] [[CyberCyclops large glowing eye]].
** The Rannoch Reaper in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' also suffers from this, for obvious balancing reasons. Its one threat was Shepard standing on an open cliff using a machine to help the Quarian Fleet target it. But instead of simply horizontally sweeping the cliff with its one hit kill beam, it slowly vertically sweeps the beam forward and up, giving Shepard ample time to scurry to the other side of the cliff and continue giving the quarians targeting data. Or, since the Reaper is only vulnerable when trying to shoot, why doesn't it just walk over to Shepard and ''smash'' the cliff they're on.
* Because of ''VideoGame/VandalHearts2'''s unique turn-based system - where moving each friendly unit is accompanied by the AI opponent moving one of theirs simultaneously - a considerable portion of the strategy involves outsmarting the predictable [=AI=], such as moving a character to attack an empty region safe in the knowledge that the computer will move an enemy unit straight into it.

* Your party members in ''VideoGame/RogueGalaxy'' have no idea what they are doing. While they won't use MP-cost special abilities without your specific request (unless you have them set that way), and do have the brains to use charge attacks when needed to break enemy shields, the rest of their AI is locked onto AttackAttackAttack. They have never heard of either blocking attacks or getting out of the way. The only setting on which they block is the one that prevents them from doing ''anything'' else.
* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'':
** The series has the monsters set up like {{Mooks}} that will beat the crap out of each other because they're too close to one another to get at you, or you're on a ledge, or something similar. Sure, it's [[JustifiedTrope easily explained]] by the monsters in question being only up to the level of intelligence of wild animals, but it makes things easier for you if you use patience and proper positioning, [[RuleOfFunny plus it's just fun to watch.]]
** The Felynes and Shakalaka allies try to be helpful to the player, but have an annoying tendency to run right up to and stand in front of the monster while attempting to perform a healing dance, which just gets them smacked around and the dance interrupted. The False Felyne mask in Tri/3U also tends to result in your AI ally tossing bombs at the downed, vulnerable monster... which would be nice if they didn't also blast the player back, wasting the window of vulnerability.
* ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'':
** Your fellow party members make it a point of ignoring your orders the very next combat encounter, apparently eager for that summoned Fire Elemental to slaughter them. Magic users will willingly render themselves unconscious by healing technological characters, upon whom their magic has not effect. They also like to stand in doorways, and otherwise cause more damage than the enemy. If any game makes a successful argument for full party control during combat, it is this one.
** For fun, recruit Magnus and any other good-aligned people. Attempt to pickpocket a good-aligned person and fail. The person will turn hostile and attack you, and all your party members will run to your defense despite you not actually wanting to fight this person. Witness as Magnus tears into a bystander with his axe while loudly whining about how you're making him do it against his will.
** Virgil is a particularly noteworthy offender: he'll charge into combat despite being weak and under-equipped, and he'll often use weapons he isn't proficient in.
** The NPC scripts often have them pick up any remotely valuable item in the vicinity. Some of them can spot something lying on the floor almost a screen away - ranged fighters can see very far due to high perception stat. Once this happens, they slowly walk towards the item... and potentially out of a safe place and into a group of monsters that can kill them before the rest of the party can get close.
** Characters also have a habit of equipping whatever they've picked up if they deem it more valuable than what they're currently wearing. Even if it's a hexed item that poisons them or reduces their stats. Of course, due to non-party [=NPCs=] using the same AI, certain hexed equipment gained popularity as an assassination tool...
* Dario in ''VideoGame/ChronoCross''. A really challenging {{superboss}}...in a straight fight. He counters every single one of your elements with an element of his own. And therein lies the exploit. He counters most elements with stat debuffs, which would be a severe pain if the counter didn't also ''count as his turn''. So just pelt him with a red or green element every turn and he'll waste turns by lowering your evasion and defense (respectively), [[DumpStat neither of which you'll need anyway]] because he'll never actually attack you.
** The Green Dragon, similarly. His challenge comes from his tendency to cast Carnivore, a powerful green-elemental spell. But he only casts Carnivore if the entire element field is green. So, if you cast a weak non-green spell every time the field becomes fully green, he'll spend most of the fight casting Green Field. Or, hell, bring a dozen Carnivore traps and go to town.
* When playing a ''VideoGame/UnlimitedAdventures'' design, it's a good idea to include a paladin in your party, because only then will you be able to control the [=NPCs=] that join your party during the game. Otherwise they'll be controlled by the computer with ridiculous stupidity at times, which is especially destructive with spellcasters. For example, casting area damage spells with blatant disregard for your party members' presence next to the target... or casting "Dispel Magic" at enemies (who don't have any magic buffs on them) for no reason whatsoever.
** Version 1.1 of the game had a GameBreakingBug where the NPC magic-users would immediately flee the battlefield at the beginning of every combat.
* ''VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters/Soul Cradle'' had a great example of this while doing room inspections. It seems rare and only in higher levels, but some enemies will just outright kill their own ally without any specific reason by using a skill.
** Another good example from the room inspections... two, in fact. Units with a flying leader, such as a Whirwin or Gryphos, will blindly walk over 'visible' minetraps, if that's the room hindrance. Oh, and does the Room Leader have the [[GameBreaker Anti-matter room?]] The enemy will target them. Even the game hates Anti-matter!
* In ''VideoGame/DarkCloud'', the cannon enemies in the sunken ship will only fire at you from a certain distance away. If you get close to them, they back away. You can back them into a corner, and they'll keep running into the wall, never attacking, while you hack away at it until it dies. Thankfully, this was fixed in ''Dark Chronicle''.
* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' suffers from a pretty faulty AI. One of the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} examples would be an infamous sidequest that involved leading a TooDumbToLive survivor of a droid attack, out of an abandoned military base. He can't make two steps unless he's facing you directly within a certain distance for at least a few seconds, and there's nothing between you and him.
** Enemies in the game have a pretty straightforward way of closing the distance to the player. Usually the most direct, straight-line way possible. A well-prepared player can, therefore, lay out an entire minefield between them and the boss, engage them in battle, and watch as even Jedi Masters charge straight through the explosives and end up getting killed without the player doing anything but standing there.

* The AIs for your Party Members in the story mode of ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarUniverse'' are especially abysmal. Since the game is pretty much designed to be played as an MMORPG, you're unable to access any of their stats or alter their equipment or tactics in any way, and if that's not bad enough, you will lose track of the number of times that they get caught behind stairs/boxes/'mild curves in the path' and what not. When it comes to actual battle, you will do your best to hold in your rage as you see them offer quite useful tactical advice like "Don't bunch up," or "Engage the enemy in a pincer formation, Mr. Waber," only to either charge in blindly or, even more likely, just hang back and do absolutely nothing for most/all of the fight. There's a reason that doing group timed missions in single player mode is best attempted when you're ridiculously above the required levels for them.
* Mages in the ''Franchise/BaldursGate'' games don't play well with allies, freely dropping fireballs and meteor swarms on them. And then there's Gate, which summons a powerful demon. They do have the sense to cast protection from evil to stop it attacking them. However, because it still qualifies as an enemy, they'll attack it. Sometimes it's possible to just move away and let the two of them get on with, then move back in once the mage has expanded a bunch of their spells killing the thing it just summoned.
** Even when the mage managed to avoid instantly attacking the Pit Fiend it just summoned, they never, ever, under any circumstance would use Protection From Evil on any of their own allies, which would always result in the Pit Fiend targeting instead of your party.
** A possibly worse example of Artificial Stupidity was that any allied NPC, whether a summoned monster or someone you'd recruited to help you in a fight, would instantly turn hostile to you if they were caught in the radius of a damage dealing spell that either one of your characters or another allied NPC had used. Even if they were completely unaffected by it. Given that there was one fight where a recruitable NPC used a cursed sword that had a chance of triggering a fireball on his location every time he attacked, it was almost impossible to make it through the entire fight without all the rest of the recruitable allies there turning hostile (casting Resilient Sphere on him, which wasn't considered an offensive spell, was usually the easiest way).
** In the first ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', enemies do not engage you unless they can see you. Which means you could stand just outside of their visual range or just around a corner and pelt with with ''fireballs'' and ''cloudkills'', and they would just stand there until they died.
** There are several {{Game Mod}}s out there that provide better AI scripts, and some of these, like Tactics and Sword Coast Stratagems, can make the game NintendoHard just by having opponents use their powers in a more sensible way.
* This shows up from time to time in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', especially in areas with precarious footing like Blighttown. You'll be travelling along when you'll randomly gain souls from some enemy that accidentally fell off a ledge to its death. It is even possible, although considerably more difficult, to do this to a few bosses in the game, which nets you an instant victory.
** Enemies in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' have two main settings: either they will follow you forever until you die or use a bonfire, or they will draw a line in the ground and refuse to engage beyond that. Both are abusable in different ways. For example, several nasty BeefGate enemies, such as the giant basilisk in the Shaded Woods or the {{BFS}}-toting Red Phantom in the Undead Purgatory, will not engage beyond a fairly short range, allowing you to shoot them to death; the Basilisk is particularly stupid because you can stand ''out in the open'' and fire arrows at it without it even attempting to engage. On the other hand, most of the Old Knights in Heide's Tower of Flame will follow you across the entire map, with some of them [[MookChivalry regularly standing back and waiting for you to deal with the others]]; nothing makes a fight with three Old Knights easier than having one of them follow you back to the arena at the beginning of the level, with his friends not even trying to follow until you've had plenty of time to deal with him. Additionally, one of the earliest bosses, the Dragonrider, can be lured into falling off his boss arena if you don't use the levers to expand the platform area, or shot from an area next to one of said levers until he's on the edge of death, at which point he will raise the shield he should probably have started using five minutes previously.
** Also in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'', the Earthen Peak area is full of jars containing really strong poison. It is also full of big, beefy hollows with [[DropTheHammer enormous hammers]], who just blunder towards the Bearer of the Curse regardless of whether these jars are in the way or not; they are ''not'' immune to the poison and will generally die fairly quickly, since poison in DSII is pretty nasty. To be fair, it ''is'' appropriate for a hollow, a mindless zombie in all but name, to behave in a stupid fashion.
** The issues with high places continue in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'', where it's possible to navigate the arched rafters of the Cathedral of the Deep without ever actually swinging your sword because enemies have a habit of attempting to approach across ground that is not, strictly speaking, there; after dealing with the irritatingly jumpy Thralls and the huge and ferocious Cathedral Knights across much of the level, watching them sidestep into nothing or attempt to charge you across thin air and fall to their deaths is surprisingly therapeutic. And then, assuming you don't rest at a bonfire, you can then make your way down to the ground floor and plunder the bodies - appropriately enough, in order to do so, you will usually walk past Patches, the series's most enthusiastic fan of dropping people from great heights in order to loot the corpse. This can also be used to make the Exile Watchdogs in the Road of Sacrifices much easier, since they'll try and follow you down a ladder without stopping to use the ladder first.
** Also justified in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'' with Holy Knight Hodrick's summon. He'll follow you across the map, picking fights with anything he encounters on the way there...because Hodrick is AxCrazy and genuinely doesn't care what he kills. This allows you to slam him into tough opponents to watch the sparks fly.
* In ''VideoGame/SengokuRance'', the AI will occasionally put warriors in the back where they can't attack and [[SquishyWizard Diviners]] in the front. Considering how NintendoHard the game is, you need to take advantage of any and all blunders the AI makes to win.
* Linu back in the original ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' had an unfortunate habit of casting Harm on hostile undead. Which HEALS them. Even worse, this was usually a few rounds into the battle, so it'd wipe out all the damage you'd painstakingly inflicted on it. Throw in her tendency towards burning through her whole day's supply of Turn Undead spells, even though the last ''three'' attempts did nothing... yeah, it's probably best to depend upon potions for your healing.
** Standard AI for an NPC with cleric levels tells them to cast healing spells on themselves if their hitpoints drops below a certain point. Reasonable behaviour in most circumstances, but there are vampire clerics in the game that aren't programmed to recognize that ReviveKillsZombie. It's not unheard of for the player to beat a vampire cleric to about half health, and the vampire to respond by attempting to cast a healing spell on itself and destroying itself.
** The non-mages aren't a whole lot better. Fighter-types running headlong into encounter after encounter, thus forcing you to abandon what you were doing to join in, makes some amount of sense. However, Neeshka does exactly the same thing even though the sensible thing to do would be to wait until others engage and then sneak attack (where it works) at will (there is unfortunately no option to set up a character to only use sneak attacks. The best you can hope for is to tell her to remain in the shadows).
*** Of course when the fighters attack, they have a nasty tendency to run past perfectly viable targets, and get attack of opportunity-ed, just so they could get to that oh so dangerous ''[[AnnoyingArrows archer]]'' that shot them in the bum. "Oh you'll pay for that 4 damage bow boy! What? Oh that huge-assed guy that just power attacked me for 36? Nah he's no threat, I won't bother to change my priorities just because he can dish out ''nine times'' the damage, that's sissy thinking!"
** Boddyknock. Casting See Invisibility (''repeatedly!'') on clearly ''visible'' enemies wasn't of any help at all, while you were in dire need of support.
*** He also has the annoying tenancy to cast invisibility spells on himself during combat and leave you to fend for yourself.
** Follower casters also routinely get caught behind corners and other obstacles where they can't see the opponent, cast a spell at the unseen enemy (which they only know is there because they can ''hear it''), then immediately lose the spell because they can't target someone they can't see properly. Then repeat over and over, wasting their spells and time while you have to deal with the enemies on your own.
** None of the [=NPCs=] seem to realize that traps are ''dangerous things'' to be ''avoided''. Neeskha and Tomi will happily start disarming a trap, spot an enemy, and run straight over the trap to attack it.
** Due to game engine specs, buffs vanish when moving to a new area, even though you're ''leaving the tavern through the door'' and those buffs should last for minutes or even ''hours''. There's more than one scripted event where you get ambushed outside the tavern, too. The protagonist will also happily walk into scripted events and conversations that very obviously will or could turn hostile without any chance to buff, prepare or attack first.
** Sometimes the player feels more like a babysitter than an adventurer. Your henchman will insist on using, what he thinks, is their most powerful weapon in their inventory, but not necessarily the most useful for the situation. You force them to use range attack and they'll immediately switch back to melee. Cue frustrated adventurer confiscating all melee weapons from the henchman.
** Never set your henchman invisible. They'll remain stealthy and stubbornly refuse to attack.
** Rogues never try to flank or get behind the enemy, they prefer [[LeeroyJenkins to attack head-on]].
* In ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'', if the A.I. is turned on, your character will always, ''always'' start the combat by casting the Sanctuary spell. Even if he is a warrior/cleric.
** There is also Qara, who had a habit of aiming area-of-effect spells where they would hurt fellow party members and even herself. While she isn't portrayed as very bright, she shouldn't be ''that'' stupid.
** Let's not forget how your spellcasters would always sling about the various dispelling spells they had prepared at the beginning of a fight. Most of the time this led to you not having a way of getting rid of an enemies buff spells half way through a fight because they'd all already been used.
*** Even worse, they would often dispel any buff spells on the [=PCs=], making it easier for the enemies to kill you.
*** Thankfully, you have the option to customize what kinds of spells your party members use, how often they use [=AoE=] spells, and even turn off the option of spells affecting your own party.
** Another fine example of Artificial Stupidity is the tendency for your own party members to attack Elanee the druid while she's transformed into her animal form, and they've run out of other enemies to attack. Resting won't stop this, since your party members are still in combat, which prevents Rest from working.
** Even warrior types are not immune. Standing still and bashing stuff is apparently too boring for the AI, which would rather ping pong between opponents at random, incurring attacks of opportunity and leaving huge gaps in your line so that enemies can gleefully rush through to slaughter your SquishyWizard. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard The enemy AI, of course, does not do this]].

* You often have fellow Samurai Jonathan, Isabeau, and Walter tagging along as a sort of fifth party member in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' that will attack enemies or cast buffs on your party. Sometimes, they act smart and will continue to press an enemy's weakness if you or they have discovered it. '''However''', they do not seem to retain memories of what enemies are weak to from battle to battle. This can lead to some nasty situations where they waste their turns hurting themselves with attacks reflected back on to them, or worse, ''healing the enemy'', or ''even'' worse, causing an enemy to Smirk (which makes them harder to hit, more likely to get critical hits themselves, and renders their weaknesses moot for a turn). What's that, Jonathan? You used [[BlowYouAway Zandyne]] on an enemy immune to it? And now, it's Smirking? [[SarcasmMode Oh, that's... nice]].
** Making it worse, you have no control over which of the three joins you. So you've got about a 33% chance of being screwed over by [[WakeupCallBoss the first real boss fight]] just because you ended up with Walter and he won't stop casting [[PlayingWithFire Agi]] at the fire-immune Minotaur.
* There are many cases in the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' franchise in which an enemy will use an attack that the target has an immunity to, and then use the same attack on the same target ''again.'' HilarityEnsues if this is a game featuring the Press Turn system, in which blocked attacks carry an extra turn of penalty for the attacking team and attacks that are reflected or drained result in a complete loss of turns.
* ''VideoGame/{{OFF}}'' has a frustrating battle system in which enemies keep attacking you while you're still choosing the moves you want to use. This leads most players to set the battles to Automatic, letting the AI fight for you at the same speed as the enemy AI. Unfortunately, your AI will almost '''never''' use any healing moves/items on dying or status-afflicted party members, you usually have to temporarily turn Auto off and do it yourself.
* ''VideoGame/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheLegendOfJackSparrow'' is extremely glitchy and the unintelligent AI doesn't help when you're trying to save an island of natives from Black Smoke James. You're supposed to be guiding them to safety but most stand in place with their arms raised halfway and get shot at rather than follow you. This results in having to make multiple trips and walk slower than a turtle until the AI gets a clue but by the time you do that oftentimes too many of them are hurt and you have to start the mission all over again. It also brings a great deal of trouble when dealing with Madam Tang and her humongous clay warriors. They are supposed to perish the second they touch water but all too often I've seen them step brazenly into the water, walk over and hit your character with their naginata before realizing the stuff is lethal.
* Hirelings in ''VideoGame/DiabloII''. While the enemy AI is okay, the ally AI is definitely not. Hirelings don't seem to understand basic concepts like [[{{Wallbonking}} "I should use that door just a few steps from me instead of trying to walk through the wall"]], they have the annoying habit of wandering around all the whole time in a world where just walking a few metres triggers a new wave of dozens of enemies. And monsters by the Necromancer are even worse, as getting too far from them (and they aren't good AT ALL at following you) makes them disappear. After numerous reports of necromancers getting stuck in a corner by their minions, Blizzard added an Unsummon skill to remove them when needed -- and that turned out to ''not be enough'', so now they let players noclip through their own minions. Players with access to the Teleport skill, either from the Enigma runeword or charges on another item could get around this, as teleporting gathers all your minions to you.
** ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' is a bit better at this. You noclip through your hirelings, pets, and allies. Plus, they'll automatically teleport right next to you if they get too far away. Still, they have a tendency to only go after the weakest parts of any mob while you try to deal with the elites and boss-type monsters that show up, and outright ignore area-of-effect spells, like the "Plagued" poison pools or the blasts that "Molten" enemies leave behind when they die, leading to a lot of unnecessary deaths.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'': The members of your team that you don't control tend to not have the greatest pathfinding abilities. Normally this isn't too much of a problem, as they'll simply teleport to you if you get too far away. The problem is that they absolutely ignore any hazardous terrain around them, meaning they'll readily walk right into pools of poisonous water or straight through lava streams. They also have a tendency to use lots of area of effect attacks, which can and will draw the attention of other nearby enemies. The only way to get them to knock it off is to not equip any of those attacks.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'', features this.
** While some characters fall into ArtificialBrilliance with their abilities (Reyn is particularly good at managing Aggro and knockdown, Sharla is great at healing and her AI doesn't waste Headshot most of the time), a few in particular really fall into this:
** The main flaw of the AI is that they don't handle the positioning very well, HitboxDissonance aside.
** Melia controlled by the AI is an exercise in frustration. Since her abilities rely on summoning wisps that give the party buffs and then discharging them for damage and status ailments, the AI may sometimes just have her not do anything to keep the buffs on the party even though a player would discharge them to get on the DamageOverTime and start the cooldown. What also doesn't help is that she has a melee weapon, which is not good for someone with the lowest physical defence and health in the game, so her AI will go in and melee. It makes one wonder why the developers gave Sharla (who uses a ''ranged weapon'') such high defence.
** Shulk, when controlled by the AI, is seen as even ''worse'' than Melia. He is very bad at using the Monado arts (Which are ''required'' to even ''scratch'' some enemies) and will waste the Monado on Monado Buster (or Speed if the party is at a lower level than what they are attacking) when it's better to use a shield or knockdown. He also does not handle positioning very well, even ''worse'' than many of the other games' characters.
** Riki is a ''very'' good character in part because he has the ability to put on just about every condition and ''keep'' them on, allowing them to stack up and deal a lot of damage to bulkier enemies. While Melia is able to put on Poison, Burn, and Freeze, the one thing Riki can put on that she can't is Bleed. While Riki's AI is pretty good with Poison and bleed, the AI does not seem to recognise that Burninate and Freezinate are just as useful against single targets as they are against a group. He will often need to be ''ordered'' to use them against single targets.
** Speaking of Burninate, the AI will never use any full circle area of effect arts during a single target battle, which include Burninate, Dunban's Soaring Tempest, the seventh party member's Power and Ether Drains, and Reyn's War Swing and his aura Berserker. Although, this might've been an attempt to counter the issues with area of effects seen in ''X'' above.
** The AI also has the exact same pathfinding issues in this game as described above for ''Xenoblade Chronicles X''.
* In ''VideoGame/RavenswordShadowlands'', the AI of the enemies is very basic, meaning that it's possible to see them happily fall to their deaths if they happen to run into a BottomlessPit while chasing you.
* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/FarawayStory''. While ally AI will usually know when and how to use each character's unique skills, they aren't good at dodging enemy attacks. If the enemy uses a slow, powerful, and telegraphed attack, it's a common scenario for the player to dodge it easily while the allies run into the attack just to get in a few melee hits.
* NPC hirelings in ''VideoGame/TheTempleOfElementalEvil'' would take first dibs on all loot. This was annoying since they always swip the best stuff, even if it wasn't something they could use (such as a suit of full plate armor for a rogue). The game didn't track encumbrance outside of combat, so they could take an unlimited amount of loot, but once combat began they'd immediately become bogged down by the multiple suits of full plate they were carrying and become completely immobile.
* Some demons in ''YsOrigin'' use ramming attacks against the player character, sometimes charging and then falling into a hole to the floor below.
* In the second battle against Aimee and Angelo in ''Videogame/BravelySecond'', they will bombard your party with Fire-based attacks after Angelo uses an ability that makes the party weak to them. However, they will continue to do so even after you set up a buff that reflects all Fire-based attacks right back at the user. You can even buff their attack power so that they hit themselves harder. In all fairness, Fire is Angelo's only source of elemental damage, but Aimee has no excuse as she has access to all elements.
* ''VideoGame/MinecraftDungeons'': Enemy mobs tend to get stuck on objects quite often.
* Enemies in ''Monster Girl Quest! Paradox RPG'' that have the Silence status can still attempt to cast spells, effectively skipping their turn. Similarly, enemies with 0 MP can still attempt to use MP-requiring skills.
* ''VideoGame/MordheimCityOfTheDamned'' has a host of them, making a notoriously difficult game much tamer:
** The computer can have great difficulties with large units (and sometimes regular units too). Don't be surprised to find an enemy Ogre stuck helplessly in a doorway, while 5 metres away from him your forces gun him down. Also the Executioner has an odd habit of throwing his brazier in front of him and getting trapped on it.
** The enemy Warband will sometimes field units that make absolutely no sense, like one-armed Marksmen equipped with daggers. As the game goes on, it becomes easier because it is much harder for the randomly-built AI troops to compete with optimized troops fielded by an experienced player.
** The AI will never raid your cart, meaning you don't have to defend it to prevent the theft of your icon and any items or Wyrdstone you store on your cart is completely safe from the enemy.
** AI pathfinding is limited to straight lines, and enemy units will opt for the quickest possible route to their target. This leads to many tactical blunders:
*** It's quite common for enemies to advance on your formation, only to run out of movement and stop just short of charge range. Particularly amusing if you have a lot of ranged units or casters who haven't had their turn yet.
*** AI pathfinding never takes potential traps into consideration. Expect to see more than one charge attack negated thanks to an obvious trap marker sprung by the related movement (which stops the unit in its tracks and wastes the offense points).
*** While the AI is [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard downright nasty]] about performing charge attacks from just beyond your own units' ambush ranges, enemy units will happily blunder into ambush attacks set around ''corners'' due to their singleminded focus on reaching charge/melee range.

* ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'': The boss Barbarossa has two debuffs: Shell Split (which lowers your defense) and Double Damage (which causes you to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin take double damage]]). These two debuffs are deadly when used together, but his AI doesn't realize this; more often than not, it will use Shell Split on one party member and Double Damage on another, which is far less effective.

* The AI in ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' is notoriously bad, but special mention goes to anything in a car. Cars seem to have almost no meaningful pathfinding and will sit gormlessly in place if something obstructs their path, and police in cars seem incapable of chasing the player while in the overworld.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'', boss Trainers always save their ace for last and Terastalize it for the climactic finish. However, the Champion Geeta's ace is Glimmora, whose Ability is ''specifically for setting up'' as it leaves Toxic Spikes every time it's hit by a Physical attack.

** Schoolgirl Isabella brings a ''Magikarp''. Fortunately, it only knows actual attacks, and its Hydro Pump is not bad, but still, it's Magikarp! The Pokémon that's infamous for being horribly weak! Really, it's hard to tell which is worse: the fact that Isabella brings a Magikarp, or the fact that she's somehow ''not the worst partner you can get because some of the others are just that stupid''.
** Alfie has a Wobbuffet and no clue how to use it. Wobbuffet's gimmick is that it can't deal damage directly, and instead relies on counterattacking with Counter (for physical attacks) or Mirror Coat (for special attacks). This already makes Wobbuffet a terrible choice for a Max Raid Battle, as it's hard to tell if the opposing Pokemon will even target it or not, and what moves they'll have. To make it worse, Alfie often spends the fights either spamming Safeguard (which is nigh-useless considering a lot of Raid 'mons never even use status effects) or Amnesia (a stat-boosting move, which is useless because (1) Wobbuffet already has high defenses, and (2) the Dynamaxed opponent can and will get rid of all stat boosts on your side of the field). He may also spam Counter against a 'mon who uses special attacks, or keep picking Amnesia (which boosts its ''Special'' Defense) and Mirror Coat against a physical attacker.

* If a Ghost-type Pokémon opponent has Curse, it will try to curse the opponent at the cost of 50% of its maximum HP. It does not factor in the latter part, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard often taking itself out instead of your Pokémon]].