Character controller vs Rigid Body in RTS/RPG

Questions & Answers
1

I’ve seen the recommendation to use Character Controllers in FPS and third person games. But I am wondering, when it comes to AI in those games, or maybe the AI and player controlled units in an RTS and RPG games, what is best, and what works best with path navigation (Such as ? Character controllers, or Rigid bodies? And why?

2

Basically the CharacterController is simpler and a bit more robust since it’s not affected by physics. A Rigidbody can be pushed around by forces (manually applied or generated by the physics system due to collisions). For NPCs it’s sometimes easier to use Rigidbodies because you get a “simple” collision handling for free.

If you implement your own collision avoidance system, it actually doesn’t really matter what you use.

However if you want to apply forces to the NPC, it’s easier to use a Rigidbody.

edit

I forgot to mention that a CharacterController can be rotated in x or z axis. You can of course have the charactar visually animate differently, but from the physically behaviour it’s always straight up.