First and foremost it's already shaping up to be a great game keep at it!
Now let's get into the actual feedback, suffice to say there might be
SPOILERS in here. Currently I have a (pretty much full) singleplayer playthrough of the available content on a Fiend Warlock, and a partial multiplayer one as an Abjuration Wizard. As such some of the feedback will be directly tied to those and some to general things.
As a further disclaimer it is important to mention that I genuinely love DoS2 (it's a rather recent discovery for me so DoS1 is still on the to play list) so i'm not too bothered by the similarities it has to Divinity despite my years and years of playing DnD 5e and familiarity with that ruleset.
Magic:Hex: It can be a bread and butter spell for early levels of Warlocks in 5e, however the fact that it is currently not transferable upon kill makes it useless(I assume that's a small over sight or a current systems limitation^^). However, you might even consider making the spell work better with Warlocks inherent spell slot upscaling and increase the dmg it deals at higher levels as in 5e only the concentration duration increases which in turn means it'll still become a wasted slot later on.
Hellish Rebuke: Hellish rebuke is an awesome and flavour full spell which falls short due to it's current use/trigger mechanic. I don't want to blast a 6 hp baby phasespiderling with 3d10, nor do I want to waste a slot preemptively in the hopes of getting hit. It needs that on demand yes I want to pop it now. My suggestion is and the Battle masters and later on zone control build with halberds and the likes will probably agree that we need to have a system which gives greater agency in how reactions are spent. Now I would make that system opt in, with a simple toggle the likes already exist for opportunity attacks, so you would only get prompted for wether or not you want to do something when you actually want to.
WitchBolt:
It probably shouldn't be possible to remain hidden with a connected withbolt.
Melee:Two weapon fighting: A clear and quite sever departure from the rules is the implementation of Two weapon fighting. That is to say using your bonus action to stick the enemy with your second favourite dagger. There are 2 departures from the rules firstly the one I don't mind, it is not required to use your maina ction for an attack to do off hand attacks, this feels good and smooth, picking someone up and not wasting the bonus action for it is nice, or throwing something and still getting to poke the enemy some. However, what i do mind is the second departure, and that is the dmg modifier being added to the off hand attack, that is after all a Fightign style for Fighters and Rangers, and something a Rogue does not usually get, combined with the additional bonus action attack a thief gets this simply makes them busted in terms of dmg output. Probably addressing the Thief issue would solve the free fighting style problem for the smot part
Class design:Rogue (Thief): Thief simply put is too strong right now. Don't get me wrong it feels really good to play one, but it doesn't feel good to have the rest be comparatively weaker for it. This is laregly due to 2 things. Firstly, useing their second bonus action for and off hand attack aswell. Secondly above mentioned modifier being added to that attack in the first place. To a lesser degree the fact that you can always sneak attack without requireing any set up adds to this aswell but this isn't so bad. On a side note I think the sneak attack is calculated using the weapon die instead of the d4 which, given the Rogues favourite weapon, the rapiert potentially doubles their dmg which could cause issues to say the least.^^
Wizard (Abjurtion): The Abjuration ward is waaaay to weak. The calculation as per 5e PHB, for the freshly summoned one at the start of each day is 2*wizard lvl + INT, for instance 12 if you're lvl 4 and have 18 int. It's 3 on my mage...^^ Furthermore, it technically recharges up to that upper limit depending on spell lvl used and so on. Now that might be a bit confusing for players that don't know how it's supposed to work. So maybe a middle ground where it's decently sized und just fully recharges with every abjuration spell might be better suited to the game so let's say wizard lvl + spell level(spell level instead of modifier to giv ethe feeling fo striping away some of the spells power for the ward), it would also mean it's a little less "gameable" for instance the abjuration ward as per dnd could be fully charged between combats with the shield of faith spell bound on the paladin of Tyr's greatsword, for free.
Right now it just feels a bit useless, my Ajuration mage has 30 HP and get's 3 THP from his bread and butter subclass ability? The fiend warlocks temp hitpoint generation due to kills far outpaces this in value...
Warlock (Invocations):
Just a friendly reminder that invocations are swapable on level up and not only when a new one is gained, and that there are a bunch of fun ones in the suplementary books(Xanathars guide to everything
which it would be a shame not to include.^^
Non-D&D Combat stuff:Surface effects: Now let's get to the spicy things, stuff hotly debated everywhere. Divinity style surface effects. Personally I like it, it gives combat a more dynamic feel, furthermore it allows for some of the awesome DnD stuff we usually have to consult the DM for which here is obviously not possible. Throwing a barrel full of blackpowder or Firewine at a group of enemies and having the wizard ignite it is peak DnD, that is to say fcking awesome, and it's directly tied to this system. So I say clearly keep it in. Maybe have another look at low level attacks such as Firebolt and Ray of frost or the spider spit, should they always leave a pool effect behind, I frankly speaking don't know but after my initial suprise i've come to like that quite a bit, makes casting cantrips feel less like a filler move.(question is can you achieve this with every cantrip to make 'em feel equally useful in their nieche?)
Shove: Now something far more busted and out of whack to the DnD rule set, shoving as bonus action. If we're being honest this is far bigger of a departure than surface effects that are actually decently well supported by flavour text such as: "A flammable object hit by this spell ignites if it isn't being worn or carried."
Personally I absolutely adore the shoving feature, upon closer inspection it perfectly fits the most important rule of DnD, if it's awesome it should be possible. Due to the high level of verticality in the environment and thus combat encounters(more on that latter) shoving becomes a thing one considers quite often. So allowing the player to do this and still perform their attack instead of forcing them to chose feels good. Is it incredibly strong? Yes without a doubt. But we have to remember that the encounters we have in BG3 would absolutely annihilate a party of that size and level in actual DnD, so it's not like Larian didn't take the actual powerlevel of our characters into account. Knocking goblins of of ledges is great, and I feel it shouldn't be infringed upon by an obsessive adherence to the rules. It feels satifying beyond what I thought possible to have them splat on the ground, as well as making combat more dynamic and alive, besides it gives the casters a chance to escape the clutches of some more light weight foes. Which due to the way that combat usually starts and the rather aggressive focus of the AI onto said squishier targets feels good, ofc you could always jump away, but faced with the option to throw someone into a dark pit like a spartan or hopping away like a scarred wallaby I prefer to think every scrawny wizard has a little spartan in him(unless he's low hp and has 20% chance to succeed on the shove, be sure he scampers away like the little rat he is :D). TL:DR shoving as bonus action is awesome keep it.
Familiars: Now I was reluctant to even place this here as in terms of the game Familiars actually work properly, people jsut tend to think they don't. Here's why: In DnD a summoner usually has to forego an action or atleast bonus action to precisely comand their pet/summon, otherwise they are under the controll of the DM. This falls away here as we have control of the entire party, we are so to speak, for the purposes of that the DM. I think it makes Familiars more fun and usable so i'm all for it I like the little critters, however a simple solution for this would be to palce them under AI control rather than player control in combat but frankly speaking that sounds more frustrating than anything else. So keep 'em the way they are!
Jump/Disengage: Is the possibility to disengage as bonus action nice for how you want the battle to flow? Yes. Is it according to the rules? No. Does it make sense that jumping away avoids attacks of opportunity? No. And with that last point is actually where I feel the issue lies with this mechanic. I don't mind being able to disengage as a bonus action it simply feels better and is almost kind of required due to the raw savagery of the combat AI of the enemies. But what I do mind a little is the fact that it's silly that jumping an act decidedly more exposed than walking or running, avoids opportunity attacks. In other words i'm a little on the fence about this it does feel nice, but it feels silly and breaks immersion. Along these lines is also the movement range extension that can be gained from jumping by high STR builds, it feels silly when it becomes the tactically best option to jump every round with your fighter when he's trying to run someone down. Essentially, i'm saying it feels a bit weird but I can easily imagine that it'd be feelig clunky other wise. I and most people I know will probably prefer some sillyness over clunkyness.
Movement:There are a few issues with the movement, particularily in combat, which I know from a friend, can bother people quite a bit. So let's start listing them
Character jumping off of ledges. In some cases, particularily if it involves some distance the path finding decides to jump down a cliff side or a roof and the likes, resulting in falling prone and a lot of dmg. Now this obviously is annoying if it happens unexpectadly, my suggestion is to no chose such a path with the path finding unless somehow indicated that one wants to do it. After all, I think there's even a decent bit of animation work and mechnics behind it. I belive to recall an instance in the Bligthed village where I "walked" off a roof so "slide" down the side of the wall and drop off on the over hand to the ground clearly resultign in less fall dmg than if i had jumped off. Which is a really neat and unexpected feature and something I would welcome a lot to use reliably in combination with for instance feather fall so I don't have to cast feather fall as a bonus action and now lack the opportunity to actually use it as my tool to jump off(Jumpy/disengage) also requires said bonus action. In other words allow us to somehow decide we just want to walk over the edge without jumping. But in general disincentivise the pathfinding from doing so unless instructed to do so.
Next up, navigating around hitboxes: Navigating in combat can be a bit clunky, look no further than the phase spider matriarch. The matriarch is huge, and I like the fact that the path finding doesn't allow you to clip through her legs when walking around her, but then I should not be getting an attack of opportunity for dong that either, I am after all sticking as close to her as I can, but there's no way to get from the front of her to her back without provoking an attack of opportunity when only walking.
This leads me into the next issue, the rough movement "grid". It is somewhat challanging to walk precisely around ground effects and enemies as the movemnt feels a bit unresponsive, which I think is due to a rather rough underlying grind like structure, caused by the smallest possible movement units (?), but i could be wrong in the cause, what matters it that it does feel a bit clunky. To remedy this mybe a short cut or toggle for "save" path finding and "direct" path finding the former trying to avoid ground effects(and opportunity attacks) and the latter being as it is right now.
Food/Long Rests:Food heals a lot. I'm through with act 1 and have slept 3 times. Suffice to say I don't cast that many spells other than eldritch blast on my Warlock
If it's the intention to sleep this little, which is flavourful due to the predicament the characters are placed in i'm fine with the power level of food. However, I noticed when playing with my friends, that they have a tendency to be absurdely wasteful with their resources, essentially going nova every encounter, due to the fact that we're not prevented from long resting by anything, Underdark? no biggy. On a blood smeared road essentially surrounded by Gnolls? sure why not. Then the added power of food means you can enter each and every combat at full health, seemingly without an excesive use of long rests. since only bumping it up to 4 rests would greatly increase the number of spells used not to talk about 5 rests. Generally I can see how the philosophy of this is to give the player freedome in their way to play but it is frankly speaking difficult to no abuse the long rests/food certainly so as right now it doesn't seem to negatively impact the character to rest a few more times. On the contrary I sure would've enjoyed the Tadpole ability earlier
Choice:Generally i'm very happy with the amount of choice and the impact said choices have. There's only one major thing that so far has bothered me and that's a lack of opportunity to tell Halsin that his second in command is a god damn genocidal shadow druid. Sure he demotes her and wants to reeducate her anyways but I think it could significantly change his opinion on her if he knew.
Variant Human:I'm happy with the races thus far and knowing that there are likely many more to come, probably all of the PHB ones and some more from other sources? But a major gripe I have irgh tnow is the lack of variant human, not that I would ever play them but I know plenty of people who don't mind playing a human in a high fantasy settings, why ever they would do that still eludes me to this day. And for them it would only be fair to have the Variant Human available that instead of getting the whole +1 spread get's +1 to to seperate stats and a feat which obviously is quite awesome and opens up entire build options(which I for instance would be likely to explroe when playing with Wyll as he is human and making the choice of a feat at lvl 1 available gives some interestign options.)
Rolling for stats:I love rolling for my stats in DnD instead of using point buy. It's amazing to have a 16, 17 or 18 in your primary stat as it is amazing to have a 6 in your dump stat. Of course this could be "gamed" by restarting until one has perfect stats, if someone wants to do that so be it. However I feel it would add quite a bit of replayability, certainly so in conjunction with my next paragraph. Simply put the higher variance of stats provided by the rolling for them makes for more interesting build and is actually one of the major features I wish to see that i'm not entirely convinced will be implemented. Essentially just give the option to roll for stats, or to use point buy.
Customize origin character starting stats:Another thing I really want is an option to have the origins characters a little less gimped in their stat spread. For instance allow us to set their base stats via point buy when we recruite them, or even better by rolling for it as mentioned above
. When I roll for stats I can perfectly forgive my cleric for only having 9 hp at lvl 1, when there's some point buy involed I can not. Of course I do realize that the stats as they currently are are supposed to represent the personality and physique of said character to a certain extent but there's always a certain decoupling from stats and personality in DnD and I don't feel like it would break immersion if Shadowheart managed 16 con and wouldn't get oneshot 24/7.
Environment designe:I have only positives for this, lots of little things to discover here and there. The general looks are gorgous. The high level of verticality makes for interesting environment and combat.
Encounter designe:The encounters are quite difficult, which I like, even on normal, which we are locked to in EA, sometimes forces us to quite the tactical approach. However, a major thing in DnD is that it shouldn't matter how you solve a potential encounter. Sure you wont get their gear but maybe something else, which happenes here or there alread yin the game, but more importandly, you should get experience even for a diplomatic resolution of tension otherwise it will enforce murder hobo behaviour. Furthermore, in certain situations a surrender/parley option should be available, I know lot's of work to implement but I think it could add significantly to the game. Lem me propose 2 scenarious to outline the value of such an option. Accidentally pissing off the druid grove, or only wanting to kill Kagha and ending up eradicating all the druids. Now if you accidentally piss them of by tresspassing a "yo, yo, sorry mate didn't mean it option" would make sense, whereas if you decide to only end Kagha's live and focus her down and then parley with the rest more sane druids option would again make a lot of sense. (These options should be able to fail don't get me wrong but the should be there.) Another interesting option would be for getting caught. Getting overwhelmed by the gobo's teaching a deepgnome to fly? Surrender and get caught, thrown into a cell, maybe next to Halsin, it would be a classic dnd'esque way of finding the Archdruid. You see I am mostly talking about increasing the flavour not about some stupid pacifist run. So there's no need to have such an option in every fight, just where it makes sense. But I do see the issue with requireing quite a bit of additional effort in audio(/mo-cap).
Feats:I'm generally happy with the feats that are currently available and hope for many more, in particular racial feats, erupting in flames as a Tiefling when casting fire magic is awesome to say the least.
But there's one thing I need to address Great weapon master absolutely needs to be a toggled ability the -5 penalty is definitely not always desired. EDIT: turns out it already is so it only needs to be clarified in the feat selection that oyuc na turn it on and off. Right now most non DnD players wont even know what it does exactly
Bugs:Multiplayer examine: I'm sure you've got plenty of feedback on this already but let's just include it becasue i didn't actually see too many talking about this. I currently can gleam no infromation from examine, friend or fow, in Multiplayer sessions. I assume what I see is the blank default slate. Tiny size, neutral attitude, Int overflow as weight and none of the buffs/debuffs. If you need more info on this lemme know and I'll make a screen shot and everything.
The next thing I have on my list to check out is the re-revised Ranger cuz that one seems to deviate greatly from either version we have for 5e.
That's my 2(thousand) cents so far, obviously I invite discussion and other opinions that why it's a forum post, I really want to know how other people feel about the things I touched on and my solutions where I tried to provide some.
