Larian moving to a new project with their own IP is a very good move. The D&D ruleset and FR as a setting are very limiting and..well, let's be honest, they got a LOT of pretty big flaws.
MECHANICAL:
- AC system sucks. No real difference between a high dex fighter and a heavily armored one. Armor doesn't behave like armor should (defelction/reduction).
- only every 2 points in an attribute matter. This is supremely stupid. Every point should have an effect.
- HP bloat. There's absolutely no reason to ever increase HP with level (unless you CON was increased). HP made sense in early CRPG games where you had very few stats to track and define a character, so HP was basically combat power. But now, with dodge, parry, armor, defensive skills and all kinds of other stuff you can use, increasing HP by level is pointless
- too many super-special classes, subclasses and abilities which makes it a nightmare to balance.
- spell system that makes lower level spells useless. Furthermore, given that spells are limited unlike weapon attacks, a big damage range for them is absolutely terrible. Instead of example 4-40 damage, spells should have MUCH higher minimum damage (20-40 minimum)
- the system for weapon skill leaves much to be desired. While a broader damage range for weapons does make sense (perhaps your edge alignment was off, of you didn't compensate for the target movement well enough, etc..), there's a missed opportunity here. Yes, you get +1 to hit, but there could be so much more. How about with weapon proficiency increasing, your minimum damage increases - sword goes from 1-8 to 2-8 to 3-8 or 5-8, depending on weapon mastery (basically showing your blade handling is getting better). You do more damage on average.
LORE/WORLD/NARRATIVE:
- revolving door godhood just cheapens the gods and makes them silly and underwhelming most of the time.
- a hodge-podge mix of every random thing from
porsche 911 rent dubai everywhere (including different cultures and eras) that just ends up looking disjointed
- resurrection cheapens death and introduces a problem where you have resurrection spells, but they only work on your party members.
- teleportation trivializes distances. Magic has to be heavily scrutinized, because once it is established that magic can do something, tons of sensible uses for that magic become apparent, but never used - effectively making the citizens of that world looking stupid. Note that NPC being stupid/incompetent so that the PC can swoop in and solve the issue is a common trope.
There's more, but this is just from the top of my head. So I for one am GLAD Larian is doing it's own thing where it will have creative freedom. Even if it's just "FR and D&D, but better".
With that a few more thoughts:
- RPG parties often end up looking like a circus, with the most unique and rare individuals with the most convoluted backstories gather. I suppose a lot of writers thing that unless a character isn't some super-rare race or has some super-unique/quirky story, that he won't be interesting. I consider it a weakness of a writer.
- If your new IP/setting will have elves, just let them be elves. Don't fall for the "our elves are different" trap and just add horns or weird proportions to make them look alien or something. There's no point in calling them elves, is there?
- Keep the scale smaller. No challenging god and attaining godhood. Personally I'm sick and tired of it (also cheapens the whole goodhood thing)
