Wait, I thought the description on the barbarian Reason's Grasp gloves was just poorly worded. They used to trigger whenever rage ended, regardless of whether or not it was done "prematurely." Did that change?
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I agree that a lot of the items are bit too MMO'ey, especially the "sets." Unless they can be tied to the story, or perhaps part of a quest or side-plot, they do feel too gamey, and end up being restrictive in terms of character build ideas.
For example, most of the lightning charge items are either useless, or less useful than typical DnD magic items, when each is equipped by themselves. So then, you are encouraged to "collect them all" and their placement feels very MMO'ey rather than immersive. Why are they distributed where they are? Why would my character expect to find these? It makes you think in "meta" terms too much.
If there was a "set" that you were intentionally questing for because they are the macguffin needed (or very helpful) to defeat some gating enemy or challenge, that would be good for the story.
I don't like that the (apparent) key to moving into the "Shadow Curse" beyond EA requires an item that will just be dropped or laying around right before you head out. Especially while the big sub-plot and build-up around the Adamantine Forge exists. That questline only gets you two pieces of pretty-looking armor that are generally less useful than their +1 equivalents, and are way less exciting than finding non-magical plate or +1 half-plate would be.
(Granted, the Adamantine stuff is useful if you stack it and build around it, but again that feels meta... it's in no way relevant to your story. You can completely skip this and it really does not matter.)
OTOH, I do like that figuring out how to beat the guardian of the Adamantine Forge is helped by picking up lore (or paying attention to it) along the way.
I do appreciate Larian's efforts in being creative here. I really have liked the idea of lower-level items that have drawbacks to offset their benefits. However, when these involve conditions that are too-specific or must be tied to "builds" and pseudo-randomized collecting, ala card games, it becomes distracting meta-stuff.
Why are there "lightning charge" set items evenly spaced all over the different locations topside and in the underdark? Why would my character be looking to collect "wrath" items and what would that even mean to him? You could probably fix some of this with adventure design and writing.
For example, it seems like this "Yrre the Sparkstruck" and Lenore created some (all?) of the lightning items. If we learned very early that we *needed* to fight Grym or some such to get to Moonrise, and that he was vulnerable to lightning and not much else, we might follow a lead to go somewhere specific to find these items. Maybe that becomes a whole reason to do a sidequest: To venture into the lair of a monster where "Yrre" was last reported to have gone and perished. That could be an alternative to learning about the lava and hammer method.
Of course, Grym would have to be gating to the story and not just an inconsequential boss creature protecting the weird, pseudo-magic "reeling" items that many parties will just immediately sell.
