Your chance to hit and be hit are dependent on the relative level of your opponent, so presumably the same is true of shield blocking (I didn't use shields at all).
As I understand it, they modified the DD AI system for BD, dropping friendly NPC AI (ie theft detection and reaction) to improve enemy AI. It is still a little lacking, though. With the next gen game being done from scratch, there should be much better AI.
More options for party member AI would be nice to have. I don't know about automatically switching weapons (could be useful, might result in mostly the computer playing itself), but there should be a way to tell party members not to rush off alone to attack strong opponents, or to not use powerful spells or expensive/rare arrows on weak opponents. In most RPGs with AI controlled party members, I have had to directly control an archer or mage, so they were not wasting arrows or mana.
I would rather have base settings for weak, equal or strong opponents than assign various threat levels to individual monster and weapon types.
Observing opponents is a good idea. There could be an option to take up a defensive position, which reduces damage taken, and may allow you to attack that creature more effectively, get a slight experience point boost, or improve a skill slightly. If it is possible to attack to provoke rather than do damage, it might make sense to have at least one party member in a defensive position observing more carefully.
I remember an option in an old console game to have the computer automatically fight for you (basically attack the nearest opponent with whatever weapon was equipped). This was handy to skip to the end of fights with weak opponents, but if the AI system was elaborate enough that you could do this with most fights it would essentially be taking you out of the game (it would be more of a RTS than an RPG).
Unique and set items loose their special status when changing acts (so the name changes and they can be sold). I assume this is due to limitations in the inventory system. DD did not really have separate acts, but I do not know how much of that system was kept, updated or rewritten for BD.
You can delete the '..\Beyond Divinity\Static\intro.mpg' file, if you wish (the other mpg files can presumably be deleted after you have done the associated act change). I never tried deleting the music files, but you could try renaming the 'music' folder, and see if the game has any problems afterwards.
The saved game folders are fairly compressible. You can zip older saves to free up space, before deleting or otherwise removing them from your hard drive.
