Well I don't actually mind buffs and summons before the fights, it can't be prevented without it seeming unnatural. The problem is that apparently, with any efficient build, you don't need any of that to slaughter the enemies. However simply increasing the enemy's hp seem kinda boring, that's why I proposed those other changes and I wondering what other people thought about it. Of course, increasing the enemy's hp is still a must given how fragile they currently are.
I agree about the buffs, but it seems like this possibility was not considered when the combat was balanced. Also, bosses definitely need more HP, some Madora's 4 bladed attack took off more then half of Braccus's Health. That just shouldn't happen on a Main Boss like this.
Another measure to tackle this issue would obviously be to add more (harder) difficulties, which should not only increase the enemies HP, but also their skill levels/action points/etc, essentially giving them a lot more options forcing a more reactive play-style out of the players.
AI also needs some work. Enemies should avoid walking into negative ground effects if at all possible, use more aoe based spells, and disable key party members, rather than bash on the closest party member.
As for spreading combat beneficial bonuses from abilities around a bit: I agree. Especially because I suspect that in the full game you reach your soft damage ceiling long before enemies reach their maximum strength, leading to a wonky difficulty curve, where the game is reasonably difficult at the start, then gets easier and easier to the point of being boring (most of what is in the Beta atm), and then starts to get harder again once all you hit that soft cap, but enemies keep getting stronger.
EDIT:
Well, if the game is already too easy for your taste why do you make it even easier by using "tricks"???
If you want a harder experience just don't buff your characters, don't prepare for fights even before approaching enemies and don't follow a min-max strategy in leveling.
The whole purpose of a game with maximum freedom is to give you as player the choice how you want to play it. If you do everything to make fights as easy as possible, well, in that case it's your own decision. Point is: you don't have to do that. Just "roleplay" more and play with more discipline, using your skill points to make actual characters instead of making four war machines for putting out maximum damage...
I mean the concept of this game is not following the Dark Souls route with maximum difficulty and trial-and-error for which you need to train or grind or anything. If you maximize your damage skills you will win every fight easily but you lack other stuff. Combat is just one part of the game, it's not the single concept of the game. This is neither Dark Souls nor Diablo. It's not about making "the best character build". That's not the core of this game. It's a real role-playing game, not a combat-driven action-RPG.
But I agree that there should be a super-hard mode with maybe some ironman features for those people who just want to play the game for "the challenge". And general difficulty on hard could be raised a bit as well.
Well, tactically gimping myself in a game that prides itself on its tactical combat seems a bit counter intuitive. I want to be challenged while using all the tools the game gives me. I want to think "What could I do to be more effective", not "I know how to win this fight, but I won't do it like that because that is to easy".
As for missing out on other things: Not really you are still able to pick up Pet Pal, to successfully charm/reason/intimidate people, to craft extensively, steal everything that isn't nailed down, Identify items, or build one of your characters to be very socially adept.
As long as your Min-Max a little bit the game as of now Lacks any sort of challenge, but as mentioned above, this might change later in the game, but still cause a very skewed difficulty curve.
Don't get me wrong, I am not asking to make the game generally harder, or bashing people who don't want to have as challenging combat, I would just like the option to ramp up to challenge so i enjoy it and don't just go through the "motions" every fight.
EDIT2:
Out of curiosity: what do you think one would miss with a build like i mentioned? I only played through the game once with my friend so far, and I'm pretty sure we didn't miss anything noteworthy.
EDIT3:
If D:OS was an actual pen and paper RPG where it matters if your character is extremely clumsy and is so dumb he can barely talk I would agree with you that Overspecialization into combat is silly, but as it stands any of those things dont really change your interaction with the world... with the exception that your character is better/worse at fighting.
