So my friend and I enjoyed the game quite well, it felt more challenging as the tactical mode in DOS:EE and we are looking forward for tactical mode in this game, but there are still some issues.
Some probably don't count as balancing specifically, it's just a list I put together:
- Team mates should not see, your speak options, they should only see your choice.
- Warfare skill Criple with two-handed weapon (100-140 damage) feels extremely broken, one hitting many normal mobs. We normally opened sneak with the warrior behind the enemie mages, open the fight with teleport and teleport the other mage there => instantly killing most units without physical armor
- Trait Warlord is totally broken, combined with two-handed weapon and enrage anyway. Either make it proc only once per round or reduce the effect to 1 AP per kill. (Also there is probably a bug, if you kill someone, but used your last AP for the kill, you still have your turn ended.)
- One handed skill feels pretty useless, mainly because it gives no shield benefits.
- All those armor, magic armor and vitality skills feel like wasted points except for the first one.
- Eating body parts would fit more to undeads than elves.
- Constitution loss for the elven Flesh sacrifice just gets insane over time, 5 Constitution already at level 7 or 8.
- Memory is just annoying. Less usefull skills will never get used that way.
- Level 2 skills are underpowered, too many slots needed and mostly source point makes them to expensive for the effect. The fire elemental just seems to be ridiculous weak for example.
- Bonus stats for wepons should not be totally random. Boww with strenght, Axes with Int or staff mit Agility are just worst finds ever.
- In DOS there was a drawback, if you used higher level items, in DOS2 there seems to be none.
- Social points feel pretty scarce, making racial traits to relevant in that category.
- Leader should get at least a bit of his passive, because he learned to lead so well and not just nothing.
Most of what you're saying is commonly echoed here on the forums. I am curious about a couple of your issues, though.
First of all, why do you think you should not be able to see your friend's dialogue options? I always enjoyed showing off to my friends the ridiculous options that I wasn't going to pick.
What do you mean to say about the constitution loss? It resets shortly after you stop spamming Flesh Sacrifice. If it is lingering around for levels at a time, then you should make a bug report about it on the respective forum. Otherwise, -6 or so constitution seems fair in exchange for... what... 9 turns of +1 AP and +25% damage? In fact, it seems totally unfair. You are definitely getting the better end of that deal with the added AP and damage.
Why should leaders gain their own bonus? The entire point of leadership is that you cannot lead yourself, meaning choosing to invest in either one or two leaders is a has a tradeoff to it, and I feel it is a good one.
Why do you dislike higher level items having their penalties removed? It allows you to finally be able to use the loot you've found effectively without having to wait, or take penalties. Strictly a good thing for players.
If you're running out of civil skill points, have you considered the talent All Skilled Up? I feel like it actually has merit in this game, due to the civil/combat change.
Everything else you've said you'll pretty much be able to find a thread about here on the forums. Memory is terrible in its current implementation (Swen has confirmed that they are going to be trying several different implementations of memory throughout EA), crippling blow is broken like you say, source skills cost way too much in terms of investment to ever be feasible (another side effect of the memory system, in part), etc. etc. You should hang out here more often. You'll fit right in. =)
