I'm currently replaying D:OS1. It's very fun but the only thing I hate about combat is how winner is decided by a dice roll of CC landing/not landing. For me as long as there are hard CC any randomness is not fun because combat feels luck based instead of skill based.
Risk management is part of ANY strateg decision. However, the process should be set to allow comeback. e.g. hard cc are The problem. That is The most design issue in the first game. The design flaw of Too much CC AND random. Unfortunately Larians designers decided to keep hard cc chain as a trademark and eliminate randomness.
For a sake of game and playfull soul make rather opposite-- >>> Admit that randomness certain throws is part of a game, but remove hard cc.
At this point, we can peacefully go back to Willpower/Bodybuilding system. Replace hard cc by soft cc then add third defensive roll based on Dex (reflex saving throw.)
Pokemon style magic combat based on base "physical" skill like ranged pain reflection, magic defense bubble skill or perseverance replace some more believable skills like active defense (by weapon, armor, skill) passive defense by armor quality. Base active defense should have like one attack per round, then passive only defense is used. When you are trained then more active dfences per round could be performed. Warrior who has all his attack skills AOE splashes is a mage (or Pikachu) not warrior. Craziness like on demand Rage is a ... out of designer's sanity. Rage the mind status - need to be activated by pain which is made by enemy with a certain chance.
The lesser feeling for growth of character also partly caused by the new AP system. And this new system also made skills like Adrenalin to strong? The just changed to much, I feel: The grapics are the same and the skills themselves are pretty much the same, but everything else is totally different now. (except some skills are now only usable with source points)
I would say, graphics is more generic. Less soul, less style but more technical quality. I Agree that reduced AP is a way how to rip apart working system. The game/combat systems burned all good but new added weird casual JRPG feel.
I would really like to see redo current casual JRPG style to a classic European RPG with flavor of Ad&D,Fallout (1,2), Pillars of Eternity style.
