Well, the last seasons that had no relation with the book are the worst ones.
But Larian had an hard challenge ahead. Imagine an monster that can cast Flesh to Stone spell or spell like ability that insta petrify on failed save. An BG fan will see it as "makes sense, is a medusa", but an D:OS2 would probably think that this is an unbalanced broken mechanic.
Actually, Dwarves in DoS2 have a racial ability that petrifies enemies and also does damage, so I do not think that is the case.
But as i've said, Petrify on DOS2 can be "negated" by magic armor https://divinity.fandom.com/wiki/Physical_and_Magical_Armor_(DoS2)
On DOS1, will be different but i din't played DOS1 so i can't give an honest opinion. And note that petrify works very different on both games. On NWN1, depends the difficulty. On Might & Magic VI, petrify is permanent and the unique spell that can counter(Stone to Flesh) have an time limit to work...
ed: Yes, you also have the "petrify" status in DoS1. It works differently than in the games you told us about. In Dos1 the status debuffs have a chance to fail, but only depends on the caster, you cannot "improve or decrease your character´s chances to be debuffed" (saving throws are that). You can be immune to or cure them. They removed those in Dos2 and put the "armor protects from debuffs" thing.
There is a mod to have "Saving throws" in DoS2. I use it and works well. Also, a mod to make the hit rate more difficult. Those make the game more interesting for me.
You can easily make optional the "Show helmets" or graphic changes, interface, difficulty etc, but make core rules like saving throws or combat mechanics optional could be very challenging and usually the devs do not bother. The modders usually address that kind of things.
