Glad to see people adding to the list, hopefully Larian uses these suggestions/found bugs to their advantage!
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Concerns & Suggestions Cont.
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- Descriptions for spells, feats, class features, and abilities should be the same as if they were in normal D&D 5E (obviously changed slightly to fit with any changed game mechanics) but with the same level of descriptiveness and information. Without this, it makes it a lot harder to plan things out, figure out a reasonable outcome I can expect from certain abilities, spells, etc.
- Optionally, players should be able to have a more informative UI with all numbers being used in the background (like their ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws) being shown in either a log or directly next to the place where they are being rolled.
- If a creature has resistance or immunity to a damage type, it should be clearly shown in some visual (or textual) way to allow players to KNOW why their attack only did one damage, two damage, etc when it mathematically doesn’t make sense, else they may think it’s a bug or continue using that obviously not useful attack on the enemy.
- One I’ve commonly heard but will state here, disengage and jump should be two separate options. Some people argue it was that way in DOS2, but even that was a special ability only the way finder got after finding a skill book for it, which took at least 3 action points if I’m not mistaken. In D&D, it’s a full action (and bonus action for specific classes like rogue for use in their method of fighting).
- Cantrips need to be a little toned down. I love the addition of surfaces that do different environmental effects. It was an aspect of DOS2 I adored. The problem is, with a spell like ray of frost, it not only does decent damage, has a chance to slow, but creates a slippery surface underneath an enemy which could knock them prone and take away their whole turn. That is very powerful for a spell I can spam with no repercussion or limitations besides action economy.
- Features for classes should be clearly visible for future levels, so that players can plan out their builds in a game that is highly dependent on whether or not your character is built well. Alternatively, make this optional for players so that some players don’t need to see it if they do not want to have those skills spoiled, or maybe even keep it secret until they’ve played a class once, so they can see them all before hand for a second run.
- Monsters with abilities that extend beyond what the normal D&D stat blocks gave them should be higher CR and look much different. It should be easy to discern them from the other versions of that monster either by name or by visuals so that a player can understand that that is a different beast theyre tangling with. For example, I’ve previously heard of an Ogre being able to use the sleep spell in the game thus far, which I believe makes them much more powerful. As such, they should be higher CR (or level in this case) and boast a much different look than normal ogres.
- Rogues should get advantage from being successfully hidden, enabling them to do a sneak attack (made from sneaking) additionally, that sneak attack should be available to the weapon in the off hand if the main hand misses, as it hasn’t been used more than once a turn.
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Optional Quality of Life
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- There should be an optional rule to allow for the use of a perception roll or investigation check to find objects around a room, or even just to have the narrator point out things you might miss at a first glance. It would add a lot more merit to those ability checks as they have in D&D proper, and would give a lot more opportunity for you to have a proper narrator explore the world around us in vivid detail in the way you want it explained! Having us make a perception check in a dungeon and revealing through the narrator the smells we smell there adds so much to the ambience and immersion.
- As much as it is a staple of Divinity to be able to inspect a creatures stats to plan against them, maybe have it optional that a player must make a successful check (Arcana, History, Nature, Religion, Insight, etc.) against that creature to figure out its weaknesses, and have those weaknesses clearly displayed rather than in a secondary hand window that isn’t visible at first glance without clicking through a couple menus.
- The previous suggestion would also allow for the inclusion of a beastiary, something I think that a game as diverse with monsters as dnd should definitely have so that players can reference back to information they found out about previous monsters in previous fights. It could also give incentive to have fights drag out longer so that players can learn more about how monsters they fight.
- Intiative could hypothetically show the numbers rolled for each character, or at the very least each PC, considering we technically rolled them.
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