A big problem is that the game suffers in almost every single area that DnD mechanics were stripped out or replaced.

- Challenge Rating and the other means that DnD uses to balance encounters have been stripped out, and now you have wild difficulty spikes with first-level goblins using action surge and similar nonsense. Save-scumming was fine in BG1&2 when fights and load times were short, but if you're switching to a turn-based system where everything takes 10x as long, you should probably give some consideration to the balance mechanics of the system you're supposedly using.

- Overlaying the 'surfaces' mechanic with 5e imbalances combat across the board. Cantrips are now stronger than level 1 and 2 spells now that Fire Bolt can create a 6+ damage a turn DoT with no saving throws (even if it misses!), and Ray of Frost can create massive ice surfaces that trivialize encounters. "You slip in all the blood you've spilled and fall" is a fun GM goof to pull once, but is obnoxious 20+ encounters in. The strength and spammability of surfaces greatly detracts from the number of strategic choices available to players in 5e. It's obvious why encounters are poorly tuned, then: spells are outrageously strong and it's implausible to balance the game around them while even pretending to stick to the d20 system.

- Class balance has been obliterated, and not just due to missing mechanics. Now that cantrips are so overtuned, fighters and rogues get absolutely nothing to compete - except for the fact that everyone can spam spells now that scrolls are open to everyone.

- The bonus action system hasn't been thought through at all. Every single character in the game has essentially been given cunning action - one of the rogue's most valuable low-level mechanics - which means that protecting your archers and mages is now trivially easy. Get cornered? Whatever, jump to safety! Again, it's a straight detraction loss on the strategic level.

In every case, replacing DnD mechanics with DIVOS ones hurts the strategic aspect of the game. Also in every case, it seems so much less likely that Larian replaced DnD systems with DIVOS ones because they thought it would make a more interesting game and more likely that they didn't add the DnD systems in because they already had 'something close enough' in the DIVOS engine and didn't bother to consider the balance issues.

What's getting lost in this debate is that many people are unfavorably comparing BG3 to DnD or BG2 not because they're sticklers for the rules, but because this game is hideously imbalanced and 5th ed - the supposed source material - is not.

Either respect the source material or replace it with something of comparable quality. What we have right now is a miserably considered hybrid, and it's not just for early access reasons.

Last edited by Deemer; 08/10/20 07:26 PM.