I've been playing a little now and just wanted to leave some feedback on the resting mechanic. I'm guessing it won't be the most popular opinion, but anyway...
First off: I'm a casual gamer. I love RPG, but am only vaguely familiar with D&D and honestly do not thing it works well in video games. I find DoS combat vastly superior to Pillars and Pathfinder because it does not deal with the whole rest mechanic. By the time I reached the end of Pillars, I hated whenever I was drawn into a fight. In part, this is my own fault. You see, I'm a hoarder. I'm that gamer who picks up potions and scrolls and hangs on to them for the entirety of the game because I might need them later on. So I reach the end of the game with a whole bunch of potions that are even too low level for me to use. This is a me problem, of course, but I know I'm not the only gamer like this and it feeds into why I really do not like the abilities being tied to the resting mechanic.
I'm hoarding my abilities and spells because I might need them more later. I'm cycling through the same basic attacks on all my characters because of this restriction and while I am for now enjoying the fights, I can see BG falling into the same pitfall as Pillars where I absolutely loathe the combat because it takes too long as I'm holding on to my more fun abilities for a time when I will need them more. Yes, this means I need to get better at balancing things, but it just sucks the fun out of the combat for me.
DoS is a game where I love each and every battle I come up against. It's a challenge without me feeling hampered. I get a kick when an ability comes off its cooldown and I can throw a devastating AOE at the enemy. It is fun and it's thrilling while still being a challenge, and isn't that the point of combat in a game? With BG, it's more about wheedling down the enemy with basic attacks and if you get really into a bind, maybe pulling out one of those superior abilities and hope it isn't too late and saves my ass. While I haven't reached the point yet where it feels like a slog to get through a battle, I feel it's a matter of time for that to happen.
I'm fine with the one action/one movement each turn thing. I'm not so much fine with the restrictions based on my spells and special abilities which forms a mental wall to me and turns combat into a slow slog rather than a part of the game I am thrilled to go through. I would very much love to see this replaced by a cooldown or even a limit per encounter. Or perhaps a mix where it's only a handful of over powerful abilities that are tied to needing to rest. Right now as my ranger, I'm constantly going with my basic attack and that's it.
That said, I do want the camping mechanic to stay. I love having a spot to go to where you can talk to your companions. I just really wish there was more freedom in the combat system. It might be fun in real live D&D (I assumeà , but I find it tedious and restrictive in video games.
Other than that: I love the character creation. I do hope for some more variety between the races with their own types of tattoos etc (a bit more short hair options for female would be nice as well). It's absolutely gorgeous however and I adore my Drow. I love the attention to detail how the colours in the game change when I go from character with dark vision to one without. I definitely plan on making a different race character just to see how much it impacts dialog as I was surprised at how much impact it has on conversations. I like how it makes it really feel like race has an impact other than a few stats.
While I haven't gotten far yet and I'm sure I'll have additional remarks later, this to me is the major flaw I ran in to. That said, I'm definitely looking forward to continuing and love how this is shaping up to be. If the combat can just get ironed out and feel less restrictive, this will be an amazing game.
