I think the ground effects have their place, they just have to be proportionate to the spell they are coming from. As i am sure many other posters have pointed out, setting the ground on fire feels right for a fireball spell. Firebolt on the other hand shouldn't. Perhaps having a very slim chance would be ok (rolling a 20 anyone?) but even then 5e has its way of dealing with crits which is already adequate.
exactly. as i already said on multiple threads, ground effects are nice. but if a cantrip can cause all these, then it isn't rewarding anymore, it's just normal gameplay. that makes ground effects a lot less exciting in a game, that isn't based/build around these mechanics (like DOS 1 and 2 are). dnd 5e has a lot of game mechanics. i think that stuffing even more mechanics in there overwhelms players, that don't know 5e yet ant need to learn it (together with all the extra mechanics that larian invented) and all players, that already know 5e mechanics are pissed, because it imbalances everything. ground effects shouldn't be the main selling point for BG3. it will just be called DOS 3. BG3 main selling point should be the dnd rule set.
