Originally Posted by Sylvius the Mad
Originally Posted by Yawning Spider

I worry that this game will end up a nightmare child of 5E and Divinity with Larian trying to appease their core fans and the core fans of the original duology.

As someone who has limited exposure the Larian's other games, but is an old-school BG fan, so far I'm a big fan of what I see from BG3.

I generally agree, it's quite an entertaining game as is. I'll be happy to play a complete version of the game more-or-less as its balanced and paced today. I'm not a doomsayer and not particularly interested in the internet style of argument where we debate whether it's the greatest thing ever or the worst piece of shovelware to hit shelves.

Suffice it to say there are number of departures from the tabletop system and I question whether or not they were made with sufficient intention. Cantrips leaving behind surfaces and having utility, for example, is a very strange decision. Without getting too into the weeds, there are a number of reasons JC was able to give 5E casters their spellcasting stat modifier to hit and, in some cases, damage, while simplifying the weapon proficiency system and giving all Ranged class weapons Dexterity to hit and damage, but the careful balancing and extensive playtesting of Cantrips was probably chief among them. Firebolt was not intended to have any utility, and fire spells which ignite surfaces explicitly say so in the rules of the PHB for balance purposes. As is, it's almost strictly better to be casting Firebolt in BG3 than using any other ranged weapon because of the DoT and potential AoE ignition damage (potential here meaning all but certain, as you can easily pull some AoE damage out of Firebolt in almost every fight.) That Larian missed this design note or simply decided to ignore it is not very encouraging and endemic to the criticisms I've seen from fans of the original duology. It changes the scope of many fights - I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a D&D campaign module where a significant portion of the damage in early 1st-3rd level encounters was environmental, discounting simple traps, which are entirely unlike barrel explosions or igniting Entangle.