The acid pool should be completely removed from the game except maybe for flavor in certain areas like alchemists laboratories. It lasts forever and applies a strong debuff. And the debuff doesn't make sense.
Why do I have -2 AC because I'm standing in acid? Are the enemies targeting the bottom of my boots? Of course not.
If Larian absolutely is in love with the idea of Acid Splash dealing -2 AC, that should be treated like this: On in initial attack, target makes a Dex save for no damage and no status. If they fail, they receive the -2 AC Acid debuff, which ends at the end of their next turn. No pool of forever-acid is created. It's a cantrip.
You could also simply make it so that the pool of acid disappears in a round and have higher tier spells create longer lasting ones or stronger ones if you want to trigger more people into a rage. Because it is a cantrip doesn't necessarily mean that something needs a duration - the consideration of a cantrip's power can however include duration if it has one.
Rest balance is a separate issue. If they change rests to be more restricted, will you go "oh, maybe this is an issue after all"?
They would also have to change consumables and the amount floating around the world. In the current iteration of the EA, it's not an issue because you can beat all the content with various parties with or without abusing rests and without reliance on cantrips only.
The reason I bring this up is that I am going to
Okay, fine, add the modifier 1d8 + 3. Max damage is 11, which is less than 13.5, the average damage of a Firebolt. The maximum damage of a single melee attack is less than the average of a cantrip.
At best, only the last d4 happens on the target's second turn. The additional ticks of damage are triggered by the target moving when they get their first turn after being hit. If they don't jump clear out of the burning surface, they take a third d4 of damage, before they get to act, and if they're still alive at the top of their second turn, they take a fourth d4. From one single cantrip attack.
Cool. Glad you're being reasonable about this.
It's actually lower on both ends when you factor in accuracy, but as soon as you get gear it changes, or if you're min-maxing damage such as using candles (which are free to drop and free to activate) or if you're factoring in great weapon master. Also, the average damage for things like weapons increases drastically based on advantage/disadvantage. The thing with firebolt is that its scaling is very limited and by level 4 physical dps has the potential to catch up whether you feel that the curve is okay is separate issue that can be discussed.
