@Rumrunner151
I fail to see how it could possibly make the game less appealing to anyone that you get more choices of how to play the game? i'm not suggesting to enforce anything , only to give more choices like a GM could/would do.
First thing is, if a company brings in a consultant to help them improve their product, the very first thing the consultant will ask is "who is your target consumer?". And the first mistake many companies do is answering "everyone".
You simply can't design a product that fits everyone and by not acknowledging that you often come up with a product that doesn't really fit anyone.
If I buy a game, I don't wanna start filling in a A4 filled form with checkboxes to evaluate what I want to play, that's practically asking me, the consumer, to design the game for them. In fact, such a maneuver would put me off.
Secondly, he would ask "How have you marketed/pitched this product so far? Your product have to stay relatively close to that pitch/marketing as to not confuse the buyer or be perceived as a hoax. You can ofc completely change the marketing if you during development realize that your product would be better aimed towards another market. As long as you're transparent with that decision.
So, what has Larian done so far? Well, I conclude that through out their whole marketing campaign they've been very clear that this is supposed to be Baldur's Gate 3, a D&D franchise, based on 5th edition rule set. Not inspired by, based upon. If Larian simply would have announced that they are producing the next Baldur's Gate, and letting us know nothing more, a lot of the current controversy could have been hindered. But they didn't do that.
And as they didn't do that, I'm honestly baffled with people asking them to not make this a d&d 5e game, mostly with the argument that they just want a new really good rpg game from Larian. Now, what people find being a really good game is subjective and why can't those that don't like 5e or even d&d wait for Larians next project. Trust me, D&D fans has waited quite a while now compared to those that really enjoyed the divinity series.
With that said. Larian has imho done quite a good job with some nice homebrewing improving i.e the ranger. But went horribly wrong in other design choices diluting classes by giving spell scrolls to everyone, disengage and hide as bonus actions to everyone, changing cantrips that didn't need changing (true strike is a fair improvement though) and balancing the combat around those changes messing up the rest system etc. And I can agree with the check box idea for a very select few options, absolutely no more than 5 though.
