Hi,
first let me thank you for lovely and detailed feedback. I'm going to snip the positives, and address some of the things you view as negative.
- Too few options for your actions on a given round. Most rounds boil down to smacking X enemy with sword, firing bow at X enemy or using your favourite cantrip at X enemy. This round, next round and every round. Take a hint from your previous Divinity games and find a way to introduce more action options, so the situation changes your action/ability priority rather than the somewhat spammy thing we have now
- The aforementioned (good) interactions need more explanation, in that some cantrips create surfaces, acid makes AC go down etc. A new player will likely be overwhelmed
- With how damage values and health pools scale (this is a D&D issue as well, pretty much every edition), combats end up stretched out due to enemies being bullet-sponges. This is further compounded by the fact that AoE is MUCH less readily available than in, say, Divinity. Please consider adding more variety and AoE in terms of attack options
- Please show the specific dice rolls in all applicable situations. Looking at dice is a main feature of D&D, and it really should be here too.
In order:
Combat options: Ultimately in any game (tabletop or online) you pretty much have a move and an action. I really appreciate that here in BG3 we can also do partial moves, hide, jump, throw things or even eat. That is in addition to sword [weapon] strikes and spells/cantrips. I think that's a lot.
As far as AoE availability; I'm not seeing a lack. Surfaces (via spell or thrown item) function this way, along with some of the spells. Heck out of combat there is even AoE healing which was a trip for me to get used to.
- Okay... the whole Illithid thing is cool, I get what you're going for, but having the game start off with being an Illithid prisoner, fighting intellect devourers on an Illithid battle ship being attacked by red dragons just feel... decidedly NOT low-level D&D, which is a damn shame.
- Main character (if custom) is just about the most bland character ever in the history of D&D
The intro is amazing; but it also makes clear that the PC's are too low level to do much but escape; the ship, the dragons, the demons, the illthids very clearly out class us. And also offer a tease of the future. I found that cool; I'm sad that you didn't find it enjoyable.
Main character being "bland".
Only if you ignore all the choices you made - heck it MATTERS (to me, to my head-cannon of my character, and for that matter to the fanfiction I write) that my half-drow was a sailor on the seas of the underdark. It MATTERS to many of the rolls if the character knows Arcana, is a good judge of people (deception or investigation).
I think that the PC being interesting or not is a player problem, not a game problem.
But then I'm old enough to remember playing in the box the refrigerator came in - my and my brother navigated our ship to Mars, and also defeated evil armies - and what we had to work with was literally cardboard.
I urge you to use your creativity - it's very enjoyable!
why is the main character the only character that isn't voiced!? You put so much damn time and effort into these characters, the dialogue system, the individual lines, the cinematics they play out in, the facial expressions, it's all great... and then the whole thing is ruined by a mute main character?
Okay... ya got me there. We already picked a dern voice; why not use it instead of standing there with resting-WTF-face.
First round's on me if we ever meet in the Blushing Mermaid,
I'll buy the second round!!
