I have no background in D&D so I'm merely learning a new game without having known the fundamental rules of 5e D&D. I have played other cRPG's before like Dragon Age: Origins, Pillars of Eternity 2, Wasteland 2, DOS2.
Since I possess no real knowledge of D&D I can't really say for better or worse how well the D&D mechanics have been implemented so I'll focus on moments of frustration or the staggering unfun moments of Act 1. For context, I've done half a singleplayer playthrough and a full coop playthrough.
- Party Traversal via Jumping: This is a rather tedious time wasting element of the game, where to get to certain areas you have to maneuver via jumping which is followed by doing the same jump 3 other times for each party member. Any platforming would follow the formula: # of jumps needed x # of party members. I realize verticality is important to level design in this day and age but I find myself dreading seeing any platforming puzzles/paths with a full party.
- Multi-Attacks: From what I understand this is a core component of DND and I do not advocate to remove it, but as an newbie it really blind-sided me and my friend when we first encountered enemies capable of multi-attacks, literally going 'wtf, did they just attack twice?'. It'd be nice if there was a trait to denote that a enemy possesses the capability to conduct multi-attacks or simply has 2 actions/per turn, maybe that's too much, I don't know, all I know is that it was extremely frustrating encountering these otherwise generic looking enemies. Mini-Boss/Bosses (Minotaur, Beholder) I would expect to have this ability but not pawns. ('Fiends' @ Toll House, 'Animated Armor' @ Ruined Tower)
- Downed Cycling: A tactical situation whereby you help/throw a potion at a character to prevent imminent death repeatedly and since that takes an action and the person helped up loses does not come back with one until their next turn you haven't solved the problem leading to them being knocked down again and cycling through again. More prominent against enemies with multi-attacks, and the AI really loves to attack the same character. I can't say how to solve this, I just know it's not a very fun situation.
- Pushing is toxic: As a bonus action, this is really really strong. You can displace enemy positions, push them off cliffs for large damage or into the void for an insta-kill. You only realize how toxic this really is when you're on the receiving end which I learned in the Underdark/Goblin Camp. I feel it needs to be bumped into an action considering how powerful the Push/Shoot or Cast is for ranged characters and also reduce toxicity levels when fighting in multi-story rooms.
- Throwing is underpowered: As opposed to Pushing, this does consume your action, and all the while you are not allowed to throw people off the map and enemies thrown don't suffer from gravity if thrown down from multiple stories or even put into a knocked down.
