SPOILERS BTW
First thank you for being a DM, it's not the easiest job.
so...
- every. damn. NPC. hates you. Why? Why does this have to be so damn oppressive? Where is the levity, the gratitude, the derring-do? Why is everyone such a dick?
I don't know, maybe it's the worm in your eye, the goblins wanting to wipe out the druids, the shadowdruids, a hag (Auntie ethel was actually damn hilarious) , souls being ransomed by zariel, the absolute wanting you dead, back stabbing goblins and drow, Gith with a stick up his ass, Scratch sitting next to his dead master, and the owlbear cub whos mother you probably killed that makes this game so dickish?
That aside there are plenty of things that are light-hearted. You can spam pet scratch the dog because he is such a good boy, you can play fetch with him too, Volo...who uses an ice pick to try and get the worm out of your eye...hint: he fails, "chasing the chicken" in the goblin camp (though its kinda sad but you can save the cub anyway) Auntie ethel's comments and tone (obvious hag from day 1) but still fun to listen to...Petal, the softcore porn scene with a certain drow, The urchin tiefling kids who steal, scam you, listening to shadowheart's sarcastic comments as you get beaten by a sadomasochist, the deep gnome on the windmill, the bear's looks of concern while talking to Volo, The swamp's "sheep" Baaaaa,
goblins have triple their MM health, loads of alchemists fire. It feels like the DM is cheating for no good reason.
1 fight was CR 18 v party of 4. Sure feels like it, but every combat can be beaten without a cleric healing.
- surfaces. surfaces everywhere. go away.
More things to look out for, more tactical possibilities, more oh shit moments when you realize poison spores blow up too. As a 5e and DoS2 player surfaces don't bother me since through 5e I've learned to think creatively. Though i will say that certain surfaces will 1 shot encounters.
- the game wastes my time with big 'set piece' battles like the one at the gates of the druid grove. Lots of NPCs fighting lots of NPCs. I can't ambush or anything because a cutscene forces me into combat so far away from the action I spend most moves running. Just use a cutscene, please.
I see your point, and it would be nice to ambush anything at any time.
- most fights are so difficult that you need party optimisation, which means you'll need to be a cleric or have shadowheart and that's that.
No, I ran a "no healing" cleric for my evil campaign and it was easier than the first (used healing word once to keep an NPC alive. I used tons of healing items sure (gale) but i rarely used shadowheart at all. My 1st playthrough party was PC lock without knockback, Necrosis gale, trickster Astarion, eldritch knight zae (who was shadowheart until lvl 3). AI targets gale first, great, no problem, let him die and necrosis everyone to death while you choke point them all. (a few encounters were nerfed btw). 2nd playthrough was PC non heals light cleric, gale, elritch zae, theif astarion, this one was FAR more effective at survival than the first party. Cleric ac 19 (21 when buffed), Zae ac 20 (22 when buffed), astarion ac 17 with poison on at all times, Gale (abjuration) ac 16 i think. You don't need an optimized party, you just need to be smart about how you go about each encounter, AND USE POTIONS/FOOD as a bonus action and not waste your action on a heal. Which is a pretty big difference coming from 5e.
- picking on low-armor backline targets or knocked out ones. Seriously, I get that in real life monsters will probably do this, but in gameplay the reality is people are going to just give up trying to have low armored casters in their party at all.
Actually, gale is one of my stronger characters when he is alive AND dead. If they want gale so badly, give him to them and let them suffer for it. I actually had a fight where the 2 minotaurs knocked astarion off a cliff and they jumped down to pummel him into vampire dust. It was absolutely hillarious and actually made my fight easier to handle.
- and after all this, theres... nothing. no loot. no helpful items. everything seems empty.
Not every combat needs to drop something good (hook horrors,minotaurs,bulette, and two spectator fights) for example.
This game has great potential but right now it feels like it is a great adventure in the hands of a shitty neckbeard DM who hates you.
I actually felt like Larian was a DM who was constantly trying to goad me into making the "wrong choice" just to see what would happen. Break the mirror sure, i like liches? sure!, make a deal with a hag? sure, have volo take out your eye with an ice pick? sure! WHO WOULDNT DO ALL OF THESE!?
