We can already see the changes Larian had to make, goblins have 3 times the hp and half the AC, to accommodate surfaces, and to accommodate their ridiculous height 3:1 advantage system
They're going to have to rebalance concentration as a result as well, which will rebalance concentration spells, which will...
this is just going to be a spiral of them gutting the system they were given to use, and it's going to be unrecognizable by launch (battles already feel more like Divinity than D&D, the game really wants you to just shit fire everywhere and burn your enemies out)
You're not really being smart about this are you?
You know Larian has to balance for multiple things and there are some things that 5e is not good with and some things that 5e is like any fucking system -- in short: context matters a lot and balance is always contextual.
As Abits mentioned the changes were most likely to ramp up difficulty while keeping the encounter number low, you can probably then imagine why they would want to keep the encounter number low.
You can also see how the other battles NOT involving goblins turns out. Guess what? A LOT less surface effects and a lot less manipulation of height.
Try looking at it from their shoes or what possible perspectives may have caused them to do so before going full drool cup.
I am, their height system is asinine and is going to break so many builds, it belongs in a game where everyone can teleport, not in Dungeons and Dragons
I can work through the design logic from internal testing, the monster manual goblins would be incredibly frustrating to fight with their (NOT D&D's!) elevation system, giving you an incredibly low chance to hit them with their elevated defensive positions. Furthermore, with their surfaces, it wouldn't matter because you can just throw fire
So they have to break more and more of D&D to accomodate their Michael Bay esque love of fire everywhere
What are the consequences right now? Concentrating on spells is MUCH harder than the original design intent. Spells that rely on fixed hp like Sleep are much less powerful than they are supposed to be (ignoring the further nerfs they gave sleep by not having it last for the full minute), spells like fireball aren't going to be sufficient to kill large groups of enemies.
To put this in perspective, since you obviously have no clue how D&D 5e works: A maximum level wizard getting firebolted by a level 1 enemy has (assumption: war caster, 14 constitution) a ~12% chance of losing concentration on their spell. Cool, really slim.
In baldur's gate 3, that same archmage, weaver of reality, bringer of Armageddon, getting hit by a level 1 firebolt has something like a 40% chance to lose concentration if they get hit (hit->catch fire->walk out of fire->burn for 1 tick-> 4 saves)
So this will obviously need to be fixed!
I look forward to what other parts of this incredibly well balanced TTRPG system are needlessly changed to accommodate their desire to make another Divinity game instead of a D&D game.
