I agree with your opening comments. The opening setting is great. I don't agree with others that complain that level 1 characters have no place in a fight between mind flayers and dragons and devils... The whole point of the tutorial/opening is that you avoided all of that and it's a miracle you survived it. You don't actually fight any of the more powerful monsters in the beginning, you just run past while they fight.. or they're just part of the cinematic. I love it.
My problem with the Minotaurs and Hook Horrors, (maybe all the large size creatures do it) is the flying AOE knockback attack that they use constantly... their AI prioritizes an attack that they DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE IN D&D 5E. The jumping itself isn't the problem.. it's the distance, it's the AOE damage and knockback, it's the jumping down from heights that would kill my strongest character AND NOT TAKING DAMAGE.
I had one playthrough where one of the minotaurs jumped from farther than I could see on the screen with it zoomed out, landed in my party, knocked one character of the cliff, the damage from the jump downed another. the next turn it knocked the downed character off the cliff killing him, then jumped down after the one he knocked down before because she was downed by the fall, and killed her with the jump damage. That's not strategy, that's AI metagaming and it's not fun. No creature/monster that is basically bestial would consider a downed target over one that is still a threat. A more intelligent opponent, (especially one that can also revive downed allies during a fight I would buy, but not the large flying monsters in the underdark.
I don't care about reload abuse or "save scumming". I do it all the time.. constantly. What should really matter are the choices you make as the protagonist, don't worry so much about reloading the dice rolls.
Party management and UI need a lot of work.
Party management- everyone just 'follows' the lead character and runs where-ever they want. Take a page for pathfinder and allow movement formations and intentionally setting which party member goes where. This is normal in real world tactical situations.
The UI itself seems fine, not perfect but pretty good. I would like to see a character sheets that actually shows you ALL of your stats though. Including what parts make up your bonuses or penalties for each stat or attack roll, etc.
