+1. I am with a lot of others here, the game's default settings should be more true to D&D 5e, and the encounters, gameplay and combat should be balanced around that. Let others turn on barrels, environment effects, king of the hill, etc. if they want a different experience.
dotemtpy, please don't take offense to this, I am just using you as an example and I kind of agree with you but only to a point. And that is the point. Your vision of what this game should be is different than mine. Yet, we probably agree on 90% of things. You say: "I am with a lot of others here, the game's default settings should be more true to D&D 5e" yet no one above you made that comment. IMO you, like almost everyone else here, see something you agree with or see someone agree with you and think that makes a consensus when in reality you both still have very different visions. If I am putting words in your mouth, I apologize, but they apply to others if not you, so I am using you as an example.
Here is the point. If you say the game has to be this, that, and the other, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. The game will never be everything you or anyone else wants, it simply can't be. Left unchecked Larian will make their game. They have shown you the direction they want to go. They believe they have taken the 5e rules and adapted them as needed to make the game more fun. And they have stayed close enough that WotC is fine with what they have done.
So assuming that few of us share Larian's exact vision, my intent was to give options so that many more of us could have the game we want possibly at the expense of balance, but even that may be fixable with mods.
The reality is these forums are a small subset of the entire player base. And even within these forums, there are a wide variety of people and opinions. Instead of being a line and trying to say who it on what part of the line, let's call it a polygon with many points and then where people fall closest to the points. I am going to limit it to a triangle. One point is the "content" person. This person may not even care about dnd much less 5e. This person just wants to see the game. They want to make a character and go explore. Combat is just a break in the story. They want to choose their dialog options, not roll dice. The 2nd point is the 5e diehard. If it is not exactly as the PHB or MM or DMG state, it's wrong. Doesn't matter that some of this will not be fun for a lot of players. Screw them this is DnD 5e or GTFO. The third point is people that just want challenging tactical combat and a story to go with it. As it stands, while many may find BG3 acceptable it will not be the perfect game for any of them.
I am also going to single out alice_ashpool (Alice) as an example. Take Alice's comment about exhaustion: "This is the only one which is a hard no from me. I super dislike exhaustion mechanics." I am 100% in the same boat. If it were a mandatory part of this game it might even be a deal-breaker for me. BUT there are some who think if it's not in the game, it's not a good game.
Also, if you made the combat in the game challenging to Alice, 99% of the player base would be in tears.
The only way I see to make a game that is closer to what everyone likes is to give options. IMO from a programming standpoint based on a quarter-century of programming, it is not as hard as it may sound.
Lastly, in my long monolog (apologies), We have "balance". There are 2 problems. 1) You can't have both all these options and a game balanced around any combination. It's absurd to expect that. But you might have a choice between Easy (purposefully not balanced), Normal, DnD 5e, and Custom. And it might be reasonable to have 2 sets of balance - Normal and 5e. So you could do a custom where you deviated slightly from normal or 5e and the game would still be fairly balanced. You want a completely custom game...you have to be willing to accept balance problems. Problem #2 with balance: It's subjective. I promise you that your idea of balance and Alice's are VASTLY different. So just like the game with no options cannot possibly please everyone, neither can any set of options be "perfectly balanced".
Later, I will add to the list the suggestions made so far.
Thank you for reading this and please think about any significant options I may have missed.
