Well know is that D&D pen & paper rules do best cater to 6 man parties of 2 tanks, 2 healers, 1 mage, 1 rogue teams. That multiclass XP gain is so slow skills are wasted compared to specialists, Unless... they almost break the entire game. In BG1 I carried a warrior/rogue/wizard wood elf for the entire game to fully use it's stealth in the end boss fight to mute the mage minions spellcasting, that's how far D&D rules exploits can go and you mislead players unaware of pen & paper rules. Larian made a point about come as you are. Play who you want to be. There is no late game XP penalty on any start screen choice.
This 6 player party - no compromises makes for a very boring stereotypical Diabolo style hack & slay gameplay of defined job roles w/o any need for compromise. Tha's rather boring and need for compromise is painful but good for the game. It's not Diabolo style hack 6 slay. it's a story driven game.
You can switch companions or ven your player character with no XP penatly back at camp anytime. Larian got a neat solution for it by simply allowing your camp inhabitants to level up for free.
All player characters choice of class and culture fully plays out in cutscenes and skill roles available. More companions exponentially multiplies the hard work for Larian and simple blows the budget on actors and cut scenes through the roof. Check out the videos on the studio techniques used, Additionally it just makes balancing multiplayer and the whole game excessively harder for the studio.
It has always been an issue that a ranger is useless in a city chapter as much as a rogue is useless in the wilderness chapters. XP on wilderness characters is wasted late game in city environs Badurs Gate. A very bad trade off and it hurts new players experience badly. Larian clearly doesn't want to recommend classes, race or role choice by players. They made a clear point: Be who you want to be in the gaame. Come as you are.
The result is a way better game experience and consistnet quality of diaalogue. For the trivial trade off needing to click back to camp and switch a companion. if you chose a mage (terrible D&D hack & slay early game guaranteed) you'll find 2 useful tanks in your camp. You can rightfully enjoy being a pacofost druid. I never had this freedom in any fantasy game where that initial choice made the game much harder. For me that's the best deal in D&D rules based game I ever got - no wasted XP on whatever choice a made at player character selection. No need to ever start all over again mid or late game.
Sure, the cheap BG1 style D&D paper rules exploit you guys have been advocating is gone. Enjoy the addtional challenge. Took me a while to accept and enjoyl - no offense to you who upvoted this. I'm sure Larian Studios will stick with their choice for the better of us all.
Never deny a DM your best game night cookies. Complain at your own risk.
