Save scumming is an interesting topic. It is definitely not always bad and it is definitely not always good.
Take for example combat in Fire Emblem. Some players will always save scum to get hyper stats for characters, so for Fire Emblem: three houses all your level ups are determined when battle starts. So that the player will have to consider "Do I risk repeating this battle?" The devs also made fishing for better stats unneeded as battalions are a chunk of stats late-game.
- It's an example of save scumming that players found fun, but the developers didn't like. The developers didn't want players to make all difficulties easy for themselves, so measures were put into place for the player to avoid save scumming.
Another Fire Emblem example. Permadeath keeps combat engaging, I wouldn't want to play without it. But I have friends who would always restart combat if a player died. So now we have a rewind feature and the option to turn off permadeath.
- This was done for the players and Fire Emblem has gone on to grow a larger fan base. The changes embraced player choice and avoided save scumming, making the game a better experience overall. I definitely enjoy the rewind feature even while playing with permadeath.
In Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 players would save good stat rolls and keep re-rolling. The players who wanted to start the game with a juggernaut main character got the choice to.
- It was save scumming players enjoyed, it was a choice that would impact the whole game so incentives are high to do that in both games. It's probably why Larian is avoiding rolling for stats.
For Baldur's Gate 3 it makes sense for dialogue DC checks. Some are currently just bogus requiring multiple DCs in a row, giving the player a re-roll is nice but it is not clear why I have it in some situations and not others. It doesn't take that long to reload the saves before a conversation, but I believe Larian would like players to not be experiencing a game where they feel they have to save before every conversation. Larian also probably wants players to experience all dialogue options.
(To avoid save scumming, reduce the dialogues with multiple DC checks.)
I believe latestest I saw was claim that HP and AC changes are somehow related to save scumming. I am totally baffled by this. I do not have slightest idea why any decission regarding HP of enemies or their ACs are any way related to save scumming.
The whole idea that players can't handle a few misses is baffling to me. That's like saying fans in the NFL can't handle an incomplete pass, all most fans remember is who won and who lost. Fans will even forget fumbles and interceptions if their team wins. (Maybe it's because an incomplete pass isn't always an incomplete pass, the chance for an interception is exciting).
HP-bloat does have the benefit of ensuring combat won't take too long, so it's not just about avoid save scumming at least.
