Although I still disagree on any height advantage even if it’s only a flat bonus as any bonus in that manner still reduces the value of spells like Bless. It’s too free.
I'm critical of the Larian homebrew, but I take STRONG issue with this. Incentivizing tactical combat is a MUST. There would be almost no point to tactical maneuvering if you had your way. Combat would devolve into putting meat-shield in bottleneck positions and non-melee would be reduced to focusing on damage/support. There would be very little purpose to all the delicious verticality this game provides. If combat becomes as non-tactical as that, we might as well go real-time with pause for Diablo-style brawling/clicking. 3D chess would definitely not be a thing.
The focus on height advantage as the only problematic issue when flanking advantage is OBJECTIVELY WORSE. Height advantage is only bad because of the strong over-incentivization, flanking advantage is bad because of over-incentivization, because the AI consistently fails to exploit flanking unlike height, and mostly because of the very cheesy way it works mechanically.
The way the AI allows the player to flank them freely in open combat, STRIPS the turn-based system NAKED, revealing it as a really POOR APPROXIMATION of real combat. A better mechanic would be: Unless surprised, combatants pivot and turn towards their opponents - even if it's not their turn. Flanking should only be achieved by two enemies threatening one defender and one moving to flank (or by surprise). Immersion and better tactical combat achieved.
Height bonus isn't nearly as immersion breaking in the same way as the current implementation of flanking, it's just even more strongly overtuned/overpowered (probably to offset how strongly the AI prioritize low-AC targets and how weak defensively backline defenders tend to be). This is a much easier fix.
