This video has been shared in a few threads. I guess talking about it in it's own thread would be easier.
Surprise on the beach ? Waking up at night then watching the sun rise in a beautifull D/N cycle !? Or maybe multiclassing ? What can be this surprise he's talking about ?
A bit more optimistic about combat mechanics, it seems that he's aware that the expectations of "a part of the community" are not met.
According to me shoving and throwing would be absolutely fine if it was toned down a way more strenght dependent.
Not sure I share your newfound optimism.
Swen goes on about "crazy ideas" being a focal point - partly because DOS2 players expect to be able to "do more things" (and allegedly because this is commonplace in D&D by the grace of flexible GMs when it is more like a rare occurrence in my experience). He further says "Larian is a company that focuses on systems", which means cheesy exploits will remain a core game mechanic. It likely means Larian will continue to ignore balancing issues, because these limit "doing more crazy things", and I suspect a day & night cycle (which would provide balance and immersion, but reduce power spam) falls under things Larian is diametrically opposed to. Ignoring the fact D&D is primarily a party-based game where a diverse class composition cover the bases instead of all basically doing the same level of fantastical things - in different colors as in DOS2.
The problem is D&D is FUNDAMENTALLY INCOMPATIBLE with DOS (and faster paced video game to be fair). A middle-road approach might be neither here nor there, and at this point I would be more happy with a radical departure from D&D (ie. cooldown on powers instead of powers based on day & night cycles)...or a stricter adherence to it (including day & night cycle). As a very minimum, Larian should address the glaring LACK of INTERNAL LOGIC/IMMERSION and IMBALANCE of their systems. For instance, the shove and throwing abilities does NOT work well as Swen seems to think. It is an unbalancing boost to melee characters (who are already buffed by jumping also being strength-based). Explain why only the player & companions are able to do it. Pushing creatures like the Phase Spider Matriarch defies realism of an ability that is portrayed as mundane yet fantastical in nature. The original BG-series let the player gain fantastical homebrew powers with time. But these powers were linked to the story and had an internal logic to them that BG3 utterly lacks. They also did not benefit just one type of gameplay like in BG3.
That Swen seemed haplessly unaware of the irony of in one sentence acknowledging the players having problems navigating the plethora of powers, and in the next sentence insisting on showering the player with early-game Larianisms as core mechanics and thereby adding unnecessary cumbersome complexity (all effects are already part of base D&D), should not be lost on anyone. Larian's fix is not to dig themselves out of a hole of their own making; it is to draw a map for the player.
