I mean, as one of the people who keeps yelling for Rules as Written for implementation of stuff, I have been on record saying I like a lot of the homebrew and just want them to be toned back to be in line with 5e. Shove is good, it being a bonus action and flinging people half a mile is not. Surfaces are interesting, every battlefield on fire and it breaking concentration constantly is not. Non Warlock Familiars getting unique abilities is very cool, them attacking thereby invalidating the warlock a little and losing their ability to deliver touch spells is not.Each companion having something special hearkens back to BG1 and 2 and is common for DND tables, the player character having nothing feels eh. Animals being able to o0pen doors and sit in chairs is cute and wacky, them not being able to move their concentration spells is not good though. Highground and Backstab does make sense for giving advantage, but doing so is too strong so instead giving highground a flat bonus and change backstabbing to proper flanking and it will be more in line with 5e and more balanced. Weapons having a special action is reminiscent of asking your DM if you can swipe at the goblin's legs to trip him, them doing so much damage that they become the superior action always is not good though.
Overall, the issue isn't that Larian is using homebrew, it is that the homebrew they have implemented needs to be toned back considerably, or atleast for me. In fact, most of the homebrew in the game I want to remain, just, as I said, toned back.
For example, looking at one of the things I mentioned, Familiars. I LOVE summoning. It is my thing, it is THE THING I want done right. After next update I am probably going to file many different reports on what conjuration things seem right and wrong to me. And one thing that is wrong to me is Find Familiar.
Spell Description:
Quote
Find Familiar 1 Conjuration Casting Time: 1 hour Range: 10 feet Components: V S M (10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs that must be consumed by fire in a brass brazier) Duration: Instantaneous Classes: Wizard You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose: bat, cat, crab, frog (toad), hawk, lizard, octopus, owl, poisonous snake, fish (quipper), rat, raven, sea horse, spider, or weasel. Appearing in an unoccupied space within range, the familiar has the statistics of the chosen form, though it is a celestial, fey, or fiend (your choice) instead of a beast. Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can’t attack, but it can take other actions as normal. When the familiar drops to 0 hit points, it disappears, leaving behind no physical form. It reappears after you cast this spell again While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as an action, you can see through your familiar’s eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any special senses that the familiar has. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses. As an action, you can temporarily dismiss your familiar. It disappears into a pocket dimension where it awaits your summons. Alternatively, you can dismiss it forever. As an action while it is temporarily dismissed, you can cause it to reappear in any unoccupied space within 30 feet of you. You can’t have more than one familiar at a time. If you cast this spell while you already have a familiar, you instead cause it to adopt a new form. Choose one of the forms from the above list. Your familiar transforms into the chosen creature. Finally, when you cast a spell with a range of touch, your familiar can deliver the spell as if it had cast the spell. Your familiar must be within 100 feet of you, and it must use its reaction to deliver the spell when you cast it. If the spell requires an attack roll, you use your attack modifier for the roll.
To me there is a lot wrong with how the spell was implemented in BG3. First of all, the normal familiar being able to attack frustrates me cause that is meant to be exclusive to warlock, that is why you would spec three levels in Warlock for Pact of the Chain. Their familiars being able to attack and thereby deliver poisons is huge, plus the other things like the familiar being able to scout miles away and be able to fly or swim regardless of previous movement because of tasha's. Wizard familiars immediately being able to attack devalues this unique strength of the Warlock. Furthermore, they lack some other core effects such as the familiar persisting through resting, being able to be ritual cast (in other words not costing a spell slot), and perhaps the core of many familiar builds, they are supposed to be able to deliver the caster's touch spells. Which for a healer like shadowheart could be huge and is worth using a feat to get it as a spell. And then on the more dismal end, a conjuration spell like Mage Hand actively dismisses the familiar when they should have no interaction in the slightest. Overall, I believe find familiar to be implemented poorly EXCEPT for the hombrew abilities. A spider being able to shoot web or the cat being able to distract foes honestly feels like something that could be RPed out and is genuinely nice to use. I wouldn't solve Find Familiar by removing the homebrew, instead I would solve it by adding back in all the 5e so that the spell is complete, making it that the homebrew actually enhances the core.