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From this point, he decides to throw something a bit heavier, and aims a set of ring mail down at the far off raider – that armour has a long, long way to travel, and he crits it. It's a mess. Edit to add: If I were shooting a bow at this enemy, from here, I'd be at disadvantage from the range. Not so with throwing things by hand, it seems.
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The patrol has been defeated: this took two combat rounds, plus a mostly non-event third round and some clean up actions. It was brutal and effective, and a safer, more reliable clear than I think I've ever done, which is quite upsetting, really. Most of what killed the enemy team was guaranteed damage that I couldn't fail to deal, using actions that themselves couldn't fail. The things left to chance failed often here, and I still more or less breezed through this encounter. Four characters, level 3, no class abilities, no spells, no skills, no armour, no weapons... just Larian's homebrew, and it was game-breakingly brutal. This is a problem.
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It's not fun, it's not particularly funny after the first time, and it's not cool; it destroys any concept of game immersion, it breaks from the tone of the story in an aberrant way, creating a jarring juxtaposition of different conflicting elements of the game, and even within itself, it drowns out all of the other game systems that exist, rendering all player choices meaningless and obsolete in the face of the general universal abilities that overbear them. Resource-costing class spells, abilities and features are obliterated and pointless when a resource-free universal option is available to everyone that is faster, stronger, safer and more effective than any of them. In fights, there's no real need for tactics or careful decision making – the general strategy remains constant and works with brutal efficacy, almost regardless of the situation.
So, while this isn't one of my 'focused feedback' threads, and is simply a demonstrative examination... if anyone has any ideas how to explain to Larian that this is genuinely bad for the game in a way that they might actually take on board, I'm all ears.
This thread is great. This is why so many of us are voicing our concerns.
The fun in D&D is that you get to be a cool wizard, a dashing rogue, a brawny barbarian, or a charming sorcerer.
Baldur's Gate 3 any character can toss one enemy into another with precision. Making anything unique about a class a suboptimal choice.
Caster classes have to deal with disadvantage from low ground, but a throw? No sir!!!! You can throw to your heart's content.
Why bother with a cool spell that an enemy could make a saving throw on? When you can just throw the enemy away!!!
This really is the icing on the cake.
The game is all about "use our homebrew or die". There is no thrill to being a wizard, no thrill to being a rogue, cleric doesn't play it would in tabletop at all.
I respect Larian's choice to have a class free system in Divinity: Original Sin 2. But in D&D experiencing what that class can do is the fun.
Implementing mechanics that break down the need for a class, takes all the fun out of D&D.
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I've been open to homebrew, but it should be something that rewards the player for playing out the class. Not ignoring everything about it.
