I reckon that there certainly are more tactics than just climbing onto a hill. You can spread out, you can rush in, you can kite. You can ambush. You can set up surfaces. You can have some fun with summoning spells. You can even block an entrance off with flaming sphere, if you feel so inclined. It's just that right now climbing up on the hill works and most of the others aren't remotely as effective. What I wouldn't want is that nothing feels "effective", to the point where we might as well just not bother and just rush into a grind to get it over with.
That said, I do agree that options shouldn't be guaranteed to work 100% of the time nor be completely safe, and I reckon that Larian is feeling that way too. Take the three ogres. Stand the wrong place and they'll kill the support beam, then you fall down. A whole bunch of enemies have things to throw at you. Those gobbos have a few AoE arrows.
These things just need to be taken a little bit further. Wouldn't it be sort of hilarious if at least some of the enemies knew that a grease bottle before a fire arrow meant boom? Wouldn't it be sort of hilarious if one had just found that sweet camping spot up high and then grease, fire, boom, and suddenly it's raining adventurers? Not every single encounter, but just once or twice, to keep it real.
As far as throw, I really don't think we should be able to do that against anyone or anything that isn't both light, small, and at a massive strength disadvantage. Laezel throwing a kobold is probably okay, but throwing around anything bigger or stronger should be a monk-only kung fu thing. I really don't think throw should be a solution to maintaining the integrity of your position.
And as for shove, the AI can absolutely do that against the player. First time I did the bandits at the temple, I came at them from up high, because of course, and then the dwarf rushed up like a madman and shoved Laezel down below. So she rushed all the way around and then the furry little bugger shoved my warlock down as well. Not the biggest fall, but I was not expecting it at all. I've seen a lot of other enemies do shoves since then, but they do not seem to focus on pushing towards a vertical drop the way a player would.
