D&D expectations aside, my personal opinion is that almost every change Larian have made from 5e so far have also made the video game experience worse.
- Unlimited long resting completely destroys class balance and the playstyle that rewards you for playing smart with your resources. Serious RPG's shouldn't be about blasting away with reckless abandon at every opportunity.
- Turning combat into a Shove-fest has made it poor and repetitive tactically. Getting to high ground and pushing enemies is always the best thing to do everywhere.
- Letting you throw void bulbs etc. that can be used to insta-kill multiple creatures without a saving throw turns hard encounters into trivial jokes. Same with the double surprise rounds or barrels.
- Monsters like Hook Horrors and Minotaurs jumping and teleporting everywhere makes the game more chaotic and less tactical. Tactical combat requires you to be able to have control over things incl. enemy movement.
- Surfaces everywhere that you constantly have to be jumping out of that ruin concentration spells are just annoying.
Playing BG3 feels like playing chess at a children's sandbox. If you don't like the rules you can just say "my knight takes his bomb and blows you up!" and sweep the opponent's pieces off the board. That's where Larian's shoves, void bulbs and barrels come in. And they literally give you a runepowder bomb that's even more powerful.
Larian are catering to a group of players who enjoy feeling powerful without being challenged or having to put in much effort. And there's nothing wrong with that. But there needs to be a separate difficulty setting for that. And a separate difficulty setting for players who want BG3 to play like D&D without overpowering the player.
D&D expectations aside, my personal opinion is that almost every change Larian have made from 5e so far have also made the video game experience worse.
- Unlimited long resting completely destroys class balance and the playstyle that rewards you for playing smart with your resources. Serious RPG's shouldn't be about blasting away with reckless abandon at every opportunity.
- Turning combat into a Shove-fest has made it poor and repetitive tactically. Getting to high ground and pushing enemies is always the best thing to do everywhere.
- Letting you throw void bulbs etc. that can be used to insta-kill multiple creatures without a saving throw turns hard encounters into trivial jokes. Same with the double surprise rounds or barrels.
- Monsters like Hook Horrors and Minotaurs jumping and teleporting everywhere makes the game more chaotic and less tactical. Tactical combat requires you to be able to have control over things incl. enemy movement.
- Surfaces everywhere that you constantly have to be jumping out of that ruin concentration spells are just annoying.
Playing BG3 feels like playing chess at a children's sandbox. If you don't like the rules you can just say "my knight takes his bomb and blows you up!" and sweep the opponent's pieces off the board. That's where Larian's shoves, void bulbs and barrels come in. And they literally give you a runepowder bomb that's even more powerful.
Larian are catering to a group of players who enjoy feeling powerful without being challenged or having to put in much effort. And there's nothing wrong with that. But there needs to be a separate difficulty setting for that. And a separate difficulty setting for players who want BG3 to play like D&D without overpowering the player.
I agree with all of this. My interpretation of early access suggests that Larian is trying to cater to people that they think will not enjoy the full D&D experience, and I agree that on balance, the changes that they have made are not for the better.
