But seriously, forcing a party of ... Let's say low level, good alignment paladins to stand face to face with an adult red dragon might demand that the players either A) wipe, because dying heroically trying to stop it is what their characters would do despite certain death - or B) metagame, and try to figure out a RP-reason why afterwards. is kind of a douche move, imo.
Yup. In this situation, imo it's acceptable and even expected that the DM will metagame a bit on the players' behalf. E.g., saying "are you suuuuuure you wish to do this?" or "Give me a perception check. [Perception] Okay (regardless of the result), before you release that arrow, you take a good look at the dragon and realize it's way too powerful for you. You may want to find a different way." It's perfectly fine, even good, to have your party come face-to-face with an overwhelming powerful enemy. That sets up a great contrast for when the party
becomes that powerful. But players are dumb, so extra care must be taken with these situations lest the players charge in and die.
Of course, it's more difficult for a videogame to be as reactive to the players. But again, consequences like TPK are less punishing in a videogame because reloading.
...wait, actually it's not more difficult to do this! Enemies in BG3 have (I think still have?) level indicators, AND you can freely inspect enemy stats. I don't want BG3 to have either of these to be honest, at least not without a nature/arcana/int check, but I'd prefer deadly enemies and these indicators over the lack of either.
