All in all, two classic spells, rendered largely useless.
It's so baffling. Why does Larian do this? Do they only blindly see an opportunity for "surface interaction" in everything? Are they really so narrow minded that all they want to do is blow stuff up in "tactical combat"?
If anything the AoE's of these spells should be increased because of the vast open area design everywhere and the ridiculous jumping. But I'd rather see the jumping brought back to a reasonable level.
They also nerfed Sleep's duration and allow enemies to wake each other up with a Bonus Action rather than a Full Action. So I guess they just passionately hate control for some reason and want to remove it as a viable purpose for a spellcaster. Why?? Does it have something to do with making enemies passive which is against some misguided design doctrine where every turn must be amazing for everyone?
Yes, it looks like most controlling effects across the board are funneled into creating damage opportunities, as opposed to traditional divide and conquer gameplay of D&D controlling effects, i.e. damage mitigating effects. Take Tasha's Hideous Laughter and Sleep, both durations slashed by 80%, but now they create incapacitation which procs critical hits, at least for melee attacks. But this leaves most area effects which proc prone and restrained conditions out in the cold, as they can't do any real damage and advantage is easy to set up and get elsewhere. Not to mention, that most controlling effects require concentration and a failed saving throw, no real way to buff them like attack rolls. It leads to DOS style play, not D&D play, pretty disappointing.
I guess we're supposed to be getting them wet and damaging them with electricity and cold, but that's not the type of gameplay I thought I was signing up for. Honestly, I'd be fine with Larians additions if I could ignore them. Unfortunately, I can't ignore them.
