the exp gaining pace is way too fast.
It's hard to tell if it's fast or slow pace since we don't know how much of the content from the full game is EA covering
The combat encounters' difficulty and how much actual challenge each of them poses to the player party will tell if the exp gaining pace was fast or slow.
For example, if I kill those 3 cambions and 2 mind flayers on the ship, I will quickly get to lvl 3 after landing. Means the combats in ruin temple will pose even less challenge. And if I don't kill any of them on ship, then I will only reach lvl 3 after clearing both the ruin temple and the goblins at the gate. I think it makes a big difference since, each lvl up gives quite some HP and useful skills. With only lvl 2, charge blindly into those skeletons might still cause one or more man downed during this encounter, but if I got lvl 3, charging blindly into them will be quite a safe thing to do. With lvl3, I can easily cleave through blight village with little to no problem, but if I only have lvl2 at the time, then the windmill fight and the ogre fight can still pose great challenge even I ambush them. When I reach the Goblin Camp, having a party of lvl3 or lvl4 will make a great difference as well(if not using the explosive barrel to cheese). Goblins usually do less than 6dmg per turn each, lvl4 means extra HP, extra feat and extra skills. So, a lvl4 party can quickly clear the swarm while even the HP of Gale can endure any of these swarm fight, piece of cake. But if I only have lvl 3, I may want to first save the druid and then with the help of him clear the threat of goblins.
why would I want to use worm power to command the gnoll queen?
Ever heard about "roleplaying"? Its even in the game genre name, RPG > Role-playing-game ...
So that would be one reason.
Different outcome, since it would be quite boring to replay game exactly the same way imho. O_o
And finaly, to get your XP ... since, as far as i know, if you do, you get XP for killing her, and some bonus XP on top of that.
Exactly, the roleplaying. If I got obviously overpowered the foe, then I don't get the needs for outsmart such foe due to the roleplay. The first time I met the gnoll queen, I did use the worm trick. The second time I further command her to kill the zhentarian guards. But the third time, I get tried to fight them gnolls all together, and here comes the frustration: the fight is too easy unless I walk into them directly through the lower valley, making me don't want to trick the gnoll queen ever again even on my Absolute's pawn run. So, I think for Act1, the game either need to lower the player's exp gaining pace to make the player meeting them with only less than lvl4, or make bosses having at least one more lvl.
I prefer if XP is granted for completing tasks rather than usual actions (Deus Ex, Pillars of Eternity) - that way game encourages roleplaying/efficient play rather than none sense all play. Alas, it seems so many people are trained to expect XP after each kill that they fail to see the truth
+1
PoE's exp gaining system is quite solid. Killing enemies only brought exp for a limit of times for each type, while finishing the quest one way or another was the main exp income source, which as an additional perk, makes pacing the exp gain became a more doable job for the designer. (Haven't played DE)
Some other game such as Colony Ship or Elder Scroll has a Use-to-Improve exp system which is also smart, making talker a better talker, fighter a better fighter, too bad it won't fit in with DnD ruleset. Especially not for BG3, in which everyone can do everything including using a scroll. Oh man I miss old BGs where I can be too dumb to read.
