Ha ha, ever since 2014 we have known that bless is straight out OP, but that’s OK because it’s an iconic cleric action, just like wizards fireballing.
In TT because you say aloud who gets it. But in CRPGs you have to click, I’m sorry but I actually get sore arm playing 2 hours. Gym fixes it but I'm no friend of extra clicks. I toggle off reactions for paladins too (and seldom run out of smites, I find the game very easy now.)
I might have driven the topic a bit too much towards Bless in particular. I think I would not mind too much for just Bless and Bane to stay the way they are now. I just highlighted the spells because everyone instantly knows what I am talking about mechanically.
My main concern lies with higher level spells. They are a much more limited resource even at high levels and should feel meaningful in the situation they are meant for. For Example when I upcast Hold Monster, I do it because I think there is more than one dangerous enemy, so I want to reduce the threat. I will never use a 6th level spell slot for that if it means taking out a strong fighter and their little goblin friend. Or when I spend several sorcery points and the spell slot to twin Greater Invisibility, I might want it to hit the rogue standing behind the enemy and the sorcerer themselves far in the back, not the paladin or barbarian meant to protect the party.
I also do not want it to turn into whatever the Pathfinder games made us do before every battle. The difficulty was crisp and it was sometimes necessary to use all resources available to beat a difficult set of enemies. To load a save game before the whole section, then prepare with buffs while my party stands in a clump, go into the scenario again, and then start that "surprise" fight just to get the necessary value out of spells was not too fun honestly. Fortunately WotC largely fixed that issue with the concentration rules. There should be no need to huddle together to exchange buffs before fights, which is what I sometimes did in BG3 to make Bless and Aid work. Going into combat after a surprising turn of events in a conversation or simply being ambushed should be part of the game after all.
I also played DoS2 and from what I experienced during the Early Access of BG3, I assume Larian's combat encounter design once again heavily relies on access and positioning of enemies. Limiting disabling spells like these therefore makes it so much easier to ramp up the difficulty. For former game, there was a completely standalone set of abilities, items and rules in place, making the whole game the masterpiece it is. However in BG3 it rips apart a somewhat different system designed by WotC.
I obviously did not have the chance to playtest higher level fights, but I fear that with that rip, magic almost literally loses its magic. Martial classes are already looking to be overall superior to spell casters just because they deal more damage. However, I do not expect or even want them to be equally strong damage dealers. I want them in the party for their versatility. So by taking away this versatility, they either become obsolete in the worst case, or in the case of balancing damage through items or changing damage spells, they just become martial classes with differently colored attacks. At least that is what they feel like at times.
-1
Larian, please hold fast and don't implement the boring click-a-thon 'I win' Bless spell. The game is already easy-as.
The game being too easy in the EA mostly comes down to number tweaking and is a completely different issue. I trust Larian to handle that properly without much external feedback. For example adding difficulty levels for different kinds of players is a proven fix.
Unless you are talking about the perma-stealth issue with or without fog cloud trivializing every single fight down to just hitting meat bags. If those kinds of issues make it into the full release, there is no need to discuss about any combat related game play.
