in regards to the dipping mechanic-I see pretty widespread feedback that dipping was a bad addition to the game. Not just because it's tedious, but also powerful to the point of feeling like an exploit-the Everburing blade *is* a good magic weapon, with the sort of magic effect that *is* better than a mundane +1 effect. it's just that dipping trivializes it.
Fun story. I had a powergamer in my group back in 3.5 who was incredibly bullheaded to the point of obnoxiousness about insisting that he be able to buy magic weapons without the minimum +1 enhancement bonus buy-in so he could get (for example) a flaming weapon for 2,000g instead of 8000g. an extra 1d6 is nothing to sneeze at, especially at low levels.
A great deal of BG III's magic items are really lackluster though. Their special abilities make them fall somewhere between a +1 weapon and a nonmagical weapon in terms of utility. Both of which are also pretty basic and unexciting (in other words, boring) in terms of equipment options. Take the adamantine armor, for instance. Worse than +1 armor equivalents in every way, yet you have to fight a friggin adamantine golem to get them. If they had +1 enhancement bonuses on top of that, they'd at least be better than +1 armor, if still weaker than +2 armor, and they'd at least feel special.
Now Niara mentioned adding flavor text to generic magic items, and I think that's important. Original BG was great with item descriptions making every magic item feel a bit more unique than just some valuable vendor trash. BG III has room for improvement in this regard, to say the least.
