So, everything we saw so far can make us think that larian haven't implemented group rolls nor the possibility to change who leads in a conversation. Am I right?
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I feel like that in a D&D game this would be a major issue if not a deal breaker, due to how different is the system underneath, having conversational and exploration skills distributed between the party.
I don't know if you've been following EA much, on Reddit or Discord, before joining the forums (hi and welcome btw). But just so you know, regardless of the platform, there have been requests to let the party act like a party during conversations, from Day 1 of EA. These resulted in no improvements so far, and I am under the impression that this aspect of the game has still not improved, as of the latest PFH.
In my view, saying "this is a D&D game after all, and in a D&D game it would be bad not to be able to act as a party during conversations" is not the best argument for why we should be able to act as a party during conversations. (Although "I don't like this" is, overall, always perfectly acceptable feedback.)
Larian has said they derived their combat mechanics from the 5E ruleset, indeed. But that doesn't mean they are making "a D&D game", in the sense of a game that feels like playing D&D.
Now, they have also said that this game will be like having them in he GM's seat, and that this is their campaign, with their house rules, like in any D&D campaign. So they have well and truly claimed that they aimed to reproduce the tabletop D&D experience, in a video game. I'll grant you that.
But what's the D&D experience, heh ? D&D means different things to different people. Maybe, for Larian, D&D is not about working as a group, and it has little to do with ... gathering a balanced party to make everything in the adventure easier, from combat to conversations. Who knows ?
Fundamentally, I feel that any argument along the line of "this is a D&D game and thus players really should be able to make use of all of their party during conversations" is telling the devs what their vision should be. This is just my opinion, but I generally prefer sticking to what Larian stated as their vision, and pointing things in the game that don't work with their vision.
Having said that, I want to point out that Larian said in
an interview One of the reasons why we went cinematic for everything—every single dialogue is cinematic—is that we want it to have the party front and center this time, which was not necessarily the case in DOS 2.
They've also used the motto "gather your party" in many places.
They also said that gathering a balanced party would make everything in the adventure easier, from combat to conversations.
So it's quite clear that they're aiming for a party-based RPG. Consequently, we really should be able to use all the strengths and tools of our party, including during conversations.
The issue is that I feel like there is not much reason to bring a person around other than for their fighting skills. As soon as the fight is over the companions will cease to exists, other than the occasional utility spell thrown around.
As you said, having an expert around. My grumpy monk should be smart enough to say "wyll, talk with these guards or I'm going to talk with my fists". If I'm in a magical dungeon with magical writings and magical stuff around, I'd like to bring gale to be helped to understand what's happening.
About main character and others, I actually like it. I think that the protagonist should be the party, not a single person. Which is one more reason to act as a party during dialogues.
It's funny, I think I once described the feeling of companions that can't take part in conversations as "party members are sacks of HP, actions, BA, and other combat resources, for use in combat exclusively". Aside of combat, I really don't agree that Companions cease to exist. Rather, they become Glorious, Useless Bystanders. You'll see them hanging in the background during conversation cutscenes, putting their weight from one leg to the other, and generally doing nothing useful.
One of my favourite moments is when your PC is trying to crush the tadpole that crawled out of Brother Edowin's corpse. If you fail, the tadpole crawls aways, and the nearby Companions disapprove. "Thanks team. Do you think it would have been asking for too much to lend me a hand, or rather a foot, in order to crush that tadpole ?".
Sadly, for all their uselessness, they don't consume less food at night.
