Must have missed something here ..it’s essentially a single player game - yes you can multiplayer likely with friends and not randoms in which case you’ll play as per the group rules. The point is it’s irrelevant what anyone else does with the rules as presented as long as they enjoy their own experience. Many of us will self police certain features I’m a d&d fan but last I played was third edition so I’ll apply rules as I think will most help me enjoy my experience - who cares about anyone else’s ? Larian are selling a game to as wide an audience as they can so it will be wholly successful to all spectrum of rpg fans. I think this will be an amazing experience over hundreds maybe thousands of hours - choice matters in gameplay - if there are parts that you don’t like - ignore it and play it your own way and have a great time doing so.
"Just don't use it if you don't like it" is an incredibly fallacious argument when applied to game design and mechanics. In the very moment you are setting new rules and conditions, you are intrinsically changing how a game plays. That remains true even if the reaction is "I'm not a fan of it". You are basically asking the player to "pretend the flawed rule isn't there" and to self-restraining from taking advantage of it.
This fundamentally alters the "rules of engagement" between the designer and the players. It's not "Here's a puzzle/challenge, do your best to work your way around it" anymore; it becomes "You could unravel this entire thing with a button press, but try to pretend you are struggling with it".
Case in point: why would anyone have to struggle to make good use of the stat assigned to companions, when they'll be constantly merely two clicks away from readjusting each one of them at will?
But that's a bit beside the point, since in the end while INCREDIBLY LAME in itself, the "free respec" is by far NOT the worst news among these announced changes.
Party control in Baldur's Gate 3 is a complete mess that begs to be addressed. SAY NO TO THE TOILET CHAIN
