One thing I did like about Owlcat's games was the many customization options you could select at the onset of the game. It really felt like you were having a little bit of a dialogue with a DM and deciding what was what. I think the expectation for those folks that wanted to adhere closer to the ruleset, have/not have respec, have differentiated races, and multiclassing restrictions was that there would be some kind of toggle that would allow a degree of the same customization. That sort of dialogue with the omnipresent authority figure detailing how you want your game to play out. So, it could have been a toggle, respec for companions or respec only for the MC, multiclassing restrictions or free form, original differentiated racial attributes or egalitarianism. I would have been perfectly ok with that kind of framework, as it would ultimately allow the player to dictate how they wanted their game to unfold, but, echoing Llengrath's comedic analogy, I think what is essentially being told is that it is only one way and it is up to the player to decide within the game to do so. So it feels a lot less like 'this is the contract and conditions being selected for your unique experience' and more like 'yeah, you can pretty much do whatever you want, break narrative, break immersion, but it is ultimately up to you to decide if you are going to do it'. The situations are, for all intents and purposes, effectively the same--options, but the approach feels significantly different, at least to me.
Yes, that was my expectation at least. I don't know about others, but I fully expected either a "5E core rule" toggle or gameplay mode. Now I have to rely on mods and either have to learn to mod BG3 myself rather than spend time playing it or I have to trust that someone does a mod that accomplishes what I want.
