I have played Early access, and watched development cycle in detail since game was release in Early access. I love what I have seen so far, and I know I will enjoy the full release regardless of how balanced the game is on launch.
However, as we are still in Early Access I wanted to point out at major balance issues that seem to have arisen in the most recent version of the game. I also want to point out that I know that some focus more or Role playing aspect and that to them just having different options if good enough, but I think that we can have both balance and keep the role playing aspect. Also, I know that full balance is very hard to achieve, but it looks like the game will be less balanced in final release than what we got on day one of Early Access and no one from Larian has commented on this. What I mean:
DnD 5e races in Player's handbook are not perfectly balanced, but there is something called opportunity cost that somewhat balances it out. If I pick High Elves, who have great racial bonuses, well than I have to get specific Ability Score improvements that are not universally great, +2 Dexterity and +1 Intelligence.
On the other hand Humans get no racial bonuses but get +1 to all attributes which makes them the most versatile race, yet even then they felt underpowered so Variant Human was introduced to buff them.
Half elves got +2Chr, and are the only ones (besides Variant human) who had flexibility to distribute 2 ASI wherever they wanted, but they lost some traits Elves had. This made them amazing Charisma based casters, but if your class did not use Charisma as casing attribute, there were better options.
Now comes BG3 latest Panel from Hell update. I know it is not the final version of the game, and even now they might have made multiple changes, but this is discussion based on latest info. All races now get flexible Ability Score improvement and fixed +2/+1 which might sound good on paper but the more you look into it the more it makes the game less balanced and encourages min maxing even more. For example - compare Elves and Half Elves now. Half elves are strictly weaker version of Elves.
High elves get:
High Elf Cantrip
Darkvision: Can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light
Keen Senses: Proficiency in the Perception skill.
Fey Ancestry: Elves have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put them to sleep.
Longsword Proficiency: Add your proficiency bonus to attack rolls (your chance to hit a target) with longswords.
Shortsword Proficiency: Add your proficiency bonus to attack rolls (your chance to hit a target) with shortswords.
Longbow Proficiency: Add your proficiency bonus to attack rolls (your chance to hit a target) with longbows.
Shortbow Proficiency: Add your proficiency bonus to attack rolls (your chance to hit a target) with shortbows.
High Half-Elves get:
High Elf Cantrip
Darkvision: Can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light
Fey Ancestry: Elves have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put them to sleep.
So they lost two unique features, ASI flexibility and having one additional ASI to spend. I double checked most recent stream and verified that every race had exact same Ability Scores when they went over each race, and they were:
STR 17
DEX 13
CON 15
INT 8
WIS 12
CHR 10
This means Humans, Half elves, Shield Dwarves are all have fewer ASI to spend on character creation.
But they are not the only ones getting short end of the stick. Dragonborn are probably the weakest race alongside Humans now. Half elves might be lesser versions of their Elven counterpart, and Shield Dwarves and just weaker Golden dwarves, the Dragonborn are straight up weak.
They had unique stat distribution of +2 STR/+1 CHR which made them good paladins as they were the only ones able to get this stat distribution on level 1. They also get:
Draconic resistance - Damage resistance based on ancestry, which is situational and even then, I would rather have Darkvision.
Breath Weapon - Once a day cast weaker version of Burning hands. It does 2d6 elemental damage while Burning hands does 3d6,and it is already meh spell at best. At level 6 it gets buff to be as good as Fire hands (once again it is meh level 1 spell) and at level 11! it does 4d6 elemental damage. In all cases if enemy succeeds in saving throw it does half damage.
And that is it. Compare it to Drow for example, who not only get amazing racial bonuses, but now have ASI flexibility and do not have Sunlight Sensitivity.
Larian showed that they are willing to make changes if they thought it was warranted, case in point - Monk class getting buffs.
And if you are starting to type "You get Role playing aspect, you get access to some weapons others don't" - STOP! All races will get unique dialogue options, and all races will get weapons that are stronger if wielded by specific race. And having dialogue options is not excuse for having poor balance. If you don't care about game balancing - move away, I don't understand how some people can argue against at least attempting to balance all races.
As Larian is no longer sticking to Player's handbook, give races additional features. For example Dragonborn in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount get:
Forceful Presence - When you make a Intimidation or Persuasion check, you can do so with advantage once per long rest.
Vengeful Assault. When you take damage from a creature in range of a weapon you are wielding, you can use your reaction to make an attack against that creature. You can do this once per short or long rest.
Or buff Breath attack to scale better, or make it useable once per combat, not once per long rest.
I could make a 20 page essay on this topic, but I think I made my case clear. Also, English is not my native language, so I might have made some grammatical errors, sorry about that.
Cheers!
