1. Save-or-die shoving

Not everything should be a race to high ground. Your game is too vertical. I want to win a fight because I built a good character and worked hard to make him stronger.

I don't want to win a fight because I made it to high ground, got a lucky dice roll, and pushed a guy off in to one of the 900 bottomless pits that are always around you no matter where you are in the world. This "save-or-die" mechanic that was prevalent in 3e has been largely removed from 5e because it's /NOT FUN/. I don't know why you put "save-or-die" back in in the form of deadly shoves.

2. Endless ambushes where the enemy outnumbers, out-flanks, and out-high-grounds you

The enemy's party is almost always larger than your party, particularly in the 2nd act, and the enemy almost always starts out in an advantageous tactical position. In short the challenge ratings in the "normal" difficulty setting are all too high.

You should collect data on how many times players have to restore their game from the beginning to the end of the campaign. I have no doubt the figure will astonish you.

If I have to restore my game to win an encounter, the pen-and-paper analog of this that the DM killed his entire party. This obviously should not happen. The user should only ever have to restore on boss encounters, and they should only have to restore on these boss encounters a fraction of the time.

Restoring your game is cheating. It's looking ahead into the future and gaining foreknowledge that you can use in the present moment. I'd like to win encounters based on my wherewithal, not my capacity to restore my game. If you want the user to have to rely heavily on restoring the game, you should just add cheats to your game so that we can cheat more directly.


3. Combat encounters that need dialog rolls to win

There were at least two (so far) combat encounters that were completely impossible without convincing the opponent's party to start killing itself (a premise which is itself ridiculous, incidentally). This is basically more save-or-die nonsense. If you fail your dialog rolls you face insurmountable odds (unless of course you are willing to make the rush to high ground and then save/restore/save/restore/save/restore so that every dice roll is favorable to you).

You shouldn't be rewarding xp for non-combat solutions, either: you don't become a better fighter by avoiding fights.

4. The enemy never makes a mistake

Unlike the player, the enemy always knows where tactical advantages are, the enemy always has ranged weapons, the enemy always has AOE attacks, the enemy always makes the best choices with his turn. This is one of the reasons the encounters are too difficult. You're always encountering perfectly prepared opponents who never make a bad decision and have perfect situational awareness. If you're going to make the enemy perfect in this way, you should reduce the challenge rating for the encounters to compensate.

Baldur's Gate 3 has got to be the least enjoyable combat I've ever experienced in any RPG, and I've been playing and developing RPGs for over 20 years.