I think you would need to do the DLC as not so much an expansion but another game. Do a DLC that is just a new campaign, just the story needs to be done, the assets for the engine could stay the same. You again start at level 1 and then go through the new campaign. In this manner the game could have multiple "DLC" provided they can keep the story plots well done. Each could be stand alone and so less pressure for people to purchase any or all of them.
Tactical Games gave us Solasta CotM which did levels 1-12 then Lost Valley DLC which did levels 1-20 and had nothing to do with CotM then lastly Palace of Ice DLC which went from level 10-20 and was the culmination of the CotM campaign.
Maybe Larian could do a sort of "spin-off" DLC where you get to follow some sort of story based on an option you didn't take in the main game. Or some sort of tying up loose ends thing.
I feel that the real problem of CRPGs generally is the main plot. It is usually just a variation on a theme of "bad person seeks to take over or destroy the world". It's been done to death over the last 25 or so years.
Maybe "The Future of CRPGs" is the subject for another thread but there again, half the people on here don't seem to be able to move on from BG1.
I thought the plot of PST was excellent, and I know I'm not alone, it had absolutely nothing to do with BBEG taking over the world, it was a personal story of one man trying to understand himself and come to terms with the mistakes he has made. That was it. I know it's definitely an outlier in that department, but it shows it can be done, and done well. I do agree that you can have a heroic epic fantasy experience without Tolkienesque themes, perhaps some will disagree saying it must take or share some forms of the Hero's Journey, but I disagree, and we've been shown examples of cases that do not follow that pattern, albeit with a small sample size.
But yes, to your point, I do feel that cRPGs are hindered by their main plot and its predictability. I felt like BG3 was starting out with a bunch of tragic companions (perhaps too many being tragic?) trying to sort themselves out (get rid of tadpole), but that segued into fighting:
Three Chosen of three evil gods, and a BBEG motherbrain, and the purpose of our journey was inextricably linked to having to do these things, it felt like a lot of heroics for what should be a relatively inconsequential motive, after all, in the lore you could just kill the people, have the tadpole leave and resurrect them, we saw it in Act 1, there's too many inconsistencies with this plot, likely due to re-writes, that require a serious suspension of disbelief, that I felt really held the game (and more specifically the main story) back.
