I don't think it's a pointless restriction. It's like saying that a monster's stats in tabletop might as well be visible to all since you could just look it up.
Yes, people who want to get through every encounter as easily as possible will just look it up. People who have TROUBLE with an encounter will look it up. But I can tell you that I, personally, would not look it up right away.
...so don't look it up.
I fail do see the problem here.
If you think Examine gives you too much information, don't use Examine.
You control the buttons you press.
Because, as I said, it is *not just examine*. When you mouse over an enemy it automatically shows you the chance that you will hit them, or the chance that your selected spell will affect them. This happens without looking anything up and while it might seem minor is actually a humongous piece of information.
And yes, Raz, you're right that losing an entire spell slot can seem very punishing, which is why I think it should be an option, and not mandatory. But to me, in tabletop, guessing which saves an enemy is weak for is part of the charm of the game. It's true that for some enemies it can be harder to guess than for others...
But that's where skill checks can come in! (In a game that to be frank, does not utilize all the skill checks very well.) Let's say you're fighting an animal. Instead of 'examine' showing you ALL the information right away, you roll a nature check. 10+ shows you basic information like hp, 20+ shows you vulnerabilities and weaknesses, and 30+ shows you EVERYTHING - and when you roll that high, you can say you know the enemy so well that you DO know the chance you'll hit them or that spells will pass through them, and you can turn the "chance to hit" visual back on. Even before that, though, you could maybe give some flavor text that would allow you to guess.
You could have different checks for different enemies - maybe you need an arcana check when you're fighting a magical enemy like a golem. And maybe you could make this whole thing optional, if you want, for higher difficulties, which I think is fine - I can tell you I definitely don't remember the specifics of every enemy we fight in the game.
But you compare it to the old games not showing you a visual for the AoE range of fireball...for me this is something different. The AoE indicator is fine, because it's something your character SHOULD know. But even something as simple as hp, the old games didn't used to tell you EXACTLY how much the enemy had left - they'd tell you that it was 'barely injured', or 'injured', or 'near death'. To me, revealing information that your characters *should not know by default*, especially that which gives you such a huge advantage in battle, should be a reward for a skill check at the very least.
