I recently went back to playing PoE2 Deadfire because BG3 just was just getting so absolutely braindead easy in terms of combat that it posed a significant barrier in my ability to continue to enjoy the game, even after I went out of my way to avoid blatantly broken features like haste potions and bloodlust elixirs, and it really is a breath of fresh air to play a game where you can tell that combat encounters weren't just an afterthought.
The "don't use it if you don't like it" approach to balancing singleplayer games is just utterly corrosive to the experience of people like me, and others that share the desire for engaging tactical combat, because it puts the onus on us to do the game designer's job for them. Unequipping every magic item, only running around with basic armor and refusing to use half of the class features and spells in the game isn't going to make fights more interesting because the lack of care that went into ensuring some degree of parity between the tools available to the player also translates to a lack of care when it comes to encounter design. A MMA fighter isn't going to have any more fun fighting a toddler just because they're given the option to lay down in the fetal position and do nothing. This is what it feels like to play BG3 if you are even remotely competent at playing CRPGs. You're just standing there like a parent teaching their kid to walk and every time you think that it can finally stand on its own two feet it starts to tip over and you have to grab them by their hand. I didn't select tactician so I would have to babysit the game at every twist and turn into giving me a, I quote, "tough campaign emphasising strategic combat." That's what the banner says when you start a new game and get to select your difficulty. Please take note that it says "strategic combat". My fear is that Larian's takeaway from that criticism will be to just release another difficulty that does a 2x pass on enemy stats until the difficulty of the game devolves into finding ways to deal with bloated health values and damage numbers, which will subsequently force people to abuse the busted action economy with tools like haste potions, instead of getting the game into a state where the player has to make interesting decisions.
If you think what I wrote sounds cynical, keep in mind that BG3 has been in early access for almost three years. Larian was warned that this would happen when people criticized the direction the combat was heading. They just weren't particularly receptive to that criticism. There just isn't much reason for me to get my hopes up that they will ever come to their senses on this.
