I had a long response written out and then I accidentally closed the window and all was gone.
So a bit shorter: I agree with Red Queen, it feels like a BG game for me.
I get your points and agree especially with the companions numbers and diversity. I like them well enough, but we basically have only elves/ humans, with two exceptions. I want my dwarven fighter, my halfling bard ( RIP Helia), my gnome artificer ( seriously, that class is so important for the story and Barcus should have been a companion, since the Iron Hand/Gondian plot is do important).
I don't have a problem with the underwater prison tbh, I think 5 e changed quite a bit about magical infused technology. I'm playing a gnome artificer in our current campaign and am surprised, what she can do at level 4.
I personally like Jaheira and Minsc in the game and think, they are well done. I don't have a strong opinion about the other two, since I didn't use them enough in the old games, but since there is a big thread in the Story & Character section of this forum about the handling of those two, there seem to be a lot of people agreeing with you. I would sayitbis strange that
isn't more powerful. And I would have liked an explanation, of what happened to him.
Has Bhaal forced him into service again? In that case, we should be able to help him, especially as good, resisting Durge. Has he changed his mind? What caused it?
Same with Viconia. She was mostly evil in my playthroughs, because I didn't use her a lot, but if she became neutral, what happened? If she was forced by Shar, which I wouldn't find implausible, why can't we help her, like we help Shadowheart?
The music, I really love, I'm a bit low-key obsessed with it. Yes, it is different from the old games, but I find it very fitting.
Edit: I do agree with you about the Emperor being
and generally about a lot, how the Emperor was handled, like
why does he hit on us, especially,if we distrust him? Why can't we at least try to convince him to work with Orpheus instead of using him? And why can't Omeluum be the mindflayer we need, if we go down the Orpheus route?
I wasn't too happy about Ansur either. It was a sad story, but it kind of was pointless? It's as if the devs thought, they need more story for Wyll and put in the undead dragon.
