Honestly, I found it refreshing to read a complaint that wasn't about Act III. And I can get the whole "if you rage-quit and no one knows, did it really happen?" vibe that led them here. What I found interesting is that they'd been a member for an entire year, so a little reading could have re-set their expectations to match the game's set of rules.
There are D&D to video game rules that I think BG3 gets wrong.
Like, for instance, how a cleric's summoned spiritual weapon (that floats in the air) needs to follow a path and climb down a ladder to bonk someone on the head. You'd think objects that naturally levitate would have fly and feather fall sort of built in by default. Or how players with magically enhanced sight still can't shoot into or out of a patch of darkness, but that doesn't seem to be a rule that computer-controlled NPCs follow, making darkness spells a hindrance, not a benefit.
Also, I'm autistic, so I understand the frustration of something being a huge problem for me that no one else cares about, and how that can sometimes result in an immature urge to poop in the swimming pool, as it were, and tarnish everyone's fun. I'm not blaming the immaturity on autism (for those who track these things); I'm just saying I get the whole Howard Biel-esque "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" reaction. (Now, if I want to shirt-post, I do it on my own blog so no one has to see it unless they want to).
Plus, everything in the world seems so FUBAR-ed right now, maybe this huge reaction over a non-issue was just a straw breaking the camel's back sort of thing, and symbolic of larger frustration. Some people don't have much in the way of a social life, so gaming forums take on an overly-important role in their lives. (*cough* Not me, though... *cough*)
But potential psychology and philosophy aside, anytime I've played a game that involved D&D rules I've run into the same sort of mismatched expectations from gamers who have never played D&D before. The whole "endless supply of magic" and drifting towards god-like powers in roleplay is pretty much the reason Gygax and Arneson came up with D&D rules in the first place. "Oh, so you're going to pretend to be a wizard? Let's talk about what that means. Can *everyone* do magic? No. Because it's rare and hard to master. Oh, so you're a gnome fighter and you're carrying around 50 broadswords in your little backpack? I don't think so..."
I don't think anyone needs to reproduce the manuals or anything, but I'm always happy to help adjust expectations to the D&D mindset, which in many ways, is very counter-intuitive when you sort of expect to wander through a virtual landscape, blasting enemy pawns to smithereens without bothering to slow down. I think, as gamers, we tend to think in terms of new powers and enhancements when we level-up characters, but D&D is really a set of restrictions designed to tie fantastic stories to realistic expectations (like taking time to memorize spells, or to change your equipped weapon), so that Susan's imagination doesn't overrun Bob's when they rp.
It might be too late for the OP, but I'm sure there are other people who came to BG3 possibly thinking that the game's ties to D&D were, like so many other games based on other things, in name only. If the mods don't delete the thread, hopefully anyone wandering by and agreeing with the OP will then see the responses and maybe have a chance to adjust their thinking before tossing BG3 aside.
Speaking of asides, I also want to mention how refreshing these forums are. Everyone knows more about D&D than I do, which is super because I get to learn more (and I thought I knew a lot, so even better.) And people, even though this is a gaming forum on the internet, seem reasonable and kind. I imagine the reaction if this grenade had been tossed into the Guild Wars forums, for instance. (or pretty much anywhere else) And perhaps they were hoping to set off a chain reaction by enraging all of us. But it won't work! We're already enraged. We're just enraged because things aren't working as well as they should right now, and we want them to. Trying to tear down the things that are working properly is like sending an ant to take down a gorilla that's surrounded by a pack of wild hyenas. Or something...
