I apologise for my acerbic tone. But the fact is that you overstate how much Withers actually changes in a regular playthrough. I can see how Withers would matter in a solo playthrough with no party members, but at that point you're already doing a self-imposed challenge. Just go and self-impose a tiny bit more. When you have a full party, any benefits will be somewhere between imaginary and miniscule.
Withers isn't a gameplay feature, he's a quality-of-life feature. It's a long game. Maybe when I'm 50 hours in, I want to try out something else without having to start from the beginning.
But sure, make a non-Withers mode, just as long as it isn't tied to the difficulty, i.e. there should also be a highest difficulty mode with Withers. I'd make him a menu option, but you know, he already basically is a menu option, so this seems like such a non-change to me. It certainly doesn't help me to have a more challenging playthrough.
You clearly don�t know what �quality of life � means.
�Quality of life� feature is something like a new button that lets you organize your inventory;
Quality of life is the magic mirror they implemented.
Having either of those or not changes nothing as far as the way you play the game. It�s just that: quality of life
Withers is in NO way �quality of life� thing it�s literally game changing mechanic that you need to self restrict if you want more balanced gameplay. Game Dramatically changes with withers.
With withers I can start as a monk or thrown barb as they are ridiculously powerful early game then out of the blue can turn into bard when I get the top level archery gear and then I can turn into paladin if I need tankier build for a boss.
I don�t need to think ahead , I can totally swap my stats based on items like the dex gloves or the constitution necklace in act 3 .
Again that�s not �quality of life� that�s build and gameplay defining feature .
I can kill Minthara with ease because I can always respec wyll or Gale as my paladin so a major decision about doing evil path to get a class you can�t otherwise get becomes pointless.
I can make my companions that are not supposed to be crazy strong like Shadowhearth trickery domain into powerhouses like Tempest/ sorcerer that are capable of soloing encounters on their own because clearly the game have been balanced with the idea that companions will be whatever class they were originally given.
Again that�s not a �quality of life� that�s OP build enabler that allows for a team of 4 fully optimized builds in a game that�s been clearly balanced without respec in mind .
Anything that changes balance in the power level of the build is not �quality of life� , quality of life are cosmetic features or features that only saves a bit of time like fast travel.
Withers absolutely needs to go to achieve proper balance , I�d even go further as to suggest that companions needs to remain in their original class and not be allowed to multiclass or at the very least have to have the majority of their points in their class : like Shadowheart needs to have at least 6 -7 points in cleric and can only be trickery until she betrays shar in which point she can change to Light or Life or with a persuasion check to a different domain.
It�s much easier to balance the game around 3 pure class predetermined companions than around the idea of 3 fully customized optimized build multiclassed ones .
In short Withers is 100% a gameplay feature not a Qol feature
