Speaking of respecs. It's definitely a balance issue that you can be anything at any time, when needed. Undead everywhere - respec into a Light Cleric. Need to smash a boss? Respec into a great weapon Paladin or Fighter.
But most of all it just destroys the credibility of the game world. It completely changes the atmosphere of the entire game when your character building choices don't mean anything. I respecced my level 12 PC to various different classes and multiclasses, and now I don't really feel like actually playing those classes at all.
Pathfinder WOTR solved both of the issues you mentioned. You cannot spam rests since there is a corruption mechanic that inflicts penalties for resting too much out in 'the world' and respeccing on the harder difficulties is completely disabled. Off the top of my head, Tactician not allowing respecs and having an 'tadpole in brain' mechanic where you are plagued with nightmares or something so outside of camp you only have short rests or something are low hanging fruit options Larian could have used, but they seem to be allergic to learning from other CRPGs.
