Eh, I don't mind the food management. I always make sure to use up the Supply Packs before anything else, and on 80/Rest I usually make it to the end of Act 2 before ever eating other food. Currently I'm saving up Garlic to throw at Cazador, see if that does anything.
I just wish there was more to it. As it is, it's 80 when you only met Shadowheart and it's 80 when you have Volo, Selunites, Ravengard and eight party members running around with a dog, a devil and an owlbear in tow.
In any case. I play honour mode and fairly casually at it, to be honest. I try out new things as I progress, I yolo into the fights so as to not suprise anyone and just try to have fun with it. It's fine for me, difficulty wise. I still win all the fights, but occasionally things go *really* wrong, especially if I loose the initiative [D20's, modded] and I have to come up with a plan to survive all of a sudden.
BUt that's also how I like it. As soon as my heroes can't hit a goblin unless they have advantage+oil+precision, then it's no fun for me. Ultimately, I will beat that too but it will be so much button pushing that I don't get excited anymore. So, you resort to cheap lightning builds or stack up on scrolls of Invulnerability Globes and surprise every encounter. I wouldn't play that mode, it'd get boring to me.
I just would like a more restrictive mode. One where only Arcane Casters can use Arcane Scrolls, provided they have the required skills. Or, have Alchemy recipes locked behind an actual Alchemy skill and roll for succes. Where you don't get unlimited high end potions and elixers from every vendor.
Then, D20 Initiative is a *must-have*, the whole mechanics of turned-based combat falls flat on its face when it's 'this team goes before this team'. You either shit on everyone, or everyone shits on you. There is way more tactical thinking when your team is spread across the initiative order; prioritize targets, and so on.
I'd impose multiclass restrictions too, and give the races their ASI distribution back per 5E PHB. That way, you can consider playing a surface Dwarf, for instance, or a Dragonborn and still be awesome.
