I've found that pretty much every fight you need to carefully plan and position your party beforehand expecting things to go wrong or it's basically 1-2 round TPK. Wander up to the goblins outer wall and start a fight? You're done for. Wander up to the Githyanki patrol and start a fight? Also done for. End up in pretty much any unexpected fight and chances are you're done for. This is in large part due to the games action economy and the insane amount of ground effects. If you don't win the initiative roll, or preplace all your party members in the most advantageous, ie high ground, locations fights are usually super one sided.
The number of times I've started a combat only to have 3-6 aoe bombs/arrows dropped on me before I can move is sad. Specially when you're talking lvl 1-4. I could understand this in more late game. By that time you have higher stats to be able to withstand a barrage like this or other ways of mitigating the effects. I really wonder how they are going to, if they even plan to, implement counter spell.
You’ve translated how I feel about combat in general. The way it’s expected to be is always by using your infinite line of sight granted by the game to foresee the odds by properly positioning your characters. Do in think it’s tactical thinking? Maybe. Do I think it immersive? Definitely not.
I like to mention the spider matriarch. I was walking carelessly through the cave and then the initiative rolled. I though - “ok, more than 100 hp, it’ll be tough but who cares.†Then out of sudden those spiderlings started to hatch and I was without spells slots from the very beginning. Died.
Then the second time I was already aware of the monsters in the surroundings. I’ve placed my rogue to lure one by one and I dealt with the boss. Also, I’ve took a long rest to replenish my spells slots. Didn’t used the shove or the web burning strategy to kill it. Didn’t even kill the eggs before the battle. I won, but there was this bitter taste in my mouth that I’ve cheated the system. In the end, this battle was less fun than simply beating the imps in the very begging of the game.
Summarizing, I don’t want to know about the boss position to try it again using a better strat. I really wanted that battle to be unique.
I really do understand where you are coming from. I would simply say that this is how Larian does it and not everyone is going to feel the way that you do, nor are they going to care as much about changing some of the D&D rules. For example, I liked that fight with the Matriarch and it would have been far less interesting without the eggs hatching.
This game has a lot of constituencies and it's probably impossible to make everyone happy. Maybe best to make everyone a little bit unhappy to find the sweet spot.
