The combat is among the worst I've played, same issues as DOS2 making it utterly boring. With shoving, disengage being bonus actions and surfaces effects doing too much damage, barrel&hordmancy those become the most important parts of combat. I spend more time planning my bonus actions than actions since those give more bang for bucks then the main actions.
It's been said several times not advantage should be given for height just bonus modifiers. You can do the same for flanking or backstabing. Advantage is just too powerful.
Overall all changes except for the Ranger made by Larian have been disruptive for the balance and not just a litte. I was looking forward to play EA, but because of the combat I barely managed to finish one playthrough being completely annoyed and bored. If they don't roll back to D&D 5e I most likey won't play the full game until there is a mod fixing all these broken and badly implemented changes.
Did you know that using barrels is completely optional? Fighting in no way requires you to use a single one throughout the EA. If someone can't resist using mechanics he doesn't like, he breaks the game himself, it's only his fault.
Originally Posted by Firesnakearies
Ah, if it's a bug, then that's good. I wasn't sure if it was by design or not.
I don't know if using scrolls is a bug, but being able to learn any spell is an obvious bug.