The game still does not make a serious effort to teach new players how to play it. The difficulty scale is going to be way off depending on experience or familiarity. The game assumes that we already know Dungeons and Dragons, otherwise virtually none of the information presented at character creation would make much sense. But it also builds off a familiarity with DOS systems, such that even someone who already knows D&D or BG1/2 pretty well may still struggle with it. Not to harp on it again, but in 4 major patches since EA began, the Prologue/Tutorial on the Nautiloid has remained basically unchanged. By now that part of the game should be like a masterwork in introductions to gameplay lol.
I think what is needed is a low pressure combat environment with no rewards, where the new player can figure out what's going on at whatever pace they might need.
In BG1 this was handled pretty effectively before even leaving Candlekeep, when the PC was approached by the Gatewarden and asked if they wanted to train in group combat...
"I've arsked Obe the illusionist to run through a few simulations fer ye down in the storage cellars. Just follow me this way an' I'll unlock the door fer ye..."
The PC then fights a series of illusionary monsters of different types in a progressively more challenging group combat scenario. They join a fight ongoing with a ready-made party covering all the basic classes and abilities. It happens in a discrete area detached from the rest of the main game so the player doesn't get to keep any of the experience or items from the encounters in the trainer. It was a simple way for the new player to learn how to navigate the game's combat systems and also basic stuff like equipment and consumables via the pre-built party or from the magical chest in the middle of the warehouse gauntlet. The player could finish till the end or stop at any point if they got bored, and they couldn't actually be killed since it was all an illusion without real consequences outside of the training.
Something like that could easily happen as a narrative conceit in the Grove, where Wyll is already training the Tieflings how to fight. That's a bit far into the game for a combat tutorial, but it could at least serve as a practice zone. That would give Larian somewhere to show off monster types or environmental effects and the like, in a low pressure arena type setting. I think the illusions idea is an easy one, just because it's been done before doesn't mean its a bad call. They need a place where they can really do up a tips and tricks type trainer with focused attention on all the systems we have available in this game. Done with slightly less urgency than would be suggested by a crashing spelljammer ship in the cold open.
