You spin me right round baby right round like a record baby right round round round.
That's all we're doing here.
Imma be Gale for a sec:
Fact 1: The game CAN have anywhere between 1 and 4 players in current state.
Fact 2: If it CAN have 4 players, and the game is balanced for 1, the game becomes instantly too easy for 4 players. Evidence? The prologue is INSANELY easy for 4 players. Even Zalk becomes amazingly easy to kill when you have Shadowheart pummeling him with Guiding Bolt and Lae'zel hacking him with a sword and Us raking him with claws and 4 PCs all pegging him with all their own abilities plus the mind flayer.
Fact 3: With a max of 4 party members, if you play multiplayer, you CANNOT and are RESTRICTED from adding any origin characters to your party. Therefore, you CANNOT and are RESTRICTED from having any origin character story line quests such as interrogating Zorru, having Lae'zel with you while speaking with the Gith Patrol, having Wyll with you while you are fighting goblins and interrogating them, having Shadowheart with you when you visit the statues of Selune, having Gale with you when you save Arabella so he can talk to you about some of his past, etc. etc. etc.
Fact 4: The game is currently NOT using proper D&D stats for most of its monsters. Many are nerfed to try to MAKE it balanced for 4. If they used a party of 6 as their standard balance, they would not need to nerf enemies or use these weird homebrew rules and such that they've been using.
Fact 5: The XP allowances wouldn't NEED to be nerfed if they used proper D&D XP rewards, a party of 6, and XP split. They'd still level up just as fast if they did these things. The only reason Imps now give only a whopping 10 XP is because they needed to severely nerf them in order to prevent players from leveling up to Level 3 before the prologue was over. Make the game based on a party of 6 from the beginning, and you wouldn't have to do this.
Conclusion: If everything about the game deviates from true D&D 5e simply because they need to do this in order to make it work with a party of 1-4, and if it would actually work perfectly based on true D&D 5e rules and stats if they made it a party of 6, why are they basing the entire balance of the game on a party of 1-4 max?
By only allowing a max of 4 characters in your party, they are especially severely limiting multiplayer mode, and they are having to completely nerf the system to make it work. Makes no sense.
You always start big and then adjust to small. You don't start small and try to adjust to big. If you do, things don't work well. Balance for 6 and then make it so that there are game adjustments to tweak stats and such for situations where players are using less than 6. Give players the ability for a maximum of 6 party members, especially for multiplayer, and then provide Difficulty settings so players can adjust down to 1-4 if that's their preference. Don't completely limit and hinder multiplayer so drastically and nerf stats so drastically and make the game a lot less fun for those who want to play with true D&D rules and a party of 6 ESPECIALLY when it is so obvious that the game COULD and SHOULD be based on a party of 6 using standard rules and stats.
If they created no other difficulty options, they should at least create this:
1. Core Rules and Stats Difficulty with Party of 6 2. Current Game Rules and Stats Difficulty with Party of 1-4.
Simple adjustment. You play with a party of 4 Difficult Setting, the stats and rules are exactly as Larian has created the game right now. If you play with a party of 6 Difficulty Setting (especially for those who play 4 player multiplayer), you get traditional D&D rules and stats.
Then, everybody on this thread should be happy. Should anyway.
