Zoolimar

That is totally another problem but it does exist somewhat in PoE. Though not exaggerated. Fighters, barbarians, monks, paladins, rogues they all probably can mop the floor with spellcasters one on one, but in group fights casters get a distinct advantage because they have time to lay down a couple of spells before they get their faces full of axe. And yeah, number of active abilities for "non-spellcasters" is really low. Especially distinct and effective abilities. As I see it "martials" should get soul abilities that work through their body or equipment. They already have this but in a really restricted manner.

Considering that the game is a real-time with pause instead of turn based I don't see how it is a problem. There is many other ways to make engagement matter. You can stack penalties to defense for each enemy that engages a character and is not engaged himself. You can give bonus attack speed to weapons per their type (x2 for small and fast, x1.5 for average and x1.2 for heavy and slow) You can make more abilities that give other advantages then character is not engaged.

I want to address this point - which is not true. You have only 100 points of a dice roll and while accuracy can be stacked from many sources 12 points is 12 points. They will start to lose their worth only if you are heavily outclassing enemy deflection or outclassed yourself. The attack roll is a flat number so a bonus to accuracy will be always welcomed until you have around +90-100 other enemy deflection.

A better mechanic probably would be to get some resources back each time you end a fight. Example 1. You restore Endurance up to half of your maximum but no more than you lost. Endurance 100. Fight 1: Lost 50. Full restoration. 100/100 Fight 2: Lost 60. Restored 50. 90/100 Fight 3: Lost 30. Restored 30. 90/100 Fight 5: Lost 88. Restored 50. 52/100 2. Two types of abilities - that restore to full after each fight and the ones that restore only half of their number. 3. Optional - grand abilities tied to quest counter that are restored only after completing a quest.

I think Stronghold elements should be introduced only if they are a part of main story. For example a story about a duc or other lord who is trying to carve a place for himself and raise his place in his country and the whole world. With such a premise you can tie many things to Stronghold.

I think they should have implemented immunities at least in Expert mode (maybe on Hard / PotD). If someone creates a modtool to modify stats of monsters and spells it will be easy to do - just give them +500 defense against certain attack types.

It is also possible to remake engagement and what it does or change how it does things. Variant 1: Standard disengagement attacks but you can make only X attacks within the span of Y sec. Where X is maximum number of possible engagements (don't have beta but as I understand fighters can have 2 or more engagements, right ?) for character and Y is his weapon attack recovery time. So a character with light weapons and multiple disengagement attacks can slice anyone who tries to run past him and a warrior with heavy weapon and single engagement can attack only once and then they will have to wait until they can react again. Variant 2: Characters that are not engaged by enemy get bonus to attack speed. Movement is inertial so the longer character runs the faster he moves up until he reaches maximum speed. Characters without armour have better acceleration but same maximum speed (without feats or other abilities). Someone tries to disengage ? His opponent gets a bonus to attack speed and character still needs time to run from him. Character tries to attack an archer ? There is a chance someone will whack him in the back (with bonus speed) and archer will just change weapons to melee set. On the other hand archers will need to wear light armour and start their running in circles long before their enraged target reaches them or they won't be able to escape.

Not true. You always can move and shoot. You just can't shoot mid movement without feats. There is even a class (scout) that specializes on this kind of thing. Also you can't shoot into combat between your comrades and enemies without risking to hit allies or taking penalties on attacks. And attacks of opportunity are limited in number per round (standard is 1). The reason why kiting doesn't work so good in D&D is that there is a "charge" movement. Characters can rush into close combat with double movement in straight line and it can't be done while trying to shoot on the run. So ranged characters are always slower if they want to continue their attacks and need some cover to not die to charge attacks. Fighters covering straight lines is a good candidate.

I think part of the problem is that fighter and rogue abilities seem to lack real impact in their effects. At least that's what it looks like from "let's play" videos. Fighter knocks an enemy down and he just gets back up maybe with slightly more health missing. Rogue stabs someone and he is slightly worse but not by much. Add to that current implementation of combat feedback and abilities start to seem really dull especially considering how little the number of abilities that rogues and fighters get.

I think most problems with seemingly more powerful ranged options go from almost nonexistant AI of the enemies. If NPCs will have better AI then ranged characters won't be able to act with as many advantages especially if enemy group has its own ranged combatatnts.