By now I've logged roughly 30 hours of gameplay, with a restart after about 10 hours, which by no means make me an expert on the game, but I've noticed a few issues that, although they might be by intent, are severely lowering my experience of the game, and I think for a lot of others too.
Before I present my issues, I will admit that I am playing on Hard difficulty as a Rogue. My party consist of my own character, and four others: Fighter, Wizard, Priest, and Chanter.
If someone have some insights into any of the below I would be grateful to hear from you. In particular if you can point out where I am wrong.
First issue - Trap strength
I am not sure who thought it was a great idea to limit number of traps to just one per character, but it seems a strange decision. Maybe the number of traps per character increases later on as a result of higher class level, Mechanics level, talents, or class abilities, but currently, as a 5th level Rogue with 8 in Mechanics, my character is able to place down one trap. One.
It could be that I am missing something, but one trap doesn't do a lot of damage, and most of the time it will only hit two enemies since they tend to go after the party in a single file column. At my current level and ranks in Mechanics traps feel more like a gimmic that is good for taking care of cannon fodder that pose no real threat anyway, rather than something to turn the odds of a fight.
Placing down a second trap with the same character will also make the first trap go away. Normally your own traps can be recovered if they are not triggered, but not here. Place down a second trap and the first one is gone with no way of getting it back. I am sure this is a bug.
I am by no means looking for traps to be as broken as they were in BG2, but a small upgrade would be nice.
Second issue - Trap placement
I am certain that some of you have tried to place down two traps with two characters, one from each. If so you have likely encountered the same issue that I have, where placing a trap too close to an existing one will make the first one disappear. This behavior would be fine if placing a trap on top of another trap, but when they are placed apart from eachother, yet obviously still too close, it becomes an issue.
The spell Warding Seal, and likely others like it that I haven't seen yet, also do this. On the positive side, Warding Seal isn't removed by a trap placed close to it, or even on top of it. Although placing a trap on top of a Seal makes little sense.
Third issue - Stealth
This has already been addressed in another thread, so I won't go into too much detail, except to point out that I agree the mechanic seems counter-intuitive. Stealth, as far as I am concerned, should be an individual action, not something for the whole party.
The ability to properly position a character on the battlefield is important, sadly, with the way Stealth is currently working, this is not possible. Some of you may wonder why it isn't possible, and the answer to that is simple: Stealth breaks when combat starts - for all characters, not just the one being spotted.
Fourth issue - Enemy omnipotence
Enemies seem to be omnipotent in this game. At least that is the only reason that can explain how they are able to charge directly at a character hiding behind a rock formation with no clear line of sight between the two. Just like with the Stealth issue, this is a major hinderance to tactics in battle.
Fifth issue - Pre-combat spells
Otherwise known as buffing. Again I am uncertain who had the brilliant idea to disable pre-combat buffs, but oh boy is it a blunder. Now, since we are talking about magic, I won't go into a logical debate as to whether or not it makes sense for spells to be locked out of a caster's arsenal unless threatened. Instead I can only point out that some fights would be less painful to deal with if spells such as Armor of Faith, or Circle of Protection, could be cast prior to combat.