lichtjahre

Think on the bright side. HBS would have a better engine to make Shadowrun Series after Battletech.

1. Mechanical Depth, diversity in itemization and/or character builds. (e.g. Path of Exile, Grim Dawn) 2. A healthy dose of RNG to keep the game refreshing but don't make it completely depends on luck. (e.g. ToME4, Nethack) 3. Non-linear (More Freedom). (Witcher Series, Pillars of Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2) 4. Slow-paced so I have enough time to think (Most games that use RTWP or Turn-based combat. Dark Souls 1 is slow enough for me despite it is real-time while DS2, 3 and Bloodborne are too fast-paced for my taste)

Opus Magnum. This game is truly a magnum opus.

I use both. There are games unavailable on Steam, such as Heroes of Might and Magic III

Tomb of VARN from Might & Magic VI is my favorite

Stop numerical growth or minimal growth after a certain level. The best example is BG2 mage. They get 1 HP/level only after level 10. If players don't know how to use their spells it won't make any difference. A melee character could kill a 50 HP character nearly as fast as a 40 HP character. It takes skill to turn level advantage into actual advantage. If players are able to reach level 10/20 if they skip/complete all side quests. Use level 10 as the threshold. After that all characters get 2 Health/level and 1 accuracy/2 level only. In this way overleveling is not a major issue since 20HP and 5% THC won't save your ass if don't know how to play the game. On the other hand a level 10 team may stand a chance against a level 20 encounter if they know how to CC/suppress buff/dispel debuff, etc.

No, Larian fxxked up DOS2 combat. the additional physical/magic armor system makes it difficult to play as a mixed damage party and renders ground effect useless. The round-robin initiative system makes your investment on initiative meaningless. Crafting is gutted. The scaling is exponential so that a level 18 character has nearly double life/damage of a level 16 character, as a result you have to keep visiting shopkeepers to keep your gears updated or you'll be at a major disadvantage. The story is better and more serious though. If you think DOSEE writing is cringeworthy then you would probably like DOS2 plot and story.

If 8th and 9th level spells are as powerful as that in BG2 then it would probably be a bad idea to multiclass as wizard, druid, priest or cipher.