Backer Beta First Impressions

[Sedrefilos]

Happy to see some more people asking for screenshot portraits. I asked about that in the first game but it never happened. I'd like to see it now since the character models are so much better this time and with greater variety than the portraits. I won't mind if they don't appear as a watercolor in conversations.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Sedrefilos

[theBalthazar]

ANALYSE OF SUBCLASSES - Part 1

 

Special : Exotic, ultra restrictive. Often a bad deal.

Universal : All players can consider it without problem.

 

 

Barbarian

 

Berserker = Special. You can hurt your friend. Bad deal, except in few situations (solo).

 

Corpse eater = Special.  Advantage useless/restrictive to few creatures (and inconscious...) for problematic penalty.

 

Mage slayer = Special.  Triple PENALTY : p for not attack wizard they are generally far enough and this is only -a chance- to disrupt + a weak bonus against spell. In short : bad deal.

 

 

Chanter

 

Beckoner = Universal. The penalty concerned the summon themselves. Excellent deal.

 

Skald = Universal. Could be special in a sense but the specialisation require only to play in one way for work. No problem.

 

Troubadour = Special. The modal could be present for all form of chanter if we pay attention ? It is not a total advantage. And you gain a big penalty with that. Middling.

 

 

Cipher

 

Ascendant = Special. A little bit complicated to use. Always be at max but after 5 sec, down to 0... In short, bad deal. If you are at max, you only could attack once, after that you are less powerful etc.

 

Beguiler = Special. Major penalty with less damage for what ? More range... Bad deal.

 

Soul blade = Universal. I think lot of people can take this. It is an excellent deal, pretty universal. Lost max concentration is not a big problem himself.

 

 

Druid

 

Fury = Universal.  Excellent deal. The penalty is not too strong. Perfect.

 

Life giver = Universal.

 

Shifter = Special. It is not particulary a bad deal, but It seems to be the combats in this game will be more shorter. So a lot of transformations ? Maybe not very useful. Boost of the damage of shapeshift form would have been better.

 

 

Fighter

 

Black jacket = Special. Frankly... A pretty bad deal. Health recovery is one of the most interresting thing with the fighter. especially now, with only the endurance. And especially for these weak bonuses in exchange...

 

Devoted = Universal. It is an interresting approach, I like it. One chosen weapon, all others have an accuracy malus. Good deal.

 

Unbroken = Universal. The malus is not absurd. The concept is good.

 

 

Monk

 

Helwalker = Universal. Anybody can approve this approach. Glass canon is the perfect definition.

 

Nalpazca = Special. I hesitated. But, in this case the fact to not can heal the character is problematic. The idea with drugs and all is awsome, truly but perhaps poorly staged. It is not the worst "special" but still special.

 

Shattered pillar = Universal. (by far). The dream of all guys who dislike the concept of wound. (like me) Awsome idea, trully.

 

 

--------------

 

To conclude this first part : I think when I imagined the subclasses that was more with "universal" approach. I hope refinement for the "special" case. That would be cool.

Edited November 19, 2017 by theBalthazar

[morhilane]

You can reduce your Wizard Problems by turning off companion auto-levelling in the options menu before starting your game.

and then you go and give her buff (Eldrish Aim for some +accuracy and grazing) and "always-hit" spells (Trust of the Tattered Veils, use that against enemies that are casting stuff, and the two magical missiles spells).

 

Mage slayer = Special.  Triple PENALTY : p for not attack wizard they are generally far enough and this is only -a chance- to disrupt + a weak bonus against spell. In short : bad deal.

Have you actually played one? It's not just against Wizard, it's against anything that is casting a spell, which means basically every creatures you encounter.

[theBalthazar]

Have you actually played one? It's not just against Wizard, it's against anything that is casting a spell, which means basically every creatures you encounter. 

 

 

Globally, the purpose of the battle is globally to C.C. Not to let ennemy swing all his spells.

 

In this case, and with no potions and scrolls, with divided/2 beneficials effects... I stay on the bad deal. But indeed, this is not the worst/more useless Barbarian.

 

And yes : For ennemies far enough (like I said...) This is not particuliry useful.

Edited November 19, 2017 by theBalthazar

[morhilane]

 

Have you actually played one? It's not just against Wizard, it's against anything that is casting a spell, which means basically every creatures you encounter. 

 

Globally, the purpose of the battle is globally to C.C. Not to let ennemy swing all his spells.

 

In this case, and with no potions and scrolls, with divided/2 beneficials effects... I stay on the bad deal. But indeed, this is not the worst/more useless Barbarian.

 

And yes : For ennemies far enough (like I said...) This is not particuliry useful.

 

Just tried one against a few of the encounters in the beta (Delemgan/spores and Lagufaeths). Sprint is great to rush toward the casters and the Mage Slayer cause them to be unable to cast spells for 20 seconds when they "proc" (or something like that, the description isn't very clear). Also, +11 defenses (including deflection) against spells is pretty nice (seems to improve with power level too). On top of that, Yell debuff has more effect on casters than melee characters because Shaken reduce power level.

 

One of the easiest build I played in the beta so far.

Edited November 19, 2017 by morhilane

[fiddlesticks]

Calling the Shifter bad seems crazy to me. It's the one subclass that I definitely feel ought to be nerfed, because as of right now, freely switching between forms (and getting healed every time you do it) is insanely powerful.

[Tamerlane]

I'm actually kinda surprised that shifters can cast at all. But then, taking away casting would probably necessitate creating a bunch of new abilities for them...

[theBalthazar]

ANALYSE OF SUBCLASSES - Part 2

 

Paladin

 

All orders = Universal. It seems to be clear : There is no "Killer penalty" in each subclass. Goldpact have serious one (no auras at all) but the deal remains good. (Great concept in exchange)

 

 

Priest

 

All obediences = Special. I have personnaly a problem with this concept. The Advantage/gain is small. All spells of the chosen obedience is not always useful and you have a big penalty in return : impossibility to access to a category of spells. No obedience allow to have all spells... A little bit... problematic for me (mostly with no talents to right of the screen...). (Even with a penalty, access to all spells would been good). I understand the RP reason to that, but one subclass with all would have been nice. A "no subclass" style+upgrade the deal of all obediences would have been nice.

 

Ranger

 

Sharpshooter = Universal. A little bit strange but interresting. Personnally, to increase the concept, I will have to remove the "ranged" obligation (=Ranger with Melee weapon(s), sticks well with the concept.)

 

Ghost heart = Special. Great concept, however... I don't understand the advantage of this. Limited duration / Must be summon, and a big penalty. Perhaps I don't test this subclass correctly ? I expected a more powerful companion in exchange... Immune to bonded grief = lol...^^

 

Stalker = Special. I love the concept, I love it. BUT...^^ If you are not a melee, the bonded grief will always be activated (ranged = end of this subclass). And when there is the bonus... it is... really a small amount. Not bad but really limited. People will prefer take no subclass, I think.

 

Rogue

 

Assassin = Universal. Glass canon concept but with bonus only in stealth. Big penalty with all damage receive. Extremely powerful but, Be careful, the character become extremely weak at each placement error... 

 

Street fighter = Special. The concept is interresting. But... Very limited. Must be bloodied or flanked. It is very risky. Suffer of comparison with Assassin. I prefer more penetration and accuracy on stealth. Provoke Flanked is possible but the best bonus is with bloodied+flanked (like when your character will die the next three seconds : p) On the paper, more useful than assassin, but in fact, too dangerous. It is not glass canon but ... rather kamikaze suicide bomber. Maybe a good choice for solo characters but absolutely not "universal".

 

Trickster = ??. Impossible to tell. You trade 25 % of sneak attack against illusion spells. It is the beta, we don't have all the spells. So, wait and see. In the beta, we have lengrath displaced image. So for me we run to a real interrest. (Universal ?)

 

Wizard

 

All schools = Special. Here there is a good thing : possibility to take no subclass contrary to priest. The problem here is the violence of penalty. I like the concept but it is too much. I resume : 2 schools out (Why not one ? Good enough...) + Malus on recovery on all school wicth are not the spe...  It is only +1 power level, it is OK but not insane. I prefer more versatility and no +20 % recovery. "No subclass" atm is a much better choice.

Edited November 19, 2017 by theBalthazar

[theBalthazar]

Calling the Shifter bad seems crazy to me. It's the one subclass that I definitely feel ought to be nerfed, because as of right now, freely switching between forms (and getting healed every time you do it) is insanely powerful.

 

 

I understand your point of view. For me, the battle end very quickly. It is perhaps for that. It is not bad, I don't tell that, this is not universal. Not necesserly a perfect choice for everyone.

 

In POE1, 95 % of my battle was ended is 15 seconds maximum. Worst here. This explain the "special".

 

(it remains only my opinion^^)

Edited November 19, 2017 by theBalthazar

[Roda]

POE 1 had so many good things, but it had a lot of horrible aspects to fix. It amaze me the fact that 90% of the recognised horrible aspects are still there and the good ones are beign removed slowly. It amaze me almost as much as too see this unwanted and unispired change to magic system. I hated Sorcerers and loved Wizards. I can say i loved the difference lore/rol wise between them. Now Im sure Im going to ignore Wizards, I wouldnt feel like a great mind learning and preparing his spells for the next fight.

 

You can see a tendency to simplify great sagas to reach a wide range of costumers. Well, uncalled multiclass system and this changes are the beggining of that path that Im tired of watching over and over again.

In my opinion the best thing you must do when something works its polish it step to step and not rush lots of changes that destroys what made you unique in the first place. Damn I almost cant recognise this game.

 

Positive:

- Love the icons that show the locations of aoe spell

- Changes to how the the fighter acces to stances

- Visual changes to some weapons

- Remove the chance to learn spells from grimoires (if there is a "balanced" way to learn more). It was too easy

- Love NPC portraits. More immersive.

 

Negative:

- You can still drop one or more atribbutes to 3 to skyrocket another ones always winning in the process. Horrible aspect that persist.

- Skills (athetics, survical, etc) still needs a lot of work

- Forget to single class. So boring...

- Almost no choices while you level. You could autogive all the skills when lvl up and the experience would be 90% the same.

- Multiclass system its souless and too raw (It could improve so it can change for good).

- Miss endurance, new wound system dosnt seems to work as intended.

- 5 size party (I knew it but still cant accept it)

- Combats are way too fast

- Miss the option to see the health bars all the time (maybe I missed the option in the menu)

- Racials are still unbalanced and in most casses some races would be chose because of lore/rol aspects

 

Other:

- Graphics from POE1 were more immersive for me (being a beta as it is propably would change).

- Little apareance choices (again, its a beta, could change)

- Maybe Im playing Tyranny 2.0? and not POE2?

Edited November 19, 2017 by Roda

[Merany]

Finally got some time to play the beta, yeah \o/

About 2-3 hours in (not counting character creation), I'm in the Engwithan Waystation, lvl2 so far from done but enough for first impressions.

 

I've read the thread but don't quite remember everything so there's probably a lot that's already been said.

And for what it's worth, I'm playing on veteran difficulty.

 

+ New names for difficulty are cool. Not that I mind much but if it helps newer players choose the proper difficulty for them, all the better.

 

- Bring back the navigation between menus during character creation, please! Was well done and useful in PoE1, no reason not to have it here. Sometimes, you make a choice that changes stats and you want to redistribute them, sometimes you want to change how your character look base on the class, etc.

+ Really like all the work that went on the models. Would be nice to have more heads for example but I guess this will be done for release.

+ Multiclass / subclasses, ho yeah, that's what we're talking about!

? Single class characters. Not sure about those. I understand complaints and I agree that progression does feel EXTREMELY linear for them. On the other hand, we haven't quite see the full talent tree yet. And I don't think bringing back the plethora of general talents from PoE1 is a very good idea either, most of them felt flavorless. Still, something the team should think about.

- Portrait selection could certainly be expanded.

 

- When leveling up multiclass characters, there needs to be a way to tell how many points are available to spend and where.

- The empower usage was super confusing. When I first read it, I understood that I could either empower a spell or myself. When the time came that I needed additional resources and wanted to empower myself, I tried to click on my actual character, as I would if I wanted to cast a spell... Which did nothing. I dismissed it as a bug. It wasn't until much later that I realized that the *portrait* was glowing and that it was the way to do it. Being able to do it both ways would be cool!

+ Quick saving time... **** yeah!!!

+ Really like the map exploration by foot or by boat. In the context of the beta, It does feel somewhat empty though. I understand it's a hard task to make the world feel lively without making it feel gimmicky but I'm sure you guys will find a way.

+ Atmosphere, graphics, a huge improvement for sure. Water color portrait was a really cool idea!

- Wizard... Now that's a complex question. As a huge fan of BG2, I was somewhat disappointed when Josh announced that vancian was gone but I had faith you guys could come up with something interesting. So far, the execution seems sub par. It just feels weak. I mean, yeah, there has been a couple good fireballs but 80% of the time, I just chain misses. I'm not kidding, I've had the mercenary wizard try to cast Necrotic Lance about 6 or 7 times and you know how many I've landed? Zero. How's that worth having in a party? I liked the retargeting of spells though, has some potential.

 

- Switching items between party members is awful.

- The AI behavior screen needs some serious work I feel. I mean, why the **** would I want to switch *randomly* between agressive and passive? That's some pretty useless usage of UI space if you ask me. On the other hand, fine tuning some of those behaviors seems mandatory to me.

- Order of saves when loading one

 

- A metric ton of bugs and performances issues. Won't list them all (and I assume most of them are already logged in on your side) but I've had some seriously annoying ones: flickering UI, characters turning invincible during a fight, HP loss not showing in red on your portrait (feels bad when you think your tank is fine but is actually at 10HP) and a dozen more. Will post them in the appropriate subforum if I can get some clear steps to reproduce. Anyway, you guys have some polish to do!

 

And that's about it for now. It might seem like there's a lot of - but nothing that can't be fixed and the + are pretty big, so, keep up the good work guys!

Edited November 19, 2017 by Merany

[draego]

- Switching items between party members is awful.

 

I am ok with the new inventory system but there is no point in any character having their own inventory anymore. So either do it like POE1 or remove individual inventory altogether and just leave the giant party stash. I found myself moving all inventory items to the party stash because its was a pain to look through each inventory to see what was there now. I dont have a strong feeling which system they go though. 

Edited November 19, 2017 by draego

[cheesevillain]

I'm really surprised by some of your choices. Just my thoughts on a few:

 

Berserker = Special. You can hurt your friend. Bad deal, except in few situations (solo).

 

 

This guy's malus' aren't so bad, and it's only active when you activate frenzy. You just need to be a little careful about positioning before you activate frenzy, so this guy isn't standing next to your resolve 3, constitution 3 wizard.

 

Corpse eater = Special.  Advantage useless/restrictive to few creatures (and inconscious...) for problematic penalty.

 

I agree that any creature restrictions, but it includes Kith, Wilder & Beasts, which included most of the enemies from the last game, and including most of the really difficult fights, except for Concelhaut.

 

Stalker = Special. I love the concept, I love it. BUT...^^ If you are not a melee, the bonded grief will always be activated (ranged = end of this subclass). And when there is the bonus... it is... really a small amount. Not bad but really limited. People will prefer take no subclass, I think.

 

The Bonded Grief range is 7m. You can easily play a ranged character with this class. I actually hope they give it a stronger pair of malus & benefit. After playing this class a fair amount, it's definitely too close to the base class, and feels bland.

 

Assassin = Universal. Glass canon concept but with bonus only in stealth. Big penalty with all damage receive. Extremely powerful but, Be careful, the character become extremely weak at each placement error... 

 

Stealth-oriented game play isn't easy to do. In combat, you can't enter stealth, and you can only enter invisibility with the help of expensive abilities. I love this class, but it is not a straightforward glass cannon, and it definitely seems specialized to me. For a lot of players, this would just be a Rogue who's extra vulnerable to damage.

 

 

 

Shifter = Special. It is not particulary a bad deal, but It seems to be the combats in this game will be more shorter. So a lot of transformations ? Maybe not very useful. Boost of the damage of shapeshift form would have been better.

 

 

I'm shocked that anyone thinks this. This subclass seems like one of the most universal subclasses in the game. It's a great deal for a lot of druids, especially now that you have so fewer spells to cast in a single encounter.

 

 

In contrast to you, I was totally imagining the more specialized king of subclasses that transform the playstyle you have, and I was dissapointed to see the more universal subclasses which are just a slight rehash of the base class. I suppose it's good that Obsidian made a mix for different types of people.

[morhilane]

- The AI behavior screen needs some serious work I feel. I mean, why the **** would I want to switch *randomly* between agressive and passive? That's some pretty useless usage of UI space if you ask me. On the other hand, fine tuning some of those behaviors seems mandatory to me.

AI Behavior is not in the beta. All that is there is a temp system.

Edited November 19, 2017 by morhilane

[theBalthazar]

In contrast to you, I was totally imagining the more specialized king of subclasses that transform the playstyle you have, and I was dissapointed to see the more universal subclasses which are just a slight rehash of the base class. I suppose it's good that Obsidian made a mix for different types of people.

 

 

 

To give you a secret, I try to see wide. to posterity and replayability.

 

AND ... an "open" class (what I called universal) while keeping a "strong concept" or a strong identity is the ideal. It is good except if the penalty is too strong.

 

And I repeat it: "special" is not bad. But first exotic, difficult to associate to all way to play.

 

I tell it in the description of the Shifter:

"It is not particulary a bad deal"

 

BUT it is big concept with massive penalty (you can not use spells while shapeshift) 

 

This class is awsome, but cleavant. It can not be totally "universal". She is great with her great regeneration (amazing...) and I agree that it is one of the best but if you take this class, it is for his transformation. So you can forget spells. So the spells are a little sacrificed. You unshape then use spells etc. But, it is not universal. The penalty is completely related to the use of the bonus. So it is a choice, and if you take this subclass, is for shapeshifting the major part of time, so, that the explaination. More, if you finish the battle in 15 seconds, 4 additionnal transformations is useless. So it is not totally universal.

Edited November 19, 2017 by theBalthazar

[Merany]

 

- The AI behavior screen needs some serious work I feel. I mean, why the **** would I want to switch *randomly* between agressive and passive? That's some pretty useless usage of UI space if you ask me. On the other hand, fine tuning some of those behaviors seems mandatory to me.

AI Behavior is not in the beta. All that is there is a temp system.

 

For some reason, I completely missed that information and assumed that because there was some sort of AI working, the feature was fully implemented. My bad then

[Hariwulf]

Hello everyone!

Sorry for being late, but I wanted to get a good feel before posting my feedback.

 

 

I am mostly extremely pleased with the presentation and new elements included in the Beta, therefore, I will focus on my issues with it.

 

1. Penetration is a lovely mechanic, but as others stated, it should be percentage based, instead of point based. Watching my team killing flies gets old really fast.

 

2. Fight pacing: the "bug" causing one-handed weapons to strike with 1 sec recoil is actually a feature in my experience. Battles are too much slowed down, characters are idling instead of fighting. I would "speed up" all the mechanics so that in base-speed we will experience somewhat a realistic flow of actions (real-time like). Then, I would definitely re-enable the ability to slow-down time if needed, as well as keeping the option to speed it up for trivial encounters. All these, together with the Pause function, will keep the flow engaging.

 

3. Exploring via foot on the map is an extremely nice feature, but I do hope that in the full-release we will get more encounters, random events, discover dungeons, treasures etc. Keep exploration exciting!

 

4. We need shortcuts in character creation (the lower panel).

 

5. Aggro: having enemies chasing my rogue or casters all across the map while ignoring the immediate threat of characters bashing their skull in front of them is kinda annoying.

 

6. The new class system and level-up tree are awesome, really outstanding. I like how the roles are more defined and talents more relevant and interesting. Good job there!

 

 

This is all for now, I hope it was useful!

[morhilane]

 

 

- The AI behavior screen needs some serious work I feel. I mean, why the **** would I want to switch *randomly* between agressive and passive? That's some pretty useless usage of UI space if you ask me. On the other hand, fine tuning some of those behaviors seems mandatory to me.

AI Behavior is not in the beta. All that is there is a temp system.

 

For some reason, I completely missed that information and assumed that because there was some sort of AI working, the feature was fully implemented. My bad then

 

Well the temp system is working (well beside some wonky decisions) but it's not the final system. There is two slots to support multiclassing, so the random just means the character select abilities between the two classes randomly.

[Aramintai]

5. Aggro: having enemies chasing my rogue or casters all across the map while ignoring the immediate threat of characters bashing their skull in front of them is kinda annoying.

 

I like that you mentioned aggro. I've been thinking about what can be done with a fighter class and its controversial super useful ex-universal abilities. Perhaps they should all be replaced with some abilities that gather and manage aggro, like taunt and battle cry. That would be more in line with fighter's main role as a tank.

[Hariwulf]

I forgot to mention:

 

Near death talents are kinda useless at the moment, since by the time they activates, the character will be or dead, or healed.

We need a way bigger "threshold" to call as "near death"

[AndreaColombo]

I too believe the pace of combat to be all right, as someone else pointed out.

 

The initial outpouring of complaints about combat's being too fast are mostly due to two factors, imo:

 

• Most people's first taste of Deadfire combat was against lagufaeth, who are supposed to be comparatively faster enemies.
• Deadfire brings many mechanical changes to the table to which we are not used. It is only natural to feel overwhelmed at the beginning and wish for a slower pace so we can take our time making decisions during combat.

I did not feel pacing was too fast against delemgans, wurms, blights, or xaurips. It was actually generally good, except recovery times were sometimes too slow.

 

The change to armor recovery time was too steep and perhaps uncalled for. The way AR vs AP work now, you are encouraged to wear the heaviest possible armor to curb your enemies' DPS, but that makes you very slow. You're still gonna win, except you get to stare at your men sitting idly through their recovery time for boringly long spans (especially if you're using a 2-hander.)

 

Bottom line in my opinion:

 

• Current combat pacing is fine.
• A slow mode in the vein of the first game should be implemented out of being in popular demand.
• Recovery times could use being smaller. At least the penalty from wearing armor could be closer to the original game's.
• AR and AP values should be rebalanced to avoid making lighter armors useless while you need a legendary sword to pierce through regular plate armor.

 

And of course the AR vs AP mechanic needs smoothing (i.e. it needs to be gradual when you're below your enemy's AR, and the bonus for being significantly above needs to be additive instead of multiplicative.)

[JerekKruger]

Berserker = Special. You can hurt your friend. Bad deal, except in few situations (solo).

 

If I recall correctly, the Berserker's Rage ability afflicts the Barbarian with confusion. If so, I suspect that, at the moment, casting an Intellect Inspiration on them would remove it, making this subclass usable at least.

[morhilane]

Most people's first taste of Deadfire combat was against lagufaeth, who are supposed to be comparatively faster enemies.

The Delemgan/Spore encounter just north of the village has the sporelings and Delemgan(s) move in super fast on your party as well if you do not ambush them as well. After that they move normally. Every time I do it, I have to check to make sure Fast Mode isn't enabled.

[gsrs1277]

Positives: Obviously as many have said the art and lighting and blend of 2D and 3D elements are great. Looking forward to seeing more integration of vertical 3D mechanics into isometric 2D perspective.

 

Also, I love the calender/weather/day/night system. It always bothered me in traditional Baldur's gate that the season/weather/dates/times didn't seem to sync up very well.

Both of these are beautiful.

 

As for the character design.

 

Basically I think the system is a radical overhaul. And it actually seems like a pretty cool design.

 

I just think it’s a little too radical. I think a little conservatism is warranted. Classes should *not* be perfectly balanced. And people still want flexible builds with a plethora of diverse abilities that do different things, particularly if they are spellcasters. I feel like there's a middle ground to be found here. For my taste, magic (as in, spellcasters) should be distinguished from non-casters, and spell lists should be expansive and versatile. It seems at least plausible that you could lessen the rigidity of the new system somewhat: by allowing some version of universal or semi-universal feats/talents, and by broadening spell-trees, particularly for casters, and *especially* for wizards, and particularly as you gain levels.

 

More Detail:

As it is, to summarize, everything is organized into trees of abilities which are like spells. These are all class-specific and determined by power-levels which are like meta-points determining how powerful an ability can be. You can use the universal "empower" feat to bump up the thresholds of abilities. In addition, you can multiclass as any two things and there are over 144 possible combinations. As someone else said, all this is basically like one step away from having a classless game entirely. And conceptually its actually pretty cool as a design.

 

I think what's good about this can be retained but loosened up to allow for more flexibility, perhaps at the cost of overall balance. In my opinion a game like this should *not* be perfectly balanced and I’m suspicious of excessive balancing.

 

As it is the costs of this radical change are maybe too high for my taste. You almost lose the core identity of D&D-style play. You lose overall character flexibility and as someone else said, you lose the sort of overall chaotic breadth and expansiveness of different spell-lists that make this kind of D&D-based game unique --ie what’s compelling is not one powerful spell but groups of spells, their variety. In BG2 you even had contingencies and sequencers and things like that which, while often overpowered,were part of the appeal.

I can foresee the mechanic of grimoires being used to counteracting these concerns somewhat.

 

Ideally for me, wizards would have the broadest possible range of spells, followed by priests, and druids, followed by ciphers (?) That's a key feature of the appeal of the class system, to me. I think restricting that for things like keywords/schools is fine to an extent, but I think restrictions on number of abilities should open up, especially at higher levels, so that a higher-level druid/priest/wizard gets access to a broader range of possible spells, or at least receives that as an option.

 

[vanyel54]

I add my voice (because you never know when the penetration of this forum will bypass the armor of Obsidian ) for the main problem of the Beta for me :
SLOW MODE 

The pace of combat is clearly toooooo fast and without slow mode, i will surely not play the game at all.
Why not add a feature to show the number of log line by seconds. That could be fun to show !