Some preliminary thoughts since I’m almost finished with Act I. This will be from the perspective of someone with a bit of 5e experience and who played and loved DoS2, flaws and all.

- Spiders/webbing feels incredibly stupid, especially for something with those benefits and doesn’t require concentration.
- Guidance is still busted, and it kinda feels like I’m sometimes strongarmed into bringing Wyll and Shadowheart (or any cleric for co-op).
- Why does everyone hate Lae’zel? Personally speaking I want a mini version of her for my desk. Put her on top of a fridge, watch her get mad. Just a little hater.
- Optimization is baaaad in some areas. Also radial menus and responsiveness sometimes feels worse than DoS 2? This could just be my machine being bad and also choosing to play on controller, but I do at least hope there’s some patch improving the performance and ideally the menus too.
- Maybe a ludicrous take but I think I prefer the combat in BG3 over DoS2. DoS2 is undoubtedly the more flexible game for combat, with the innumerable ways all the systems in the game could interact with eachother, as well as the classless system allowing for some truly creative builds. I just personally prefer how much less unpredictable enemies are with this gameified version of 5e (which I think was executed superbly). The combat also feels a lot less flowcharty than DoS2, whose combat could be reduced to “strip enemies of armor and spam CCs.” I feel like BG3 allows for more interesting encounter design and solutions with how much more of a role team comps play. We’ll have to see if this holds up, though.
- And I thought act I of DoS2 was packed. There’s so much well put together and voice acted content that goes above and beyond the garden variety sidequest design with some choices sprinkled in to give the illusion of “responsiveness and reactivity.”
- I love the more cinematic approach to the cutscenes but with my reading speed I do sometimes find myself skipping some important action scenes. I realize this is a me issue but I did have to go back and reload sometimes because of this new style.
- Warrior focused classes feel so much more fun to use here than in 5e. I love that every weapon has some ability that can be used with bonus actions. Especially buffs martial weapons and two handed builds.
- AoE is still busted surprise surprise.
- Bonus action push is hilarious
- Thief is the most busted subclass with just how much more utility bonus actions have now.
- Seriously I love just how much foresight they put into what players might try to do and actually reward them for thinking of silly solutions.
- I do wonder how lost a new player might be with all the forgotten realms jargon. There’s stuff here that definitely eases entry but I just hope that it isn’t a turn off for people.
- This one is for the gays.
- Berserker changes are… interesting. I’ll have to experiment around with it to see if I like the new exhaustion mechanics.
- Seriously wtf is bonus action web.

Overall I’m having a blast with bg3 especially playing through the co-op. Some of the most fun I’ve had with an rpg in a long long time. I hear the ending didn’t satisfy everyone and some stuff in the final act disappointed but we’ll see when I get there. I’m so glad it’s doing this well and I’m hoping a definitive edition patches up the few, admittedly trite and nitpicky, issues I listed above (though I need that performance patch soon plz).