I've seen multiple people praise these games many times, going on and on about how incredible they are. As I expected, it's just D&D; which means that it's garbage. I'm an avid RPG player and GM and I've spent the last decade learning tens of systems, and to this day I can't understand how D&D has gotten to the point of popularity it's reached. It's boring, uninspired and so heavily reliant on chance for the most basic of things that it's an arbitrary slog to go through at best and an RNG nightmare at worst. You have your hands tied in every single aspect of your character creation; most stats applications are arbitrary and putting a daily limit on skill uses has been and will always be the worst design decision ever conceived. Baldur's Gate is not only all of those things, but since it's 2nd ed. D&D it's even MORE of an RNG nightmare where your choices are even more limited from the getgo. Case in point, early on the game, you're attacked by an assassin called Tarnesh. He's an extremely strong enemy and it's unlikely you'll be able to beat him if you're not well prepared, so the best choice is to prompt him to begin combat and then have the nearby city guards to deal with him. FOUR. TIMES. Four times he killed at least 6 guards before killing me, until my patience ran out. In any proper game system, you'd have a way to counter it, but this is D&D. Your ability to come up with a solution doesn't matter, only the whims of a dice roll. That, or willfully cheesing the game, which I refuse out of principle; if the game isn't well designed, I shouldn't have to use exploits to surpass its shortcomings. If you want to play a CRPG, go look for Pillars of Eternity or Divinity Original Sin; at least they're a more interesting in their background and lore. For anyone who plays TTRPGs, do yourselves a favor, forget D&D and play an actual game like Riddle of Steel/Blade of the Iron Throne, Mythras, HarnMaster or Blades In The Dark.
