The writer got mad when a goblin shoved Astarion off a cliff. It reminded me of when I had Karlach shove a goblin in lava, then a goblin ran up and shoved HER in the lava. I didn’t get mad; I took it as a learning moment: enemies can shove me back, so move away from the lava.
magic feels really bad in this system early on when all they canreally do is spam cantrip after missing all their spells
plus healing spells feel very weak compared to potions
Potions got Buffed in the game iirc normaly drinking one I an Action not a bonusaction
That is correct. Although many, many tables have that as a homebrew rule too.
There’s also the fact that generally DND magic has every spell as a bespoke effect. There’s not an underlying system you can reason about. You’re not really expected to make your own spells. You don’t really tweak the ones you get very much. What can you do with a 4th level slot vs 5th? You can kind of infer from the examples, and maybe there’s details in the DMG somewhere , but it’s not foregrounded.
They also are very, well, mechanical rather than magical. You declare you’re casting, check off the spell slot, and the spell just happens. Some people might prefer this taste, but it makes it feel very mundane and bland to me . Compare like Mage (awakening, 2e) where you’re always looking for ways to stretch how far your spells can go, balancing risk, and looking for thematic boosts.
The “looking for ways to stretch how far your spells can go” bit from Mage always struck me as “playing mother-may-I with the Storyteller.” I really prefer it as a player when my abilities do what they say they do, and as a DM when my players’ abilities don’t require me to make too many judgment calls, which can lead to players who are more persuasive IRL getting their way more often than players who aren’t.