Goodluck convincing people that think D&D is the greatest creation ever invented by mankind of this
That is unlikely to happen, of course. And I'm sure that even though anything of substance isn't yet available, BG3 will cater to the mentally destitute masses - meaning that it will be a worse game than the originals. With a little luck we may at least be spared the political shoehorning of including faggots and worse however. But I digress. What I wanted to say was the following, which I didn't get myself, until I played the
original D&D:
The D&D rules are deeply unrealistic if you go by the standards of what is assumed today, which means mid to high level play, double to triple digit HP, etc.
HOWEVER.
If played as originally concieved, with a competent GM, I'd say that the rules are abstract but realistic. Meaning that for most of the time, you will be level 1. "Everyone" is level 1 and have about 1d6 HP. Few survive long enough to reach level 2, and even fewer exist beyond that. Usually, someone with three hit dice or more is considered heroic, as are opponents! Veteran troops who've seen too much of war already would be level 2. Someone on on a forum I frequented had, by the spells he casted in the books, concluded that Gandalf was no more than level 5! Going from the First Blood appearance alone, I'd speculate that Rambo is below that, maybe level 3 or 4, considering his long combat experience. This is of course the reason that most humanoid monsters are classless, single hit die types (id est a typical specimen of that kind). Being level 1 isn't bad, it's average!
Let that sink in a little, ...and then consider the terror of going up against the lowly ogre, which has 4 HD and dish out 3-8 points of damage per hit. And to make things worse, he is usually not alone, since they tend to congregate in small packs of only 1-8 individuals! A vampire is a supernatural horror, typically of 8 HD, which cannot be harmed with mundane weapons such as axes, flintlocks or the mighty .223 BOZAR, and still regenerates 3 HP per turn if injured somehow. Good luck. Dark Souls is for nu-male hipsters.
The armour system (AC) is also worth mentioning. In an average unarmoured swordfight between two humans, each opponent has 50% of scoring a hit which in turn has a 50% of being lethal (assuming 1D6 damage and HP, respectively - zero HP means no longer combat effective / dead).
Wearing padded or "leather" armour sets your Armour Class to 7, mail to 5 and plate to 3. Meaning that the chance of remaining unscathed, per turn (which might be up to a minute long), is increased to 60%, 70%, or 80%. It all sounds reasonable to me.
Now, the inflation of level and HD is there from the beggining (when Gygax & Co. went out of the picture?), more or less. The early Forgotten Realms have level 10 town mayors for example, which is crazy and very lazy when taking the above into consideration. Good GM's can do other things when important NPC's gets murdered by the PC's. Consequences!
So, what does all of this come down to?
1.) The original D&D system is vastly superior the the latter versions and inherently much more realistic, as there should be no HP bloat to talk about, if the GM is competent.
2.) HP bloat, being of low level is bad, missing is "bad design" - all of that stems from the assumption that D&D is for mid to high level play, when it wasn't originally.
3.) Would a low level CRPG campaign with D&D rules be fun and relatively tactical? Yes! For the average nu-male hipster C"RPG" gamer who is unable to comprehend basic probability and expects to win despite of sucking? Not so much.
4.) Would the above campaign be as good in computer format as PnP? Unlikely. Much of the enjoyment comes from the GM's skill at describing things, at least to me. First person shooting / fighting and these rules isn't ideal. Isometric would be the way to go.
TLDR; If they go the first or third person over shoulder routes they should probably alter the ruleset or do something else altogether. Isometric route? Please keep it, even if the PnP experience with these rules is superior.
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