Just cleared all three main quests, and all in all I’d say that was an enjoyable experience. Hopefully the two follow-ups will be comparable.
There were a number of oddities/annoyances though. For instance:
– Graphically it’s weird Icy Rain looks like fire.
– Attacks that miss will often still apply their secondary effects (like knockback).
– It’s often difficult to target a particular square with an AoE spell.
– Clicking to attack something you can’t directly reach will often send the character running away along some sidepath to get there.
– Movement in general is finicky.
– There are far, far too many worthless items.
– Gold caps out at 30k.
Cave Lore ended up indeed pretty worthless; technically it pays for itself, but only if you uncover all hidden caches (I found 25 of 40) and/or grind herb patches. The 3rd level of Dispel Barrier is also pretty worthless as only the one in Gremlin’s Gold protects anything useful (a +1 Luck bonus). Most abilities/spells end up superfluous as well. You basically just need to buy Icy Rain/Call Storm, Fireblast/Divine Fire, Arcane Blow/Divine Retribution, and Cloak of the Arcane/Ward of Elements. Maxed out Haste and Protection are nice though and Divine Restoration is a solid ‘panic button’.
Skill-wise First Aid actually ended up being quite useful for those ending quest enemy gauntlets, and it’s not like there’s much else of use for a spellcaster to buy once they max out Spellcraft. Riposte was indeed utterly useless (it’s weaker than Spine Shield), though ranged attacks often ended up a fine alternative to wasting spells on weak enemies.
At the end of the day… the game’s a somewhat bizarre combination of modern ease of use (e.g. unlimited carry weight) and classic fuckovers (unworkable character builds). Worth playing, but not worth playing without any foreknowledge of what to expect.