Do you understand the armor system?

yeah i think it's just not a game for me. Too tedious, too many layers everywhere to keep constant track of. Constantly having to check if someone put a curse where i can't heal etc. (because it'll instead kill me) Every battle gets very drawn out, especially due to the armor system. Every move has to be calculated into perfection too, can't mess up once it feels like. Not my type of RPG.

The Explorer mode was too easy i realized (in one battle i hardly even took damage), but the mode above it was too tedious.

I decided to skip DOS 1 after several 1/2 playthroughs.

I’m actually enjoying this one much more, seems to be many more options combat wise and story and companions seem more interesting as well.

Playing on classic difficulty and it doesn't seem too hard but I’m only in fort joy so things could change.

Playing as a rouge and picked up ifan, the red prince and the beast. Left them with their default classes as I’m not familiar enough with the classes to change them.

The only negative so far would be too much elemental stuff in combat but i figured that going in so i’ll deal with it.

I think it's boring that everyone is a magician, your characters, all the enemies, no matter what they are.

Also the second island looks like Fort Joy too, that got me a bit disappointed, i was expecting the first island to have it's unique tone and setting and then something entirely new would come - new vegetation, new textures and unique buildings.. Not that the fort joy setting was bad, but eh, i like the games a bit more varied.

Story and companions starts off OK, some of them were interesting, the more i played the more its shows Larian were more interested in doing a combat simulator type of game, story is very secondary, and really bad, game could have perhaps even been better without one.

I restarted the game few days ago and made more progress than last time.

A few questions:
1. I'm having difficulty finding merchants with skill books - is there any other way I can learn skills? I have an awful lot of empty slots.
2. I just met Malady and can take the ship off the island - is this the end of chapter 1 or 2?
3. After I escaped Fort Joy, I literally followed the main story only - went to the rebel hiding place, found Gareth, obtained the wand and killed the Divine. Should I explore the area more? The only other side quest I've done is…. helping out a pig on fire.
4. So far, I only found 1 source pool (nearby the flaming pigs) - I heard it's a rare find. Is there a chance that I may not be able to progress the game because I wasted it on something else?

1) If you are elf (or undead who wears face of elf) you can learn skills via eating corpses.
(Do not expect to obtain many skill books in chapter 1 - there are actually quite a few around fort joy but they are expensive)
2) end of chapter 1
3) There are tons of interesting places to find if you explore - and some nifty items and some very hard fights. Did you do the flaming pig? The flaming Corpse? The lady who imprisoned a dragon? The lizards? The ….
4) THere is an infinite fountain of source if you find it. Two I think - definitely one for sure - but I think two.

Yes, I dealt with flaming pigs. Don't think I met flaming corpse - are you referring to the one behind locked door? Killed the lady who imprsoned the dragon. I decided to leave the isle already. I couldn't be bothered to do the gargoyle maze.

My party is about to do the ship battle. TBH I'm already getting burnt out… Still think the combat is too much of elemental explotion gimmicks and I find the detective puzzle thing quite tiring.

Well if you don't enjoy the game i'd move on. Later one there are more fights with more elements; more puzzles (i found hte gargoyle maze interesting but if it isn't your thing then i'd skip it). If you don't like the combat and don't like the story - find a game that you enjoy - games are suppose to be fun not a chore.

I'm actually replaying it now - left the island and exploring around Drftwood. I agree with you Purple about the elemental gimmickery. Much as a loved the game (I have spent about 150 hours on it) the elemental part was way overdone and became quite irritating after awhile. And the fact that armour is king - if you have crap physical/magic armour, your are screwed. Almost all special abilities are blocked by one or the other. I don't like that as a design decision. Sure, you can find way to constantly upgrade, abilities which buff etc - but it becomes a chore. Compare this to D&D, and I find that system vastly preferable. My only hope is that Larian don't import their design ideas (around mechanics) into BG3…

I love this game, and a lot of it comes down to the open-ended quest-design, but the flaming corpse quest is the only one I couldn't solve on my own. Looking up the solution online confirmed that it was, indeed, BS.

On the spellbook issue, you can actually craft them, if that's something that sounds interesting. Otherwise, finding vendors in later chapters is easy enough.

There are alternatives to elemental explosions. As I recall, I focused my party on physical damage, buffs and debuffs, summons, crowd control, and creative uses of spells like teleport and invisibility. That might be a more fun alternative, if you wish to persist. That said, I concur that there is no need to force yourself to play if you're not having fun.

Thanks for the replies guys.

There are things I'm enjoying in this game as well of course - I like the fact there are multiple ways to resolve things and companion quests so far been intriguing enough (I have Beast, Lohse and Ifan in my party atm). But I just hate looking for the item I need to go forward (like a small hatch etc, feel like playing "where is wally"), struggling to keep engaged with combat which always seems to take ages), and I tend to dislike puzzles in most games.

The fact Lohse and I have similar build doesn't help either. Is there a way to respec my party?

After you leave Fort Joy you should be able to use the mirror on your ship to respec as much as you want.

Is it just my character or anyone in my party?

It works on everyone.

After the ship sails you can respect any character for free. Look downstairs for a mirror like item.