On the tech front, the in game loading and performance is Fine for me but the “load from save” times are long enough that I assume they’re painful on a HDD. Would help disincentivize save scumming though!
I made it into Act II before realizing that I could summon Best Boy Scratch as a familiar. Then he immediately got one-shot by an undead thing so I’m not sure I did him any favors with that discovery.
I trained Karlach as a berserker. When in Rage she can throw as a bonus action. With her throwable pike, she does ridiculous damage now. Just completed her Act 1 quest.
Halsin Act 1 spoiler:
He won’t actually come with me yet! So I head over to the swamp with Karlach, Shadowheart, and Gale instead.
Also, I long rested in the night, and two amazing things happened:
The Owlbear cub finally showed up! HE WAS ALIVE AFTER ALL! This playthrough is saved!
And then I woke up to Scratch handing me a ball!!!
I’ve been playing a few hours and already got an eyefull of Tiefling wang. I don’t know what happened to my casual camp clothes, but it looks like I may have sold it or something.
Some fun stats from the opening weekend:
88 years of character creation in the opening weekend is fucking insane.
That drop-off for selecting Cleric is pretty brutal. Paladin isn’t surprising given how many people were jazzed up about Oathbreakers.
No surprise at Shadowheart being #1 Romance option or even Gale as #2 since they are encountered early on and look like, you know, people. Plus Gale is easy to romance without even trying (versus Wyll)
Everyone hates the short races. I’m a little surprised just because they get some of the best race features in the game: Halfling Luck (reroll 1’s) and Gnomish Cunning (Advantage on WIS/INT/CHA saves, an effective +5*). But people worrying about that type of thing make up a distinct minority in practice despite outsized voiced on the internet haunts. And the Human/Elf/Half-Elf tier is an obvious pick for people new to the game and not knowing/worried about such minutia.
*People doing the 5e math before have worked out that Advantage averages out to a +5 on your roll versus a single die.
While they have some really nice perks their movement is nerfed which hurts. That can be worked around and/or mitigated but it is an extra effort.
I’ll agree that it looks bad in character creation. Especially for someone new to the game, you probably don’t want to pick the race that has an obvious disadvantage when all the others have no listed issues.
I’m playing a Deep Gnome though and don’t really feel the movement thing. Within a round, battle is usually joined so it’s mostly irrelevant. Plus I came across some magic swag with the Momentum tag which makes it matter even less (plus, plus, Karlach went Elk so everyone gets a movement buff). I didn’t have to work at mitigating it, it just fell into my lap.
But then I always play Halfings in 5e so I’m used to that 25 movement speed.
Obvious thing I just now realized/noticed #2: You can type item names in your inventory to search for them instead of staring at 900 bottles and trying to figure out which was your Orange Dye 
I mean, the universal Search symbol is right there but this still somehow went past me
You can also left-click on an equipment slot and it’ll show you all items you have in inventory for that slot. I wish you could make it do the same for your camp chest, but c’est la vie.
Seems reasonable in that the total number of years played is itself fucking insane: 88 / 1225 = 7%.
Okay, I take that back. That means, on average, people spend one hour in character creation out of every 14 hours played. That’s nuts.
I think even powergamers want to look cool.
The old tiefling beef sling.
Gale is having… issues.
Your microaggressions are noted /glare
I thought a Halfling thief was iconic D&D but part of being a thief is hiding and then maneuvering for a backstab. If it takes them an extra turn to get in position that seems a problem.
You don’t have to hide for a backstab Sneak Attack in 5e. You need to either have Advantage (which is what stealth provides but there’s other ways) or have an ally next to your target. Rogues can hide as a bonus action (Cunning Action) and Thief rogues get an additional bonus action on top of that though so Hiding/attacking on Round 1 is still viable. Plus Deep Gnomes get advantage on Stealth checks so they’re even better at it.
Also positioning doesn’t matter for Sneak Attack. 5e doesn’t have facing/flanking rules so you do the same Sneak Attack damage in someone’s face as you do from behind them.
Does facing matter to disengage? Can they get an oppoortunity attack if I walk away from behind them?
Or, my Halfling rogue sneaked up, attacked but now has no movement points to disengage.
No, facing never matters. An enemy can get an opportunity attack whenever you leave their radius no matter which way they were “facing”.
Like I said, I can see why people would be turned off by the description but, in practice, it hasn’t been a notable hindrance.