Ple-Sen
I maxed out something for someone, plus I used the bard's song for a bonus to checks, after which I automatically passed approximately everything I remember. And this includes attentiveness or diplomacy checks in dialogues, so there were no problems. But yes, without songs or other buffs, it's not that easy.
I also maxed out almost all the important skills for the protagonist, which is good because the Kensei class allows it. And Linzi also took a perk for a bonus to attentiveness, so that she definitely wouldn't miss any secrets.
Hmm. Well, the time limits seemed like a good idea to me (with the exception of a couple of bugs, like the fact that sometimes you can fail a time limit event even though you actually made it to where you needed to go and were on time), but overall, it might be too time-consuming to physically move the party around the map. Maybe...
There are also plenty of hidden limits. And limited quests (like the personal storylines of companions) that can be triggered during camping. And in general, it prevents you from playing at your own pace, thoroughly exploring the game world.
It's good that I played as a neutral (good) character and didn't care about this penalty, but overall, yes, it's quite reasonable.
I also played with that kind of worldview, and therefore I couldn't choose some other options later, even though I would have liked to. I couldn't recruit the kobolds, for example, because it required a chaotic worldview.
But still, there's Tristan, Jubilost, Magaern Varn, and a few other minor characters, so I can't say that it's completely barren.
Yes, Jubilost is good. Tristan is also good. He seems to have a well-written romance, unlike the others (yes, the tiefling from the expansion also has a very bad one), although this doesn't really matter to me personally. I found the dwarf-havarian quite amusing. And Jaethal, in principle, was not the worst character, although the follower of Urgathoa could have been implemented much more interestingly.