I dunno, been a while but faster paced while still intentional, fewer cheap deaths, more fun chain reactions, more interesting characters, more attractive effects, better abilities, no DNDisms surfaced to player level.

And I feel like they had more time to design the engagements because they're just so memorable. There are some great ones in BG3 and maybe more later on, but it starts slogging pretty quickly and the fights just become chores to get through rather things you look forward to.