Thanks for the tip on the loot, I must've missed a tool tip. I like the philosophy of ability mattering more than raw numbers; I found that instead of dodging attacks I could just kite most enemies but having different strategies is certainly interesting.
Thinking about it more, I think you're right about the chaos being more enjoyable than otherwise. Getting a quest from a guy who immediately walked off a cliff was a memorable gameplay experience to be honest. In general there aren't enough games that stretch the sandbox open world concept to these kinds of scenarios, so your direction is really appealing to me