The core idea has solid potential — I really enjoyed that "aha!" moment when you see a big damage number and realize your combo worked. It’s a satisfying foundation, like a promising first draft of a puzzle.
Right now, the main experience feels a bit like waiting for good dice rolls rather than making meaningful decisions. The optimal strategy becomes clear very quickly, and after that, the gameplay can start to feel passive — you're mostly just discarding low numbers onto negative modifiers and hoping for high rolls. This reduces both the sense of challenge and player agency.
To transform that satisfying "spark" into lasting engagement, the game could benefit from more interesting player choices and ways to interact with randomness. Even without overhauling the core, small strategic layers could be added. For example, what if each enemy had a unique trait? One could consume your highest die each turn, another might invert your best modifier, etc. This would force the player to adapt their strategy and weigh risks, making each encounter feel more like a puzzle to solve.
Speaking of randomness, the balance between puzzle and luck feels a bit off at the moment. Since success currently depends heavily on dice rolls, it can be frustrating to play perfectly but still lose to poor RNG. Finding a way to let skillful planning mitigate bad luck (e.g., through card abilities, meta-progression, or reroll mechanics you can influence) would make victories feel earned and losses feel fair.
On the production side, the implementation is clean and functional — everything works as intended. A big, easy win for immersion would be adding sound design and audio feedback. Sounds for rolling dice, applying modifiers, and landing big hits would make the gameplay feel much more tactile and satisfying.
In short, you've built a great prototype. The fun is there in its early form — now it's about adding layers of interesting decisions and player tools to deepen that fun into a compelling, replayable loop. Keep up the great work!