It is  REALLY  tempting to play "Devil's Advocate" on both of the complaints you've made, and simply dismiss them.  I am pretty sure that you will get a number of respondents who will disagree with your views ...  That said, I'll try to provide the best (rational) feedback I can, that reflects my own viewpoints ... 

- Maul.  Honestly, there are a LOT of Beta testers who just LOVE this mechanic.  I fear you will not get much sympathy on this point.  Of course, most players would rather be able to use Maul, "whomping" their ememies; rather than have this scourge visited upon them!  BUT there are always going to be some traits, mechanics, weapons, spells, and abilities that seem to be over-powered.  Indeed, the whole flavor of the game (as Derek Paxton seems to envision it), incorporates the idea ( "Go Big or Go Home!" ) that the best way to balance factors that seem to be over-powered, is to create other ones, that give you powerful vehicles for counter-attacking. 

Personally, I could live with your suggestion that Maul be tweaked, to reduce the damage caused by successive hits ... But I just don't think the Devs, or a majority of the beta-testers, would agree with you. 

- "Fake" quests.  Honestly, I don't really think your characterization of this issue is particularly fair or reasonable.  They are not "fake" -- they are just different than you initially surmised.  You can't expect to be  omniscient  about quests!  There are always going to be some unknowns, and some risks.  Without them, the game would be too dull and predictable. 

In your example, a quest-giver may try to renege on the promised reward, but why is it realistic to think that this would never happen?   Even then, if you decide to take a reward by force, or kill the questgiver, you  ARE  making a conscious decision.  You are committing yourself to a (risky) new course of action.  You actually  DO  have a choice!   IMO, removing  ANY  such possibility would make the game too dull and predictable  ...   

I have no problem with reworking maul, its pretty annoying as is if you ask me .

The bugged quest.. oh that's annoying, mostly for a combat that you don't see coming (last time I played through it anyway)

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

I dont think the problem with the quest is the difficulty, but the lack of explaining why you enter the second combat...

And learning curve...
I still think the game should support giving an easier time to newer players, thats why I would remodule Maul abit, because the AI is too "dumb" to use it properly and the monsters who have it does not have too high accuracy...

But I still think maul is underrated by game terms and should be changed a bit,
I am not saying: "Nerf it to the ground" or something like that, I just find it very hard to accumulate dodge on my heroes without them being high level. as to counter a cave bear with that, or accumulate proper armor to be defended against said cave-bear.

On the other hand, an ability like "Counter Attack" is only viable against half the monsters in the world, because the other half have the random ability to be immune to counter attacks... So if you wanna keep maul being an evil ability, why have so many things immune to counter attacks?, is it so there is only 1 really good ability? -.-

And if "Blind" is the only counter, please put it on the kingdom spell list too
I too much prefer the ability to heal to play empire.. just a personal preference, but that shouldn't make the monsters harder IMO

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

There is no way to defend against Maul except having super high hitpoints, high armor or high dodge - and even then you can still be unlucky (except if you have high armor - but it is very hard to get high armor early in the game).

Wouldn't it be possible to just have a higher penalty to each successive hit.  I think it is 3 or 4 right now, make a -5.  I also like the reduction in damage idea though.  It seems reaonsable a person would start getting tired after continually hitting something like that.  That being said, I would also be fine if they leave it alone.  Maul is pretty easy to counter.  The easiest counter to Maul is Blindness (that cloak that lets you cast it is pretty awesome), and if you are going into a fight with a cave bear, cast Evade on yourself.  The combination of blindness and evade weaken maul pretty significantly.

Quests, I just hope there are more of them.  I typically try to have one of those escape scrolls before I go into Quests.  I am fine if you try to take something in a quest that the level increases a notch or two, especially if the prize is really valueable.

I think this is a good Discussion, and I am glad that we are having it!

I think there have been a number of excellent comments -- including a couple I particularly liked:  Gorde's Reply #5, and KingHobbit's Reply #10.

But just to review the bidding (and to clarify  WHY  I said one of the things I said in my Reply #1), I wanted to provide the link to Derek Paxton's original Discussion Thread: "Go Big, or go home".  He first articulated this E:FE Design Philosophy, back on April 1, 2012, in the Elemental Development Journals .  Several respondents have since quoted it, in their own replies in various threads; but I understand how these things can get  "lost in the dim reaches of time".   So, for anyone wanting to review his extended statement, you can find his Journal entry here: 
https://forums.elementalgame.com/421004

While I am sure that Mr. Paxton genuinely embraces this idea -- he even said that he  "always get(s) excited when we start to talk about abilities that may be too powerful to balance" -- I also think that he is seriously concerned about making the game as much fun as possible.   And I think that he wants the game to include enough of the right kind of counters, or balances, to make sure we can always find one or more tactical (or strategic) paths to victory.  They may not be simple or obvious; and there is definitely a "learning curve";  but part of the fun comes from solving problems the Developers have placed before us. 

As Gorde suggests, it is very difficult to get all of these balance issues  just right  for a majority of the players, but I'm pretty confident that Mr. Paxton and his whole Development team (with lots of feedback from all of us !) are going to keep plugging away at it.         

I would agree with Maul having a maximum of 4 hits each attack.

I don't mind Maul doing 0 (minimum) hits to 4 (maximum) hits every attack.  Normally you will (or the enemy) will get 2 or 3, but having a maximum of four allows some luck without completely submitting to the luck monster.

My only issue with maul is that the maul doesn't maul.

Reload? Seriously just because the enemy mauled your 'carefully nurtured' hero. Take the defeat and move on. Adjust to the lost. This is a STRATAGY GAME people it is not HELLO KITTY where nothing bad ever happens, where your always suppose to win and get that trophy.  I suppose you would want the game to lose every battle and allow you to always win the game. 

No wonder games these days offer little challange, the players seem to want everything handed to them with little effort.

I asked for a HELLO KITTY enhancement once.  That is a REPLAY button at the end of every battle.  That way the HELLO KITTY players wouldn't have to reload from a saved game or others could try out different tactical strategies to maximize battle victory without having to reload from a saved game.  Here's hoping Derek still has that request on his WHITEBOARD.

This randomness in the quests is pretty good I think. Imagine they were all always the same. It would be boring. This randomness makes them a tad more interesting. I especially like that tempel quest where occasionally 10 golems spawn above.

Sigh... I bet you never ever reloaded a single game of FE you played thusfar? I'm using it very occasionally but pretty much everybody does it sometimes when they feel something really unfair happened to them. Wandering monsters that attacked players but not the AI were a good example and maul is that too, because it feels unfair to a player.

BTW my daughters love Hello Kitty, but they like Disney Princesses better.