I like DaO but it absolutely does not have excellent mechanics or anything approaching balance. The companion decision/behavior tree was interesting and well executed but most abilities and most character classes were absolute dogshit. Shale was the only remotely viable melee, you could win nearly every encounter by chaining fireball since it had a huge aoe, did a lot of damage and did knock down keeping melee from closing, also if I recall correctly there may not have been a save against stasis so you could just drop whoever you wanted out of a fight.

Definitely right that Kotor was just d20 modern, I think it comes across a little extra janky cause the real time overlay over turn base mechanics.