It's so crazy, you can have entire conversations with some animals. I haven't tried speaking with all of them, but it's possible there are even sidequests given to you by animals. Players who don't have the ability to cast Speak With Animals will just miss that content on their playthrough.
As far as I know there's no Lone Wolf equivalent, although you can just choose to not travel with any companions. It is easier to do stealth in BG3 - for starters, they added a Group Sneak key (something that was sorely missing from DOS2), and there are plenty of times you can use stealth and/or exploration to circumvent combat encounters while still gaining XP.
I'm so hyped for this game! I've put over 100 hours into the early access content and I can't wait to see the full version.
I'm curious - what kind of characters are y'all going to play? I usually go with a rogue for my first playthrough in RPG games, with decent persuade/deception skills so I can try out some of the dialogue options to influence other characters.
My favourite run was when I took the mutation that gives a tiny chance of my evil twin appearing. Literally the turn that I started the game in Joppa, my twin appeared and killed me. They acted before I even got the chance to take my first turn, so from my perspective I just loaded in and instantly died.
There was also several people at the studios who confirmed to the press that the studios were planning to, quote, "allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses." These people are scum.
Game marketing is a bit like when someone tells you they're going to quit smoking. Okay buddy, I'll believe it when I see it. No no, I'm sure you think you're going to quit, I'm not saying you're a liar, but also I absolutely won't believe it will happen until I see it.