I dislike how certain quests, after having played for a bit, become absolutely predictable since you know exactly what will occur considering the challenges you will face (hostile unit type, equipment, riddle answer, etc).

I would like some of the factors for the quest to be random aside from the location of the "Step B Trigger Hut". Each quest's challenges should come in three tiers, "Normal", "Harder" and "You are kinda screwed, you might win but at a high cost", randomly chosen when you enter the challenge portion of the quest. The composition of the units you face could vary in number/quality/equipment but still remain in the scope of the quest flavor (no facing dragons gathering herbs).

Or perhaps it could be similar to the game Faster Than Light, where canned encounters had some random flavor leading up to the combat portion. Your skills/equipment could also open up a unique and beneficial solution to a challenge.

Also, every Goodie hut should have some risk involved, as it is right now you usually set a fast moving hero and grab all the goodie hut types you know are safe easy pickings (battlefields, lost equipment, treasure chests, etc) while avoiding the ones you know lead to hostile encounters (caves, dens, etc). Either let the risk be combat, loss of movement for a couple of turns, spawning monsters, etc. Have some flavor text to logically explain why they got screwed. There should be some real risks involved when sending a librarian into the wild to gather stuff, other than lazily ending your turn next to a hostile mob.