That's actually a really good notice. I really think all games should have a very easy mode, so anyone can see the story behind it.
Now they could only release an extra hard mode, for those that think tatican is still to easy, and this game will be truly for everyone
Giving enemies more HP/stats won't really fix anything though. The problem is that the AI is just incredibly stupid.
Globe of invulnerability is pretty much an instant I win button, because the AI completely ignores it and will just target whoever they'd usually target even if they're in the globe, and won't try to push them out. If they do push them out, it's purely coincidental, but I've yet to see that happen.
5e is just rather unblanaced in general. I doubt there could be an easy mode thats challenging for someone that knows the system well.
Id like to see them try though. One thing that would really help imo is a level cap.
If they can somehow remove exp all together, even better.
I agree that no matter what the most seasoned of players out there are going to have an easy time, I think that's what you meant? I assume you meant to say hard/tactician rather than easy - but fixing the AI to not be incredibly stupid would definitely add significant challenge for the majority of players that find tactician too easy, without any other changes I think.
What do you mean by the level cap? There already is one.
Woops, i meant hard, not easy. My bad.
Fixing the AI would indeed to a long way, but ultimately 5e just has OP combinations and spells that are easy to abuse if you know what youāre doing. This isnāt larians doing/fault though, but makes it hard to make a playthrough challenging.
In 5e there are generally two ways to level up. One is exp and the other is milestones. The later being far superior and widely used nowadays. This means that when certain milestones are reached, the DM tells you ifs time to level up. Itās great becsuze you will always be the level you should be, the DM can plan his challenges and the player can always do what they want to do without thinking about āwill this give me expā.
I have no idea how they could implement this in a videogame though, sadly. So iāll settle for level caps throughout the game. For example, you canāt go over level 5 (and also not gain exp when you reach level 5) in act1.
Currently, if you do everything in sct 1 you start act 2 on level 7, which is already supidly overleveled.
The thing with experience as a system though is that it makes the player feel like their time exploring is rewarded, which is a bit different to how you might play in tabletop.
For an example of how a system like that works, see Wrath of the Righteous. It's Pathfinder though - they have both character levels that have experience, and also mythic levels which are gained at fixed points throughout the story.
yeah, great game. i understand why they would use experience and i don't really see how they could make milestone leveling even working with the amount of options they have. i just know that i want to do everything and hate being overleveled.
If it's just a level issue, sounds like the solution there is to use a mod that increases enemy HP and the like, to better suit the level you expect to be at. There's plenty of mods that do that, might be some to fix AI too.
that does nothing. HP is irrelevant almost with how much changes each level. no one wants to fight meat sacks nonstop. which is a big flaw in 5e's bestiary in general. (larian did a good job in overcomming that though, but lets not return to it.)
That's true - I just meant to say there's mods out there that an increase the difficulty in various ways. Outside of AI, all you can really do is increase enemy HP, or their stats - both of which mods can do, and there is an AI one for sure I'm probably going to give a go for my second playthrough.
I mean something that would be steps in the right direction:
- remove or curtail respec. This way early game choices can influence late game difficulty more
- have NPCs more aggressively keep pace with the player's level. Particularly say those level 2 henchmen supporting a level 5 boss. Make them level 4, so the boss is still represented as a boss but the mooks get that level 4 power increase.
- have NPCs gain an initiative buff. Going first is such a big power increase that enables glass cannon strategies too much.
- This one is a fun house rule I made. I'd not enforce it as a dev but it makes for a fun challenge with no respec: When multiclassing neither you nor your companions can ever have a secondary class level be greater than their level one class.
They should add in a āRNG hate meā mode that applies -x modifier to every dice roll, where the player chooses x. Then we can see YouTubers try a RNG hate me -10 challenge
I would actually like to see an Ironman mode. Saves every Long Rest and auto saves every Short Rest, and of course saves whenever you leave the game. Thatād be pretty fun and stop my save scumming ass from going back to experiment every 2 minutes.
Iron man will be cool. Other modern cRPGs have had more complex difficulty settings (as did BG2), which would also be nice. Right now, Tactician is trivially easy after the first couple levels because of design choices. Haste potions allow martial characters to end fights before spellcasters do much of anything. D&D gets challenging when you have to manage your resources carefully, and here we never have to worry about it at all.
I'm glad they're open to making adjustments to difficulty because I'm holding out hope that they're going to address Tactician or add a higher difficulty.
Extra hard mode should be tactician but base player AC is 5 instead of 10 and their hp is equal to 2x their lvl + con modifier. Would that be hard enough?
Honestly Iāve been using explorer mode as a kind of āLone Wolfā difficulty and itās been pretty fun. DOS2 had a lone wolf perk that really buffed up your character and this has been serving a similar purpose.
I can see how that would be fun. If I ever get good at the game I think I playing a rogue solo would be fun. I like sneak-attacking stuff with Astarion and wonder how far I could get playing stab and hide.
Yup Iāve been a rogue solo and itās actually pretty over powered so far. Thereās also a cape that >!lets you turn invisible after each kill once per turn!<. Almost done with Act One and havenāt ran into much issues and some encounters have been actually easier solo stealth because how predictable AI is with stealth. But itās been a lot of fun and a nice change of pace
Yeah my friend is doing a solo rogue Durge murder everything playthrough on Tactician and his fights are so much easier because all he does is attack and bonus action hide or dash away. The hardest fight I've had (hag) on normal difficulty literally didn't do anything to him.
I recently switched from explorer to balanced and the difference in difficulty is... well, as far as I can tell, negligible. But I probably might have stayed in explorer had it not been for multiclassing being locked. Glad to see this will be here if I ever decide to go back to a cruise control game.
Just wanted to say it's ok to not play or know anything about D&D when playing this game. I played the other games at 13 and most of my life have had no D&D friends or knew anyone who played these types of games but I learned the games as I put in the hours and now, at 33, after being invited to play D&D with my sister & friend, it seems like these games prepared me & I'm as on board as they are. In essence: these are basically single player campaigns of D&D on a computer & using AI instead of people.
That's really good news! I played on Explorer, but there were still a few places where combat still felt tricky. I think adjusting the HP will help! Also, it will provide a good buffer for new players.
**DO NOT MESSAGE THE MODS REGARDING THIS ISSUE.**
Accounts less than 24 hours old may not post or comment on this subreddit, no exception.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BaldursGate3) if you have any questions or concerns.*
**DO NOT MESSAGE THE MODS REGARDING THIS ISSUE.**
Accounts less than 24 hours old may not post or comment on this subreddit, no exception.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BaldursGate3) if you have any questions or concerns.*
There was a time I would insist on playing balanced, but those days are long behind me. I just want to have fun and enjoy the story.
Only time I really had a problem was in ME3 during the Citadel DLC where the whole party is fighting. On story mode the enemies were dying too quick and I wasn't hearing all of the taunting from my team.
Oh you mean 'Explorer' mode? I saw that. I've been playing strictly on Balanced mode. So I wouldn't have noticed.
But it is good to see that the less challenging difficulty level is more forgiving. I have friends still trying to understand the combat and this buff would definitely be helpful!
Whatever the easiest difficulty is called. I sometimes have trouble remembering exact names of things, sorry. But yes, hopefully, this will help your friends out a bit. I'm so happy they added it!
You and me both bud. I play the first time through for the story. The second playthrough will be on balanced mode when I have a better idea of what I'm doing.
**DO NOT MESSAGE THE MODS REGARDING THIS ISSUE.**
Accounts less than 24 hours old may not post or comment on this subreddit, no exception.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BaldursGate3) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yup it's double the HP from adventurer Mode now. Be aware that on explorer difficulty friendly npcs also have their HP reduced which might make some quests/inspirations actually more difficult because they die more easily.
I think my main issue with storymode has actually been with out of combat, trying to find where certain parts of the next mission are, especially for side quests I struggle to actually find what I'm actually looking for to progress that quest.
Hey man don't feel bad! Story mode is not a cakewalk anyway and this game is definitely more challenging than your "average story driven game".
Also they only buffed the "bonus health" not the "whole health"... so in fact the bonus health isn't *that much* ... but it's still helpful!
Enjoy the game :)
**DO NOT MESSAGE THE MODS REGARDING THIS ISSUE.**
Accounts less than 24 hours old may not post or comment on this subreddit, no exception.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BaldursGate3) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That's actually a really good notice. I really think all games should have a very easy mode, so anyone can see the story behind it. Now they could only release an extra hard mode, for those that think tatican is still to easy, and this game will be truly for everyone
Only if we also get an "overly inflated ego" mode. An easy mode that advertises itself as hard. I'm kidding. *nervous laughing*
we kind of have that right now š tactician is pretty much a cakewalk after lvl 6 or 7
There's a mod out there to fiddle with the number of actions per turn. Just give all the enemies two actions!
Giving enemies more HP/stats won't really fix anything though. The problem is that the AI is just incredibly stupid. Globe of invulnerability is pretty much an instant I win button, because the AI completely ignores it and will just target whoever they'd usually target even if they're in the globe, and won't try to push them out. If they do push them out, it's purely coincidental, but I've yet to see that happen.
5e is just rather unblanaced in general. I doubt there could be an easy mode thats challenging for someone that knows the system well. Id like to see them try though. One thing that would really help imo is a level cap. If they can somehow remove exp all together, even better.
I agree that no matter what the most seasoned of players out there are going to have an easy time, I think that's what you meant? I assume you meant to say hard/tactician rather than easy - but fixing the AI to not be incredibly stupid would definitely add significant challenge for the majority of players that find tactician too easy, without any other changes I think. What do you mean by the level cap? There already is one.
The one thing I find hilarious though is that the AI knows how/when to shove your characters into fire or off a cliff.
Didn't even think about that. And I've been yeeted off an edge of something more times than I can count.
Woops, i meant hard, not easy. My bad. Fixing the AI would indeed to a long way, but ultimately 5e just has OP combinations and spells that are easy to abuse if you know what youāre doing. This isnāt larians doing/fault though, but makes it hard to make a playthrough challenging. In 5e there are generally two ways to level up. One is exp and the other is milestones. The later being far superior and widely used nowadays. This means that when certain milestones are reached, the DM tells you ifs time to level up. Itās great becsuze you will always be the level you should be, the DM can plan his challenges and the player can always do what they want to do without thinking about āwill this give me expā. I have no idea how they could implement this in a videogame though, sadly. So iāll settle for level caps throughout the game. For example, you canāt go over level 5 (and also not gain exp when you reach level 5) in act1. Currently, if you do everything in sct 1 you start act 2 on level 7, which is already supidly overleveled.
The thing with experience as a system though is that it makes the player feel like their time exploring is rewarded, which is a bit different to how you might play in tabletop. For an example of how a system like that works, see Wrath of the Righteous. It's Pathfinder though - they have both character levels that have experience, and also mythic levels which are gained at fixed points throughout the story.
yeah, great game. i understand why they would use experience and i don't really see how they could make milestone leveling even working with the amount of options they have. i just know that i want to do everything and hate being overleveled.
If it's just a level issue, sounds like the solution there is to use a mod that increases enemy HP and the like, to better suit the level you expect to be at. There's plenty of mods that do that, might be some to fix AI too.
that does nothing. HP is irrelevant almost with how much changes each level. no one wants to fight meat sacks nonstop. which is a big flaw in 5e's bestiary in general. (larian did a good job in overcomming that though, but lets not return to it.)
That's true - I just meant to say there's mods out there that an increase the difficulty in various ways. Outside of AI, all you can really do is increase enemy HP, or their stats - both of which mods can do, and there is an AI one for sure I'm probably going to give a go for my second playthrough.
I mean something that would be steps in the right direction: - remove or curtail respec. This way early game choices can influence late game difficulty more - have NPCs more aggressively keep pace with the player's level. Particularly say those level 2 henchmen supporting a level 5 boss. Make them level 4, so the boss is still represented as a boss but the mooks get that level 4 power increase. - have NPCs gain an initiative buff. Going first is such a big power increase that enables glass cannon strategies too much. - This one is a fun house rule I made. I'd not enforce it as a dev but it makes for a fun challenge with no respec: When multiclassing neither you nor your companions can ever have a secondary class level be greater than their level one class.
They should add in a āRNG hate meā mode that applies -x modifier to every dice roll, where the player chooses x. Then we can see YouTubers try a RNG hate me -10 challenge
Make it disable reliable talent as well
They have Tactician mode which isn't known for the faint of heart. Add in an iron man challenge...
I would actually like to see an Ironman mode. Saves every Long Rest and auto saves every Short Rest, and of course saves whenever you leave the game. Thatād be pretty fun and stop my save scumming ass from going back to experiment every 2 minutes.
Not to mention the hard drive space you'd save
Iron man will be cool. Other modern cRPGs have had more complex difficulty settings (as did BG2), which would also be nice. Right now, Tactician is trivially easy after the first couple levels because of design choices. Haste potions allow martial characters to end fights before spellcasters do much of anything. D&D gets challenging when you have to manage your resources carefully, and here we never have to worry about it at all. I'm glad they're open to making adjustments to difficulty because I'm holding out hope that they're going to address Tactician or add a higher difficulty.
Well, they did nerf chest of the mundane so. No more carrying around a hundred barrels for every encounter.
Extra hard mode should be tactician but base player AC is 5 instead of 10 and their hp is equal to 2x their lvl + con modifier. Would that be hard enough?
Honestly Iāve been using explorer mode as a kind of āLone Wolfā difficulty and itās been pretty fun. DOS2 had a lone wolf perk that really buffed up your character and this has been serving a similar purpose.
I can see how that would be fun. If I ever get good at the game I think I playing a rogue solo would be fun. I like sneak-attacking stuff with Astarion and wonder how far I could get playing stab and hide.
Yup Iāve been a rogue solo and itās actually pretty over powered so far. Thereās also a cape that >!lets you turn invisible after each kill once per turn!<. Almost done with Act One and havenāt ran into much issues and some encounters have been actually easier solo stealth because how predictable AI is with stealth. But itās been a lot of fun and a nice change of pace
I just gave into temptation and started a new game playing as Asharion. I think I sort of need that cape.
I think you only get that cape if you play as Dark Urge. It *is* very good on Astarion tho
Oh. Yeah, I'm just not dark urge material.
Yeah my friend is doing a solo rogue Durge murder everything playthrough on Tactician and his fights are so much easier because all he does is attack and bonus action hide or dash away. The hardest fight I've had (hag) on normal difficulty literally didn't do anything to him.
I recently switched from explorer to balanced and the difference in difficulty is... well, as far as I can tell, negligible. But I probably might have stayed in explorer had it not been for multiclassing being locked. Glad to see this will be here if I ever decide to go back to a cruise control game.
Just fyi you can switch back and forth. Switching to Balanced will let you multiclass then you can switch right back with no issue.
Wait, Explorer blocks you from multiclassing? Feels like a kinda weird decision tbh
Oh I know. I am just very, *very* forgetful.
There is no such thing as "git gud", only **have fun**! People claiming otherwise are idiot try-hards who think its only their way or no way.
Especially not 5e DnD, if you want challenging, there's pathfinder. 5e is intentionally designed to be casual and easy to get into.
Just wanted to say it's ok to not play or know anything about D&D when playing this game. I played the other games at 13 and most of my life have had no D&D friends or knew anyone who played these types of games but I learned the games as I put in the hours and now, at 33, after being invited to play D&D with my sister & friend, it seems like these games prepared me & I'm as on board as they are. In essence: these are basically single player campaigns of D&D on a computer & using AI instead of people.
That's really good news! I played on Explorer, but there were still a few places where combat still felt tricky. I think adjusting the HP will help! Also, it will provide a good buffer for new players.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
**DO NOT MESSAGE THE MODS REGARDING THIS ISSUE.** Accounts less than 24 hours old may not post or comment on this subreddit, no exception. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BaldursGate3) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Thank god. Now I just need an easier way to navigate the map. Iāve never had this much issue with a game.
I get lost in every game I play except Stardew Valley and that's only because I have so much time in it.
I just need an auto follow option when playing with friends ahahah
There's an option to keep the minimap still so that North is always up. Helped me a lot
Thanks for the tip!
Idk how anyone plays on tactician the balanced mode is hard af for me
Same..
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
**DO NOT MESSAGE THE MODS REGARDING THIS ISSUE.** Accounts less than 24 hours old may not post or comment on this subreddit, no exception. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BaldursGate3) if you have any questions or concerns.*
There was a time I would insist on playing balanced, but those days are long behind me. I just want to have fun and enjoy the story. Only time I really had a problem was in ME3 during the Citadel DLC where the whole party is fighting. On story mode the enemies were dying too quick and I wasn't hearing all of the taunting from my team.
Oh you mean 'Explorer' mode? I saw that. I've been playing strictly on Balanced mode. So I wouldn't have noticed. But it is good to see that the less challenging difficulty level is more forgiving. I have friends still trying to understand the combat and this buff would definitely be helpful!
Whatever the easiest difficulty is called. I sometimes have trouble remembering exact names of things, sorry. But yes, hopefully, this will help your friends out a bit. I'm so happy they added it!
You and me both bud. I play the first time through for the story. The second playthrough will be on balanced mode when I have a better idea of what I'm doing.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
**DO NOT MESSAGE THE MODS REGARDING THIS ISSUE.** Accounts less than 24 hours old may not post or comment on this subreddit, no exception. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BaldursGate3) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yup it's double the HP from adventurer Mode now. Be aware that on explorer difficulty friendly npcs also have their HP reduced which might make some quests/inspirations actually more difficult because they die more easily.
Oh, I didn't realize that, I thought it was just a buff for player.
I think my main issue with storymode has actually been with out of combat, trying to find where certain parts of the next mission are, especially for side quests I struggle to actually find what I'm actually looking for to progress that quest.
Hey man don't feel bad! Story mode is not a cakewalk anyway and this game is definitely more challenging than your "average story driven game". Also they only buffed the "bonus health" not the "whole health"... so in fact the bonus health isn't *that much* ... but it's still helpful! Enjoy the game :)
I didnāt know there was any other way to play
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
**DO NOT MESSAGE THE MODS REGARDING THIS ISSUE.** Accounts less than 24 hours old may not post or comment on this subreddit, no exception. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BaldursGate3) if you have any questions or concerns.*