Larian Banner: Baldur's Gate Patch 9
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Joined: May 2013
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journeyman
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I've been playing since the Alpha. Used Normal difficulty every time. I found the last patch satisfying, I was having to use potions in some fights and xp felt harder won. This time I've not used any potions and only a single resurrection scroll fighting in a particular lair. I'm level 7 in an area with level 6 creatures.
I think some people expect Normal to be Easy.
I've not tried Hard difficulty due to time restrictions and like to compare versions from the same baseline.
What do other players think? Is Normal a good challenge for the unfamiliar and Hard good for experienced players on this version?

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I think one shouldn't declare something too east too fast, every game seems to fall victim to this in forums. We all learn as we play and we become better. So if it is balanced more towards easy to begin with, as you get better then it becomes silly easy. Hard to me feels like what normal should be, it's a small bump up, it plays nicely, but when you become a vet, you'll want more then that.

There was a post where someone suggested a lot of people don't play easy because it is insulting to them, just the word. So they then expect Normal to be easy. Normal is the new easy. I'm fine with all of that, just give me two or more settings above the new normal then.

Joined: Jun 2014
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Originally Posted by Horrorscope
I think one shouldn't declare something too east too fast, every game seems to fall victim to this in forums. We all learn as we play and we become better. So if it is balanced more towards easy to begin with, as you get better then it becomes silly easy. Hard to me feels like what normal should be, it's a small bump up, it plays nicely, but when you become a vet, you'll want more then that.

There was a post where someone suggested a lot of people don't play easy because it is insulting to them, just the word. So they then expect Normal to be easy. Normal is the new easy. I'm fine with all of that, just give me two or more settings above the new normal then.


I would agree with this.

Easy, should be for people that want a casual experience where battle is an afterthought and the RP'ing is the focus.

Normal, should be 'possible to die' but unlikely.

Hard, should be resource use in ~33% of battles for non min-max parties.

Very-hard(+), varying degrees of relative impossibility.

I am also a fan of Hard Core modes where rewards are multiplied but death is permanent.

As for the relative challenge that currently exists, I'd say that as long as you focus your skill/stats in the early 5 or so levels, Normal is true to its monicker. Just resign yourself to being forced into certain skill selections or you face significant difficulty even in Normal mode.


"Sooner or later, reality becomes a quaint idea that most 'suffer' only when needed." - RogueDeus
Joined: Mar 2014
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Normal difficulty of the game is on a satisfactory level right now.

The various upgrades to specific encounters and adjustments of skills all payed off.

The point of it is not in using or not potions and other thing or dying or not in an encounter or how many times. That will vary from player to player and get reduced the more someone plays the game repeatedly and learns its various details.


The point is that you cannot just rush and hack and slash any encounter in the game.
Thats it. Thats what makes difficulty good or not.


Of course, the game still has way too many resources, items, potions, equipment, food and other such stuff around to be actually difficult and demanding.

But thats not actually a problem.

This is a game made for mass market and its normal difficulty mode should do exactly what it does now. Force people to think atleast a little about what they are doing and force them to come up with some basic tactics for different combat encounters.

Out of which several bigger ones are quite demanding - for a normal diff mode of a game of this kind.


The "hard" difficulty is not really hard difficulty, its just a quick, cheap trick or two, changing HP and damage. Not actually worthy of bothering with, really. Despite some players using it.
But thats alright too. Mods will fix it.


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Difficulty in this game is fairly fickle. It has the potential to be difficult depending on how the RNG works out (or doesn't work out) for you. You can play the same battle over and over, and while reasonable tactics can repeatedly put the odds in your favor, in the end the roll of the dice can make one play-through a cakewalk while the other is a disaster. And this is why we often see conflicting reports on how difficult the same encounter is.

Let's look at an early example using the first orc fight on the beach prior to reaching the gates of the town in Cyseal.

The smart thing to do, in my opinion, is to deal with the Shaman threat first. And if you succeed in CC'ing him or taking him out before he can act, the battle with the remaining orcs and cultist is extremely easy (especially if RNG favors the guards and they start mowing through each target in rapid succession).

However, if RNG doesn't work in your favor and your CC/kill attempts fail, and the Shaman decides to start lobbing fireballs at your party and inflicting burning states, life can becomes a whole lot more difficult. Or maybe he'll just toss a heal instead, allowing your party another chance to execute their plan while relatively unchallenged.

This is an example of what I described above (and which I'm repeating again): the game has the potential to be difficult depending on how the RNG works out (or doesn't work out) for you. In this case, does the roll of the dice allow you to remove the Shaman threat before he decides to cast a fireball? A lot is hinging on "luck" here. And you can play this same battle over and over, and while reasonable tactics can repeatedly put the odds in your favor, in the end the roll of the dice can make one play-through a cakewalk while the other is a disaster. And this is why we often see conflicting reports on how difficult the same encounter is.

Not all encounters are set up this way. A lot of it has to do with map design. I would even argue that some games take it too far in the other direction (Blackguards, for example), where encounter difficulty is built around the idea of the player jumping through specific hoops over the course of a battle - follow the plan the designer wanted you to follow and things are fairly easy, deviate and follow your own plan and things can become a lot harder. I believe there is a better balance to be struck between the two.

Joined: Jun 2014
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I started on hard and it was too easy at least when facing equivalent level enemies.

In a TBS like this though I think difficulty is very hard to balance for everyone since there are so many little things a more knowledgeable/experienced player can do to have an edge that add up to a big gap in capability overall.

I think they need another tier of difficulty personally, but they have to not go too overboard with health/damage scaling since it's just not fun fighting health sponges who can 1-2 shot you, and rather do things like give enemies more AP/better movement or even extra abilities on the hardest difficulty. I'd also not give a to-hit penalty for PCs/to-hit boost for AI(which is currently the case on hard) as that too heavily punishes the physical damage dealers - plus whiffing attacks due to RNG isn't really fun.

Last edited by Fellgnome; 27/06/14 03:40 PM.
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Difficulty will also vary a great deal with character design and whether the player has picked up the recruitable NPCs - new players often seem to miss one or both of them, which makes things much more difficult.

I realize that it might provoke grumbles about "hand-holding", but perhaps upon arriving in Cyseal the main characters could say something about finding allies? (The dialogue could even vary a bit based on whether one or both of them have the Lone Wolf trait.)

Last edited by NeutroniumDragon; 27/06/14 05:05 PM.

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