Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Larian please add another difficulty. Game is too easy

Your making an overarching statement that in itself is untrue. There are people that will do save scumming at Tactician level, just because you do not does not mean others do not.

For me I have not had to, but it is not because the game is so "easy", but rather meta knowledge of knowing the fight in advance and already having a plan for how to deal with it. Someone starting with ZERO knowledge at Tactical likely could not do this.

My 1rst run was in Tactician, I don't regret : except for last fight, all was hard (with many deaths) but NEVER impossible (as I often felt in many DOS2 situations) : hard enough and funny.
I just try to say F5 spam ruins RPG credibilty and promotes GodSlayers groups, but it's just my opinion.

Your experience can't be generalized : first run in multiplay without ANY spoil about content ? a very good team it seems... Now search for "Ketheric_Tactician_OS_before_he_realized_he_was_in_battle" in Youtube bar, you'll probably understand problem is somewhere else

Spore druid is hella fun, once you can raise 'spore servants' you get to throw them at the enemy as fodder. Halo of spores (hitting harder the more temporary hp you've got is a chefs kiss).

The best way to play is early is with 1 lvl of fighter (for proficiencies - heavy armor, more weapons, con saves - con saves are amazing cause you can pretty much ensure you never break concentration on your spells) and 11 lvls of druid to get access to the juicy lvl 6 spells (heroes feast is love) and cause symbiotic entity gives you bonus hp based on your druid lvls.

And then in act 3 you get the special sporekeeper light armor that allows you to spread haste spores... now that shit is broken and I am abusing it on my current run with Jaheira (she's basically specced to never break concentration on any of her spells).

And if you are curious how it functions I did post some of the fights on my youtube:





Also, in the Ansur battle I made several mistakes and yet it was still easy.

Oh I wasn't trying to discuss or debate that tactician wasn't possessing balance issues. I have no interest/stakes in how Tactician is as I have no interest at all in trying it. So, if numerous people are stating that tactician could use some vast balance improvements, I'll take their word for it. And It's not surprising that there's a relatability issue in regards to how you see unlimited saving towards those on easy/narrative mode, the playerbase that are playing in these separate modes are looking for entirely different things. So, what you may consider as important (hazards/consequences/credibility) will likely be not important to the easy/narrative fanbase.

But often we run into territory where those that wishes for a harder challenge issue out statements to cover the playability of those that play easy/narrative mode and that goes back to my cosmopolitan analogy. So as long any changes made to make the game more difficult resides specifically in tactician or "honor mode." I'm golden.

I am generally impressed that women's playing this game are better than some man's. And in the meantime they don't complain about the difficulty. Its looks like they find it also easy. Thx for sharing with us those vids. I usly try to avoid multiclassing. Not because it's broken its just takes away the feel to build something more unique to that single class.
I also feel that those youtube guides are all of them just multiclassing and it looks like they are all the same. Mixing warlock bard paladin warrior with something. It also takes away something from my experience that I cannot describe.

The thing is more I think about the game more I come to this conclusion. Act 1 is half difficult if someone plays it first time. Because it takes time to reach or get critical immunity. Till that pont there are a lot of enemies that can do like 60-100 dmg with only 1-2 critical attack. After getting the immunity I felt like I can facetank everything.

Another issue is hold persone why later in act2 - 3 no one uses it??? In act 1 it was a death sentence.

So because act 1 first half is so risky. And I guess ppl want to facetank the game from lvl1. They start to die and at this pont they start to hoard broken stuffs like tadpole illuminate armor haste elixirs ect ect.
But after completing act 1 this hard hitting bosses are gone. Nothing Is ever sraching especially when ppl already getting around 60-80 hp. So the difficulty curve is falling down to the rock bottom.

I do believe and I can prove that non of those broken stuff are needed. And actually this is the bad part and a big question, because why they are not needed????

But I started to understand the other side. Because most of the player's are saying haste elixirs darkness globe tadpoles luminous armor ect ect are broken. And it feels like cheating they don't like any idea of change in difficulty. And also I think no one like when they are called cheater. But why it have to be this way? Why they cannot give another difficulty by making those broken things needed.

There's more of us than you know.

Also, BG3's 'tactician' is piss easy in comparison to Pathfinder Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous' 'unfair' difficulty. Now those 2 games on average are way harder than BG3's respective difficulties - 'explorer' being kind of KM/Wotr's 'story' mode and 'balanced' being equivalent to 'normal'/'hard'. Now if 'tactician' was anything like 'unfair' you might've seen me maybe complaining a bit, I beat those games twice on 'unfair', 1st time with these munchkin super optimized builds and 2nd time with my own creations which everyone kept telling me it was impossible to beat it with. Proved them wrong.

Why am I bringing Pathfinder games to this conversation? Cause I genuinely have not seen a harder difficulty in any other game I have ever played before, even Beamdog's 'Legacy of Bhaal' difficulty added to BG1/2's is piss easy in comparison (finished BG1/2 3 times on LoB), although I would say LoB is still harder than tactician. Larian could learn a lot looking at how those difficulties are handled imho, but yeh, so far they went with a scuffed version of LoB (increasing numbers only) for tactician. So if we were to get anything harder than tactician, I would love to see something closer to KM/Wotr's unfair. So not only increasing the numbers across the board, but also giving enemies some wild extra random abilities (that you can ofc inspect to see how to get around them).


Yeah I usually avoid crazily multiclassing too (and I prefer multiclassing in a way that is more or less lore friendly to the character, for example you would never ever see me giving Astarion paladin lvls), my 1st tactician I beat using a lvl 12 red dragon sorcerer (but used some tadpole powers which I avoided in this run).


Yeah, agreed. They also do it for click baiting if I am completely honest.


Eh, imho critical immunity is nice, but not necessary. Early game all you need is a lvl 5 on a martial class or access to lvl 3 spells on arcane/divine casters. There are soooooooooooooooo many good lvl 3 spells. Lvl 5 on a matrial with 1 extra attack per round is gamechanging. On both my tactician runs I snowballed after lvl 5, sure, sometimes companions get downed (like Astarion in my vid) but it's no biggie at this point.


You mean enemies? Eh, they still use it (after Ansur fight I did Emperor's hideout with Minsc in grp and he got held cause he rolled critical 1 on his save vs those githyanki - was curious if Emperor would have any extra dialogue in that dream sequence after his hideout, but nope). And I also use it, got both versions on my sorc - hold person/monster which I do frequently use, it just depends on the fight. But when it comes to enemies using hold spells, if you or your companions have decent wisdom, it will barely ever connect.


Eh, I beg to differ, the taxcollector boss in act 2, what's her name, Geringothe? If you go the kill her route and happen to have a lot of gold on your person, she can one shot you (happened to me ). Malus Thorm, the doctor, can also hit hard as does the bartender Thisobald. Not to mention Yurgir. The problem of all these bosses is that they're optional and can be talked into committing suicide, which yeah, gives you less exp but is still an option.

But the comment about people wanting to facetank everything is true. And yes, after lvl 5 the difficulty curve is already dropping. Add to that some of the more broken items you can find and voila, barely any challenge on the highest difficulty. Add to that the overabundance of scrolls , crafting materials and yeh....


Well, if you are playing solo and I know you enjoy solo, some of this cheese is kind of necessary I think. I wouldn't really call it cheating. But when you play with a full party of companions I do not think it's necessary to use 'em. Heck I am currently stacking haste potions for no reason really, might use some on the brain fight, I'll see how it goes.

Like I am currently debating if I should fully record my next tactician run for funsies, with Zentu's 'Adamantine Dwarf Challenge' rules, but I would still play with companions and not really solo.

The game doesn't need a new difficulty, what it needs is to stop allowing long rests in the middle of dungeons or dangerous areas. Without being able to reset your spells and abilities with a long rest after every fight you'll have to be much more careful with how you manage your resources thus making the game more challenging.

I'm not against limiting long rests.

But I don't think that's the only issue. For instance, I happen to be playing a warlock right now in Act II. It's occurred to me that I don't need to long rest. I keep going and going. The Angelic potions that count as a short rest are plentiful. Arcane recovery potions aren't running out. Every time I start to think I should long rest, I realize I don't actually need to.

I am rolling over these fights. I took out the drider in the first round of combat. I took no damage fighting Gerringothe. I got hit once fighting Malus and the undead nurses. I took out the gith patrol. I freed the tieflings and gnomes and got rid of the bottom floor villains at Moonrise Towers. I've finished the mason's area. I literally just finished protecting the portal for Halsin, and afterward, I didn't even need to heal.

Something is seriously off with the difficulty.

I'm not attacking from stealth. I start the dialogue and wait my place in initiative, that's all. The "cheesiest" thing I'm arguably doing is using the luminous armor gear, generating radiant orbs.

Again, something is seriously off with the tactician difficulty level.

Gerringothe is only dealing damage if that character have a lot of money. I arrived there with around 1000 gold so she did like 30 something. I also agree with JandK around act 2 I found enugh angelic potions to not to rest at all. It allowed me to spare a lot of time. And in act 3 those potions are basically limitless so resting is just helping against act 1 difficulty.
Where the game is mybe OK still I think its not enugh. But in act 2 - 3 where the difficulty is gooing down where the shadows or lvl 10 flaming fist have less hp then a goblin in act 1 resting is not needed any more.

Funny thing I taught that I will capture the dorctor with controll undead:). But It was his lucky day. BTW the doctor can only deal 40-50 dmg with critical and only if the nurses are alive . Even if he is resurrecting to gain the big dmg buff the nurse needs to be alive for 2 turns.
So technically in act 1 Flind / Dror Ragzlin / beholder / ogres / Gith patroll/ Paladin of Tyr / bullet / Bernard / Grym / Gnoll archers dealing more dmg. And it's not restricted to specific status effects like gold or nurses. But I think the most terrifying is Grym and the Bullet and Flind. No act 2 or kind almost no act 3 boss is dealing even close enugh dmg.


Also I can bet a copy of Baldur's gate 3 that Baretta's team can defeat every lvl 10 flaming fist patroll. I wish some modder would do this. For example in elden ring boss vs boss.
I actually find thematically Oath breaker fitting with Astarion.
First because he is connected with necromancy. Second that he is struggling between good and evil choices and he is failing a lot to not do the right thing. Also he is technically undead actually this is a huge error from Larian that he is still count as humanoid. ( funny thing is even the writer of Astarion refers him as undead) Also he is kind of a mischief and that is why I learned from feats mockery. But every one have another experience and imagination about companions.

Greetings adventurous friends and lovers of the Forgotten Realms, I've been passionate about this universe for over 20 years and a big fan of the old Baldur's gate.
I'd like to thank Larian for the passion perceptible in his jewel and I hope we'll have more content later. I'll do a post about it later.

However, as indicated in the title, I'd like to add my 2 cents to the question of the game's difficulty. Let's face it, with some playing experience and a good understanding of the rules, it quickly becomes a walk in the park.
I've finished the game in Tactical mode with numerous difficulty mods, which gives me some idea of what needs to be corrected/improved.

I think we'll have an Honor Mod like Divinity 2, but I don't think this will represent an improvement in the intrinsic challenge; it's more a bonus that can be activated, rather than an improvement in the fundamentals.
My comments therefore concern an improvement in difficulty for a MOD HIGHER than Tactician, even if certain elements can be used in the lower difficulties.

In my view, there are 3 main areas of focus.

Let's go!!

I/ Enemies.

- Well, it's a sensitive subject, but he's the ogre in the middle of the corridor, and I can't ignore him because he's drooling. There's clearly room for manoeuvre in the AI, particularly in its movements in relation to attacks of opportunity/ the management of area control spells (moving inside, bypassing, assessing the threat).
The rest is honest (targeting weak PJs, coordination), but the first battles of Act 1 are much more polished.

- A simple, basic improvement: better stats (HP, saving throws, CA, actions) as already offered by mods.

- New abilities, gifts, items and consumables for this difficulty level. For example, all Bhaal assassins and rogues should have the sneak attack. Every opponent should have the abilities of their class as a player, including gifts. Similarly, they should systematically have consumables (inducts, poisons, potions, elixirs, bombs) that they use in combat.

- Additional enemies during encounters in higher difficulty modes, to make combat even tougher.

- Additional phases for the main bosses. The fight against Ketheric is, frankly, a good model. The fight against Orin, on the other hand, is rather disappointing. I want to feel both our bodies covered in sweat, I want to see her shapely legs and murderous hands trying to eviscerate me. I want...
Okey I digress, basically a phase where we face her in her humanoid form in killer mode with unheard-of DPS.

I'll give you another example of possible improvement with the fight against Gortash:
Frankly, the fighting mechanics are good compared with Orin, but there's just one thing missing to make this confrontation really stand up to the test.
I'm thinking of 2-3 modifications to make this fight truly legendary:

- Remove the defective shield system in tactician+.
- Add Baine disciples, there are currently two consuls and a black gauntlet. I'm thinking two consuls + two black gauntlets and a black fist as captain. It would be logical for Gartosh to have a praetorian guard worthy of the name.
- During phase 2, make the Manifestations of Tyranny active, why not with a debuff or control spell (domination, for example).


II/ Character Building.

You're still here? Okey I'm past the "2 cents" stage, I'm actually doing a full bank transfer.

The other real problem lies ahead of the confrontations, in the very construction of our characters. In all honesty, they're demigods, and at level 10 you can fraternize with Divine Chosen without batting an eyelid, and have a mind-boggling array of magic. My aim is absolutely not to frustrate, but to rebalance the walls of the system within which we can evolve and do as we please. Because at the moment, frankly, it's open bar, including with regard to DD5 rules.

- There are some real bugs to be ironed out, such as the absurd bare-hand and projection damage, or the fact that a priest can only learn mage spells at level 1.
Solution: a mage/priest multiclass must not be able to cast mage spells beyond the abilities of a mage of the same level.

- Unlimited use of scrolls by all classes. So it really hurts me as a wizard when I see a Barbarian with 8 Int casting a level 6 spell between two burps.
Solution: A class that doesn't master spells can't use scrolls (perhaps include a GIFT that would allow this up to level 3 scrolls, for example, but with a Stat condition for DD).
An exception is made, of course, for thief or warrior specialties giving access to magic, who could obtain this ability in addition to the rest of their gameplay.

How would the spell's DD be calculated? Simply like a normal spell: 8+associated char (SAG / INT / CHA) + mastery bonus ONLY if you have access to this level of spell.
It seems logical to me that a young magic student just out of his magical duffel bag party would have difficulty throwing Arrêt du Temps.

- I know I'm going to make people cringe because we used to make crazy combinations, but Multiclassing without conditions has become crazy. We need to reinstate feature conditions as in the official rules.
Nothing insurmountable really, but it would already have a great control filter. I would remind you, of course, that this option only applies to the MAX difficulty.

- By the same token, there should be conditions for Gifts, either carac or race/class. This would make it possible to add missing gifts and give more unique personality to our choices. (Incidentally, I have a clear preference for unique racial bonuses as in EA, rather than the levelling Tasha rule we have, but that's secondary and another subject).

- The CA bonus when using a shield should not be applied passively when equipped with the ranged weapon.

- Regulation of the possibility of equipping magic items, at the very least the inability to combine items whose bonuses are cumulative or play on the same aspect.

- A time limit on the use of elixirs and potions, not a "duration until the next long rest".

III/ Gameplay.

Yes, I know, it's long. It sounds like a lecture by an arch-mage historian... Good logic because it defines me very well!
The last point concerns the gameplay itself.
- There's clearly a problem with XP, I know it's debatable but the progression is too fast and the accumulation of this point with the rest makes the game like a walk in the park. What's more, it's strange to reach almost max level at the start of act 3. Personally, I finished the game with a surplus of unused XP. This also makes completing quests a bit empty. So either increase the levels or divide the amount. The ideal would obviously be to have more levels laugh and thus smooth out the game with, for example, a max level of 16. Okey Larian, it's my Christmas Wish wink.
This would also make it possible to add DLC during the course of the adventure, even if it means reworking and readjusting certain high-level battles.

- The price of magic items is absolutely trivial, especially some MUST HAVE items sometimes selling for 80 or 140, while some armors are several thousand golden coins.

- Accentuate the limitations of Rest with a requirement of 120 provisions (as proposed by a Mod) or possible access only to teleportation points.

- Well, there's clearly a problem with two spells:

1/ Haste is totally abused, at the very least you should limit the number of turns.

2/ The greatest abuse concerns the Sphere of Invulnerability, which is objectively a God Mod and does not correspond to the spell in its original version. It should be a protection against spells, not a zone of invincibility where you can act on the outside world.
At the very least, you should be unable to impact the outside, the number of turns should be much lower (2 turns max) but ideally it should be like its paper version. A spell-absorbing zone with why not a quantity of spell damage hp that can be absorbed before it disappears, either at the end of its duration or through exhaustion of hp.

- Finally, higher-level summoning spells deserve an adjustment, either in the form of a duration limit or a concentration roll per turn for the summoning of Exteriors endowed with consciousness, such as Angels or Demons. Walking around Baldur with an unlimited Deva as if you were taking a poodle out for a piss is quite...surprising.


So this time my thesis is finished, I'm looking forward to your opinions and if you have any additional points to add. Hopefully a Larian member or Moderator will stop by wink

See you soon in the Kingdoms, I'm going to make a post almost as complete on a third-list of cut content.

I mean, sure, Larian could put more of the red 'no rest zones' in the game, especially in act 1 (cause outside of Gith Creche there are basically no red zones, I don't think there is even one at Grym's arena to be honest).

But like JandK mentioned, potions of the angelic short rest are so abundant and common that you basically don't need to long rest for a while once you reach act 2, together with arcane recovery potions you can keep on going for a while. Like heck, even on my current run I pretty much only long rested for the camp only story bits (Gale's invitation, Astarion's confession, 2 visits of Scleritas Fel, Raphael's visit). And only ONCE properly long rested to regain all spell slots etc.



Oh yes, I agree, Grym and the Bullet are the most scary 'bosses' of the game hands down. At least Grym can be easily defeated if you use the hammer and keep on consistently filling the arena with lava so he ain't immune to damage. But Bullet heh, that thing not only hits hard but also knocks people back and then runs away to be encountered in another spot, I gotta admit, I generally do my full buff rotation and just use all I can to defeat it the first time I encounter that thing, I find it so annoying.

But overall it seems like Larian only properly playtested act 1 for any type of difficulty adjustments and spikes.

I will also admit that my 1st run ever was done on balanced (cause I was under impression that tactician would be more like PF's unfair the way Larian spoke about it).


You know what? The game is kind of weird in it's treatment of Astarion, on one hand it treats him like an undead in certain places (Mystic Carrion's questline, especially that one room with a ton of necrotic fumes in it - Astarion is the only companion in the game that is immune to that) and then on the other hand it doesn't, cause heals etc etc don't damage him. The game itself is quite inconsistent when it comes to that.

I remember back in EA Astarion would take damage while stepping in running water, but for some reason Larian decided to change that (he could walk just fine around in the Hag's swamp in EA, but the beach area not so much). Then come release and he doesn't, I was quite shocked tbh, the only explanation for that I can think of is people complained about him dying in certain watery areas and it was quite a giveaway to people who knew nothing about him that there is something special about him.

please add a nightmare difficulty. Game is way easier than divinity original sin 1 & 2 and it shouldn't be.

I think instead of higher difficulty, it would be better to make the AI smarter.

But if they did try to make it harder, I would love them to make it Uber-hard, as in it's so hard that making Pacifist route would be better, making Char/Wis/Bard based character shine.

To be honest I don't know how they'd pull it off though, 5e isn't exactly complex that it allows enemy greater possibility to out hand your character. I think they just gonna make the enemy level higher than you a few level more.

https://www.gamesradar.com/fighting...-engineering-and-an-absurd-arrow-supply/

Even game journalist saying that the game is not difficult.
Finally
This is the rock bottom. From ppl that cannot do the tutorial in cuphead.

When I see the video's, the PC alsways has the initiative in turn 1, during which he/she/it flies halfway around the world, hits 10 melée attacks for 50 HP damage each , casts aa few spells in addition to that and then ends the turn in a spot that cannot be reached by the few opponents that survived the round. Naturally he/she/it will succeed all save throws. Seeing this, I think that better AI for the bad guys is not going to be a solution. Perhaps the game should force some limitations in what items you are allowed to wear/use if the player cannot do this on his own.
For instance, in my current PT, Shadowheart killed the nightsong and is now fanatically loyal to Shar. It would make no RP sense that I would swap her Shar equipment for something bigger and stronger. My bard Drow PC holds on to the Phalar Aluve and won't change that for anything in the world. Similarly, I don't want Jaheira or my bard PC look like Robocop, but retain a bit of bard and druid likeness. And so the fights are still quite difficult enough on standard level for me. (at lvl 11 in Ch. 3) But by all means, if an additional Armageddon difficulty level can make more players happy, then by all means do it. But would these players still be happy if they can't be Gods anymore but can only use 2 attacks per round, can't go over 24 AC, and do miss some attacks and save throws from time to time ?

Edit : The above may look like a plea to "play my tactics", but I didn't intend it that way. I give some examples just to clariofy the point, and the only ones I can give are from my experience naturally. It's not saying you should do these things to enjoy the game.

It's a combination of things.

The AI is, in fact, stupid.
- Random movements for no reason that provoke AOO and they return to their original spot (this was called out in EA by me)
- Using their Misty Step/Teleport spells to move such a negligible distance that it wasn't any point to use it
- Sometime using their skills/spells improperly
- Still easy to funnel through effects


Larian combat design is lacking
- For example, the Githyanki Creche fight with the Inquisitor those adds have like 28HP and low AC and you're level 7-8 when you fight them. They all died in basically OHKO and the Inquisitor was left alone and quickly overwhelmed. I never got to see what he could truly do.

- In Act III, there are people who have sprites in plate armor but you inspect them and they show 13 AC. Why? 13 AC when my characters are max level or close to, I'm never going to miss them.

- The abilities they gave some enemies never come into play with proper tactics, e.g. Cazador died so fast for me I was disappointed

- And I'm not cheesing or pre-buffing or pre-positioning or doing anything that would be considered unfair. Just a party of 4 with items. Never used tadpole powers once, never stuck one in my head, never even touched some broken combos and ability. Just getting the legendary sword in Act III and Extra Attack is enough.

- Haste & Extra Attack should be put back to RAW. One strong martial class after the midgame can take out 2-4 enemies a round (more if Hasted). It's utterly ridiculous for Larian's combat design that already gives enemies lower AC.


Sorry, there are two way different experiences ITT. Those who beat Tactician but spammed long rests or other things as a crutch.

And those who beat the game naturally just by good tactics and playing the game.

Act I is challenging because you are low-level and can be a little unlucky with a crit and have fewer tools to recover and turn the fight. Also, itemization isn't big yet. In terms of combat, it's also the most fun and shared.

In Act II or Act III if 1 character gets certain items that really synergize with a build, they can take out so many enemies and sometimes 1 character didn't even really get a turn on their combat round because everything was dead or almost dead. They did not scale it up well on a harder difficulty.

And to think Swen warned people about Tactician pre-release saying don't complain if it's too hard. He also said it would have some surprised mid-combat and reinforcements for enemies and things that happened like DOS1 (not DOS2) and I never seen any of that.

If it did happen, the enemies were so inconsequential they got rolled over. Once you leave Act 1 early levels, there is no challenge in this game.

Pretty much what I have said in my other thread. I fully agree.

It's not like dnd 5e is broken system that lets you do 19 attacks in a turn (level 18 Samurai fighter aside being close to that). The problem is Larian's implementation of 5e rules, butchering the balance in the process. I mean just look at all the broken builds that abuse magic items, dipping, rules, etc

I hate what they did to 5e ruleset. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but all BG3 combat did is sour the whole game for it.

I have uninstalled the game until definitive edition comes forth, while looking to play tabletop instead.

Nonono Swen told us that we should not come here and cry about that the difficulty is to hard. Because we asked for it. But no one is crying. At least not about that it's too hard.

Well Pathfinder just released a new dlc. So I started to play it.
Turned on the hardest difficulty. And I am constantly die.
I loaded back so manny times the letters are starting to fade from F8.
Well it is true that I got lazy by playing bg3. But you know what I enjoy Wotr better. For sure it has to do something with that fact that it's not lagging an stuttering. And it's working on SteamDeck.