I've got some concerns about the game's difficulty – or rather, the lack of it. If you've got even a bit of strategic thinking under your belt, even playing on Tactician mode becomes a walk in the park. The AI doesn't offer much of a challenge either, unfortunately.
It's not helping that there's an abundance of food. You could practically take a long rest after each battle if you wanted to. Personally, that's not my style, so here I am in ACT 1 with almost 1000 food, and I haven't even cleared out the Goblins yet.
Health potions? I'm drowning in them. I haven't even needed to use a spell slot for healing, and honestly, I rarely even have to rely on potions. A short rest after a battle and you're good to go. The game keeps showering you with loot (weapons, scrolls, buffs), and it's ridiculously easy to exploit the Sleight of Hand system on traders for wealth
I get the reasoning, really. The game is designed to appeal to a broad audience, which often means dialing down the difficulty. But look, X-Com 2 on its highest difficulty was a real challenge, and while it's not the same genre, those who like those games would likely enjoy BG3 too. So, comparing them isn't too far off.
And again, I get it – the game wants to succeed on a larger scale. Sadly, that often translates to making things easier. Although the success of games like Elden Ring (not as tough as predecessors, but still) contradicts this trend. I admire what BG3 represents, but I can't help wishing for more of a challenge.
The mods that can bloat enemy health and stats just don't sit right with me. They throw off the balance of D&D 5e. To up the challenge, it seems like we need smarter AI and more foes. One can only hope that modding tools, if these are released at all, will allows us to do exactly that.
Take the Goblin Camp, for example. You attack from above and they come out of their Goblin tunnels like sitting ducks, easily picked off. Their AI is just lacking. What's worse, the supposedly menacing Ogre poses no threat; it just stands there against a wall. With a Strength of 22, you'd think the Ogre could at least make a leap towards the upper area, spicing things up, but nope. I tried rationalizing this with my bro to just make belief as if the Ogre is too stupid to realize it can jump.
Can I expect these issues to be tackled? I'm hoping for a game that's immensely challenging to the end. Tactician just doesn't cut it. And I need a honor mode, because it's just something that's part of RNGames.
