Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Game Master Balancing Combat & Encounters

Hi all

Apologies for a repeat of a question - another topic did cover this slightly, but I can't seem to find it anymore, or it wasn't in the Game Master section.

My inquiry is around balancing combat & encounters for players in the GM mode.

Now the other topic I had found had suggested that the number of creatures and their levels should equate to the number and levels of your players.

Example: 3 players of level 3 each should have an encounter of equal difficulty against 3 wolves of level 3 each

The variation upon this is: 3 players of level 3 have an encounter of equal difficulty with 5 wolves of level 2 each.

The premise of this is that the aggregate level of the 3 players is essentially level 9 and that 3 level 3 wolves or 5 level 2 wolves roughly equals level 9 as well.

But I find that this doesn't really take into account the talents players have and the equipment they may have, such uncommon tier boosts (especially for rare and epic later in the game).

The initial idea is a nice starting place, but I was wondering if anyone has come across a decent process for creating enjoyable but challenging combat encounters in GM Mode.

Currently, I'm testing with my players, I'm using the above equation of matching aggregate levels and adding creature appropriate talents, skills and HP/armor values that feel similar enough to the toughest player in the group.

I'm hoping that I can discover with all of you (and subsequently post) something akin to a challenge rating graph for people who wish to use the system in such a way.

Would love to hear other peoples input and Larian Studio's input as well.

Thanks.

Unless a mod is in conflict with the game, it also appears that creating specific creatures and giving them talents to strengthen them is not saved by the game.
So not sure how to solve this aspect of balancing an encounter. As the players will always be more adept than any creature then.

If we are talking only about balance and we suppose that the GM is playing NPC fairly (not letting player win), then i always suppose that a group of 4 should always face 4 enemies of the same level. You can tweak the number with a formula like 1 enemy of X lvl is equal to 2 enemy of X-1 lvl. So, a 4 characters group at lvl5 could easly face :
- 4 enemy lvl5
- 1 enemy lvl7
- 2 enemy lvl6
- 1 enemy lvl6 and 2 enemy lvl5
etc...

If players can get goods gears, make NPC get good gears too ! I always allow players to loot used stuff, if they face a archer using Legendary bow, they can get it, etc...

You can always add some skills to your enemies in case they are not strong enough or do an event who help players in case enemies are too strong.

Indeed that's roughly what I've been working to, in terms of the level equation.
I haven't fully geared every enemy, as that's quite a lot of work to do, especially if you have larger campaigns with multiple engagements between various enemies.
But the ones that have loot do use the loot they drop.

One issue I've been having is that the monsters do not keep talents that I assign to them. It may be a conflict issue with one of the mods I'm using. Not sure if anyone else has had that issue.

I've the same problem. Luckily this isn't too important for most random NCPs and "bosses" are few and far between so for those I'm currently using the workaround of exporting the character once I've adjusted it. The exported character seems to keep all talents between saves and I can easily just replace the "boss" before the fight begins.

Yeah, I'm doing the same, using the deactivated encounters as placeholders essentially and manually dropping in monsters. Annoying, but playable, and have framed it to my players that it's distance of vision is why they can't see all encounters immediately.

Though finding it hard to test encounters ahead of time. Tried creating NPC's with the same skills and equipment as my players, and then battling the monster encounters I have. The tests are obviously biased and feel decent. But actual engagements seem to favor my players.
Not sure if anyone has any suggestions on testing encounters for difficulty/challenge, prior to getting players in there?

I haven't run my module yet, but I would think if you monitor the encounter window, you can adjust the difficulty on the fly by raising/lowering the encounter lvl with the +/- button?

I face the exact same issues. Either too easy or too hard all the time. And if I need to rely on AI for combat, it makes it even worse. Talents and skill points resetting all the time, no idea why.
I'm thinking of creating enemies of same lvl and gear with players , just different spells. This will limit the variation a lot but want to see if it's actually balanced or not.

It looks the most recent patch will aid in having the NPC's have a variety of spells, even if their stats do not line up.
But the resetting of talents and other aspects is still rather annoying, especially if you've spent the time to make customized encounters with your players and it's all waste.

I'll be testing my new method this week hopefully, of scaling levels to the sum of the levels of all of the players. Shall update here and let you know whether it worked or failed horribly

Yeah, the resetting of talents and combat abilities is more or less game breaking. I can no longer put my customized NPCs in the scenes as they will be reset next time I load up the game:(

For now I must keep all NPCs in the creatures panel, have their reset versions in the scenes, and when the party comes near, pause and switch them all out from the panel. And of course say, "hey guys, if you examined the NPCs, do it again, now they are correct".

Not very helpful for the game flow or RPG feeling.

Yeah mentioned this in the other thread as well.
Even the saved/exported NPC's have all their talents and spells reset now...So even my idea of dropping in the right NPC is now no longer possible...

It looks like I am now building (balanced/tailored) encounters as my players are playing live...

What?! Oh no! I haven't checked lately as the bug takes away my inspiration to build on the campaign until it is fixed - but at least I thought I could create some main NPC:s.

I really hope the bug hasn't crept into my panel as well. That would mean a lot of hours lost.

As an update for those interested.

I'd tested out the concept of creating encounters that were level equivalent.
So 3 players each of level 3 (sum of 9) versus a group of enemies (with level appropriate gear, talents and skills).
The combat was interesting for my players, some monsters obviously died much quicker than others.
The one thing that I had a problem with was when it was the 3 players versus 1 big monster. The one big one was a level 5 to test first. It made it more exciting, but I had to scale down its Strength (in this case) as it was almost 2-shotting the tank. But they managed to beat it.

Shall continue testing to see what and how works the best.