1.) The incentive to build balanced characters should be higher with meaningful changes to dialogues with smart/charming/charismatic/etc characters. Higher vendor Identifying costs, much more difficult sneaking and stealing, more of an emphasis on lock-picking rather then putting the keys right next to chests, etc. Give my characters a reason to be more versatile.
I agree 100%.
2.) Advanced difficulty option, perhaps something beyond just increasing health. Make them avoid triggering attacks of opportunity all the time (seriously my Rouge Killed Evelyn entirely with attacks of opportunity). Make them avoid hazardous ground effect. Make them focus on the reasonable targets, not the obvious ones(as in: Hit the frail guy with the robe, not the Armoured Hulk carrying a shield).
In short: Improve enemies in a way that makes combat more tactical and challenging without turning everything into "bulletsponges"
Agreed. I think in higher difficulty modes enemy should use better skills and spells, combining effects like water and lightning and stuff (just like the player). Most of the enemies at this point just uses normal melee or ranger/bow attacks and mages just uses weak (often fire) spells. At the moment enemy AI is just really lacking imo which isn't much of an issue in easy mode but which is a clear issue in normal and especially in hard mode.
But just adding spells and skills to enemies (and giving them a better AI) isn't enough if you can just slay them in one or two rounds because your own skills are too powerful. There should be a way to prevent you from using all your spells and skills from the very start of each fight. Having everything available in turn 1 and with each spell/skill casted/performed in the same turn the player is kind of overpowered by system. That's the reason why I think the system is broken (aka not very well designed) in that respect.
3.) Re-balance all abilities and spells, as well as their cool-downs and action point cost. At the moment balance for those is all over place, like Small Fireball costing 10 Base action points, and being significantly less effective than the 5 costing Whirlwind of the warrior etc. Also having the weak and the strong version of an ability (like in the warriors case) can cause some serious silliness.
Agreed. But just adding bigger cooldowns to better skills would just lead to using them all in the first round and then using normal melee or ranged attacks until the cooldown is over or the enemy slain. That would just prolong the fights in the same way as giving them more HP...
And to reiterate: I want the game to challenge me, not challenge myself because the game fails to do so.
I really understand you, mate...
