The game needs a hard mode, more so than the one built in. The most recent patch on Steam that made mention of "balancing" the combat seems to have made it insignificant. In the original release game build a part of level 3 characters would be committing suicide taking on the level 7 wolves in the Cyseal zone. Playing a new game after the patch in order to try the new rogue and ranger characters with a back story I was able to easily defeat the level 7 mobs at level 3! The battle against Braccas Rex was comical at best. The boss ran into the door way where you enter his dungeon and stood there watching me kill his minions and only after the last one was dead did he wake up. The ice king battle King Boreas, prior to the patch on normal the battle was a long drawn out slug fest that was allot of fun. After the patch my group had him at 1/2 health at the end of turn one and he only managed to summon one set of elementals before he was dead. After that battle I increased the difficulty to hard in the hopes of making it more of a battle instead of a slaughter for the enemy!
I have about 550 + hours in the game and I assume part of the problem is I know the game too well now. My usual gold total is between 700,000 ( if I am being lazy ) to 1.1 million if I really work at it. Coll down time on all spells is 1 turn due to intellect numbers as high as 26. Base damage for Madora is about 570, AC is 200 + and with her speed at 13, she is virtually unstoppable on the battle field. On my last play through #5 I didn't bother with constitution a whole lot. My Ranger with Glass Cannon skill was at 1300 HP and my Tank, Madora was at 2600. I concentrated on speed ( for more action points in combat ) perception for my ranger at 15 and 15 on my lead character to spot traps and hidden items without the use of pots or spells. Black smithing over 2 was all I needed and 3 in craft then +2 more with gear. Lore master was 3 and +3 with gear. I notice that random drops favor lore master and telekinesis allot more than is needed.
The pure randomness of the buffs on loot is a real sore point with me. I find a 2 handed weapon that has +1 sneak and +1 one handed sword? Heavy full plate armor with +1 dexterity and +1 Bow? The loot tables really need a good over haul as the random effects are pure rubbish and very lazy on the part of Larian.
