Now, let it first be said that I highly, highly, highly doubt that most, if any, of the suggestions presented by me, or anybody else, in this thread will ever make it into the real game. However, the Source Hunter Difficulty Mod for Original-Original Sin was a great success, and still is, and I believe it to be safe to assume that Enhanced Edition is going to recieve a similar mod and this thread could therefore be seen as more of a discussion forum for what people would want for such a mod, than for actual balance suggestions for Tactician Mode.
Now that that has been said; I'm very dissapointed with Tactician Mode and I find it to be quite a bit easier than expected. Me being the kind of gamer who wants to have my back against the wall throughout the entire game and who considers easy to be boring. And Tactician Mode does indeed have that very problem; it's easy.
Or rather, it gets easy. Yes, the first three encounters of the game are harsh, not to say very harsh, and gives of a false impression of what to expect from the mode. But the very second you're done collecting quests in Cyseal, have done some basic crafting and gotten your hands on a selection of the more useful Novice skills. You're more than capable of handling you're own. The initial balance is decent though, although bosses are a joke (why am I killing the Lighthouse boss in less than three rounds?), but you quickly become overleved and by the time you get to Boreas the game has gotten, pardon the pun; BOREas.
I believe this is down to a handful of fundemental problems with Tactician mode. Problems that could, in theory, easiliy be fixed. Keep the word "theory" in mind here; balance is hard. Although Original Sin seems to be afraid of being too hard, which is a ludicrous notion in a challenge mode.
1: Overleveling.
A short story; I was faffing about with my team of guys in the early stages of the game, having just been severly dissapointed by the Lighthouse Boss, who used to be rather challenging in the original game on Hard, and how easily I beat him.
In my state of nigh-fatal frustration I accidentally headed to the Orc-Beach, rather than then Boar-Zombie-Forest-Thing. A zone 1-2 levels above me, something which I hadn't noticed at the time. And I actually started to feel challenged, possibly a bit too much so as I was legitimately struggling. Eventually it dawned on me that I was fighting level 7 crabs with a level 5 party and I realized that I was having fun [i]because[/i] I, for once, wasn't overleved.
Later on, when I was doing Boreas, I wondered how the game had gotten so... droll, all of a sudden. Until I looked at Boreas' level, that is. He was level 12, my part - 15.
Fact is that level differences mean [i]a lot[/i] in Original Sin and that the game, for some obscene reason, doesn't assume that you're going to be doing all of the optional content. Despite, y'know, being on Tactician Mode. And as such it it very easy to become overleved and therefore gain an unfair advantage, which in turn makes the game easier, which in turn is counterintuitive to a game-mode which aims to be Difficult.
In other words; leveling feels punishing, rather than rewarding. As it makes the game easier and in turn; less fun.
I therefore strongly suggest upping enemy levels, so that they actually match those of the player, provided they do the optional content. Yes, it removes the optional status from optional content.
But you were going to do it all anyway. It's Tactician Mode. You already know where to do up the quests and how to do them, if your here.
2: Crowd Control is too reliable.
I believe this one is fairly obvious and don't require that much explanation. There is little reward to be found in getting a +5% to Charm/Stun/whatever, if the enemies don't ever resist your Crowd Control abilities, ever. Which, as it just so happens, is currently the case.
You can throw small armies at me and I'll let out a bored yawn, as I proceed to Freeze and Knock Down the entirety of them. Crowd Control becomes downright overpowered, if it always connects.
I therefore suggest giving all enemies boosts to their Bodybuilding and Willpower scores, so that they float around the 40%'ish chance, depending on the enemy, of couse, to be CCed.
Likewise I suggest making more enemies immune to individual debuffs. Partially to promote Loremaster and partially to make things into less of a "derp-stunfest".
3: Bosses are strangely easier than normal encounters.
How come that bosses don't feel like bosses? Could it be their severly gimped health-pools? The fact that they're hardly anymore resistant to CC than their minions? Or maybe it's both?
It's both, by the way.
Their damage and abilities seem to be fine. Although it's hard to tell, as they tend to spend the entire fight with their face smack-dap in the ground. Unable to retaliate as they get quickly and swiftly torn to pieces.
I therefore suggest upping their health totals by a very, very, very considerable amount. The players are preparing all of their gear, skills and consumables to fight off these guys and the game should anticipate them to throw everything they've got at the bosses.
I likewise suggest making them much, much, much more resistant to CC. CCing a boss should be possible, yes; but it shouldn't be reliable, by any stretch of the imagination.
4: Grenades, Scrolls and Arrows. Oh' my!
3AP for a Water Balloon is perfectly fine. 3AP for a Firestorm Grenade is a bit silly. 3AP for a Frost Grenade is downright bonkers. 3 AP for a Love Grenade just breaks anything that resembles balance.
I'd personally love to see grenades, scrolls and arrows having their AP-costs adjusted a bit. Yes, I get that they're consumables and all that. But the thing is, that it has been proven time and time again that it is easy to produce high amounts of consumables. The fact that people treat Arrows and Grenades as a secondary school of magic, rather than as consumables, should make it perfectly evident that the game should do so aswell.
Yes, upping the AP-cost for a Frost Grenade from 3 to 6 doesn't keep it from being one of the most powerful forms of CC in the game. But it keeps people from abusing it, and other consumables, to high heaven.
5: Some skills, CC ones in particular, are kind of ridiculous.
Who in the name of Prince Charles' left testicle thought that Bitter Cold needed to outright Freeze its target? The spell was already incredibly powerful to begin with. Situational, yes, but a main-stay of the Aerothurge nevertheless.
Who thought that Blitz-Bolt should have a 70% base(!) chance to Stun its target? Or that Ice Shard should mimic Bitter Cold and become an instantaneous Freeze effect?
One thing is that these changes have removed some of what makes the combat in Original Sin as much fun as it is; comboing skills. Another is that Ice Shards new status as CC makes it too powerful to be a Novice skill, leaving Hydrosophists with 5/6 Novice spells at best and without a source of Water Damage at worst. An entirely third thing is that it gives spellcasters too many options for CC and that the baseline 70-100% effectiveness of these options makes it too easy to simply freeze and stun your way throughout pretty much the entire game.
Not mentioning Rapture, by the way. Because clearly the most powerful CC skill in the game should be a 4CD adept skill for 4AP.
I'd suggest, strongly, to look at the current list of skills and simply asking oneself; "Is Invulnerability [i]really[/i] good enough to be a Master level skill, in a world where Rapture exists, and why in the world did we change Frost Shard and Bitter Cold; ultimately leaving Hydrosophists with only 5 Novice skills and making the Wet and Chilled debuffs significantly less interesting?".
TL;DR: Where are the modding tools, gawddammid.
Also, I left out talents and skills on purpose. Although there are a number of considerable issues there too. Pinpoint for instance being a Scoundrel 1 talent, which makes it too easy to get, considering how powerful it is, and how simply making it a Scoundrel 2-3 talent instead would go a very, very long way to promote Rogues.
Also, also: I'm harsh because I love.
