Ive been playing Classic and Tactician with removed bloat whole day.
The differences are either non existent or minimal.
Crocs are completely same in both, Turtles are the same, Poisoned frogs in the cave are the same and the fight in Prison is completely the same. Same numbers of enemies, same level, same stats, same skills and the same Ai behavior. The only difference are those buffed stats of armor, damage and HP. Im just about to go fight the guardians in Withermore soul jar tomb on Classic to see if there is any difference there compared to Tactician (with bloat removed), but ive been at it all day so i need to take a break, maybe even sleep.
Ive only noticed that the first two voidwoken on the beach have an additional "vampiric" ability, which of course doesnt mean anything in that case because they just life steal a point or two.
The rare differences seem to be just those additional abilities, usually just one. I presume i will see those in other fights further on, but it isnt applied to every enemy group or encounter. Even when it is, most likely its a single ability or "aura" that just buffs the same basic three stats even more, or something that doesnt make a big difference.
I guess it was a quick and easy way to create an apparent difference.
Its a shame because the Ai is really good and capable of providing diverse reactions and gameplay. There are other ways to achieve a true difference and make fights properly harder and much more interesting instead of this forced slow chipping away at HP - Armor bloated numbers. There could have been enemy groups with fighters of different and higher levels, which would allow some (commanders) to have different and more spells or abilities to use, better equipment and appropriately higher HP and Armor values that relate to their levels and equipment... and so on. Even with the exact same Ai capabilities.
For those who enjoy this kind of dumb "hardness" someone should make a mod that bloats enemy HP and armors by 2000%. They will love it.
btw, teleport is a total gimmick because you get it at the start while no enemies have it, and all characters can use that skill through the gloves or scrolls regardless if they have any points in Aero or not. It should be nerfed so only Aerothurges can use it and it should be available only with two or three points in the skill. The gloves should have limited charges of it at the start so you cant abuse it.
