Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Definitive Edition Difficulty Mode

I'm well aware that adding a difficulty to the game for people that an experience like me is not realistic. Because, that would simply not be possible to achieve with todays technology in gaming, since the issue is caused by A.I limitations. If you where to try and 'brute force' difficult fights, the only way to achieve that currently is by increasing the amount of Damage and or Health/Armor the A.I is given, But this really is not a ideal way of doing things. The main issue being that, as we progress trough the game and obtain better gear, skills and knowledge we rapidly out pace the static difficulty modifiers. And at the time you reach Act 3, the units would require more than 300% Armor and Health to be comparable in difficulty to Fort Joy. So i'm quite certain that the only way to increase difficulty in a way that is ideal, would be by having a much better A.I that is unpredictable.

Anyway, i'm not saying that DoS2 is either too easy or too hard in general. However, as i'm playing the game and get learn how new spells work, it's common that you'll start to experiment with certain combinations of spells, buffs and debuffs to see what works well together. And some might find trying to optimize their group more interesting than others, but this where MY personal issue lies. The game offers you ALOT of ways to optimise your party, however there really is no point in doing so with the vast majority of options at your disposal in order to complete the game.

And this is what i would like to be the case. I'm the kind of person that likes to progress on a boss encounter, where you would try and use every little advantage you could think of in order to increase the odds of killing that boss. This is the feeling that had when i played the game for the first few hours on Slane the Frost Dragon in Act 1 while being one or two levels below him. And this was a much more enjoyable experience, mainly because i didn't know shit. But as the normal encounters became perdictable in behaviour, and bosses fights where beaten in a single attempt, the game lost what i liked about it.

And that is simply what i would like to experience throughout the entirety of the game. And while this is not a suitable, or even an enjoyable scenario for the vast majority of those who play the game, it's something i
would like to experience. And again, while i'm fully aware that such drastic measures would require an additional difficulty, which they have never mentioned besides Story Mode, is therefore extremely unlikely. It's worth the effort to atleast point out that players who like to min max everything in games, are finding the current content too easy, and simply ask for something more challenging without the means to 'Boast about ma leet skillz' or to suggest that game is too easy for everyone else in general.

Perhaps the one of the largest issue in my case is that none of the comps i produce are with the intent to min-max their performance. So when i came back later to the game, after several patches had been deployed, and feeling like i should give it a second chance with a different comp in mind, the same issues occur the moment you gain the ability to cast certain utility spells/skills. Which results in the game being 'too easy' for me from that very moment. And the amount of skills that i would classify as 'too strong' are substantial.

For example; When i listed the incomplete sequence of actions that would result in me being able to beat ever fight in 3 turns, i didn't mention the spells i have available to me for certain types of scenarios. Such as; Shackels of Pain, Living on the Edge, Bone Cage and Guardian Angel. Which might not seem significant, however, when used in combination with other armor buffs from the healer and skills like; Overpower or Reactive Armour, can then be used in conjunction with the High single target damage from the melee character to remove the physical armor, and to apply chain. What this means is that from that moment 3 of my chars are standing near the Boss, and since the Tank is going to direct 100% of the damage taken onto the boss whilst being unkillable due to Living on the Edge, will cause the Boss to take damage from:

1. The Caster in the third turn
2. The Tank trough Shackels of Pain
3. The Melee trough Guardian Angel, from The Tank trough Shackels of Pain
4. The Healer trough Guardian Angel, from The Tank trough Shackels of Pain
5. Potentially The Caster trough Guardian Angel, from The Tank trough Shackels of Pain (if stood close to the boss)

And while this could potentially kill both the healer and the melee, the boss would have already been overkilled to a absurd degree. And even though this might be seen as a form of min-max, To see these potential combinations of skills and combos, it's not something i'm actively looking for if there is no need for them. Usually what happens is that, when i try to kill a boss that i'm far too underleveled for to kill in any regular way, i'll look to optimise my comp by taking their synergy more serious and make alterations that force away anything that is simply not good enough. When that is done you have a comp that is optimised to a high level, but still no where near Min-Max levels. However, that comp which was made to overcome a boss that was tuned for later levels, managed to kill this encounter. Which means; that even at this level of Min-Max the game can't control it's power curve, forget full try-hard.

It's just a shame that this is the case. As it could've been much closer to what i'm asking for. But, the main thing they will add/change in tactician, if there is not going to be an added difficulty, is that they implement the A.I they deemed too "Brutal" for the players. Maybe trough some form of ingame interaction. In addition, perhaps letting players fight against a certain group of units or boss in the Arena of every act, and if that challenge is completed successfully, they could choose to give all remaining NPC units in the game additional or increased modifiers. For example:

ACT 1 : Gives all remaining NPC units in the game a Random buff. (Reflecting damage, damage increase, movement speed increase, additional action points, additional skills, temporal Shields etc) Which is randomly assigned, and could either be a perm buff or something they might occasionally proc.

ACT 2 : Additional Health, shield and damage modifiers ontop of the tactician modifiers.

ACT 2+ : Extra monster spawns

ACT 3 : Bosses take 50% reduced damage.

Now, obviously these are just some ideas that give you an idea of how this could work with relatively little effort. The fights itself however, should be at a level where they accurately portray the increase of difficulty if you defeat them. As to make sure that the game prevents them getting in the position of someone attempting the encounter, and wouldn't be able to progress trough the game afterwards, because the 'test fight' was too easy. Or an option to revert it, ofcourse.

In the end, if it doesn't happen than so be it. but you can't really complain about something in a game and expect them to fix it, if you don't point it out. Especially when so few people care about it. If major changes can be made to improve the enjoyment i can get out of the game without the need to allocate many resources, then great.