Get another 100 hours or so under your belt and itll give you a different perspective on some of those. You've been a GM too long and maybe not a player enough ^.^ there are other ways to deal with almost everything youve mentioned - you saidas much in there a few times. One problem might be that gamers these days...want to win everything the first time, and DEFINITELY the second. Can you imagine what Dark Souls and Demon Souls EA would have been like?
Their encounters are too hard because the IMPACT of those encounters is broken resting, resurrecting, resource management, and combat mechanics. The encounters and even the quests (hey, dont always finish a quest instantly, might be a one directly related to it that you will be getting a different result if you mess with it now - you chose to talk to Netti, the apprentice when you are trying to save the MASTER HEALER. You CHOSE the apprentice. You got the apprentice experience!) are very dynamic in how they can be handled. You also mentioned the girl dying. Did you charm or dominate person on the druid that wanted to kill her? Did you disguise self as an elf? Did you create a fog cloud or drop darkness and tell the girl to run with a character that wasnt engaged in conversation by switching to them (dont know if that works, but worth trying!). If people are looking for a game you can walk through, one time, and have pretty good odds of everything going swimmingly I dont think that is reasonable. You have a brain slug, they arent trying to make this an easy journey. Like D&D, gets easier at higher levels.
With over 800 hours and still finding stuff in DOS2 and reloading being as natural as breathing in that game as I try crazy stuff, it feels more like a thumb print of theirs and a "seriously, try stuff out!" flag than a gross oversight on the fact you can't run headlong into enemies and win every time.
That being said, the nature and design of the encounter should be different. An orc cave should have 2 guards outside with a drum and more inside rather than 12 orcs sitting out front. They don't phase you through challenges partifuclarly well. I think for quests, talking to people with guidance, thaumaturgy, disguise self, charm person, etc...start using those tools. You get a rest right after the conversation anyway.
Last edited by Orbax; 13/10/20 04:57 PM.
