(Huh, to influence the devs, I should be reading/posting here, rather than on the Steam forums. Okay then, moving my post over...)
PERSONALLY, I like the current difficulty. The AI seems good, the monsters are seeking high ground, throwing acid and fire to setup surface effects, they're challenging but not unbeatable. On the other hand, I'm playing in "savor it" mode, saving frequently and able to devote long hours to play (I'm retired, so you may envy me now). I don't mind replaying until I figure it out. (Yeah, I'm a save scummer -- wanna fight about it?)
HOWEVER, my daughter wants an "easy mode". That's the way she likes to play. She's also a long-time D&D player and DM. And we bought two copies of the game so we can play together on the home LAN. We've recently started that.
But there's no difficulty setting yet (only "classic" which I assume is "match for D&D tabletop" and seems to me to hit that mark). How to eventually manage difficulties is still up in the air so far as I know. Thinking it over, there are several requirements I'd like to stick to:
D&D CONFORMANCE: I love how well BG3 follows the 5e ruleset. Yeah, things were adapted here and there, but the spirit is maintained and even most of the details were maintained. I think the skill rolls throughout the adventure really add to things. I love reading through the combat log and using the hover text to see exactly how the calculations are being performed. High-ground=advantage; low-ground=disadvantage is new, but I like it. SO, whatever difficulty fix is implemented. it would be nice if it conformed to the 5e feel and rules.
BOUNDED ACCURACY: A 5e design principle that set things up so that a 1st-level character is capable (in principle) of landing a hit on a god, and conversely, a god could miss hitting a 1st-level character. Anyone can hit or miss any target. But the odds get better as your level and equipment improve. BG3 follows 5e and thus follows bounded accuracy. When different difficulty levels are added, let's try to keep bounded accuracy.
HANDICAPPING: I'd like to play multiplayer games with my daughter. She wants "easy" mode, I want "classic" mode. It would be nice if we could do that and still play in the same game. This might also be useful for eventual tournaments allowing players of different skill levels to compete on the same field.
LARIAN'S STYLE: They've added a lot to 5e, a lot that I like. The high-ground thing, surfaces, long-duration spells like mage armor that persist until you take a long rest, the idea of "invokes condition" along with its cool little icons and tool-tips, . (Yeah, the idea was sort of around in 5e, but Larian really firmed it up.)
SO...
My idea for difficulty rating is that you have (in the game options screen) a setting of game difficulty. This applies different conditions:
CLASSIC: no change from the current behavior. It's a great match for 5e tabletop play (even if my d20 doesn't roll as well as I want it to).
DIVINE BLESS: is a condition automatically applied to your party every morning as they wake up (or are summoned, or NPCs join the team), that grants a +1 that lasts until the next long rest (and then automatically renews the next morning). This is a super blessing, granting +1 to AC, to-hit, weapon damage, spell damage, saving throws, and ability checks. A LOT. And yet... it's kinda in line with several current buffs, such as bless, shield of faith, and the like. It would be parallel to those, and add on to the effect (so a +1 sword, divine bless, and bless spell would give you +2 +1d4 to hit). This would be a "condition" in Larian's implementation, indicated with a little green "+1" square where conditions are shown.
In multiplayer, it would be possible for one player to be running on easy while another player was normal, and simple examination would reveal the condition icon on the other player.
DIVINE CURSE is the exact opposite, applying a -1 to AC, to-hit, weapon damage, spell damage, saving throws, and ability checks. (Except that damage never falls below 1.) That's sure going to make things more challenging. (Would "divine bane" be closer to 5e terminology?) This grants a red "-1" square as a condition.
For extra accommodation, you might add +2 or even +3, along with -2 and -3. That gives you 7 levels of difficulty, probably without a lot of change in the game design or programming. At the extreme ends, you'd really be pushing bounded accuracy, but for those who want an easy game, +3 to everything should help a ton, without turning each battle into a sure thing. Likewise, a -3 would be insanely challenging, which some people might want.
FINALLY, since this condition is applied anew each morning, you can change the difficulty whenever you want, with the new setting taking effect after the next long rest.
