Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Difficulty setting for your first playthrough?

Hey, it's another "What will you do first?" thread!

Are you going to immediately try the harder difficulty setting? If so, what will you be looking for/expect/hope for?

Start on easy to get a better sense of the world and crank it up later?

Start on easy and probably keep it there because you only care about the story?

Leave it in normal because there are going to be enough other changes from EA and you'd like to remove a confounding variable as you learn what's changed?

For me, part of me wants to start on easy just to get a sense of things, but part of me wants to start on hard from a role-playing point of view; getting thrust into this awful situation, it should be a struggle for the characters.

Depends on how Larian understands difficulty, but I will start with hard and see how that goes.

I'll be going with hard, but would probably reserve from fighting through battles that are not initially in my favor. And if I find myself in a tight spot... well, let them come!

Standard mode for now. If I were to start the hardest mode, I'm afraid that many people wouldn't be able to give me tips and tricks to solve a situation because most of them play a lower difficulty level. Of course, this is obsolete if you can adjust the difficulty mode at any time. But I already want to know the default difficulty and find out if I should increase the difficulty for a larger party or not.

Good question. I want a "fair, by the rules" experience (BG2 "core" difficulty).

Which one is the equivalent in BG3? "Normal"?

Normal. Tough enough for me
Hard will come later.

Early access is very easy, there are only a couple of outliers in the dozens of fights. If the whole game is like this, I might switch to hardcore right away.

Do we have a list of exactly how the difficulties will differ? I read something about +2 proficiency on easy mode, but that can't be it..?

Depends on how they implement it. If we larger encounters with more enemies im all in. If we get the same encounters, but with inflated stats, i'm out.

Only in some vague terms:

Difficulty Levels & Rules
In D&D, picking the right DM is key to defining the journey you want to embark on. In Baldur’s Gate 3, we’ve created three modes of play that essentially act as different types of DM: the forgiving, narrative driven DM, or the DM that isn’t afraid to let you die if your glass-cannon wizard decides to tickle an owlbear.

At launch, in addition to ‘Normal mode’ (which can be considered our default), players may avail of the following:

In Story mode, combat has been made more forgiving so players can fully immerse themselves in the narrative layer of this adventure. In this mode, friendly NPCs are harder to kill, trader prices are at a 20 percent discount, and you'll begin the game with a +2 starting proficiency bonus.

Hardcore mode, then, is where to test your mettle. In this mode, enemy lethality is cranked up to Brutal, ensuring that enemy AI are stronger, will prioritise squishier targets with low AC, and will seize opportunities to go in for the kill. Additionally, many adjustments have been made to the fights themselves specifically for Hardcore mode, with certain enemies receiving additional support through reinforcements, spells, or consumable items.


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And to answer the thread's question I'm planning to play in Hardcore mode.
Ideally also with the six-character party mod.
But I would love to know more details about the difficulty options. I just hope they won't go and arbitrarily buff creatures in the HM because that's not just about difficulty, it alters how the game plays.

thanks for the quote. From that it really seems like they put all the effort into the hardcore mode. I was hoping for some customizable options, but I guess that's not Larian.

I’ll play on normal.😊

I’ll be starting on normal too, though might play around with hard as well just to see how it goes.

I look forward to Hardcore.

The game started off very difficult for me, but it doesn't challenge me like it first did. I enjoy the satisfaction of a hard won victory.

Part of that is knowing the battles to come, but I have Wyll's Imp to scout ahead.

I will probably start on Normal and see how it will go. I am not really looking for challenge I am RPG, and will need to see how balanced the game is before considering the hardcore mode.

I'll probably start by comparing normal to what we have now.

As I was saying it really depends on how they'll implement certain things.
The quote seems to imply that the major difference in Hardcore mode would be enemies being smarter, meaner and having more of them in the encounter. All that sounds wonderful.

But if it turns out to be "EVERY ENEMY HAS a +2 BONUS TO EVERYTHING" or "TWICE THE HP" on the other hand I would probably hate it, because it wouldn't be about playing better anymore, but about changing completely the way you play to adapt to a gimmick that makes some strategies simply not viable.

I'm all for a decent challenge, but I don't want it to come at expenses of my enjoyment with the mechanics.

Normal, though I would like customisable options. And I would definitely prefer more enemies rather than inflated stats*.


*Just played Solasta mod(ule) called The Island of Domination which had regular fights with 10+ enemies and often 20+. Totally different tactical experience than fighting 6-8 enemies. Spike Growth for the win (except when you don't quite land it in the right spot - "Oh, dash and bother".

[Is there any way to change from the US English spellchecker on this forum].

I imagine I'll start on Normal. One thing I'm curious about is how spiky the difficulty will turn out to be. Generally, I play for lore and story, with the game being difficult enough that I need to pay attention and play intelligently, but not so difficult that it's a constant struggle, and I feel forced to minmax choices that I'd prefer to base on what I think my character would do or who I want my character to be.

Normal I guess? I do love the combat in BG3, but it's not what I'm here for