Having finished my playthrough on 'normal', I just started a game on Tactician (now with monk as MC) and I really don't like they way they have 'amped up' encounters - giving monsters/NPCs things they simply wouldn't have (I mean how do you justify that from a story/lore perspective?). It seems you are expected to use cheesy tactics/builds - I know the encounters so it is not too bad, but if as a new player you simply walk into them directly (through reasonable dialogue) they can be fatal if you lose initiative. That is not not about tactics - it's about luck. Just 2 examples - not far in yet, and may stop - it's already feeling like a chore:
(1) Walked up to blighted village - thought let me try some new dialogue choices, failed, they won initiative - shot the conveniently placed firewine barrel *right where they auto-place you in dialogue* with a fire arrow, and immediately 2 of my PCs were unconscious. We were all 'surprised' even though anyone with half a brain (having seen dead goblins/adventurers and having engaged with a hostile goblin lookout) would expect that you may be attacked at any moment...nope, seems it was scripted that way (I'm assuming losing normal initiative should *not* give you the surprised condition) . So, snuck in, when went around got high ground and attacked - then it was trivial. That's not 'tactics' - it simply shows how broken stealth is. You should be able to start from the initial encounter - with no meta game knowledge - and have a reasonable chance of success.
(2) When rescuing the gnome - I walked in, thought I'd try a non-illithid persuade check - failed - all lost initiative (can't recall if I was 'surprised' again) and Fezzerk (sp?) rushed in and did insane damage (for a lvl 3 chracter) and immediately dropped my MC, then all the other goblins came in with spells, incendiaries and it didn't go well (crit, crit etc etc). I then replayed it with some more sneaking etc (which is still broken - no checks outside of vision cones outside of combat) and then won that (was still not quick) . But that really feels like cheating.
This just confirms my suspicions that you have to play by Larian's cheesy mechanics (abuse of stealth, haste extra full action, surfaces etc) if you want to succeed.... rather make the encounters smarter than simply giving every gobbo and their grandmother even more things/abilities.
What I really want is a D&D 5e authentic/hardcore mode - which all other BG games had - where the rules (esp the action economy) are respected. Larian destroyed that with excessive item access, universal spell scrolls (and grease bottles, fire arrows etc) for everyone. And man, their obsession with surfaces...
