I've been mucking around with mods and difficulty to get my experience to where I want it.
I don;t *really* like Tactical, because of the increased AC and Saves on enemies. Casting spells three rounds in a row none of them doing what you hope they do, is just annoying. Same as wasting your attacks on misses. It really locks you into obilgatory ASI improvements, where Feat Selections are quite rare on anyone but a straight fighter. At the same time, things like 'All In' on a Great Weapon Master will jsut never land until you've boosted your Strenght score to ludicrous levels. And it's teh feats and class combos that set the characters apart, or make them work really well together. So that's not it, for me.
So, by that rationale I much rather have the difficulkty increase with added goons to a fight. Instead of Five Gobbos in the Blighted Village ambush, make it Ten. Also, increase the radius of non-hostile environments detect a fight. So, aggro the Bugbear Trader, have the whole tower come down on you. That makes it a little riskier to try and steal his Halberd.
But, then, there is the metagaming aspect. I know how to beat a fight, and that it's coming, and no amount of increase of enemy numbers or stats is going to make that more fun.
So. What I think the crux of the matter is, is the resting. I can rest after *every* fight if I so choose. And therefore, every fight happens at my party's full strength. And that, to me is what makes it a little too easy. In tabletop, you don't long-rest once you've entered the Dungeon. You go in with what you've got, you can take a breather in the form of a short rest, but that's it. From the first Gobbo to the Final Boss, these are your resources. And, therefore rogues are way more useful, because of this. Yeah, don't have all the fancy tricks everyone else has, but what they have is effective, and always available every single turn. Because everyone else has to be careful about using all their stuff in every fight, rogues carry a lot more weight in TT.
Yet, in BG3, whenever I'm in the Shadow Cursed Lands or The Underdark, even Shar's Place.. I can hit 'full rest' and be safe in camp and watch a ballet show. There needs to be a drawback to this. More timed quests, scarcity of food in said lands, outright not allowed to camp outside of Moonrise Towers or Little Lamplight or - like the classics did it - risk of ambush in camp.
Or, rather, Risk of Ambush when fast-traveling [to and from camp]. You know: "You have been waylaid by enemies and must defend yourself!"
I play a lot of no-reload Classic BG, and that's always a thing. Yeah, we're bruised and battered and down to our last handful of spells... We need a rest. But, risk of getting jumped by Umber Hulks is high, and we've no more Chaotic Commands to cast. Do you take that risk?
This needn't be hard to implement, I figure. There's tons of funky cool enemies already, make possible semi-random combinations for Absolute War Parties and have them jump you. You can even add the Wasteland 3 Mecahnics where you could try to influence the upcoming fight with certain skills, or outright avoid them; granted you pass a check, of course.
