Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Larian please add another difficulty. Game is too easy

lol I bet you pre-buff, pre-position and pre-rest every fight. How about playing without saving scamming, no pre-buffs and position and with perma deaths? I bet you cant

Eight pages in and the I am Always the Smart One can't get his head around the fact that having so many things and tactical options in the game that you do not use and revert to the most straightforward one klick-and-bash, so the "tactician" difficulty would be at least a bit challenge, takes all the fun out of the game and completely denies the meaning of "tactician"...

Who is using "the most straightforward one klick-and-bash"? I mentioned three different groups of mods, do you use mods? I currently use about 20-24 and many of them are to make the game less Larian and more RAW/5e. No Larian Haste for me and no 5 attacks a turn, etc.
I don't use mods to make the game more difficult, I use them to make the game more like I want it.
The bottom line is that nobody is forcing you to use OP gear; nobody is forcing you to pre-buff and nobody is forcing you to tweak your spells so they are just so for a particular fight.

"the meaning of "tactician"..." Tactician: One versed in tactics.

Mods are an option, however some people do like to play the vanilla game and only mod the game later on. There is a satisfaction, and some element of pride in beating the game "as it was designed". I think many people liked DOS games and liked Larian precisely for that feeling of being cornered and having to work your way out of a situation, and really having to think out of the box - "how on earth am I meant to win this fight?"

Of course nobody is forcing nobody to do anything. You can create tons of different challenges in this game, tons of limitations, mods, etc. The argument is that

1. For a game with as many systems and moving parts as BG3, which allows for SO MUCH creativity
2. With Larian having a history of making tactician challenging and satisfying to figure out
3. The highest difficulty of the game being beatable with a only minor portion of those tools, simply feels wrong

Going through this blind on Tactician and having just reached act 3, I think most of this is really just a 5E balancing thing + some gear and class features being really REALLY busted more than anything else. But more 5E - even Solasta was also consistently in joke tier difficulty unless you played on the hardest difficulty there, which apparently doubled enemy stats (and gave them extra damage die from what I hear).

I think one of the major issues is that there aren't actually that many spellcasters or enemies using any actual threatening special abilities once you leave act 1. It felt like there were way more varied encounters in act 1. For all the crap we put this forum through pre-release arguing for a proper reaction system, I haven't even found that much reason to use counterspell or even have Gale use Shield at all because there were so few spellcasters with actual threatening spells or anyone actually targeting Gale.

LMFAO. Git gud, everything they said was perfectly true without any of this. Not that you need any cheese to complete the game, but even if you did there are so much easier cheeses than whatever you came up with.

If people want to play the game 'as is' then they can do that but why do they come on fora complaining that things aren't what they wanted? As for gaining satisfaction for 'beating a game' - the game is designed to be completed.
None of your 3 points really make any sense.
1. All RPGs have 'many systems and moving parts'
2. So Larian took a particular approach with DOS1 and 2, does this mean that they are now forever locked in to taking that approach because a small percentage of players want to stay in their comfort zone?
3. Why does it feel wrong?

not sure what you did differently (are you sure it was tactician?), but for me the enemies targeted gale *fanatically*. as long as he was detected, they would forget anything else and try to kill him. i ended up having him sit out most fights outside of combat, occasionally re-summoning connor, casting distraction cantrips, and sometimes concentrating on something.

I don't think it's a 5e thing.

One thing we should keep in mind is that almost any adaptation of DnD has problems with difficulty unless they fudge the numbers a bit. Remember that in tabletop, things are balanced around the idea that everyone can choose their own character class, and a party wipe really IS a party wipe - that's it - adventure over. It's akin to saying that in a computer setting, you don't get full control over party composition and you should be expected to win every encounter on the first try, no reloading.

Of course in a computer setting, you have full control over party composition, perfect control over all your characters, can reload every time, and what's more, you (especially after the first playthrough) go into every fight KNOWING what it's going to be like. These combine into huge advantages that inherently make cRPGs less difficult than tabletop. So even faithful adaptations of ANY DnD edition are going to have some problems with the difficulty and find some need to buff monster hp and stats compared to TT if they want to make things more difficult.

I don't think 5e should be blamed for conversion problems that are common to every edition, and I don't think Larian should be blamed for struggles that every TT-to-cRPG adaptation has encountered. What Larian CAN be blamed for is for making the problem worse (much worse imo) due to some of their homebrew implementation rules and the items they hand out.

Absolutely agree with the above post - No one is disputing that 5E (especially with multiclassing - which I chose not to use) has some issues with challenge, especially in a cRPG, but Larian amplified those issues hugely because of their homebrew. Even something like all classes being able to use any scroll (regardless of level - no check required) is hugely destructive to any notion of balance/caster class uniqueness. There were many things I later saw people doing - which never even occurred to me - like throwing a haste potion to give *everyone* haste...I played TT, and no sane DM would allow that kind of nonsense, for obvious balance reasons. A 5e core rule setting is the only thing that would satisfy me - that turns off Larian homebrew, implements attunement (incl for enemies of course), proper spells and items usage constraints, compliant action economy etc. The mods go some way, from what I can see, but its not acceptable that the community needs to do this - when every BG/PG game has similar settings. It was lazy design by Larian.

I think dont need change food and prices

Haste potion break the game for martial, they can do 7 attacks in one turn and you can have all group using a potion

I hate to say it, but I'm to the point where I think haste should simply be removed from the game entirely. Potions of haste and the spell. Anything that gives haste. It's way too much.

But... as a tactician, you decide your own tactics. Or not ? If you think haste is not good. You can tactically decide not to use it. Or does Larian decide your tactics for you against your will ?

Why would you want Larian to scrap it for ALL the players who haven't mastered the superpowers you have mastered ?
I have Wyll cast speed on Lae'zel almost every battle. It's my tactic you see.

Before we outright get rid of it, we could try implementing it the way it's actually designed in 5e, where the additional action it grants is *limited*:
"That action can be used only to take the Attack (one weapon attack only), Dash, Disengage, Hide, or Use an Object action."
A martial cannot use it to double the amount of attacks they make *every single turn*, they can get just +1 attack per turn. Haste is also WAY too easily obtained imo (from scrolls anyone can cast, from super common potions). I think at the very least they should remove the ability to apply it in an *aoe* by throwing a potion (or to apply it at all by throwing it). In return, you could make the haste potions last longer (I think as written that they're suppsosed to last 10 turns.) But yes, almost more than anything else Larian needs to dial down some of their homebrew absurdity with haste.

So now Sin's Solo'd Raphael on tactician with a barbarian multiclass. Thrown and 2h.

I'm laughing.

This is my third posting of this tonight. How many threads do you need?

Please Mr. Larian do something so I don't have to exercise self-restraint or take the initiative and learn how to use mods.

How many times do we have to listen to you people whinging about this stuff? What do you think is going to change? Half the stuff you moan about is not even BG3, it's 5e.

I'll type this slowly in case any of you cannot read very fast.
Using haste potions is NOT, repeat NOT, compulsory. Weapon too OP? Don't fucking use it. Too much food? Don't fucking pick it up. The only food I pick up is the food packs or whatever they are called and whatever odds and sods I get by doing a 'take all' when I loot something.

I see many responsen here saying tactician is fine, rest less etc
When you know the dnd ruleset and are familiar with games of this genre. Tactician is the normal difficulty if you ask me

Act 1 is fairly balanced, but only if you opt out if spell casters to some degree.

First, the game is absolutely beautiful, the stories is extraordinary and it's a wonderful game. Finally.

However for us that like to min max, take it to the next level.

You need to play single class, without using elixirs and hardly potions and you are forced to remove spell casters from your group composition for act 1 to be somewhat challenging

And no I hardly rest and ran a full melee party, with an occasional blessing.

The issue is ac2 and 3 you recieve so many extreme high level items that you obviously want to try, but it makes the game extremly easy.

My Fighter/ranger/rogue, in act 3. Deals, unruffled, no buffs not even hunters mark, I hit for around 100 dmg per attack on a critical strike.(using a shortsword) With 16 critical strike rating and advantage, it will happen roughly once, twice per turn.

For me who don't want to install mods, I'm forced to look at it since personally the game has become boring.
Above was a test character to maximize damage

A very quick fix is to add , similar to solasta, a bar where we can add hitpoints, to hit, ac.

Just increasing hitpoints on enemies by roughly 50% above what's in tactician shoukd already create a more interesting combat encounter.

So why is this?

This is a computer game using dnd rules. Enemy hitpoibts are basic vanilla (in tactician). However the items available already in act 1 is something you hardly encounter in a level 20 campaign.

Items such as bless on heal.
Or, blade ward on heals (making the barbarian class pretty much obsolete in this game when it comes to their ability to soak damage, ).

I love the items and creativity. As a long time DM these are items I implement into my campaigns as well. However, I then also run encounters where, in table top, enemies will have roughly 50% up to 300% more hitpoints compared to baldurs gate 3

End end game bosses with 300 hitpoints are killed within seconds in bg3 without using anything then in game items are normal builds.

As tactician is now.
You must set rules for yourself. Avoid mylti classing. Avoid spell casters with area of effect spells, avoid elixirs, avoid scrolls, avoid too much resting, and even avoid half the items available to you. Or the game have absolutely zero challenge what so ever. Combat in Act 1 pre level 5 is ok. Its easy, but feels decent as long as you avoid too much magic. But the later acts are so trivial its to the point the game actually becomes boring.

I want to be challenged without having to install mods that might make or break my game files.

The quickest solutions I have to Larian, as a dm with 30 years experience, is to add 50% hitpoints ontop of the current tactician setting.
But for act 3 enemies need at least twice as much hitpoints.
I don't think their to hit or DC or AC must be affected mich, this feels ok already.
But enemy hitpoints pools are drastically low compared to the items and classes available to us.

Just add a harder difficulty or provide an in-game tool to set the game as we prefer.

We 2 manned the game in multi player on tactician and was literally giving up mid way through act 3 as the game was too easy. And this was with a hexblade and ranger

When you understand math, mechanics and combinations, together with the ruleset of the game. Tactician becomes story mode for us that enjoy a challenge.

That's it.

Wonderful game, beautiful voice acting, superb story. But combat is made for a wider audience of players. Understandable. But add a 4th difficulty or bump up tactician by 50% at least. (I dont even think this is enough) And give us a challenge.
Thank you.

Alternatively, the 5e rules for haste could be applied. They allow for only one attack on the extra action (even for classes with double attack) and only one non-cantrip spell per turn no matter what.

This ^^

I usually kept Gale way far back, but I also built him in a way that he ended up with 18 AC after using Mage Armor but before using Shield. The AI likely figured that the rest of my party were far more attractive targets. Especially Karlach who has the lowest AC in my party, and Shadowheart who is usually concentrating on Spirit Guardians. Meanwhile my Gale is rarely concentrating on anything or he's throwing Haste on my Bard and then hiding even further back. (My archery build College of Swords Bard is rocking 22 AC and enemies seem to like targeting him over Gale when they actually do get close enough to threaten them both, but that's probably because an archery build Swords Bard does absolutely bonkers damage to the point where he's usually one-rounding one or two enemies every single turn along with the fact that he actually has slightly lower max HP than Gale, and I think that influences enemy targeting somewhat.)