Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Inconsistency in difficulty is annoying af (tactitian)

I think it’s because they wanted to cater to the masses and so they added ridiculously dumb things like Withers to allow everyone including companions to respec to totally different classes all the time for no cost.

This way the devs avoided complains like “oh I gimped my build and have to start all over” or “I hate Clerics but I like shadowhearth so why can’t I make her rogue instead of Astarion” etc

So they added withers but by doing so allowed for super OP builds which builds would be totally gimped if you start the game with them but with withers you can start the game with some powerful early game build then completely change your build as you keep leveling and so you end up being OP both in the beginning and in the end.

For example Raphael’s amulet that sets Con to 23 works best when your constitution is set to 8 , but if you do start with 8 CON with the idea to use this amulet in the end, then your entire game would be really really hard until you get the amulet.

But with Withers there is no need to trade off, just start with 14 Con then dump it to 8 when you get the amulet …

Also as fun as multiclassing is, there should still be some limits on the extent of it: like if you chose to be a warlock then whatever you multiclass should never be able to exceed the level of your main class, so if you want to go warlock / paladin, then you should need to have at least 6 levels of warlock in order to have 6 levels of paladin etc.

Most old school all time great games like Diablo 2, Fallout 1-2, BG1-2 didn’t allow respecing all the time and that was part of the charm of the games- having to utilize and work around the streets and weaknesses of your class as well as your companions classes.

With BG 3 there is no such thing as everyone can be everything and at any time.

But again it’s really hard to balance the game this way beucase if you balance it with the idea that Shadowheart will be Tempest/ Sorc in the end, Astarion would be Gloom/ Assasin, Wyll would be paladin/ warlock etc means that new players who just like to play the classes as they are given would be forced to multiclass into specific OP combinations .

And if you balance it with the dies that the origins would only play their base class with no multiclass then people who multiclass/ optimize the builds would just run over the game with no sweat like how it is right now.


Bottom line is that to balance difficulty you either need to balance it with the idea that everyone will respec and optimize to the most powerful combinations and balance around those combinations or balance it with the idea that everyone will play the characters given based on their current class and not allow /limit respecing in general and balance around that.

To me the origins should not be allowed to multiclass at all or respec , and only the main character should be allowed to multiclass and be given exactly one respec shot, at the end of Act 2.

"Most old school all time great games like Diablo 2, Fallout 1-2, BG1-2 didn’t allow respecing all the time and that was part of the charm of the games- having to utilize and work around the streets and weaknesses of your class as well as your companions classes.
With BG 3 there is no such thing as everyone can be everything and at any time."


Most games are like that OR turned into that in the last decade +. Just look at WOW. A festival in approachability, friendliness, and convenience. You can be anything you want to be, get anything you want, and nothing matters anymore. Nothing is special. Its incredibly boring. The ultra casuals loves it. Its like brainless gambling....I mean gaming.

The irony is now with have Classic WOW being more popular lol. And, smartly, branched into Hardcore WOW being even more popular with streaming.

I want some kind of CLASSIC mode for BG3. 100% sure it will be more popular than the retail "casuals" version.

Even WoW use respecing with some limits- like you can’t change your Druid into a Paladin just because you feel like it and loot is based on class and is soul bond so you can’t use your druid to farm items for your paladin so if you make a paladin you have to grind gear with him.

Same with even Diablo 4 you can’t change your rogue into barbarian just because you feel like it.

In BG3 they did this for the same reason they made everyone “playsexual”- they didn’t give anyone sexual preferences out of fear that people would complain that they can’t date X character and feel discriminated etc.

But in the end, life isn’t fair and again- in old school RPGs you had to work around what Nps are avaliable to you and not just respec everyone into whatever you like and this trivialize the experience by making team of the most OP builds possible

I assume you have population/sub numbers that back up your claim?

Respec sucks. If nothing you do and pick has a consequence, you might as well build sand castles in a sandbox. Not gonna use it though, case solved. With that said, BG3 doesn't provide the tools in-game for longterm planning of a character. You'd need to do it all meta. Whereas both Pathfinder games show what's available to you eventually.

Speaking about working around companions you are given: Khalid in BG1 is a fighter with a 15 in strength. That sounds reasonably, until you took a peek in the manual and realized that in terms of (melee) combat, a) the dude gets absolutely no bonus whatsoever (only from strength 16 upwards he would). And b) isn't any better as a figher with strength 8, as (A)D&D 2e had weird dead ranges where nothing much at all would happen in terms of bonus applied. Was still playable mind.

Larian's companions already ship with the max key (starting) stat possible for their class as a default.

Any of them without Sanctuary? If the AI were smart enough to counter the play it would have come out very differently.

Reminds me of DOS2 ACT3. The fights are very easy on Tactician once you know a few straight forward recipes.

I'm new to BG3 and have not played past mid Act 2. I found a couple early fights pretty challenging simply because I did not know what to expect, and the set of tools available to the player is so limited.

Hi all,

I have question about difficulty. Even I am quite begginer in D&D, the gameplay seems to be very easy in Act I. Maybe it is because my level is quite high. I am duing underdark at lvl 6-7.
Am I "overleveled" and become weaker in ACt II? Or the game is too easy on Normal difficulty?

Well, you're certainly at the high end, if not the absolute maximum of the possible level to attain here. But, all in all, in the final Act you're at Max Level really fast regardless of how you play, and it then becomes more about the gear than the level.

Back to main topic:
Difficulty in pretty much any CRPG is down to knowledge, always has been. Do you know the system, or the encounter specifically - you'll have an easy time.

First time I left Candlekeep in 96, I didn't understand Armor Class and ThaC0, I had never heard of D&D and I barely spoke English. I didn't have an internet connection or massive amounts of guides to help me. It was pretty tough. A kobold strikes you for six damage, and dead is your level one thief. Nowadays I install mods to make it *waaaay* harder than it was ever designed to be, and unless I do a no-reload run, I blast through that saga like it's nothing.

Same holds true for BG3. On my first run, I missed a ton of content, walked into traps and ambushes left and right and had quite a tough time even on Normal difficulty. Now that I know what is where and how encounters work - Yeah, I can blast through this game with any party, on any difficulty, really.

Once you know you want more challenge, but the game doesn't offer it - it's up to you to challenge yourself. Don't use the illithid powers, for instance or refrain from building that cheesy, OP superhero. Try it solo, or a class you're unfamiliar with, or one that you know isn't as powerful.

I'm new too. I was lvl 4 in the Underdark and on Tactician I found some fights pretty challenging. The extra HP the AI gets gives them a chance to use their abilities which you then have to think to counter.

The jump from 4 to 5 gives you that proficiency bonus increase which is pretty helpful.

Sure I can solo it with stealth as well and no sanctuary like this custom build sorc/ lock/ assasin build:



But then people will say stealth is cheese/ op etc like they say with any other strategy.

Thanks for the video. I personally don't think anything is cheese. I'm interested in the recipes. Every game has them.

Doesn't the fact that any high level build can do this argue against Withers being a problem?

You have already created a self-imposed challenge for yourself by soloing enncounters. It's very weird that you're complaining about being able to "cheat" within your own self-imposed challenge. A party of four doesn't need Withers to adjust their tactics based on an encounter, so Withers is very inconsequential, apart from his quality-of-life function.

There's also some very weird nostalgia going on for the older RPGs. The gameplay of the original Baldur's Gate games was a mess. You didn't so much win as figure out how to exploit the system. Especially the "challenging" encounters, which often only had one right way to approach them. Sometimes they had no "right" way to approach them. It was frustrating to an incredible degree. And what's more, character building didn't really matter back then. Party building would, and you could change your party very easily, but you'd have to actively try to mess up a class. Which again, makes it weird that you're complaining about respec.

What Larian has created is much, much better. There are now many different ways you can resolve even the most difficult encounters. Sure, the balance is out of whack, so people often default to certain playstyles, but that can be tweaked. To a degree, that can even be self-tweaked. There was no tweaking the original BG games.

As for your strange non-sequitur on sexuality, I'm not touching that one.

I really hate how Tactician gives enemies an arbitrary +2 to Attack and a senseless HP pool, and it's STILL too easy.

I cleared the Underdark and no fight has been challenging yet at level 5. I mostly fight "fair" without any cheese or preparation, pre-positioning with metagame knowledge or such. I'm playing a Rogue and I noticed I could just murder "tough" enemies like Hook Horrors by staying in Stealth abusing the vision cone "mechanic", if I wanted to. So Stealth is still completely broken. Sometimes you also break out of Stealth for no apparent reason.

I can't help thinking how challenging and exciting the game would be if I couldn't just Long Rest whenever I feel like it, or teleport to Camp. If I had to sometimes fight with half HP, or no spell slots. If I sometimes would have to flee. If there would be random encounters in the Underdark. Instead, you can just bulldoze through everything and then hit Rest and repeat. If a party member does happen to go down (happened ONCE through levels 1-5).. just hit Help and the enemies have to waste turns downing them again. This alone gives you a massive advantage over enemies who can't do it. It doesn't MATTER how much the enemies have their stats pumped. You can just resort to the cheese of hiding / kiting / luring or just unload all your spell slots in every fight if you want to play "fair".

They need to create a mode that restricts resting and removes the Help cheese, Stealth cheese, Shove cheese, potion throwing cheese.. ALL THE CHEESE. Playing itself needs to be harder, not the enemies. I have over 1000 Camp Supplies on the party, and some stashed away in camp storage. There needs to be a real way of restricting resting. The food is a non-mechanic and an annoying chore.

Withers is the reason I can fine tune these builds over and over .

Like if I tried to solo with my original buil I wouldn’t be able to but I could try- lose - respec - try- lose- respec until I fine tune my build .

Also some of these builds are really potent only with the end game gear- if I try to level with them from lvl 1 would have been alot more difficult to get to act 3 as the milticlassing doesn’t get powerful until lvl 10+

For example I can solo house of grief as a paladin or figher but I need War caster feat so that my haste doesn’t break.

But choosing a war caster for a fighter just for once a day haste would gimp the overall build especially in the first 2/3 of the game and is totally useless if I decide to use the rest of my party as in group it’s much better for my casters to cast haste as they can do so many times a day.

So war caster is only taken for this fight but otherwise not useful and wilthout respec I wouldn’t be able to make this build possible

Speaking of respecs. It's definitely a balance issue that you can be anything at any time, when needed. Undead everywhere - respec into a Light Cleric. Need to smash a boss? Respec into a great weapon Paladin or Fighter.

But most of all it just destroys the credibility of the game world. It completely changes the atmosphere of the entire game when your character building choices don't mean anything. I respecced my level 12 PC to various different classes and multiclasses, and now I don't really feel like actually playing those classes at all.

As for Ansur it’s the easier fight of them all, I always gut him solo turn 1 before he even takes a turn lol. Honestly I don’t even know what abilities he has as he never makes it alive to even take a turn.

Giving players this kind of damage potential just shows how out of touch the devs are with balance. It's not "amazing" that you can one shot bosses or shove them into a chasm without really trying. It's just boring and underwhelming.

Pathfinder WOTR solved both of the issues you mentioned. You cannot spam rests since there is a corruption mechanic that inflicts penalties for resting too much out in 'the world' and respeccing on the harder difficulties is completely disabled. Off the top of my head, Tactician not allowing respecs and having an 'tadpole in brain' mechanic where you are plagued with nightmares or something so outside of camp you only have short rests or something are low hanging fruit options Larian could have used, but they seem to be allergic to learning from other CRPGs.

If they do that everyone will play at least 2 bards, and use song of rest instead of Long rest.

Bards will become even more OP than they are right now and borderline mandatory.

Not a good design as without respecing that would mean the main character should always be a bard for the song.

BG3 doesn't offer previews, so everyone that does not know Song of Rest is at lvl 2 makes due with what they have. There's also the option of...nerfing Song of Rest?? And the game without spamming Long Rest and respecs is still way too easy for it to be anywhere near mandatory. My first playthrough was a Warlock on release and I already didn't need to rest so much it broke a lot of my companion interactions from missed scenes.