Tactician is too easy and I would like more challenge. But I don't want it in a way that encourages using broken builds, Illithid powers, silly exploits or other Larianisms. Ironman modes are also a bit too accident-prone to my liking. I don't mind having to replay the same fight a few times and trying different tactics if it's really tough.
I'd prefer a tabletop mode that limits the PC's power levels and abilities to what they should be in 5e and doesn't let you Long Rest whenever.
That's died-and-continued-from-honor-mode for you then. That's what I'm doing now and it's *seriously* fun. Astarion eats all the tadpoles in my game, no one else. I changed the resting-cost to triple, so 120 supply cost. Still very manageable, but you don't rest every other fight now.
The Legendary boss fights are waaaay cooler, and the action economy is a lot more fair. Speed pots now give you an exta attack, but not a full action. The single save options cuts out reloading, you *have* to die, or you can't reload.
Man, I went to Moonrise, did the dialogue with Ketheric, dealt with the gobbos and went upstairs to report. There were a few dialogue options here, and I naturally picked the one that aligned with my class - which is Barbarian. Passed the check with flying colors...... But they saw right through that.
'WHO ARE YOU1?" - she replied, and the whole castle went hostile. Not on the first turn, but there's these eyeballs everywhere that call for reinforcements.
So, stuck on the upper level with my party at level 7, I had to fight all of the moonrise forces from a tiny room. No harpers, no preparation, no end-of-the-act level and no surpise round either. I put up a fight and must have murdered twenty or so enemies before it was just Astarion left who doesn't really run out of resources. He cheesed the hells out of that fight, survived on his own for a fair number of rounds... but there's only so much a single fighter/rogue can do. Ordinairly, I wouldn't even *try* that fight and jsut savescum out of there. But now I at least try to play to the best of my ability and deal with whatever happens - even if I don't like the outcome. That was an hour of thrilling combat, there was even a point where I thought to myself that if I kept it up, I could maybe get away with this.
