Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General I like the game, but difficulty needs tuning...

-SPOILERS WITHIN-

Note, I am playing on hard.

Near the end of the first map (Cyseal, obviously) the game starts getting much easier. You start getting more loot--a lot more loot, too much, I think-- and gold becomes so plentiful the careful purchasing you made early on becomes irrelevant and you now have enough money to essentially buy anything you want, so long as you loot and sell everything--a problem Divine Divinity had as well.

The scaling on enemy strength, health, and sometimes levels does not go up high enough. I no longer need to play carefully and deliberately--I COULD say I can play sloppily without worry, but in fact it is usually so easy that I can't even play sloppily because most fights are such a breeze anything works.

Maybe I am just unusually good at party building and carefully choosing my weapons and spells, but I'd really like the game to be more unforgiving with me not trying to metagame "in reverse"--I don't want to have to hamper myself in terms of skills and armor used just so I feel like I have a fair fight. I'm not even using certain combinations anyways, I'm not using the Glass Cannon talent in any way for example. I did choose leech, but I didn't know leech would do what it did later on, which clearly can't have been intentional, as using a bleeding skill should not be healing that character (heh). And once characters have a variety of CCs, such as blind, knockdowns, etc, most enemies can be killed before they even start to attack.

It's fairly easy to boost your resistances over 100% and be healed by elements. I have not done this, but if I wanted to, I could, and the game would be even easier. I haven't done this because I haven't needed to despite not even paying attention to resistances on gear. I'd like to see diminishing returns on how resistances stack, perhaps, or a stat that "pierces" the resistance of foes, perhaps one can be made for each element.

I'm not even playing with a mage, besides a healbot/CC/some damage Jahan, so I'm not even really using a fireball launching mage which I imagine would have made this game even easier. I don't have a single fire or earth spell learned on any of my characters. I do have a rogue with some ranger in him that sometimes uses fire arrows, but sparingly.

Another issue is the AI seems to get increasingly dumber as the game goes on. Characters walking across surfaces that kill them. Line of sight issues where they hit terrain because of the level of the angle you are at.

The only fights I can remember I felt were well-tuned were mostly the fight in front of the lake entrance to Hiberheim, the entrance to the forge (I think that's where they were) with the large group of Immaculates, and King Boreas (which you can somewhat cheese by having a person outside of the fight run around smashing statues, but I consider this to be a valid strategy).

Hopefully this some of these issues will be addressed in a later patch. I love this game, but the combat is getting so easy my brain doesn't feel like it's getting the workout it did going through Cyseal.

Hey, speak for yourself
I'm new to RPG's, playing on easy, have 107 hours on the clock with D:OS and routinely get my butt handed to me on a platter.

I'm not ashamed to say I'm learning as I go and that without frequent saves, I'd be frustrated out of my mind.

Not everyone is experienced at RPG games, though I'm well familiar with TBS in general. This game requires a lot of thought about tactics, outfitting and social interaction: not to mention who said what and where you last saw what item you now need to bail you out of a jam.

I mention all this simply to reassure players like me (and I assume there are 2 or 3 out there) who might otherwise be put off by all the talk on the forum that the game is "too easy." Not for this kid, its not. Which is a VERY GOOD THING.

I suppose you can please some of the people, some of the time, but never will you please all of the people, all of the time.

Well, in terms of difficulty balance, that is what a variety of difficulty level options are supposed to address.

Granted, that's why they have easy, moderate and hard settings but I'm just amazed that anyone can play on hard and complain it is too easy. Shows how much I know about the genre.

Well it may be rather hard in the beginning depending on your setup, but later on between AoE CC and summons and charms enemies wont even have a chance of as much as look at your party

If I had to guess I would say the OP is using a fighter thats very geared up(probably very close to 100 resists even if he isnt over 100) and is just spamming whirlwind/dustdevil while the rest of his party stays at max distance and heals/CC's.

What I find funny is there is very little mention of fighters in his post yet clearly the whole party is setup to support a fighter. So the OP doesnt want to get fighter's nerfed but what he is trying to say is "fighters need to get nerfed".

Also - you have a very clear understanding of the mechanics of this game so Im not buying into your whole theme of "I just wandered in here and started playing and either this game is insanely easy or Im just so amazing". Id guess you have played through the game once already.

To actually address your post - yes with leech, comeback kid(which you make no mention of but probably have) and close to 100 resists a fighter is essentially impervious to harm. Personally I think comeback kid needs to be removed and leech needs to fall under a rogue only skill line. I have no problem with the resists going over 100 issue, there is so much ground splatter in this game that melee wouldnt be much fun if they constantly had to run around everything.

My fighter is Madora I only have the default Dustdevil, not Whirlwind (I think). I pay most of my attention actually to my Witch Tank because I wanted to roleplay some sort of Warrior Witch character.

You know, you're kind of a jerk. You just inferred something that isn't true, and then tried to insult me by saying



Maybe fighters do need a nerf, but my rogue is also just wrecking too. I actually prefer my rogue over Madora.



I was in early access and played that for about 65 hours. I'm not saying I just wandered in here. What the hell is wrong with you? What is your problem with me? The game is hard even knowing what I know at lower levels, but at higher levels it is easy. As for my progress, I have just completed the Immaculate trials, so I'm level 13/14ish.



I did not put comeback kid on my character with leech and refuse to for obvious reasons. It's not like it matters, because it almost never gets to that point. Madora does not have leech. I have not been min/maxing my characters other than using Jahan for points in crafting and loremaster since he's pretty much got healing under control, not like I need to use him on most fights. You lose again. Also you imagined me trying not to say that fighters need to be nerfed while then going on to say fighters essentially need to be buffed. What???

I almost never use my rogue's charm and the only summons I have are the two witch ones. And I'm still breezing through most fights.

Maybe I'm overgeared? I ran into quite a few uniques and legendaries.

Well I'm mostly legendary on 3 characters, but tbh it rarely gets to stage where gear plays any part in combat, and when it does I get oneshotted anyway

For those who think the game is too easy, even on hard difficulty, why not just stop using companions? My friend and I are on our second playthrough, 2h fighter and mage 1'st and 1h fighter/mage rogue/ranger 2'nd, the use of campanions is optional and obviously makes the game easier, try leaving them in homestead for abit more of a challange

Apologies if I offended you. I should have phrased things better but your post really made you sound like a pompous jerk when I read it. To me it sounded like "I just got this game and its too easy...blah blah blah.... Im not even using half the spells, Im playing on hard, Im not maxing resists, I just stumble into battle and destroy everything and its cake...etc etc.

Plenty of people have said the game is hard. Keep in mind as you just stated - you played 65 hours in alpha. I played quite a bit in beta and yea, once you know the game and all the little quirks its ALOT easier. And while you may not consciously be trying to min/max, its hard to get away from having played and knowing what skills are great and what suck. I think you also under-estimate how much knowing the Cyseal area helps with the later game. It means your properly leveled and likely didnt miss any gear, and as you stated above you got quite a few uniques and legendaries. I too did quite well going through Cyseal and havent had any trouble in Lucilla but its because I played alot and worked on getting the right gear/spells in Cyseal.

For anyone just buying the game and playing though on their first time, the game is tuned pretty well and quite alot of fun! For those of us that have played even the first zone a couple times sure its easy to predict whats going to happen in fights without much trouble but the game isnt balanced for us.

I shouldnt have attacked your post, Im sorry. But what I wish people that make posts like yours would do is actually state what their knowledge level is. 65 hours is a huge amount of time invested learning the ins and outs of the game. If you had said "Ive played this game alot and now that I know the mechanics well its easy for me to tear through the game, Id like some *extra hard mode* added to the game to give players that have played a ton a real tough challenge" I would have agreed with you, but instead you just said the game is way too easy and needs to be harder.

My personal feeling is that fighters need to be nerfed. Its too easy to become invulnerable with them and if your using a fighter heavy party with healing sure its probably too easy. But people playing through the first time dont know all that so I wouldnt want to make the game harder just to suit my expertise level with the game. Some separate mode for very experienced players would be great, but I would suspect Larian will leave that up to someone like you to mod the base campaign(which they have said we can do) to suit your tastes. You can then share that with others that will appreciate the tuning

I don't want to force myself to challange. The game should offer for it. Also i know the game bit harder with lone-wolf so i would recommend that.

Just stop trying to justify your arrogant attitude.

Imo game is little too hard very early, then perfect until the end of Cyseal map, then you play few more hours, and - BOOM - you suddenly realize you are a god, and can annihilate everyone without problems. Certainly there are problems with balance.

I agree, and people (elsewhere, and obviously if you look above, here) are either blaming me for this (?) or saying that's how it should be (?). I don't think Larian agrees either... this isn't typical of the older school RPGs this game is styled after.

this game in normal mode is hard for me . bos battle make me crazzy

If some boss battle is hard, just leave it an come back later. I have done that with several bosses.

Or turn down to Easy.
It's there to be used, not be ignored. Don't feel bad. It's better to learn and progress on easy than get frustrated and quit on normal.