Which difficulty do you play?

Shire

I usually go insane when i have full party.
My solo F/C im doing on normal right now.
Im some cases maybe it should be the other way around. 1 very good char is sometimes easier to play than a party. I guess the longer the game pass the better the party gets.

My last F/M + F/T duo playthrough was on insane, but both classes are just badass.
The most annoying thing with insane is often not the damage, but having to quicksave between leaning every spell!

Silverstar

Always Core Rules. Though first couple levels I sometimes tune it down to maximize health gains and forget to turn it back up >.<

Shin

Core Rules modded for max hp rolls (both for party members and enemies)

GemHound

Core Rules unless I'm feeling particularly suicidal, then I crank it up to Insane.

dosentti666

Core rules, but I change it to easy for level ups and spell learning.

Kurumi

Core.. the only way it's meant to be played, if you want an experience as close to PnP as possible.

Shire

Normal is the default one isent it?
I should put it up on core on my solo.
You would think that core should be default...

albinocobra

This last run is on insane, though I think I'll notch it down one level simply because the damage done is really extreme at times. With SCS, all mobs carry some nice buffing pots and thieves are especially annoying with backstabs. Hexxat keeps getting one shotted with her 50 HP and there's really nothing that can be done about it besides some really tedious micromanaging/cheesing with invisibility potions when someone targets her.

Challenge, yes, regular mobs one shotting my people - no

Shire

Insane is probably more suited to smaller parties where you dont have npcs that are weak as kittens.

My F/M didnt have to much trouble tanking insane. But pretty obvious why, broken class. ^^

Severon

Core.
Mainly because I believe Insane actually doubles all damage dealt, including your own party members?
Anyway, I use SCS which gives me the difficulty rather than just doubling damage.

albinocobra

Insane doesn't double your own party damage.

@Shire Agreed. I can solo without any problems, but taking it on as a party (and keeping all of them in one piece) is proving to be quite a challenge.
Already caught myself going in solo with my F/M and leaving the party behind, but that feels meh.

atcDave

Core all the way.

AcridSyphilis

Normal because I'm lazy and I don't like remembering to move the slider so I can have full hp every level

CoM_Solaufein

Core rules

jackjack

Core Rules. For HP, scribing, everything. Full 6 person party, (most of the time).

Lord_Tansheron

Always Insane, with SCS, Tactics, and Ascension as the main mods (some other minor mods, too).

Tropik

Always Insane because most fun fights.

CoryNewb

Default difficulty? Not sure if it has a name.

Eudaemonium

The game starts on Normal by default, I believe.

Shar

Always insane... I die a lot.

Ayiekie

Normal.

Fredjo

Core with SCS is difficult enough and has a cool factor that Insane difficulty lacks as it adds various original P&P capabilities to your enemies.

Drayen

I found the most excitement in the game playing hard/insane... although it's kinda BS sometimes.

Insane BG1 is a bit retarded though, I was doing a playthrough of SCS + insane and the amount of reloads... i can unload as many crowdcontrol spells as i want on the nashkel mine kobolds but there are just so many and they still 1shot lvl2 edwin

Shar

Drayen said:

I found the most excitement in the game playing hard/insane... although it's kinda BS sometimes.

Insane BG1 is a bit retarded though, I was doing a playthrough of SCS + insane and the amount of reloads... i can unload as many crowdcontrol spells as i want on the nashkel mine kobolds but there are just so many and they still 1shot lvl2 edwin

I found myself hiding Edwin in the corner with rest of my party while boosting my tank with buffs girdle vs piercing and large shield to go clear kobolds.

nano

Insane really encourages you to use extreme tactics where you don't take damage at all, like invisible scouting and casting from out of sight, using summons, blocking everything with PfMW, etc. It's fun in its own way but it does get old having to micro every battle. Sometimes you just want to walk in and bash some heads in a fair fight, you know?

albinocobra

Well the trick is to hit that sweet spot where it's just difficult enough that you have to think and use strategy but not so overwhelming that you have to resort to cheese to overcome the difficulty (because that kinda kills the point of it).

I do agree that there is a certain charm to exploring every possible strategy and utilize meta knowledge and (at times) exploit engine limitations, but for me, those are best left for solo runs.

Shar

Talking of cheese. When confronting Mendas i didnt have anyone who could use bastard sword or dagger with decency. Also greater loup garou form on insane goes through AC-10 like hot knife through butter. I had to resort to casting invisibility, sneaking into adjacent room in Mendas's house and blindly fireballing next room. I'm not proud of that...

Drayen

nano said:

Insane really encourages you to use extreme tactics where you don't take damage at all, like invisible scouting and casting from out of sight, using summons, blocking everything with PfMW, etc. It's fun in its own way but it does get old having to micro every battle. Sometimes you just want to walk in and bash some heads in a fair fight, you know?

Well, in one of my insane clears, i made some kind of excessively defensive team, compromised of 5 members who had access to stoneskin/iron skin... sure made insane difficulty easier.

Personally, I always thought insane difficulty should increase enemy HP rather than damage... or both! If an enemy lives twice as long, it can theorically do twice as much damage, or if it takes twice as long to kill one enemy in a group, the rest of the group live exponentially longer to deal damage to you. Of course this isn't exactly true for spellcasters as they won't cast the same spell twice.

I always wanted to make a mod to increase enemy health by 100%/200%... or just reduce player damage to 50% or 33%, but I have no knowledge of modding, and it seems like it would require extensive reading just to implement a simple thing like that..

velehal

Core rules + SCS + aTweaks + Ascension. I have played just once on insane difficulty. It was insane + Tactics + Ascension + Solaufein + Improved Battles. It was fun.

GamingFreak

Meh, Normal. I don't really fiddle with the difficulty much at all.

chickenhed

I always WANT to play core and be as "pure" as possible. But it never ends up that way. Insane is so much more rewarding. It's almost like you have to play as if you were soloing on core. Make sure you have the right potions at all times, the right defensive spells ready, thieves that have max hide in shadows/move silently as well as the ability to go instantly invisible (ring/pots).

Warriors must also have access to the right potions and will pay for it if they don't have a good shield at the ready in BG1. You see, I LIKE that a kobold can one-shot my casters. If my CLOTH wearing caster does not have any defensive spells up, or is stupid and walking in FRONT of my warrior and gets an arrow from a kobold, of course he should die. I like that.