Does the game seem to have gotten easier?
chbrooks
Member Posts: 86
I am admittedly only a little way into BG:EE. However, I can't help but notice that some aspects that always frustrated me before are suddenly much easier.
For example, Tarnesh is now a breeze. He used to always be able to get off his mirror image spell and it would be a race to kill him before he cast horror. Now I can have Xzar hit him with a Larloch's Minor Drain right off and take him out.
The kobolds at the Nashkel mines were always lethal with their bows, especially kobold commandos. They are still deadly now with two attacks per round, but they seem much less accurate. I can now rush the archers without losing a party member.
Are these things just my imagination, or have there been some tweaks to the game's math as part of the bug fixing process?
For example, Tarnesh is now a breeze. He used to always be able to get off his mirror image spell and it would be a race to kill him before he cast horror. Now I can have Xzar hit him with a Larloch's Minor Drain right off and take him out.
The kobolds at the Nashkel mines were always lethal with their bows, especially kobold commandos. They are still deadly now with two attacks per round, but they seem much less accurate. I can now rush the archers without losing a party member.
Are these things just my imagination, or have there been some tweaks to the game's math as part of the bug fixing process?
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Comments
A Kobold Commando...
Especially the knowledge part.
There are still massive random difficult spikes all over the game. One minute you're fighting two gibberlings and the next it's Kahrk who is just plain overpowered. I sometimes think Kahrk was just meant to win, considering how early you can meet him, but it's not really clear.
The difficulty in the very beginning is the single worst thing about BG1. For example if you're a mage you have so few spells and almost no HP. There are many instances where you can just get one-shot. The difficulty really drops over just the first few levels.
For example, you are really meant to go to the FAI right in the beginning. Outside is a mage who *immediately* casts Mirror Image, Horror (or is it Spook?) and Magic Missile. It's not difficult once you really know what you're doing, but it's a seriously unfair fight for someone who just started the game. Heck, even outside Candlekeep, can't you actually run into a dread wolf? Good luck with that with your level 1 mage! Just don't even bother exploring that area.
The problem with the difficulty is that the 'difficult' fights tend to be binary. Either you didn't interrupt the caster and he gets off his save or suck spell, or you landed your save or suck spell and they didn't resist. That covers most of the early encounters up until Daveaorn and his battle horrors, TotSC, and Sarevok.
Oh and basilisks. Either you have protection from petrification and they can't even hurt you, or you don't and you just roll the dice to see whether you get the game over screen or not.
Once you know how to counter the enemies the game becomes much easier. Ogre -> Ranged weaponry. Mages / Clerics / Sirines -> Greenstone Amulet. Monsters in general / magic missile -> Shield Amulet. Greater Dopplegangers -> Arrows of Dispelling. Sarevok -> Run in and hit a few times. Then what is left is to install SCS.
I remember tactics + scs at Cloakwood... Eeh that is hard.
I don't like the Sarevok tactic though. I get that the fight ends when you kill Sarevok and that with lucky rolls you can just ignore everything else, but I always found that a bit of a disappointing way to win. I prefer actually winning the whole fight, and that's a much more painful process.
I like the last fight in itself, but I find it a perfect example of the uneven difficulty in the game. Everything you face in the labyrinth leading up to it for example is completely trivial. There should have been a gradual increase in difficulty. All the doppelganger stuff is also trivial. They are just not a threat to you at that point. I don't bother dispelling them. No need.
The fight with the doppelgangers alongside the dukes is also pretty terrifying for me because the dukes can easily die if things go wrong.
Having played original BG and BGEE, I find BGEE to be significantly easier. Most monster spawns seem to be set at half of the original BG rate. I just tested this with both versions on core difficulty. In the Ulcaster Dungeon of BG, for example, I entered with a 4th level PC with 5 NPCs in my party. Here's a screenshot of Monty scouting out the next room to find eight Dread Wolves:
I tried the same thing in BGEE (4th level PC, 5 NPCs in party) and there were half as many spawns (Dire Wolves, Huge Spiders, and Dread Wolves) in the dungeon. I've found this to be the case not only with Ulcaster School, but with most of the game.
- characters are walking way faster than in the original (easier to dispatch archers and mages with melee characters).
- missile weapons got nerfed compared to the original (hence the kobolds being less of a threat).
- pause allowed in the inventory screen.
- bigger stash of items in one slot, especially ammo.
- changes to spells and introducing those that were not in the original.
There are probably more of these subtle differences. I believe that BG2 engine disturbed the balance of the force original game, which I don't like very much.
Even Raise Dead got nerfed, as the recipient no longer suffers the 1 point CON loss (per 2nd edition rules). In original BG, knowing you could only raise a character a finite number of times before they're permanently dead made dying a serious consequence of the game. It required serious consideration be given to how Kagain (20 CON) and Xan (7 CON) were played.
I think the developers had to remove the CON loss because (unlike the BG engine), the BG2 engine would subtract the bonus HP from raised characters' high CON after it assigned their 1 hp, causing them to die again if they went from something like 15 to 14.
However Animate Dead spell got a major change where it gives only one skeleton, but much more powerful due to the limit of summoned creatures.
One more thing that I forgot about is blocking the path with characters. In BG2 engine friendly NPCs can "shove" the ones blocking their way, though I haven't tested it with how summoned creatures/neutral characters/enemies behave with eachother.
I liked being able to summon a retinue of low-level skeletons as cannon-fodder in the original game. Although I appreciated the change to Skeleton Warriors after level 15 in BG2.
And, yes, the pathfinding in BG2 is much better than BG. Navigating dungeon corridors with 6 party members + summons in BG was a nightmare.
I used to enjoy taking down Drizzt each playthrough for the challenge, I fought him with countless party configurations, as well as solo on many occasions. One thing I remember, is I usually had to resort to cheap and cheesy tactics to beat him.
I bought BGEE this week, and I'm playing the game again for the first time in many years (Dwarven Defender!
The only area that has caused me any significant trouble so far, was Durlags tower and that was predominantly the traps, as I have not been investing points into detect traps.
One thing I have noticed is the difficulty slider in the options menu, the default is normal, however the next difficulty up (Core Rules) says 'Baldurs gate 1 rules apply'. Did they lower the default difficulty in EE?