Too easy?
CrusherEAGLE
Member Posts: 19
So I remember playing this game back in the day and getting absolutely devastated even at the vale of shadows. Even if not devastated, I remember it wasn't exactly easy.
But now, either because I know how to min/max or because of the kits, whatever the reason I find myself just crushing through every single monster that appears before me. Maybe it's because it's still early in the game, but it really shouldn't be this much of a cakewalk.
Turning up the difficulty only makes it worse. I level up twice as fast which means I absolutely destroy anything before they can even touch me.
Something is wrong. What can I do to make this game challenging?
But now, either because I know how to min/max or because of the kits, whatever the reason I find myself just crushing through every single monster that appears before me. Maybe it's because it's still early in the game, but it really shouldn't be this much of a cakewalk.
Turning up the difficulty only makes it worse. I level up twice as fast which means I absolutely destroy anything before they can even touch me.
Something is wrong. What can I do to make this game challenging?
1
Comments
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/36352/the-way-it-is-meant-to-be-played-tm-an-ocders-guide-to-making-iwdee-a-challenge#latest
Sorcerer-CG
10str
15dex
14con
17int
14wis
15cha
*dagger
Conjurer2->fighter-CN
17str
14dex
15con
15int
12wis
8cha
*sling
*axe
Fighter-LN
16str
15dex
15con
15int
9wis
13cha
*longsword(dual wielded)
*longbow
**two weapon style
Bard-LN
12str
12dex
12con
13int
7wis
15cha
*short sword
*crossbow
Thief-CN
15str
16dex
9con
15int
14wis
15cha
*dagger
*crossbow
Cleric of lathander-LG
14str
17dex
10con
13int
14wis
14cha
*mace
*sling
I played on core.
I suppose you could turn on that extra-hard button? Heart of... Winter of fury. I can't remember which one.
(That's a thing, right)
But not doing that for me feels like gimping myself in a way.
The best way to make the game challenging (imo), is to use all pure classes, and do not use the + and - buttons at character creation - no characters should have 18+ STR, 18+ DEX, 18+ CON. Keep the slider on core rules. Don't use dual wielding or weapon styles.
If you min-max six characters and make every one of them a fighter multi-class or dual-class, then you're going to steamroll any Infinity Engine game.
Try this:
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/36352/the-way-it-is-meant-to-be-played-tm-an-ocders-guide-to-making-iwdee-a-challenge#latest
what do you think about developers doing at least something, even the tiniest thing to affect the decreased difficulty in this edition of the game?
If the developers started tweaking rules and removing or changing items, some modder would just put it all right back in.
I believe that the player is ultimately responsible for his or her own experience of any game. Player choice ranges from playing the vanilla out-of-the-box offering from the game devs, to making changes by installing mods, to self-made rules, to playing hard core no-reload all the way down to save-scumming at will, to just not playing the game at all if it's no fun. And I think that's a good thing.
I had just finished a game of vanilla IWD right before Beamdog announced they were working on the EE, and I found the difficulty very similar to what I'm now experiencing with EE.
It'd be like people playing a Contra game and getting disappointed with the lack of a deep plot.
i think you have succeeded partially and partially you have not. and i believe there are some things that can be done post release to restore some of that compromised goodness.
is beamdog open to considering some post-release tweaks based on player feedback or is there low probability for that?
We have a list of things that we know we want to do as part of our post-release support, so if people have sensible suggestions that can be done easily we can certainly look at them. I won't make any promises, but we definitely don't want people to stop talking about things if they're not satisfied.
i have already posted a feature request earlier today. there are at least two ideas i think are really really sound, namely the first one and the fourth one.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/36531/iwd-ee-rectify-the-imbalancing-effect-of-dual-wielding-some-small-adjustments#latest
Also, if you feel like your just gimping yourself and it feels forced, role play it. What I did with my party is I used my real life friends as templates and named characters after them. I guess it sounds a little weird but seeing
Joebob- takes 10 damage from fire salamander
Jokebob- death
Is quite novel when Joebob is your best freind:) I also think having yourself(I.e. Your real name) as party leader helps immersion, and I usually do it on my first run through a game, though now I use meagloth a lot because I use that name on the internet so much it's almost as powerful and my real name.
Another way to get lower stats would be to creat character concepts in your head, and then do one of those alignment/stat quizzes in their perspective. That could also give you and interesting party composition if you didn't assign classes first.
Hmmmm....
This one is long and mostly opinion based; does class, alignment, race, and stats. Probably good for character creation.
http://www.easydamus.com/character.html
This one is based in actual ability(I.E. "How many push-ups can you do?" rather than "are you 'very strong' or 'not very strong") and probably best for real people. Does alignment, class, and stats.... Sort of. Race is a bit cookie:
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/31240/meagloths-alignment-test
This one does just stats and is my favorite. Good for real people and characters:
http://www.kevinhaw.com/add_quiz.php
This One does just stats and is very good for real people except for charisma, which is total crap:
http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/terragf/back/xstattest.html
I hope i could help.
I was steamrolling everything when I min/maxed and was having no fun, although I still feel a bit like I "cheated" the intended game system of being allowed to +/- at the beginning. Whatever.
I'm having a tough time deciding whether I should do the "no reload" thing. Sure, it adds more meaning to the fights, but imagine being 3 levels deep into a dungeon and having a party member die and have to go back to town all the way...
If you're unsure about no reload, I would try "minimum reload", which is no reload except instead of completely starting over when everyone dies, you just reload the last save. This way you get the feeling of no reload but you don't have to play through the beginning of the game 50 times before you get even halfway through.
1. Always play on core rules (note that max HP on level up should NOT be considered in keeping with core rules). This has two interesting effects:
a. Random hitpoints on level up means your dwarven defender probably won't have 85 hitpoints by the time he's level 5. Rather, he'll have around 55-60. Still tough, just not ungodly so.
b. Your mages may fail when they try to scribe scrolls. Meaning you either accept that you may lose key scrolls to bad luck, or you only scribe when you have enough Potions of Genius/Mind Focusing to raise INT to 24+ for guaranteed success (in the latter case you then won't have new spells available as soon as you find a scroll for them). This also limits how many mages you can realistically bring along, which is a good thing (Sorcerers throw a wrench into this of course, decide for yourself if you want one).
2. My favorite: Roll your party members! Don't sit like a dolt pressing Reroll until everyone has 90+ total. Who wants to play with a band of supermen? We want actual characters in our party!
Grab some dice and decide on a generation method and see what classes you can create.
I quite enjoy the organic method described here: http://home.earthlink.net/~duanevp/dnd/stat_generation.htm
Roll six times recording in order using the best 3 of 4d6. Re-roll any one ability score taking the best of the two. Then switch any two scores.
You typically end up with 1-2 really bad characters, 2-3 highly mediocre ones, and 1-2 rather good ones. Much more entertaining than 6 incarnations of Aristotle or Hercules, and you might end up with a really quirky party that requires some unorthodox tactics to shine.
3. Limit your resting. If you only keep fighting until your spells run out, you'll never be properly challenged. The challenge lies in conserving your resources and applying them at the optimal moment. I try to avoid resting more than once per level (ie go in, clear a level, then you may rest). But anything is better than resting after every fight.
4. Limit how many demihumans you can have in your party. A demihuman is pretty much always better than a regular human (exception being if you dual-class cheese everyone from fighter). Humans are supposed to be the most prolific race after all, so an entire party made up of everything BUT humans seems off...
5. No-reload. The ultimate challenge. You'll actually start memorizing Raise Dead, as well as question your thinking in bringing an elf along since Raise Dead doesn't work on them (only Resurrection).
If a character gets chunked, too bad. Make sure that doesn't happen.
Admittedly this might be a little too much for most people. Minimal reload is an alright compromise. You may then reload if the entire party dies or if a party member is chunked.
Just a few suggestions, I follow all of the above mentioned rules and am having a good, reasonably challenging time. I had a run ended because I didn't feel like continuing after my barbarian got chunked (62 damage Static Charge when he had something like 18 HP left...), but then you dust yourself off and try again.
But the end result is, far less of the mega-powerful characters than we see in CRPGs. For my BG and IWD characters I often use EEKeeper to match my character to an actual PNP character I've played. That means they're typically capable, with some bonuses, but well short of the "mega" category.
When I do roll a random character, I usually allow for a half dozen or so tries for a decent looking character. But no point shifting.
I have occasionally done the true random, no re-rolls at all. But that can mean a pretty weak character. Weak can be fun too, but mainly as a contrast to what a more capable character is like. It helps you appreciate what all those bonuses are actually for!
I don't think we should do anything about this. If you want to minmax, play in HoF mode.