Only 1 vote for novice? I guess I'm a newb! Oh well, I only played BG2 and Shadows of Amn, so I am going to be going at this blindly my first playthrough. Will ramp up difficulty on my next game (which probably won't be that long after my first game).
You are lucky in a sense. Back in the day Baldurs Gate vanilla actually gave you less experience if you played on the easiest difficulty. BG2 changed that.
Interesting! Well I am glad that I will be progress normally. I imagine that I played BG2 on normal, but it's been a decade.
Core. I always found the higher difficulties to be "fake hard" - doubling enemy damage done to you etc. Which is not to say it's not hard, because it is, only it's a cheap way of making things more difficult. I'd rather the enemy worked together and cheesed spell combinations and item use - like with the Tactics or SCS mods - to seriously ruin my day on a higher difficulty setting.
^This
I also like to have max HP on level etc. It would be realy good if higher difficulties would give enemies better AI and if there was an option to tick, where you can have max hp on level up.
Core rules, always, all from the first playthrough. If I want a challenge I install a mod that improves the AI. A wrongly aimed fireball should hurt you.
On core, the computer cheats as well with respect to hit points: enemies seem to have maximum hit points for their hit dice, which means they have twice as many hit points as they should, while your party only gets maximum hit points at 1st level and rolls as per the rules after that. In that respect, at least, core is also fake difficulty. On the other hand, the game hands out magic items like Hallowe'en candy, so your party ends up with many times the number of items they would have in a real game, which more than evens out the odds.
I don't find the hit point discrepancy on core rules to be that big a deal: given the extreme number of healing potions the game hands out, you effectively have far more hit points than your total would suggest.
I always play core. If I want to up the challenge, I play no resurrection or raise dead, apart from the rods of resurrection (no raise dead/resurrection spells and no resurrections at temples) and no recharging wands. That gives you up to 30 oopses throughout SoA and ToB, and none in BG1: a party member dies, and you have to replace them with someone else.
Core rules, always, all from the first playthrough. If I want a challenge I install a mod that improves the AI. A wrongly aimed fireball should hurt you.
Wrongly aimed fireballs hurt you on normal too. The difference is that on normal you get max HP per level up, and party members cant permanently die, thats not much difference.
I've only had to tune down the difficulty in ToB once, when I entered that no-magic room. I basically had 5 party members that casted spells and Minsc. Got mauled there on insane no matter how I tried to negotiate the fight.
I play on Core, but I do set the difficulty slider back for spell-learning, because I think that the high rate of failures with 18 intelligence (even with a potion of genius) is utter rubbish.
I don't set it down for hit points on level, though, because my experience has taught me that AC, and saving throws, i.e., not getting hit in the first place, is far more important to survivability than hit points.
Basically, if you can not get hit or resist spells, hit points become irrelevant. And, if the enemy does have an easy time hitting you or blasting you, your hit points don't matter for more than one round at most. I've seen it so many times - big, tough guy with 200 hit points and lousy AC and saves - red, red, red, dead.
Little squishy guy with 20 hit points, but with -10 AC and 5 to save - full hp, full hp, full hp, big guy dies, full hp, enemy dies.
Great points all around, especially about the spell learning percentages and INT. I can't remember how many times I've had to reload over and over to learn a spell in my wizard's own school of specialization--with an 18 INT, no less. Technically, it should be automatic (85% + 15% bonus for spells in one's specialized school), but moving the slider back works just as well.
Core for me too. Its a nice balance of difficulty and gameplay. Never even thought about dropping the slider for max HP and such - not because I would never do that, but because I never even thought it was possible.
Duh.
On the other hand, I've never exactly struggled with base HP awards per level - it just defines how you play the game there-after.
core rules with some mods like SCS.. for BGEE..well I don't really like setting that only increase NPCs damage and calling it a challenge harder setting should focus on better AI control or some other tweaks
double damage ruins the idea of HP and AC..kind of
In every game I go for normal, in bg i go for core sometimes. I like when games only have 1 dif mode. And once beaten add a harder mode. Too many dif modes in games irritate me.
Core rules, always, all from the first playthrough. If I want a challenge I install a mod that improves the AI. A wrongly aimed fireball should hurt you.
Wrongly aimed fireballs hurt you on normal too. The difference is that on normal you get max HP per level up, and party members cant permanently die, thats not much difference.
Ah, yes, that's how it was. My memory is not what it... what it.... hmmm...
started BG1 (with BGT) on hard last time, quickly (as in 2 hours in) bumped it up to insane - having Edwin and Xzar with sleep at low levels can make the game somewhat... ridiculously easy, and even later on, they pretty much damn everything to a slow and painful death in the hands of my melee chars with enchantment spells. it's fun. although I always turn on max hp/level, even in pnp games irl, because as a wise man once said "Chaos already dominates enough of our lives".
I regretted my choice of difficulty somewhat in Durlag's Tower, partially because of those goddamn greater wyverns (60+ points of damage per hit, with magic resistance, without my mages having lower resistance - not as fun), and even more so because Coran made an amusing little hobby out of ignoring the "disarm trap" command, opting instead to walk over it, and a nice, quiet burial in a shoe box, because on insane, those traps do roughly about 100 points of damage, shredding *anything* that walks over them.
I usually played at Insane, but it doesn't get more difficult, so i made core rules now with full hp at lvl up.
I found a way to make more difficult. Instead of using spells before battle, like bless, chant, protection from evil; try to use them only when combat starts, like the enemy does
I always do Normal when playing games. But I like to make faulty RP characters (example: a brawny nitwit who believes that he was meant to be a mage even though he has min int) a lot of times so playing on higher difficulties may be a little rough.
Has anybody looked at the op poll graph lately? It's interesting how the straightforward, logically written polls keep sorting themselves into classic bell-shaped curves. Statistics are fascinating.
Core if I have a mod installed that ensures my HP on level up won't be utter garbage.
I just use the ol' "Switch to lower difficulty whenever you need to level up then switch back afterwards" trick
I do the level-up switch too but sometimes I forget to switch back for a while after leveling so I end up playing a mix of mostly core plus a little normal too. ;-)
I do pretty much always play with minimal reloads (only if PC dies) and often play no reloads too with no blatant cheats but an occasional bit of cheese...
Has anybody looked at the op poll graph lately? It's interesting how the straightforward, logically written polls keep sorting themselves into classic bell-shaped curves. Statistics are fascinating.
I believe it was Mark Twain that commented: "There are three kinds of lies - lies, damned lies and statistics..."
I don't know who said "Figures don't lie but liars figure."
Comments
I also like to have max HP on level etc.
It would be realy good if higher difficulties would give enemies better AI and if there was an option to tick, where you can have max hp on level up.
I don't find the hit point discrepancy on core rules to be that big a deal: given the extreme number of healing potions the game hands out, you effectively have far more hit points than your total would suggest.
I always play core. If I want to up the challenge, I play no resurrection or raise dead, apart from the rods of resurrection (no raise dead/resurrection spells and no resurrections at temples) and no recharging wands. That gives you up to 30 oopses throughout SoA and ToB, and none in BG1: a party member dies, and you have to replace them with someone else.
BG2 on the other hand, I play on normal as its a much harder game imo
I don't set it down for hit points on level, though, because my experience has taught me that AC, and saving throws, i.e., not getting hit in the first place, is far more important to survivability than hit points.
Basically, if you can not get hit or resist spells, hit points become irrelevant. And, if the enemy does have an easy time hitting you or blasting you, your hit points don't matter for more than one round at most. I've seen it so many times - big, tough guy with 200 hit points and lousy AC and saves - red, red, red, dead.
Little squishy guy with 20 hit points, but with -10 AC and 5 to save - full hp, full hp, full hp, big guy dies, full hp, enemy dies.
Cleric raises big guy.
Great points all around, especially about the spell learning percentages and INT. I can't remember how many times I've had to reload over and over to learn a spell in my wizard's own school of specialization--with an 18 INT, no less. Technically, it should be automatic (85% + 15% bonus for spells in one's specialized school), but moving the slider back works just as well.
Duh.
On the other hand, I've never exactly struggled with base HP awards per level - it just defines how you play the game there-after.
for BGEE..well I don't really like setting that only increase NPCs damage and calling it a challenge
harder setting should focus on better AI control or some other tweaks
double damage ruins the idea of HP and AC..kind of
I regretted my choice of difficulty somewhat in Durlag's Tower, partially because of those goddamn greater wyverns (60+ points of damage per hit, with magic resistance, without my mages having lower resistance - not as fun), and even more so because Coran made an amusing little hobby out of ignoring the "disarm trap" command, opting instead to walk over it, and a nice, quiet burial in a shoe box, because on insane, those traps do roughly about 100 points of damage, shredding *anything* that walks over them.
I found a way to make more difficult.
Instead of using spells before battle, like bless, chant, protection from evil; try to use them only when combat starts, like the enemy does
Core for a party of 4
I do pretty much always play with minimal reloads (only if PC dies) and often play no reloads too with no blatant cheats but an occasional bit of cheese...
"There are three kinds of lies - lies, damned lies and statistics..."
I don't know who said
"Figures don't lie but liars figure."
I pretty much agree with both theories... ;-)