Game difficulty

Kogo

I always played on normal and thinking about taking the challenge of core rules. When I read the description though it seems a huge increase in difficulty from normal. Any thoughts? Im an average player who dont want to cheese too much but still like to have a little challenge. Is it worth it or is it only for min maxing hardcore gamers knowing how to take advantage of every rule?

ThacoBell

I think core is a reasonable step up from normal. You won't need to min max or anything like that. But you will need to be familiar with what most of the spells/abilities do. You'll be taking a bit more damage from everything, so knowing the reliable ways to avoid damage is more important than on normal.

Kogo

ThacoBell wrote: »

I think core is a reasonable step up from normal. You won't need to min max or anything like that. But you will need to be familiar with what most of the spells/abilities do. You'll be taking a bit more damage from everything, so knowing the reliable ways to avoid damage is more important than on normal.

Okay, cool. I think I can try that. Thanks.

ResetRPG

Core Rules will definitely test your mettle, but it is a reasonable step up in difficulty from normal, and probably the *INTENDED* way to play the game from the folks at Bioware. It certainly is not Legacy of Bhaal, but it is tough, have fun man!

sarevok57

as far as i know, in an unmodded game even on insane difficulty you can play without cheese tactics and without power gaming parties for bg1 and bg2 even, the time you get to ToB, thats when some cheese will be needed to defeat some fights on insane or else the obtuse damage you take will just not be survivable

if you normally play the game on normal and jump up to core rules, i think you are going to have a much better gamin experience doing so, normal difficulty is just way to forgiving and core rules will probably make you think of doing things in different ways that you never thought of before

Kogo

sarevok57 wrote: »

as far as i know, in an unmodded game even on insane difficulty you can play without cheese tactics and without power gaming parties for bg1 and bg2 even, the time you get to ToB, thats when some cheese will be needed to defeat some fights on insane or else the obtuse damage you take will just not be survivable

if you normally play the game on normal and jump up to core rules, i think you are going to have a much better gamin experience doing so, normal difficulty is just way to forgiving and core rules will probably make you think of doing things in different ways that you never thought of before

This is exactly what im looking for. Fresh and challenging but not overwhelming. Thanks im gonna go for it.

monico

Yeah, agree with the above, the challenge going from normal to core is gamechanging, but not that difficult in fact, you just learn to better use the tools at your disposal.

In fact, I think it is the most interesting change of pace. The difficulty curve between Core and Insane (except for SoD) is just flat damage increase, which is boring. Once you've mastered Core difficulty, you often learn that avoiding damage is the best way to tank damage. So twice the damage will not change your gameplay at all, just kill you faster that one time you failed to evade/absorb the damage.

LoB now is a different story. Although it is kind of dumb in a way (flat increases in stats instead of better AI), it is so extreme that you have to completely rework your gameplay. For this reason, it is also interesting (but I often resort to cheese and the same strategies over and over).

So yeah, Core rules is the best, add your own "restrictions" (playing solo, restricting the use of OP gear, no cheese, no-reload, etc.) for even better gaming experience, and you will learn to use every spell, tool, potion at your disposal to face each encounter.

The next step (that I never took) is installing SCS (Sword Coast Stratagems), to improve AI behaviour. That is probably the best way to upgrade the difficulty, but in a smart and realistic way.