Game way too easy? (insane, but non-heart-of-fury)
BelegCuthalion
Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 453
so i have started my first IWD:EE playthrough ... latest patch, almost no mods (npc portraits, some selected bgTweaks).
i am an experienced infinity engine player, and usually play with SCSI in baldurs gate games.
for icewind dale, i started playing on highest difficulty by slider, but not (yet) heart of fury mode. my characters started level 1, and they may be slightly on the power gamers side stats-wise but not "too much". it's a dwarven defender, ghost hunter, priest of tempus, fighter/thief, avenger druid and illusionist.
I now played to the beginning of kresselaks tomb (his main crypt, beginning of it), and my characters are all evel 4-5 now, kicking undead butts like hell ... well it's so easy defacto don't ever have to reload, i don't need buffs or any special tactics ... just rush in, hit and wait ... that takes the challenge out of the game to a level i don't enjoy playing, and i have the impression it's getting "worse" the further i advance ...
so am i doing somthing "wrong"? am i leveling up too fast (and why)? should i play heart of fury with my low-level chars (i do like a challenge but don't like "prove of concept" gaming)? should i switch back to baldurs gate games and wait until something like SCSI comes out for IWD:EE?
thanks for your advise
Beleg Cuthalion
i am an experienced infinity engine player, and usually play with SCSI in baldurs gate games.
for icewind dale, i started playing on highest difficulty by slider, but not (yet) heart of fury mode. my characters started level 1, and they may be slightly on the power gamers side stats-wise but not "too much". it's a dwarven defender, ghost hunter, priest of tempus, fighter/thief, avenger druid and illusionist.
I now played to the beginning of kresselaks tomb (his main crypt, beginning of it), and my characters are all evel 4-5 now, kicking undead butts like hell ... well it's so easy defacto don't ever have to reload, i don't need buffs or any special tactics ... just rush in, hit and wait ... that takes the challenge out of the game to a level i don't enjoy playing, and i have the impression it's getting "worse" the further i advance ...
so am i doing somthing "wrong"? am i leveling up too fast (and why)? should i play heart of fury with my low-level chars (i do like a challenge but don't like "prove of concept" gaming)? should i switch back to baldurs gate games and wait until something like SCSI comes out for IWD:EE?
thanks for your advise
Beleg Cuthalion
0
Comments
1. Insane difficulty, single classes characters, no adjusting stat rolls, no reload, random HP rolls, no OP kits (Avenger, Sorcerer, Archer, Dwarven Defender are definite no-nos).
I wanted to do this run on core but some of the more interesting spawns only occur on insane difficulty. My preference would be to have insane spawns with core xp and damage.
2. Duo HoF. FMC+FMT. This is a fun team, like, really fun. Not too much micro with only 2 characters but so many different options and strategies available to overcome encounters. I'm just getting them into their power band now so hopefully it won't become too easy.
I've also started 6 character HoF (5 duals+skald), solo sorcerer on insane, duo Swash/Mage+avenger, 4 character core later changed to insane (blackguard, blade, avenger, assassin/Mage). None were particularly challenging.
Especially early on in the orc cave near Easthaven there are 4 ogre berserkers which can easily one-hit even tougher characters. Not to mention they are surrounded by like 20 orcs. There is no way you beat those by just rushing in and attacking without half your party dead at the end of the fight. You just can't reach the necessary AC/HP values at this point.
The Trolls and hordes of Undead in Dragon's Eye are definitely not "click attack and wait"-material either.
Might want to check your difficulty slider again or turn off god-mode...
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the game is actually difficult to beat on 'Insane' but what you're claiming is mathematically very unlikely to say the least. Unless you rest until fully healed or something after every fight.
@wowo:
those variants sound intersting, but go into the "proof of concept" direction for me (number 1) or don't "fit" my premise that i just like 6-members-partys far the most (number 2). i know i'm stripping my options with that, but i think the game should be enjoyable the way it was initially designed.
@MrGoodkat:
yes, that orc cave was the last challenge i had, and those ogre were not too easy ... but the farm and now vale of shadows so far was walking to the opponents, hit hit hit (i am micro directing the party, but basically it's just using melee weapons and slings), kill everything, get much XP and almost after each fight a level up for at least one character ... those yetis, ghosts (spectres? i'm playing in german) and diverse undeads in the minor tombs just were no challenge at all, and now having entered Kresselack's tomb (first level) things just went on like that and my impression is that my party is getting way ahead in level compared to the opponents.
i just checked, slider definitely is at insane setting ... i *am* getting damage from my opponents, and i rest once in the vale to regenerate, but it's not an instant death anymore when a monster rolls a 20 (except for my avenger and illusionist, but they are out of direct battle usually).
i just remember that those ghosts were not oh-so-easy in non-EE years ago, my long term memory invoked a "oh no, not the vale of shadows with it's ghosts", so they must have been harder then.
i'll play on to dragon eye to see if those trolls are more of an opponent ... but if it goes on like that i think i'll have to wait for some mod that reduces XP or slides up difficulty someway else.
After that you can enter the HoW area. From there you can go directly to ToLM which is about as challenging as it gets for a "low" level party. The only problem is that once you've done ToLM and HoW the rest of the game is going to be a cakewalk, except for the final boss maybe. You can always turn on HoF mode if you get bored though.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/38121/mod-starlight-new-weapons-and-spells-for-iwd-ee-wip
If you already know the game by heart and/or if you are in love with reloading or resting after every fight, it's you.
I think that maybe a lot of the perceived challenge comes from the fact that IWD is different from BG2. It is noticeably more focused on combat, which is longer, more intense, and involves substantially more mobs. In BG2 you can often just muddle through somehow because things die quickly and you rarely face more than 3-4 mobs at a time, but if you don't have a plan in IWD and step into a room full of 20 undead running for your face you'll have a hard time.
Ultimately of course there's also the fact that BG2 has SCS, which is a *HUGE* part of the difficulty (the unmodded game can be beaten naked, and has). I sincerely hope that we will get a SCS equivalent for IWD soon, and then things will look very different.
Yay for the moment!
Extra-Yays when something like SWS (Spine of the World Stratagems) manifests
as the OP noted... they are a veteran of infinity engine games. once you understand the game mechanics, you know exactly what you need to do for almost any battle. the only battles that are a challenge then are ones that throw curve balls at you, like the fight with the final boss in dragon's eye, where your first time through it, you're surprised by a handful of heavy mages that spawn behind you.
but after that... oddly the difficulty mostly scales down. orogs? ettins? these things aren't as tough as a mummy from Kresselack's tomb!
but then, that's likely why they added the HoW expansion, which ramps up the difficulty again.
so, bottom line then... no, this game is not too easy. the entire IWD series, both 1 and 2, are very well balanced tactical DnD games, and I've played every infinity engine game ever made at least three times.