Game is too easy/hard - how to adjust difficulty

[guppy]

There are a lot of threads claiming the game is either too hard or too easy.

executive summary: take long rests more(easier) or less frequently(harder) to scale the difficulty in what ever direction you want.

Longer explanation:
D&D 5E is "ballanced" around the idea that an average adventuring day ( 1x long rest ) should contain 6-8 medium to hard encounters(1), with 2 short rests spread out through the day(2)

So of course it's going to seem easy if you take a long rest before each and every combat and then blaze through all of your resources to shoot ## big aoe / smite spells in the first round of combat.

Want a higher difficulty, try to actually complete 6 combats before resting - still not difficult enough pick a higher number.

Want an easier time? take more long rests - you can do it practically everywhere, with no penalty other than having to click "leave camp".

Still too hard? You might have come to an area too soon, leave and come back when you are higher level / have better gear.

If even with that the game is just too hard, make sure you understand the basic combat rules - ie. don't use equipement that you are not proficient with and so on, youtube can be a help here. There are by now quite a few "things you might be doing wrong in BG3" videos out there.

If you need still more help, this may be of some use:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/3808408747686350215/


1) https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/building-combat-encounters#TheAdventuringDay
2) https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/building-combat-encounters#ShortRests

[Shinobi]

fair enough. however the mechanics should be changed so not to force players to "adjust" the difficulty artificially themselves by less or more resting sessions. i don't think it would be too hard to level that out. i am a bit amazed by the game's inbalance in difficulty, being such a mindblowingly huge project.

[Flavour Bun]

There is a penalty though, long resting too often will cause you to fail quests or progress things you don't want progressed.

[guppy]

Originally posted by Shinobi:

fair enough. however the mechanics should be changed so not to force players to "adjust" the difficulty artificially themselves by less or more resting sessions. i don't think it would be too hard to level that out. i am a bit amazed by the game's inbalance in difficulty, being such a mindblowingly huge project.

While it seems like it would be easy to give the players a 'resting' limit - like say after 10 days you become a mindflayer on tactician and so on - the problem is you as a player don't know before hand just how much figthing you will be doing though out the game.

Other solutions, like only allowing resting after X fights or a day/night cycle has the similar issues.

So to be as beginner friendly as possible ( I guess ) they let you chose how often to sleep with no consequences.

If you find that the game is so easy it takes away your joy then simply sleep less, I'm sure in time there will be a 'hardcore' mod that will in someway limit your long rests.

But until then moderate your self, don't eat the whole bucket of Icecream just because it's there - or if you do don't go to the vendor and complaint about how bad you feel ;)

[guppy]

Originally posted by Flavour Bun:

There is a penalty though, long resting too often will cause you to fail quests or progress things you don't want progressed.

I've yet to encounter that - but I'll take your word for it

[Mongooses]

Originally posted by Shinobi:

fair enough. however the mechanics should be changed so not to force players to "adjust" the difficulty artificially themselves by less or more resting sessions. i don't think it would be too hard to level that out. i am a bit amazed by the game's inbalance in difficulty, being such a mindblowingly huge project.

Rest management is a core tenet of D&D difficulty. Even Pathfinder WOTR becomes a lot easier if you can just blow every spell and cool down in every fight.

The Pathfinder games added in some game mechanics to punish you for resting too often (WOTR with corruption) so it led into the gameplay of push as far as you can before each rest. Even then, in most circumstances you could just leave the dungeon and go back to your keep to cleans the corruption.

In BG3 the issues is that there isn't really any penalty to resting. Unless you are literally resting after every fight, you can easily make any quest timers that are around, and food is so abundant it may as well just not exist as a mechanic.

[dot]

I could see them adjusting the cost of long rest and/or removing supplies sources to feel scarcity and have to scrape or try to play as safe as possible in tactician. Hell, even in balanced, i reached on first playthrough the end of the act 1 with 1040 in supply /40= 26 long rests + 52 short rests...
Probably that wouldn`t be enough, would also need the touch things like pickpocketing, try to tap some holes to be able to control the economy of the player.

[Mongooses]

Originally posted by dot:

I could see them adjusting the cost of long rest and/or removing supplies sources to feel scarcity and have to scrape or try to play as safe as possible in tactician. Hell, even in balanced, i reached on first playthrough the end of the act 1 with 1040 in supply /40= 26 long rests + 52 short rests...
Probably that wouldn`t be enough, would also need the touch things like pickpocketing, try to tap some holes to be able to control the economy of the player.

Halfway through act 2 i had 3380 supplies in camp on tactician...
100% agree that long rests are pretty much never an issue.

[guppy]

Originally posted by Mongooses:

Originally posted by Shinobi:

fair enough. however the mechanics should be changed so not to force players to "adjust" the difficulty artificially themselves by less or more resting sessions. i don't think it would be too hard to level that out. i am a bit amazed by the game's inbalance in difficulty, being such a mindblowingly huge project.

Rest management is a core tenet of D&D difficulty. Even Pathfinder WOTR becomes a lot easier if you can just blow every spell and cool down in every fight.

The Pathfinder games added in some game mechanics to punish you for resting too often (WOTR with corruption) so it led into the gameplay of push as far as you can before each rest. Even then, in most circumstances you could just leave the dungeon and go back to your keep to cleans the corruption.

In BG3 the issues is that there isn't really any penalty to resting. Unless you are literally resting after every fight, you can easily make any quest timers that are around, and food is so abundant it may as well just not exist as a mechanic.

Seems like it would be an easy fix to just wildly increase the amount of food needed for tactician - not sure if it's achievable with mods

[$unwish]

Originally posted by guppy:

There are a lot of threads claiming the game is either too hard or too easy.

executive summary: take long rests more(easier) or less frequently(harder) to scale the difficulty in what ever direction you want.

Longer explanation:
D&D 5E is "ballanced" around the idea that an average adventuring day ( 1x long rest ) should contain 6-8 medium to hard encounters(1), with 2 short rests spread out through the day(2)

So of course it's going to seem easy if you take a long rest before each and every combat and then blaze through all of your resources to shoot ## big aoe / smite spells in the first round of combat.

Want a higher difficulty, try to actually complete 6 combats before resting - still not difficult enough pick a higher number.

Want an easier time? take more long rests - you can do it practically everywhere, with no penalty other than having to click "leave camp".

Still too hard? You might have come to an area too soon, leave and come back when you are higher level / have better gear.

If even with that the game is just too hard, make sure you understand the basic combat rules - ie. don't use equipement that you are not proficient with and so on, youtube can be a help here. There are by now quite a few "things you might be doing wrong in BG3" videos out there.

If you need still more help, this may be of some use:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/3808408747686350215/


1) https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/building-combat-encounters#TheAdventuringDay
2) https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/building-combat-encounters#ShortRests

i long rested twice through the whole second act. Probably less than 15 in whole tactician run.
Changes nothing, game is too easy still.

[Stumpy]

The games hard when you use bad tactics . Once you know what to do or you play smart they become easy.

[coRex]

Originally posted by $unwish:

Originally posted by guppy:

There are a lot of threads claiming the game is either too hard or too easy.

executive summary: take long rests more(easier) or less frequently(harder) to scale the difficulty in what ever direction you want.

Longer explanation:
D&D 5E is "ballanced" around the idea that an average adventuring day ( 1x long rest ) should contain 6-8 medium to hard encounters(1), with 2 short rests spread out through the day(2)

So of course it's going to seem easy if you take a long rest before each and every combat and then blaze through all of your resources to shoot ## big aoe / smite spells in the first round of combat.

Want a higher difficulty, try to actually complete 6 combats before resting - still not difficult enough pick a higher number.

Want an easier time? take more long rests - you can do it practically everywhere, with no penalty other than having to click "leave camp".

Still too hard? You might have come to an area too soon, leave and come back when you are higher level / have better gear.

If even with that the game is just too hard, make sure you understand the basic combat rules - ie. don't use equipement that you are not proficient with and so on, youtube can be a help here. There are by now quite a few "things you might be doing wrong in BG3" videos out there.

If you need still more help, this may be of some use:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/3808408747686350215/


1) https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/building-combat-encounters#TheAdventuringDay
2) https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/building-combat-encounters#ShortRests

i long rested twice through the whole second act. Probably less than 15 in whole tactician run.
Changes nothing, game is too easy still.

Yeah it is/was pretty much the same for me.
Also the recommandation to not do long rests just results in a really boring combat, because you basically just do attacks und cantrips...

Right now i am testing some combinations of the tactician plus mod.
Its a good thing, but i am looking for the right combination :D

[F.O.A.M]

you cant make a game like this harder without making it frustrating. BG3 aswell as dnd is a game of chance, everything is a % of happening. you can miss a lvl 1 enemy as max lvl because there is always that nat 1 roll.
this is not a dnd table where the dm and the players know each other and where the dm can adjust the difficulty to hes players. this is a company that is making a dnd like game that fits everyone.

i for one do think the game is to easy but if they made it hard then the game would get bashed for putting to high of an expectation on its players. i think pathfinder kingsmaker and wrath is a good comparison as they require you to know wth you are doing to get anywhere because THAT game is hard if anything.

im also one of those people who thinks making a game hard should not be forced on the players, things like nuzlocks in pokemon just to make the baby mode games slightly harder has never sat right with me.
this game was never meant to be hard, it was meant to be an experience for people who cant experience this type of game anywhere else because every other type of these games are far harder.

i love this game and its my goty but i for one would not complain if a higher difficulty manage to wrangle itself into a patch, i also would not complain if it didnt happen. im having to much fun to complain about that.

tldr if you want a game similar to BG3 but hard go play pathfinder wrath of the righteous