Recommended difficulty setting for 1st playthrough?

[Max Doge]

Sounds like Tactician should be up my alley?

I'm a modded BGT veteran but didn't play previous Larian titles so probably doesn't count for much.

Honour difficulty sounds interesting but doesn't make much sense at this point since I would have to learn everything about the game first.

[Jise]

I'm also on my first playthrough and finding Explorer(Easiest) very satisfying. Double HP and +2 dice roll for conversations lets you make your own story.

[Cadaver747]

Normal is way too easy and you don't feel the need to use any items other than healing potions. Tactician is much better since the game actually teaches you how to play it properly or you will die in a few turns, there is no room for mistake, hence every battle feels meaningful.

[belgix]

If you are familiar with D&D rules and know the bestiary go tactician or custom mode with honor ruleset. I've made the mistake of playing balanced and with an exception for Ketheric boss fight, I found the game easy.

[northernwater]

Tactician, and just make frequent saves. Explore every area and don't rush based on quests. The quests are for the most part uninteresting. The interesting part is the exploration.

[Mike Garrison]

I started on balanced and I was happy with that.

Alternative is to start on tactical, and if it is a problem switch to balanced.

[Sly Bandit]

the game sucks ♥♥♥♥. If you're confident with your skill in torturing every single mote of efficiency from your turn based experience then you'll be fine on tactician. Enjoy your 300 hour playthrough. It's basically the exact same as Div2 since larian sucks ♥♥♥♥ and just ported the experience over after wooing an exec in charge of bg3 development.

[Zeel Ara]

Originally posted by Sly Bandit:

the game sucks ♥♥♥♥. If you're confident with your skill in torturing every single mote of efficiency from your turn based experience then you'll be fine on tactician. Enjoy your 300 hour playthrough. It's basically the exact same as Div2 since larian sucks ♥♥♥♥ and just ported the experience over after wooing an exec in charge of bg3 development.

Holy cow, that has got to be the most pathetic post I've seen in a long time. I really really hope, for your sake, that you aren't more than 12 years old.

[Favonius]

Balanced was fine for me on first run because i had about no previous experience except general considerations on TT RPG, was running totally blind and was more interested in the RP part of the game.
I guess you should be ok on tactician ?

Anyway you can change difficulty during your play.

Just avoid decreasing diff ponctually because very often when you're blocked it means there's something you did not see or some rule you did not understand.

[Worlord]

I always play a first run in any game at the default settings, then my next game is at the hardest setting. For instance here I did the first in balanced then went directly to HM.

[Detective Costeau]

You don't need to make a final decision at the start anyway, you can adjust the difficulty as you go if you find the game too easy/hard.

[Max Doge]

What about the dice settings, I remember some controversy about it when the game released?

[Яeplicant]

If you're already familiar with D&D, 5E or previous titles from Larian (D:OS2 especially), Tactician's usually a good place to start.

It's not too easy, nor too hard and still has a bit of challenge to it. General consensus was and perhaps still is that even Tactician is too easy.

Originally posted by Wulfmax:

What about the dice settings, I remember some controversy about it when the game released?

Disabling Karmic Dice is usually the way to go as rolls would be in your favor most of the time and making it fairer by avoiding streaks of bad luck and alike. I'd say go with whatever you'd prefer.

[jonnin]

maybe an example will help..
the first fight you get into off the introduction is usually 3 of those intellect devourers. If you fight them on balanced or below, they can only melee attack you. If you go higher up, they will have a new ranged attack that hits pretty hard and is quite dangerous even if you managed to get level 2 in the intro. I am only half joking when I say this is one of the hardest fights in the game -- you have so little to work with at this point esp if your character is easy to hit. They can be avoided, but my point here was how much of a spike there is between balanced and tac. All the bosses and 'major enemy' in groups will have an additional ability or spell or something dangerous in tac.

that said the game is pretty easy even if you don't choose to use the many .. erm.. 'enhanced tactics' available like throwing stuff off the map to its death.

[wtiger27]

Balance. It will be challenging enough for a new player and yet, not too frustrating ether until you learn the game better.

[alanc9]

Originally posted by Sly Bandit:

the game sucks ♥♥♥♥. If you're confident with your skill in torturing every single mote of efficiency from your turn based experience then you'll be fine on tactician. Enjoy your 300 hour playthrough. It's basically the exact same as Div2 since larian sucks ♥♥♥♥ and just ported the experience over after wooing an exec in charge of bg3 development.

Why are you even on this board?