TF is wrong with the difficulty in this game?

[Nathaniel Prime]

I'm in what seems like the prologue, in the maze... and there are random enemies that can kill one of my dudes 1:1 in a single turn. I'm playing on Core, if an actual DM that ran a game like this he'd never have more than one session. What's the trick here? I don't think I'm un-optimized enough because I'm level 2 and there is no room to have even made mistakes in builds yet. I love the number of builds available, but is the whole game this stupidly hard?

I've cleared Deadfire multiple times on the hardest difficulty and have been playing D&D since 1st edition basic, so I know I'm at least mostly competent at TTRPGs and computer games based on them.

[Alt]

Core is not equal table top rules. Core is overturned difficulty. If you want to play as close to table top stats pick normal difficulty. Everything above it requires from you to constantly over-buff your team(especially on hard and unfair) and make precise strategical decisions. Meaning yes, game is really hard for average person.

[erian]

Dont compare tabletop game with living GM to computer game with unlimited save/load .This game is optimized assuming players use save/load a lot. Plus difficulty levels are really what is written on them. Unfair is unfair, hard is hard. Deadfire max level difficulty+challanges are roughly core level difficulty in pathfinder wrath. If you cant pass through maze dungeon on core level then you doing something wrong(dont understand some mechanic or something else). Use buffs. Use potions. Use common sense. There is only one hard boss in maze. Its water elemental. And you get tutorial before it saying that not all bosses are mandatory and you can skip them. All of this content is doable on any character build, even on unfair difficulty.

[mk11]

If you really inspect every enemy and work out what they can do you could find it easier. In practice, it is easier to save/load (most of the time).

Turn-based is easier for most fights but RTWP allows you to kite enemies so is good for things such as the water elemental.

Level 2 is easily early enough to mess up builds. E.g. taking Protective Luck on Camellia makes the maze a lot easier.

If you are losing your squidgy characters you may need to master how enemies pick targets. (Expose your tank first.)

[darkholyPL]

'Core' is a bit of a misnomer here. It assumes you know the videogme of Wrath, not the TT rules. If you play only by your TT knowledge, you will have a hard time on Core.
Ironically, once you understand how the videogame works, Core is a cake walk.

[Yow!]

I am still finishing kingmaker, before playing this one, but if it is anything like it, the difficulty settings are not smooth between them, but huge leaps of power to the enemies. I am at the very end of kingmaker, the house, and i have dropped from challenging (the one before unfair) to story mode, because really, it became a hassle.

Check the difficulty settings, customizing it is probably the best option, because from kingmaker, the feeling is: the harder the fight the longer you have to buff the party before engaging... sad Rovagug knows.

Or loading the game because of rare (hahahaha ) crit events on your main character invoking a game over.

Of course buff management may be a fun thing in between fights, to see how far you go without rest, but it gets old fast and just increase loading frequency.

I intend to start this one with custom difficulty settings.

[ProestUnicorn]

It's only hard on unfair, really. You can't compare it to tabletop difficulty though.

[.21grams]

Originally posted by Yow!:

I am still finishing kingmaker, before playing this one, but if it is anything like it, the difficulty settings are not smooth between them, but huge leaps of power to the enemies. I am at the very end of kingmaker, the house, and i have dropped from challenging (the one before unfair) to story mode, because really, it became a hassle.

Check the difficulty settings, customizing it is probably the best option, because from kingmaker, the feeling is: the harder the fight the longer you have to buff the party before engaging... sad Rovagug knows.

Or loading the game because of rare (hahahaha :Toxic_Geralt:) crit events on your main character invoking a game over.

Of course buff management may be a fun thing in between fights, to see how far you go without rest, but it gets old fast and just increase loading frequency.

I intend to start this one with custom difficulty settings.

Perhaps you'll be glad to hear that WotR's difficulty curve is much smoother in comparision. It still has weird difficulty spikes in some places, sure, but it's a much more palatable ride throughout. (Besides, The House at the Edge of Time was more of an example of botched dungeon design, the crass difficulty spike that resulted from it was a mere symptom of a more deeply-rooted disease.)
That said, it still won't deter people from criticizing WotR's difficulty of being busted although in my opinion, it's fine for the most part.

[.21grams]

Originally posted by Nathaniel Prime:

/snip
I've cleared Deadfire multiple times on the hardest difficulty and have been playing D&D since 1st edition basic, so I know I'm at least mostly competent at TTRPGs and computer games based on them.

Your competence in Deadfire and other, similar games is not necessarily a benchmark for success in this game. The baseline difficulty can vary greatly from title to title, after all. WotR is well known to be more demanding than other representatives of its genre. There's no shame in dialing back the difficulty a little to acclimatize yourself a bit, then ramp it up again once you've done so. The difficulty sliders are there for a reason.

[Raikon]

New players playing a difficulty beyond their capabilities, then complaining. These threads will exist forever. Here is my advice. Play on normal difficulty.

[ppaladin123]

The first few levels (and the shield maze) are pretty difficult on Core. And at the end of the game (Chapter 4 and on) you are going to utterly steamroll everything. This is partly the fault of the developers and partly the fault of the underline system. Pretty much every tabletop system has a sweet spot and 3.5e/pathfinder is no exception.

[Duder]

My advice is keep it on core, and git good
There's a lot of trial and error not to mention it's one of the most complex rpgs I've ever played.
Core isn't that hard if you know what you're doing. This game you really have to change up your strategy for every battle. You need to inspect the enemies, find their weaknesses, and then proceed accordingly. It is harder on lower levels. I just upped it to Hard because actually Core gets too easy after a point.

But really, you finished Pillars on PoTD and you're having problems with this?
My guess is you're not versed well enough in the mechanics, but that's just a guess.
Pillars in my opinion is preparation for these games, they were great in their own way but a dumbed down version in terms of complexity. Similar, but not the same game by a long shot. However I saw the difficulty on PoTD similar to Core on this in the beginning.

The difficulty is the best part of these games imo. Too much hand holding going on with games

[Magic A. I.]

Originally posted by Nathaniel Prime:

I'm in what seems like the prologue, in the maze... and there are random enemies that can kill one of my dudes 1:1 in a single turn.

1. Use Grease spell on the brutes.
2. Get Slumber hex and use it a lot (but watch out for elves).
3. Coup de Grace slumbering foes.
4. Stack up Seelah's AC.
5. Take advantage of initiative order by postponing turns.
6. Sun Tzu really helps.
7. Exit to desktop and reload the game on dice cancer.

Early game balance ain't that great, but manageable, and it gets a lot better around level 4, which isn't that far away in WotR.

[Methariorn]

Game it's not terrible hard on core beside the random crtitical miss stack (I scored eight critical miss in a row lol). You need to undrestood the mechanics and work with your party synergy. On a first run you it's a safe bet to roll some melee build imho.

[Duder]

Originally posted by Methariorn:

Game it's not terrible hard on core beside the random crtitical miss stack (I scored eight critical miss in a row lol). You need to undrestood the mechanics and work with your party synergy. On a first run you it's a safe bet to roll some melee build imho.

Yeah I restarted Kingmaker probably three times, and this twice. Some people don't like doing that, but it tells me that's a good game.

[Astral Projection]

Uhh yeah first time through go Normal difficulty.

Core is like the most sadistic DM and balanced around only the the most OP builds.