What difficulty to play?

[Quarie]

Hello! I picked up the game on release and started to play it on tactican. I remebered that i did stuggle alot with the game and that i had to steal alot of stuff from vendors to get stuff (i understand that i didn't had to steal but i thought that i had to do it at that time), nvm. I didn't get very far into the game before i for some reason closed it and never opened it again.

Well, i now want to give the game a new chance and was wondering over 3 things.

First, what difficulity to play on?
As i said, i remebered that i had a rough time with tactician back on release and even though i most likey am abit smarter now i don't want to bash my head against a wall but at the same time i really like a good challenge and not a game that is a total push-over.
Keep in mind that i wont be looking up guides or builds of any kind. That being said, i like trying to make my characters as powerful as possible on my own and not goofing around with wierd hybrid builds.
Is tactican a good difficulity for what i want or is the game challenging enough on normal if you have no clue about builds and stuff?

2nd question.
Will i miss out if i make my own character instead of picking one of the "premade" characters with the extra story?

And lastly.
I heard that there is mods for the game now. Any mods that you guys feel is a must have now? If so, please tell me about it so i can look it up!

Thanks for all the answers!

Regards

[Paradox]

Tactician. Even on Tactician the game can be ridiculously easy if you want it to be.

You'll miss out on some dialog/storylines. Maybe a couple of rewards or something, but nothing super major.

Not sure about mods.

[HidesHisFace]

Starting from the bottom:
I never really felt the need for mods - maybe some cosmetic mods or quality of life stuff, but nothing major.

As for pre-made characters - each "origin" character has own backstory and own special quest line (and some are pretty heavily tied to the main story - can clarify plenty of things). Character you make yourself doesn't have any such thing - BUT your companions are still going to be those characters with own backstories - you may still experience their stuff, just as a bystander of sorts. So, in the end, you are not really losing much, especially if you plan multiple playthroughs.

As for the difficulty - Divinity is a hard game, no question here. Tactician is doable, but you have to carefully weight your every move in combat. On top of that - Tactician locks you in terms of difficulty setting.
If you were having trouble - start on classic. It is still challenging and puts you on equal ground against enemies. Basically - on classic, neither you, nor enemies get any buffs or nerfs.
Most importantly - Classic lets you switch the difficulty, in case you ever get stuck.

On tactician - odds are stacked against you - enemies get more hp, more armour, deal more damage, get some special traits unique to this mode.

Believe me, there is no shame in going classic.

[Hollywood]

I actually recommend playing as a custom character first, it feels to me like you don't miss out on any of the great story telling and acting. Then play one of the characters you had as a companion to get a fresh look on their stories that you only got to see as a spectator. It also helps you understand their character personality as well for RP purposes, as in understanding what they are going through or their background as you come across the choices you now get to make when playing as them.

As for difficulty, tactician is the only thing I've ever played, and I feel it must be the best. If it were easier, there are so many tricks and tactics that I would not know about, tactics that really let you feel the open decision making in this game rather than walking in an face smashing. Things like managing barrels, stealing, managing terrain and puddles, teleportation, buffs/debuffs I can't imagine being that important in a lower difficulty as it is doable on tactician without doing those things too terribly often. However if micromanaging tricks like sneaking characters into position for free AP big damage combos and emergency CC/support isn't your idea of a good time, I'd take it down a notch because there are at least 4 fights in this game that really require those tactics without a perfect team composition.

As for mods, the only ones I use are infinite spirit vision and + level mobs, however there are a few nice ones out there that I dabble in here and there like crafting extensions and such but I don't recommend any mods for the first full playthrough anyways. There is a QoL mod called "Let there be tooltips" or something like that which could be useful for new players to know every possible thing that can be looted, as some items and all containers are hidden from the show loot button. However, I prefer playing without that because to this 4th playthrough I still find chest hidden in areas I never realized and it makes me smile.

[Hollywood]

Also with a custom character you get a nice crutch of a source ability called Dome of Protection, which is unavailable to Origin characters. It's not the strongest character source ability, but it is definitely stronger than at least 3 of the origin characters. It's a nice ability for a new player as well because it's a 10 turn "Oh poop" button that guarantees that your team has a steady source of armor coming in every turn, which in this game is more important than health itself.

[Quarie]

Thank you guys so much for the amazing answers! I think i will make a custom character to start with. Still on the edge with difficulty tho. I like the "think outside of the box" approach. The only thing holding me back from being a "ofc i gonna play tactican" is that i like to rp in these kind of games and i absolutly hate to steal stuff. I like the money management of "what to buy hmm" etc etc.
Oh well i got work for another 4h so hopfully i can decide when i get home.

Again thanks for all the amazing replies!

[Hollywood]

Originally posted by Quarie:

Thank you guys so much for the amazing answers! I think i will make a custom character to start with. Still on the edge with difficulty tho. I like the "think outside of the box" approach. The only thing holding me back from being a "ofc i gonna play tactican" is that i like to rp in these kind of games and i absolutly hate to steal stuff. I like the money management of "what to buy hmm" etc etc.
Oh well i got work for another 4h so hopfully i can decide when i get home.

Again thanks for all the amazing replies!

Not a problem man, hope it tickles your feathers like it does ours. As for the "not wanting to steal," aspect of your RP, well there's some easy workarounds for that.

A) 90% of the NPC's you meet in this game hate your guts without actually knowing they hate you. Essentially, they are both racist against anyone not their own, and they are prejudiced against all users of Source magic which is you in a nutshell. So you can always justify it as, well they hate my guts and these are basically Nazi's so no problem stealing from them.

B) You need their gear, and without you getting that gear they are going to die. They may not know it, but you're one of the few people left in the world with the ability to save said world. Idk about you, but stealing someone's items and making them destitute is a justifiable moral dilemma to pay for saving their lives and those of everyone around them.

Also you'll have to get into the viewpoint of, "There really are no perfect choices." This game really drives that message well into it's story. Every choice you make in this game screws somebody over to help someone else, and it's up to you to choose whether or not you are happy with the path you take that's covered in the blood of possibly innocent people.

I'm like you, in most RPG's with these choices like Star Wars Kotor, Mass Effect, The Witcher, etc. I tend to always lean towards being the best person I can be, but this game really makes you question whether anything you did was the right choice or not. The good news though, is that tactician is completely possible to play successfully without stealing, however it will increase the difficulty a tad bit for the early game, but by the mid game you'll be so flooded with money that it won't even matter to you.

[Quarie]

I think i gonna give tactician a good try atleast. If it's too hard or tedious i just replay on normal with more knowledge :)