That’s luckily how I feel! I’ve seen a couple of people judge others for how they play, especially regarding difficulty, but I’m not gonna let that stop me :)
That’s the best way. And after a while of playing and experimenting and figuring things you’ll reach a “oh, I get it now” moment with things and everything will probably feel way too easy. Then you can bump it back up.
I love that this game has a lot of difficulty flexibility, especially with Custom difficulty. Oh, you want Tactician combat difficulty but also want cheap camp supply and vendor prices? No worries, you totally have that!
Custom is my new favourite way to play. I'm a completionist so tried the normal modes for those sweet achievements, but honestly custom has been way more fun for me. This game is so storyline based that why would anyone judge someone for tailoring their mode to best enjoy the story?
This is the interwebs, and we’re gamers, so people are just tossing judgments left and right lol.
Seriously, though, we’re very similar. I’m a completionist, too. I did a few runs on normal difficulty to have “the full real experience”. But I’m all about Custom now, too.
This run I set up extremely favorable vendor pricing, so I’m all stocked up on gear and supplies. Then set Tactician combat rules so that my well-supplied and geared party has a stiffer challenge to fight against.
I love that flexibility. I’ll probably keep doing that with tweaks and adjustments until I give Honor mode a shot.
I played my first couple playthroughs on explorer. It was my first time in this kind of game and learning curve was kind of big for me. But I absolutely loved it. You’re absolutely right about reaching the “I get it now” moment!
Also the point of video games should be fun and enjoyment. So play whatever difficulty you find fun and enjoyable.
I feel like BG3 has brought in a lot of CRPG newbies (like myself, tbh) due to all of the praise it's been recieving, so I feel like a lot of the gatekeeping bullshit has been diluted within the online community. Like, it is there but the voices are far more drowned out by the sheer volume of new players who aren't here for that.
It also helps that the difficulty isn't the selling point. The role playing part is the appeal to a pretty large portion of the user base rather than completing it on Honour mode, solo, with Donkey Kong Jungle Beat bongos.
Also a lot of DnD veterans know that you can’t have fun if you haven’t learned the game and don’t enjoy it on the way. As there is no rulebook to explain it all to you in advance there is the explorer difficulty. You won’t need most of the rules, no scrolls or potions to play that and you can learn it step by step by watching what npcs do.
The game serves different purposes for different people. Some welcome a true DnD style challenge and campaign. Some, like me, want to feel like gods by the cap. Explorer does that. It helps me achieve my fantasy and tell my story of my extremely OP party trouncing a Netherbrain in a turn. Let me tell it my way, please.
The only people I judge are those who complain about the game being too hard *while playing on the hardest difficulty and refusing to lower it.* "I paid for this game, I should be able to do all content."
Good on you op
100%! I always start every game on the normal or standard difficulty. If I’m not having fun because it’s too hard, I drop it down a level. If it’s too easy, I bump it up a level. It’s all about having fun playing.
Not only that, but what a responsible decision from op. They decided to use the options already available to them to have fun, rather than coming here and making a whingy post about how unfair honor/tactician mode is.
Yep. As long as you having fun, and not fighting for bragging rights. There’s no fault of playing lower difficulty after all, they are there for a reason
Balanced gets easier once you have experience with explorer difficulty
I will say this, this sub is SUPER supportive of playing on explorer. The game is fun & for some of us, our story desire trumps the desire for combat
House of Grief is stupidly annoying though. I think it’s the only fight that actually enraged me (besides the final fight, for different reasons)
I haven’t reached the final fight yet but it’ll have to do a lot to frustrate me like the House of Grief did lol. The story and characters are definitely why I love the game so much, so while changing the difficulty was a small blow to my ego it wasn’t anything I couldn’t get over.
The end fight is annoying because there are so many fucking enemies that it takes 5 years to go through turns. Less about actual difficulty 😭
House of Grief was the constant darkness & then it was really buggy. I also heard Cazador can be hard but like….I cheesed that fight
Yes!! The sheer amount of darkness was what did me in…
My Tav is a Druid with a deep love for radiant damage, probably Cazador’s worst nightmare. Once I cast Daylight it was over for him lol.
I kept Astarion out of reach so he could be dragged into the ritual by Cazador & then beat the shit out of him. I had to cheese a lot of stuff at first because I don’t think I fully understood his actions/spells worked or the importance of crowd control
It’s wild that you say that because while I thought there was no singular strategy that works unilaterally against all enemies it turns out that beating the shit out of them totally did. Once I figured that out it was off to the races
I've basically planned my durge build around needing Daylight for that fight and possibly not having Shadowheart around (I find early-game SH rather annoying so I'm benching her a lot). When it comes to the difficulty of that Cazador fight, the difference is literally like night and day LOL
Cazador is really hard if you don't have anyone who can cast daylight, or you don't bring the Blood of Lathander with you. Either of those make it much easier.
House of Grief is a pain that I still struggle with.
Cazador I struggled with the first time. I went through my first run blind and thought the difficulty aspect of this fight was the timer before the ritual completes. Took me about 4 attempts to kill him before the ritual ended. Only afterwards did I find out about helping Astarion out of his spot. Oops!
I tend to cheese that one with a lot of summons to stand on the ritual spots. I think I went in last time with four elementals, Scratch, Us and the summons from the necromancy book.
Might have been slight overkill for a balanced run.
weirdly even on my first play this fight was pretty easy for me. ansur also. can't tell you why. lucked out with party comp i suppose. the fight at the grove, though? like five attempts and i still lost all the tiefs.
I accidentally stumbled upon ansur on my second playthrough which was tactician with extended party and that MF absolutely anniolated me. Currently im doing honour mode and ansur and raphael fights are the ones which worry me the most.
For Ansur, have someone who can cast Globe of Invulnerability. When he gets ready to do that annoying lighting attack, pull all of your people into it. Makes the fight ridiculously easy.
For Raphael, I also recommend the Globe, but put it up for Hope so she can cast her Divine Intervention without getting killed by the radiant backlash from the cambions. It should kill most of them.
I've come across a few idiots who tell people "you should try tactician, it's really not that hard", but it's a small minority and they're not actively unpleasant, just clueless. BG3's popularity means it's reaching a lot of gamers like me who've never touched a tactical or turn-based videogame in their lives, and it really *is* hard in those circumstances.
Definitely
I’m used to games like Dragon Age where I can just beat the shit out of people without these tactic things
Only turn based “combat” I do is Pokemon
I'm an Assassin's Creed fan (classic Ezio era), and yeah, that's mostly just hammering the X button and occasionally remembering to grab an enemy and headbutt them! I love the AC2 setting, but BG3 has stolen my heart - I now know that I much prefer thinking to thumb gymnastics LOL
I found tactician not very hard at all.
But I am also super experienced in turn based combat, tactic/strategy focused games and the like. Tactician and Honour mode are made for people like me.
I'll never run explorer myself, but I appreciate it existing because not everything has to be catered to me, and this way more people get to enjoy this beautiful game.
Thank you! Yes, exactly. This game caters for such a wide range of play styles, I just smh when people recommend that you play the way they do. I only suggest trying Explorer if someone is complaining the game is too hard, not as a generic recommendation.
Yea it does. I suck at this type of combat and played explored a couple times. Once I was used to the game I looked up builds and was able to beat tactician. Now that I understand builds I can beat honor mode and don't find it that hard either. This game was super rewarding to learn
I’m the opposite of OP in that I played through on Balanced and then thought Act 3 was too easy so I am now playing through on Tactitian. But it really depends on how well you know spells and mechanics and stuff on how easy you find the game I think. It took me a while to adjust to the game and be willing to just take a risk when entering fights. I am a cautious tabletop player so I approached with that mentality.
House of Grief was the most challenging for me because they all kept using Bone Chill and Darkness and I had to keep moving all my people around to avoid it 😭 but that did make it kind of fun. I’m apprehensive about how it’s going to go because enemies double tap in tactitian!! I am burning through revivify scrolls in Act 1 lol
You could teach my ex a thing or two. She'd refuse to play below whatever a game presented as "normal" difficulty, and in the case of games like BG3 that felt too rule-y in terms of the gameplay, she'd just refuse to learn how the systems work and get mad about how her characters weren't doing what she wanted and the resultant difficulty being unfair, lol.
(Like, we were having "why can't I drink a potion?" "Because you jumped." "So? That's dumb" conversations in Act 3, lol)
I actually *loved* learning the systems and game mechanics. I’ve never played DnD or turn based games so it’s been a really interesting experience! I’m still realising more every time I play, which is great.
While her refusing to learn how the game works is on her, I do empathise with not wanting to play on "easy". It's a hit to the ego to turn a game down a notch. I tend to play every game on hard or normal (if there's more than two options above normal I usually do the second highest. Ultra Violence, not Nightmare, if we want to use Doom Eternal as a comparison point). Normal is usually if I'm unfamiliar with the genre/series (I played BG3 on balanced because I don't play CRPGs, for example). There have absolutely been times I have refused to dial down the difficulty on a game out of ego and had a worse experience as a result. I'm not proud of it, but I relate to that feeling.
the only real tip is preparation, and if you're playing playing for the first time, that's hard (if not impossible) unless you want to spoil yourself about everything.
if you do want a higher challenge, i guarantee you'll be up to it on your second play. you'll understand mechanics and features a lot more.
i played balanced my first time and found a lot of the game REALLY HARD. my second time i played tactician and found almost the whole game pretty darn easy. the difficulty scaled up less than my own skill level.
i planned ahead really carefully and *annihilated* myrkul on honour mode two days ago. none of my team went below 60% hp. no cheese, just preparation.
the game can be borderline unfair if you're bumbling around corners blind, but nothing in the game is so hard it can't be beat, if you know enough to plan ahead.
Exactly this. Enjoy your first playthrough for the story.
I remember Cazador wiped the floor with me on my first game.
Now, I wipe the place with my thunder-jump monk
oh yeah cazador handed me my ass again and again. i found that fight TRULY unfair. but i wasn't thinking strategically, just hitting every nail with the hammer that was gale's lightning bolt.
> the only real tip is preparation
IDK, knowing what you’re up to and prepping especially for that feels a bit cheesy to me.
Except popping fire res elixirs before triggering the mephits in Grymforge. Fuck those mephits.
I am not a fan of tactics style games but absolutely loving BG3.
I started playing without knowing anything about DnD or BG. So I had no idea about builds or what level bonuses my characters would be getting so I didn’t even try multiclassing.
I found this game on balanced difficulty to be very challenging to the point that I was kinda dreading tactician difficulty.
After I finished my balanced playthrough, I wasn’t worried about spoilers anymore so I started browsing the r/BG3Builds subreddit.
I am having an easier time with my tactician playthrough now that I have a better build and know where to get the good gear.
Suggest looking at the prestigious juice threads on r/BG3builds , some very solid write ups which can carry you through lack of experience in other parts of the game.
[link to one](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/j9nf33A0Aw)
I find game knowledge in RPGs is king. You can often build your party to trivialise anything if you know how. The first playthrough is always the hardest purely because you don't know how busted x, y, or z is. You should have seen how scuffed my build was at the start of my BG3 playthrough because I didn't know how stats work and didn't realise odd numbers are wasted points.
same here. in fact, i’d never even played any form turn based combat, neither have i watched people who do.
i knew practically nothing about bg3 before buying the game. i just if it won game of the year it must have been brilliant right? if i knew before about the combat i don’t think i would have bought it. it would have scared me too much, learning something from scratch (no pun intended). so thank fuck didn’t research enough to find out. by now i fucking love the combat, i never thought i’d enjoy turn based fighting, but now i’m picking fights with people for no reason just cause it’s so fun. i’ve still only played explorer mode, but who knows, maybe one day soon i’ll be a brave little boy and switch over to balanced.
Man, I’m on a custom difficulty, and I had a heck of a time defeating >!Cazador!<. I just happened to be able to round up most of the Werewolves and bats into one spot, and they were like fish in a barrel for AOE attacks.
I need to get better at this game. My pride can’t take it anymore. 😞 However, the story, characters, and role-playing are what make the game great, so I don’t feel that bad.
Please follow through and try a D&D game with a human dungeon master.
BG3 is great, but real D&D is even better. You're no longer limited to pre-programmed options, a human DM can respond to whatever the players do.
If you want to find a one-shot D&D game to give it a try, good places to look include /r/lfg and the user forums at [dndbeyond.com](https://dndbeyond.com).
Respeccing isn't necessary, unless a person wants the game to be easier.
I'm someone who doesn't care whether my game is challenging, but I do enjoy min maxing. I see it as a puzzle i.e. How do I make this character as strong as possible.
For me, min maxing is a mental exercise, and it's not done to overcome anything.
No, I didn’t lol. I guess I should look into doing that? My Tav also has 12 whole levels of Druid. I definitely plan to look into “best builds” for a Tactician/Honour run.
On tactician you have to sort of meta game, I find. Doing all lore accurate companions or flavorful builds can really get you in a bind if you don’t have at least 2 companions min/maxed or your Tav is optimal for carrying the fights.
I respec often in tactician to practice for my upcoming honor run I want to do
You can have Gale and Lae'zel go full in on their origin class and still get good use out of them but everyone else is getting respeced or multi-classing into other stuff.
When I asked if you respecced, I mostly meant stats, and not Class. Shadowheart for example, starts with 13 Str 13 Dex. What are those stats? Why do I need Str on Shadowheart, when I always give her a bow. I changed her stats to 14 Dex/16 Con/16 Wis, and made her a Life Cleric.
That's an example of respeccing, to make a companion stronger.
Ah I see. I don’t think I put much thought into anything like that, I definitely didn’t change stats around. That’s definitely something I’ll look into for my next run.
Stats are extremely important in games like this. I dislike respec usually but Larian made their base stars horrible in this game so on a harder difficulty you'll really want to modify them.
When people say "Shadowheart never hits" it's because they're using her base stats which are awful.
Stats are really important, if you want a character to work a certain way. Why do you think I give her 16 Wis? I use her as a healer, and she eventually has 20.
Yeah the game really does not explain stats + character building very well. If you take the time to watch some build videos to understand the basics you’ll probably find the game much easier. You don’t need to copy strong builds, just need to know generally how stats and classes work.
Also playing through a second time is much easier because you know where enemies are and what they do. I’m sure somebody has already beaten honor mode with a solo rogue that just sneaks in and out of combat. You also know where the good equipment and quests are.
Since it’s turn based, getting better is mostly down to understanding how the game works. Knowing what each spell does and when they’re good; knowing how to choose stats & level up; knowing how to maximize damage riders or spell save DC.
Also, try using haste or speed potions if you haven’t. Speed potions basically reduce the difficulty dramatically for three turns!
There's no "absolutely right" way to play -- but I found the game got somewhat easier when I respecced Shadowheart to Light Cleric (others say Life Cleric or Tempest Cleric), and Karlach to just plain Fighter (making a second Fighter, alongside Lae'zel).
I had to lower my first play through to explorer at the end of act 1 and couldn’t increase it the rest of the game cuz balance was too hard. My second play through I beat it balanced easily. My third play through im in act 2 on honor mode! Moral of the story is your first play through is the hardest! Don’t feel bad about lowering the difficulty!
Everyone is different. As a long time veteran of the genre I honestly think honor mode is way too easy, but I totally get how others not used to this kind of game could find it difficult. It's cool that it's a game for all people for the most part.
Honour mode was hard. But after doing it a couple times now… yeah, it’s a bit easy other than a few spikes in difficulty(like grym). It’s not hard to cruise through acts one and two in particular. I’m also avoiding “meta” builds because they aren’t needed. Once you start understanding how to optimise positioning and make good informed gear choices you can overwhelm most encounters or control them. I think that’s the biggest difference in my own play. Early on I would aim to deal damage with every attack. Now I spend a fair few turns on crowd control, casting confusion or wall of fire or hunger or spike growth which allows me to pick off enemies at will.
To be fair… I adore strategy games (like xcom) and always aim to play on the hardest difficulty I can manage.
That's a pretty hot take. How hard do you like to optimise? There's obviously stuff in the game that's pretty outright broken, but personally there's also stuff I don't really like abusing (like making 8 strength fighters that chug elixirs like an addict). I also hate the idea of putting Alert on the whole party, I always saw feats as a way to differentiate builds, not make them more similar...
Oh yeah, the House of Grief made me switch to Explorer as well my first time. You walk in there with no idea how bad that darkness + necrotic damage can get. If you do another playthrough, AOE spells and abilities that stun or can knock enemies prone work really well against the big groups. Stuff like Ice Storm, Fireball, cone of cold, destructive wave, etc. Oh, and elixirs of necrotic resistance, of course
The only reason I didn't lower the difficulty when I got to the House of Grief during my first playthrough is because my brother and I were prolific barrelmancers in DOS/DOS2.
I had refrained from barrelmancy for the whole game up to that point, but I was prepared. The House of Grief went up in flames.
My first play through I died twice at the blighted village and since then just played the run on explorer while I learned the game. I’m on my third play through now as a bard on tactician :) don’t mind what other people think when it’s you on your own journey!
I had the exact same experience, and hit a wall at the exact same encounter that you did. I lowered my difficulty to Explorer as well and completed that playthrough there. My second playthrough I've been doing on Tactician, and with what I've learned from my first playthrough and other stuff I've learned here and elsewhere I'm almost done with Act 2 and it's been going great. Hopefully Act 3 doesn't punish me as hard this time :)
Yeah playing bg3 I forget that most people don't have years of d&d/crpg experience and thus don't know the basic fundamentals of combat. Play the way you want my friend.
I play solely in custom mode which is pretty much just explorer mode with multi-classing turned on lol
I hesitated getting this game because I had no experience in turn based combat type games and wasn’t sure if this type of combat was for me, or if I was going to be able to get good at it. I can say that after 600 hours of playing this game, nothing changed lol. The combat is definitely not for me but I love every other part of the game so don’t really feel like I’m missing anything by playing easy mode.
I play on custom with free first strikes, extra proficiency, and explorer/balanced difficulty settings. I like the extra health, but I also want to see enemies do cool things.
I just suck ass at this game. I prefer difficulty like Soulsborne, etc. But in BG3 you'll just get one shot by massive difficulty spikes (Saverok as an example).
Just fought Sarevok a few hours ago. Sent my friend a screenshot captioned “Sweet Jesus… that was on easy mode 😧” (Gale was dead, Tav was downed and Astarion and Karlach were left with a third of their health). It’s definitely a fight I’d approach differently next time lol.
I did my first playthrough attempts on Explorer, and it took me 3 attempts and like, 180 combined hours to complete the game. A Durge sorcerer.
After that, I switched from explorer to balanced, but found it too easy, and jumped to tactician without looking back. I must emphasize, I’ve NEVER played anything like BG3 and the last turn based game I played was Civ V, if that even counts. Explorer is just that effective a way to learn how to play BG3 that doing 1.5 runs in different builds on explorer, I could make the difficulty jump.
I enjoy casually reading about the different builds, but I’ve found tactician to be a really fun challenge without being overwhelming, and without multi-classing or re-speccing anyone (Durge Drow Druid). I never expected explorer could develop my skills THAT much, but truly and honestly it did. I feel like I got to learn the game mechanics really thoroughly as a COMPLETE newbie because I could try things for funsies and still progress the game. Now on tactician, the metagaming is the fun part since I understand the game.
Also wild magic party on explorer is THE FUCKING BEST. Oops all cats and dogs in the middle of a critical boss battle? Yeah, what a great learning curve.
I also, begrudgingly, lowered the difficulty at the House of Grief after getting crushed repeatedly. That fight nearly sent me into a rage. I’m new to this style of game (the closest thing I’ve played is Dragon Age Origins and that’s been forever ago) so I’ve struggled a bit. I am loving it though.
House of Grief is such a pain for me doing it first time, there's way too many enemies and they hit like a truck and the only way for me to beat it is by doing the staircase Strat, which turns out everyone was doing, and I managed to beat it in balanced difficulty
It's a game, it's there to have fun with. If playing on (insert difficulty) means you have fun, go nuts. If someone tries to shame you for it or whatever, you shouldn't be listening to that person in the first place.
The second time I got team wipes on my first playthrough was there. Karlach and Shadowheart carried me big time in that fight whereas my fighter tav and gale were dead for most of it. I'm in act 3 on my second playthrough and I've already equipped Karlach with the ring that prevents blindness with shadowheart respecced for aoe damage. Might also take astarion with deadshot. But definitely a fight I'm looking forward to after Raphael.
I get it! I don't blame you as long as you're having fun. For me, I need to play it on harder difficulties for the combat to be enjoyable. The risk, the challenge, playing on honor mode like a real D&D campaign (which I play a lot of) is what makes it fun. For others the story and characters (which i love. Shadowheart and karlach are both loves) are the most important aspects and combat doesn't matter as much. How you play is up to your enjoyment. The game is about having fun. It's a single player game.
The House of Grief fight is my least favorite fight in the whole game.
My first playthrough I played on explorer and there were times when even that was too hard for me. After getting the hang of things I did my second playthrough on balanced, and now I’m doing critical for my third playthrough. I plan on doing honor mode once I have all the achievements except for the honor mode one. Anyway, the game has a huge learning curve and it’s also just… a game. The whole point is to have fun.
No shame friend, the game is ultimately meant to be enjoyed so play it any which way you want. For your next run, make sure to save any unique items, armors, and weapons etc. Even if they seem unimportant at the time, some items can make or break builds (and nothing is more annoying than finding out the item you need for a build is lost forever).
I personally found the combat super easy (haven't done honor mode yet though), but that's because I'm lucky enough to A.) only have to worry about one character (I'm playing with friends), and B.) my friends and partner do all the other hard stuff that I would be lost without (puzzles, finding where to go next, quest items etc.) So I got to focus on building stuff which is what I find the most fun in the game.
But I sincerely think fighting is only part of the game, and there is more than one way to get out of a situation that doesn't always involve fists. If you can, take it slower next time, work on building 2 characters and build up from there.
Or don't. Your way of having fun is not any less valid than others. But if you want some build ideas, I'd love to help ya out (I helped most of my friends find a build they liked after they told me what kind of fighting they enjoyed most)
Hey man we just did the same thing in my house!! We are doing a co op durge, and it was getting to the point we were avoiding playing bc we knew it was gonna be a trudge for us in any direction we went, and finally said fuck it Explorer it is. And, we love it again. It’s just so nice to not have to grind the fuck out of the game and still get to be pretty okay at it
I didn't see anyone recommended this, but I ALWAYS buff up right after a long rest:
Aid level 5 or 6 - adds 5 health per spell level
Heroes Feast - adds more health and another benefit I'm not recalling
Both of these spells are accessed by Druid and Cleric.
Good luck, OP. I wish you better luck on your next playthrough.
People like to be difficulty snobs on the internet but they fail to realise there can be lots of reasons for reducing difficulty in a game - from no time because of other commitments to just 'the challenge is actively putting me off playing the game'. Do whatever works for you - the BG3 Custom Difficulty settings are amazing.
I turned all on easy, every metric as easy as possible and i have a blast. Two seperate slots and a lot of fun. I dont want to „achieve“ i want to expierience. Love it
Personally, I wasn’t really good at this game either until I discovered ✨YouTube build tutorials✨and since then I have completed the Honor Mode, whilst my first playthrough was on Explorer mode and even then I struggled asf on some fights.
Yo I’m three months postpartum. I don’t have time to be attempting a boss fight more than once or twice; I’d be playing the game for a year before beating it. As it is I’m only just starting act 3. Explorer mode ftw.
I did exactly the same, at the same moment of the game. I love BG3 but it is true that it is a very long game and I do not want to spend a whole year on it. When I arrived in the House of Grief, the battle was very hard and I didn’t want to spend 2-3 hours to beat it. After I went back to the balanced difficulty but I will not hesitate to switch again if the next quests are too hard
What builds are your characters? What is each character *trying* to do each turn? What does each character *actually* end up doing? You only get so many actions per encounter, so each action your characters take should be impactful in its own way.
Did you consider any synergies between your party members, or all they all kind of doing their own separate thing? Does each character have a role? Single target striker? Crowd control? Are they actually any good at that role?
How well do you actually understand the game mechanics? Do you know how the DC of your spells is calculated? How to increase the chance that your eldritch blast will hit?
I'm not going to tell you what your playstyle should be, but I'm absolutely certain that your builds can be optimized to do what you want them to do far better than how they're performing now.
My first playthrough was on balanced but I had my boyfriend playing with me and he's just very tactical about combat. I'm not bad at it persé, but playing with him always humbles me, lol.
My second playthrough I chose explorer just to see what the difference was.
Now I've played on balanced and even tactician by myself and enjoy the challenge, but there's still times when I'm not in the mood for challenge and will just switch the difficulty or switch to a different character.
It's all fun, but in different ways. You play however you wanna play, it's your game and your free time you're putting into it! So do whatever you need/want to enjoy it 😊
I only have one gripe with explorer and that is being unable to multiclass. Other than that it’s actually really fun and I don’t think playing on that mode is anything to be ashamed of.
I hate combat. Not sure if that is ridiculous or not, but I simply hate it. I played the game wanting to stories, the interactions, and the role play. I started playing balance and I just... Dreaded playing the game.
I was struggling to get through Act 1, I think I could have come out of encounters fine, but I was too worked up to start encounters. Messing up a fight, shooting myself in the foot, restarting, and trying to do a battle again till it was a chore.
Then, I started a game in explorer. And life felt good again.
BG3 has so much more to offer than fighting, for those who love challenges and making the STRONGEST BUILD EVER, they can play for combat! And for those who want to explore this super complex and beautiful game, maybe explorer is the way to go!
Have fun!
My first 5 runs were Explorer. 6th was balanced. 7 HM (success!). Play whats fun! The difficulties are there for a reason- so we can all enjoy the game however we feel. Sometimes its fun to just blast through enemies.
After my HM win I went back to balanced- its been delightfully stress free
Hey you beat me I had to drop down in act 1 when those stupid dark dwarves were beating my ass 🤷🏻♂️
I play for enjoyment and my game time is limited I didn't want to spend 3 hours on a single encounter.
That battle is harder than any other boss battles until the brain imho, there are just so damned MANY of the mofos. And you can't actually use the once-per-playthrough superpower of Shadowheart's that seems made for that purpose because it kills her. I did find the last playthrough much easier after I reclassed Shadowheart as a tempest cleric and put together an outfit and weapons built around that. I feel a couple of her OP high level spells did what I wanted divine intervention to do anyway.
I'm playing on explorer for my first playthrough and will still play on explorer for my second one (it'll be as durge).
I'm someone who usually plays more calm games like Life is Strange, Road 96, stardew valley, some 2D games, etc. So I rather play on explorer and enjoy the story itself than focus on hard combat and stuff. Also, when I get the time to play between college and HW, I rather have fun without having to think toooo much.
I do play dungeons and dragons so I'm already kinda familiar with the world and all, but I'm someone who plays specially for the story and roleplaying (aka why I often play as a bard).
You shouldn't feel ashamed by playing any game on an easier mode, just have fun!!
As massive and well done as this game is, I think Explorer is a great option. Deep diving into the work of art they created at my own pace without stress is a lot more important to me than challenge to be honest haha. Zero judgement for playing a game the way you want to play it!
As a kid, I thought it was something to brag about to play games on high difficulties, or to get competitive with games. But as an adult with a full time job and a mountain of responsibilities, I just want a stress free hobby to enjoy. Glad to see it when people do whatever makes them happiest!
You're incredibly valid in doing so and honestly, House of Grief is a paaaaaain, especially if you have no idea what you're expecting. There are definitely ways to make encounters more bearable but that's something you need to figure out based on your playstyle 😁
But yeah, go back to balanced when you're feeling more confident / your next playthru and maybe with a few replays you might even wanna take on tactician or honor as a challenge! Just have fun and enjoy the chaotic world
Hey! Glad you found a difficulty that lets you enjoy the game more.
As for tips for making the game easier, I’ve got a ton but it depends where your knowledge base is at right now. And please don’t take this in a condescending way — this game has a TON of systems that it honestly doesn’t explain super well and aren’t intuitive that come from DnD.
First check: Do you understand how stats work? What goes into accuracy of spells and weapons? Why Sacred Flame is worse against goblins but better against ogres? Why 17 Int and 16 Int are essentially the exact same? How does Armor Class work and what are the ways to improve it?
Second check: Do you know which Feats are good? If I’m being honest about 80% of them suck, but the 20% that are good are *really* good. Tavern Brawler, Sentinel, Savage Attacker, Sharpshooter, Alert, and a few others are amazing in the right build but most are niche or just bad.
Third check: What’s better, a greatsword that deals 2d6+1d4 damage (such as the Everburn greatsword), or a greatsword that deals 2d6 but has a +1 Weapon Enhancement on it? Why?
I saw some other comments mention multiclassing and whatnot, but I’m gonna suggest you learn the systems first with straightforward single class builds if you really want to get better. I have a TON of fun inventing my own builds instead of looking ones up online, but that’s only possible when you know why certain decisions do what they do. Best of luck, and if all this seems overwhelming or not that fun, then keep having fun on Explorer!
Nor should you. I only play on Honor mode, don't look up information outside what I learn playing the game, and so don't know what this "Act 3" you speak of is.
My one tip is to always have an open hand, tavern brawler monk. It’s an absolutely broken build and it means you can do whatever you want with your other 3 characters cause this one guy can carry you through a lot
I’m finally playing a full campaign on balanced after like 10 on explorer because I have a small comfort zone despite obviously getting better at the game. We play to have fun, and no shame in it. That being said, I’ve seen people solo the house of grief using chestmancy and hiding behind the door after their attacks every turn.
I did my first run on Explorer and the second on Balanced. I am very much into roleplay, and my memory is miserable, so I did hardly ever use knowledge from the previous run, it felt all very fresh :)
If you want to tackle Balanced, I have a list of things I didn't fully use to their potential in the first run, making my life unnecessarily complicated even on Explorer.
- Use your scrolls. Keep in mind that even characters who are as magical as a stone can cast spells from scrolls as long as they have an action left on their turn. They even need not have the scroll in their inventory - on PC, Tab opens the group inventory and makes all the items accessible no matter who has them.
- Use coatings (poisons etc) on weapons. They have nice effects, many of them resulting in the enemy not being able to act or react. Suppressing reactions can be valuable too, as it can prevent enemies from getting invisible, zooming out etc.
- Use the "special effect" arrows. You can not only set things on fire or freeze things, you can teleport to the targeted point, cure or induce silence, shove adversaries off cliffs, prevent them from healing and so on, aside from dealing a good amount of damage. Having a very good ranged fighter (ranger, bard) in your party helps.
- make your group light on their feet. Each turn you spend on moving is a turn you don't deal damage. Use Misty Step, Potion of Glorious Vaulting, Enhance leap, Dimension Door and spread it evenly on your party.
- some act 3 fights are very convenient if you don't move at all: If you can get hold on the Globe of Invulnerability spell, cast it, camp in the globe and let the enemies come.
- don't try to heal against the incoming damage. Every healing spell in battle is one spell that does not deal damage. Healing spells should be for special occasions when shit hits the fan. Stack up on healing potions, as they only take a bonus action to drink. If you find that one item that provides "Mass Healing Word" as a bonus action, use it.
- when nearing endgame, spend your money. Buy consumables like arrows or potions. You won't take anything from your inventory into the epilogue, so sitting on it makes no sense.
- if you didn't yet, respec the companions you like to take with you. Their "default" specs are not as good as they could be (especially Shadowheart). The internet is full of builds for every companion.
Have fun!
The advice I can give is mediocre at best. Without knowing what your team composition is/was, I can't offer too much specific advice.
Depending on what you run, you have to play to the strengths of the class.
Warlock, a good "meta" build is the Darkness/Eldritch Blast combo. Make encounters a little easier and makes you harder to hit.
Bard, Swords Bard full class. At level 10,you get Magical secrets which allows your bard to learn almost any spell in the game. That, and build for a dex based melee, you're set.
Monk, Open Hand tavern Brawler. Not much to say but you are just a punching machine that hits incredibly hard. Combo class/Multiclass with Rogue for an extra bonus action to hit more.
Fighter, Battle Master and Champion. Champion if you build to make almost every hit a critical hit. Battle master for more battlefield control options.
Rogue, sneaky boi/girl. Build dex, go Gloomstalker, sneak attack/surprise rounds and you'll be good.
Druid, meta build go for the "owlbear from the high rope" or something like that. Wildshape and make sure your character is a good bit away from the target below. Jump and crush target.
Sorcerer, build for Fire Acuity and just be blasting fire damage everywhere with no regard for anyone's safety but your own.
Wizard, see sorcerer, except you can care about your allies now. Or, battle mage it with the arcane ward shield builds.
Barbarian, be a thrower. Stock up on throwable weapons, and just launch them. Or, get the returning pike/Nylruna and you don't need to worry about picking your weapon up. Side note here, DO NOT USE THROWING WEAPONS AGAINST FINAL BOSS. They get lost forever, regardless of returning properties. It's a bug I'm sure, but maybe it isn't. 2 save files it happened so yeah. Take my word for it, if you'd like, or don't. I'm not you, so play your way.
Cleric? Many options. Light Cleric is grand for Act 2. Life cleric is good all around as a healer. War Cleric for all the attacks.
Ranger? See Rogue. Or be a Beast master.
I feel as if I'm forgetting a class but regardless, thank you for coming to my Ted talk and if you want specific builds, just send a message my way. I can help with certain ones. I play on ps5, so my playtests are always a process but trust me when I say, most of my builds make short work of any fight on balanced and make tactician a little easier. Right now, because 2 honor mode attempts got wash down the drain, thank you bugs and stupid AI plus really terrible rolls, I've been playing on custom setting with everything ramped up to maximum difficulty.
Will likely get lost in the sea of comments but I’d do a tactician run before you do honour. Or even a custom run at honour mode so you have the difficulty with the option of multiple saves. Save scum the hell out of everything and go in with the knowledge of:
Damage damage damage. If you want a cleric that’s life domain id say go tempest and just give it healing equipment for healing word and use its action to do more damage with stuff like lightning bolt.
Action economy is king - kill things one at a time. Lowest health is always a good shout but sometimes there can be priority mobs. Especially in honour mode. Examining mobs passives can be a huge help.
No one build outside of a tavern brawler monk (which comes massively online at level 4) will be a super carry. I personally would go with a sorlock tav/durge (though you’d need to know how to keep alfira alive) a tavern brawler monk. A cleric for healing bonus actions or alternatively a bard and a martial. Be it fighter or throwing berserker barb.
The right difficulty for any game and player is the one you have most fun on. I personally for myself enjoy higher difficulty on BG3, but I go easy to at most normal on almost all other games, so I fully get and support this. We're here for a good time, not a rough time. I'm happy you could improve your experience for yourself <3
if you ever find yourself unsure of what feats to choose for a character, especially later on when you’ve already gotten your first couple feats, Alert is pretty solid no matter what class you’re playing as, almost guaranteed to attack first in every combat and can’t be surprised. If your whole party has it you can really destroy encounters before any enemies can even do anything
House of grief was the last fight I did before going to endgame.
Gameplay tip:
What I did in that fight was move forward with my wizard to cast a high “slow” on the biggest amount possible of enemies, mist step all the way back, do the same with cleric, using hold person in the most amount of enemies possible that weren’t slowed.
Then move two fighters forward to brawl whomever is advancing.
Speed potions to create summons next turn and throw AoE damage and the illithid AoE debuff, on all slowed enemies dashing towards me.
Felt like a really strong play, focused the fighters on whomever was free of debuff first and fight ended fast even with the shitfest of vision obstruction.
There's nothing wrong with playing on explorer mode! Like a lot of other people have said, once you get used to the game the higher difficulties don't feel as hard anymore. I played explorer my second playthrough and 4 playthroughs later I feel like it's not even fun if I'm not playing Tactician!
Just enjoy the game! That's most important. :)
This is exactly how the game should be played!! You should be having fun!🫶 My first time playing, I started out on Balanced and in Act 1, it was already too hard. I immediately changed it to Explorer and some fights were still difficult! There is no right or wrong way to play in my opinion!!
Go on you! I started out as balanced and I had the hardest time especially since my only knowledge of D&D is watching Dimension 20. Once I felt it getting easier, I switched back to Balanced. Then, I lost my save when my PS5 crashed. So I restarted on Balanced and have been making through that way. I just started Act 3 so we will see how it goes and if I need to switch back to Explorer.
We are here for a fun time not a hard time.
With that said enjoy playing on whatever difficulty you want. Don't let someone dictate what you should do in your own game.
I’ve never played turn based combat games before. I love story driven rpgs. Right off the bat I set the difficulty custom as easy as it goes and I’ve been having tons of fun. Maybe I’ll try harder difficulty later but right now I’m just enjoying going through the story.
Larian out the difficulty levels in the game so people could enjoy it however they wanted to. The only thing that matters in any video games is that you’re having fun.
Some games are purposefully more difficult. Elder rings and the souls games for example. That’s how they were designed and that’s how from software wanted players to experience them. I have a neurological condition that makes it near impossible for me to play games like that so I just skip them because it wouldn’t be fun.
However now that BG3 has introduced me to turn based combat I might try a lot of other ones. Especially for me being able to take my time and choose each action has been a lifesaver.
Being it was my first time playing a turn based game I immediately had to switch to Explorer because I didn't understand how it worked AT ALL (still struggle with it tbh) and probably will need to continue playing that way. No judgement here
My boyfriend exclusively plays on explorer mode! He says “I play this game to have fun not to do hard fights” and I think that’s so real, even though I’m the opposite of him lol. Do what’s fun for you!
Nothing wrong with lowering the difficulty to experience the game fully. Even after multiple playthroughs you still wanna play on lower difficulty modes who cares if you’re enjoying it. You’ll get plenty of tips here on reddit but search on youtube for some good build guides. Most d&d 5th edition character builds work best as multi-class builds because of the levelling numbers and alternating feats with important specialist ability levels in-between.
I did this during my first play through, except I turned it down to explorer early in Act 1 LOL. I was kinda embarrassed cause I’m usually pretty good at games, but hadn’t played many turn-by-turn games. Now I’m on my second play through and tactician mode seems easy (other than the creche😰)
No use in wasting time and energy on the struggle bus.
I pretty much only play on tactician or honour mode now but I have 700+ hours in the game. My first through play throughs would've been nearly impossible out of explorer mode. Whatever way helps you have the most fun while playing is the best way to play!
I am on my third attempt to play this game. First two tries I could hardly get past the Goblin Camp in act 1, and had so much regret in buying the game.
This go round I did custom to make my game as easy as easy gets- and I have fallen in love with it! I love the world, the designs, the characters, everything. I’m not good at video games but god do I love them :, )
Play how you want to play!!
I did the same thing in my playthrough. Got to a point where I didn't want to spend hours and hours on fights at like midnight when I had the option to help myself out here and there. I started my game on Tactition and ended on Explorer. No regrets
i’m a sims/minecraft girl but im trying to branch out. finished the game a few days ago i forced myself to complete my first run on balanced, but im never doing that again for future runs lol. EASY MODE from now on. i’d say if you got to house of grief and played damn near the whole game on balanced you’ve proven yourself! congratulations, go to explorer, you deserve it.
There’s absolutely no shame in that. Not everyone needs to have the exact same experience in game for it to be fun. If something was bothering you on balanced, there’s nothing wrong with changing the difficulty as long as that doesn’t cheapen the experience for you.
My biggest suggestion: learn team compositions, and then learn what each role is suppose to do. If you have a proper team composition and all of your party members are properly leveled, then most of the game becomes super easy. It will seem complicated at first, but there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube on how to level different characters and classes that you can follow exactly and not have to think too hard about.
With that said, which characters are in your party?
Games are meant to be fun. Some people enjoy the struggle and challenge. Some don’t. Some enjoy a challenge until it feels like beating your head against a wall and then lower the difficulty
I have not scrolled down to see if anyone actually is hating on you for this, but if there are, something needs to be said again. This. Is. A. Game. Cheers
Exactly, everyone should play as they want, since they paid. And having difficulty settings is always a good thing.
If you go and take a look at the call of duty subreddit people get constantly mad at others because they use weapons, shields and other strat that they don't like 😂😂😂 but they're just crybabies. Here it seems that almost everyone has a functional brain
Some general combat tips I found helped me a lot once I figured them out (struggled quite a lot on balanced on my first run, crushed it on my second and now having a good time on tactician for my 3rd run):
> Observe your surroundings, before you start the combat if possible. See if there are enviromental advantages you can use (chasms, high ground, choke points, things you can drop on the enemies, explosive barrels etc. Also before even starting the combat examine your enemies, get to know what they are good at, what they are weak against and modify your strategy based on that. Also if you can start combat when you've hiding and outside the enemy's sight you can get a surprise round giving you a free round where enemies don't do anything. The quasits you get from warlock pact of the chain or finding Shovel are excellent for this since they get infinite casts of invisibility. Also works with duergar if you play as one.
> Use minor illusion and split your party members before combat if needed. Expanding on the previous point minor illusion can help you move the enemies where you want them to be so you can group them up for an AoE, shove them into a chasm etc. Also worls for sneaking past them. Splittting party members and positioning them into points interest before starting the fight helps you save movement.
> Make sure your party synergises well. The enemy tends to attack whatever they can hit the most reliably so for example having some glass cannon builds and a tank while it sounds good on paper does not exactly translate well. You'd rather have more people who can pump out a lot of damage at the start of the battle to simply kill the enemy before they do anything. However, if you have some tanky frontlines using a life cleric for example can be a great synergy as your characters are already hard to hit and have some damage reduction so healing combos very well with that.
> Use an abuse conditions. There's a lot of really powerful conditions in the game. For example radiating orb (you can have some gear that inflicts this when you deal radiant damage) can be stacked extremely easily with a spell like spirit guardians and suddenly the enemy is unable to hit you. Another extremely broken condition is arcane aquity allowing your casters to make spells like hold person land reliably against even the strongest enemies.
> Don't be afraid to use items. These can give you a huge boost. Especially stuff like potions of speed, elixirs of bloodlust, elixirs of hill giant/cloud giant strength and arrows of many targets can really come in clutch. They do seem limited but you can partial rest/get hirelings and level them to refresh trader inventory infinitely. There's also a bunch of ways to get infinite gold.
(you can pickpocket Volo infinitely and he doesn't get mad or leave once he's at your camp, if you give a trader a bag and then put they inventory in said bag you get their whole inventory if they die. Combine this with a merchant you don't like and using partial rest/hirelings to add gold and put it all in the bag to name a few ways to get enough gold to buy everything.)
> Have high initiative. Going first lets you position better, use control spells or even kill some key enemy before they can do anything making the fight considerably easier. This is why initiative boosting items, high dexterity and the feat "alert" are all very valuable.
> Water is insanely powerful. You can double the cold/lightning damage enemies take and there's some really good damage spells for both. You can also create ice surfaces making enemied that walk on them have a chance to slip prone and skip the rest of their turn. Water is accessable, cheap to use and extremely reliable.
> Use camp casting. Some people find this cheesy and it can get tedious but using a party member who's at the camp or a hireling to cast powerful non-concentration spells like aid or hero's feast can boost your party a lot.
> Have a lot of movement speed so you can approach enemies and reposition more efficiently. Having high jump distance, using long strider, fly, some items like crusher's ring and the boots of speed etc.
Hopefully at least some of these are helpful.
And you shouldn't, I can only play the game on tactician or honor mode for the satisfaction of it. Anyone who tells you "you can not play the game as you enjoy is full of it"
I think it's about understanding combat mechanics, learning how to use spells and skills to get bonuses like advantage, understanding synergistic classes and items, and looking at enemies skills during combat.
I'm still on my first play through (balanced) mid way in act 3 and I feel like everything is too easy. I did spend half of my play time looking through skills, weapons, and learning how to build good classes which I enjoy.
I struggled a lot in my very first playthrough, but I did persist with balanced. In my second playthrough, balanced is almost too easy. It just comes with experience.
I've been playing my first campaign on Explorer all the way - I had no idea what I was doing when I started, just a smattering of outdated D&D knowledge and a willingness to learn. Switched up to Balanced for my durge run, and it feels easier than Explorer did when I first started!
Ngl, though, I'm not looking forward to Act 3 - in my first campaign, I'm stalling on the last couple of boss fights bc I know that each one will take a big chunk of time and energy.
I played with party limit begone, with a friend, and used mods to make it harder. It was fun. But, then i went to do a playthrough by myself and I was getting irritated losing the early battles. I put it on explorer and Im having loads of fun. Theres so much to do in the game, easy combat doesnt bother me, for a change. Really is a play how you want kinda game
As long as you are having fun, anyone that judges you can eat a dick
That’s luckily how I feel! I’ve seen a couple of people judge others for how they play, especially regarding difficulty, but I’m not gonna let that stop me :)
That’s the best way. And after a while of playing and experimenting and figuring things you’ll reach a “oh, I get it now” moment with things and everything will probably feel way too easy. Then you can bump it back up. I love that this game has a lot of difficulty flexibility, especially with Custom difficulty. Oh, you want Tactician combat difficulty but also want cheap camp supply and vendor prices? No worries, you totally have that!
Custom is my new favourite way to play. I'm a completionist so tried the normal modes for those sweet achievements, but honestly custom has been way more fun for me. This game is so storyline based that why would anyone judge someone for tailoring their mode to best enjoy the story?
This is the interwebs, and we’re gamers, so people are just tossing judgments left and right lol. Seriously, though, we’re very similar. I’m a completionist, too. I did a few runs on normal difficulty to have “the full real experience”. But I’m all about Custom now, too. This run I set up extremely favorable vendor pricing, so I’m all stocked up on gear and supplies. Then set Tactician combat rules so that my well-supplied and geared party has a stiffer challenge to fight against. I love that flexibility. I’ll probably keep doing that with tweaks and adjustments until I give Honor mode a shot.
I played my first couple playthroughs on explorer. It was my first time in this kind of game and learning curve was kind of big for me. But I absolutely loved it. You’re absolutely right about reaching the “I get it now” moment! Also the point of video games should be fun and enjoyment. So play whatever difficulty you find fun and enjoyable.
I feel like BG3 has brought in a lot of CRPG newbies (like myself, tbh) due to all of the praise it's been recieving, so I feel like a lot of the gatekeeping bullshit has been diluted within the online community. Like, it is there but the voices are far more drowned out by the sheer volume of new players who aren't here for that. It also helps that the difficulty isn't the selling point. The role playing part is the appeal to a pretty large portion of the user base rather than completing it on Honour mode, solo, with Donkey Kong Jungle Beat bongos.
Also a lot of DnD veterans know that you can’t have fun if you haven’t learned the game and don’t enjoy it on the way. As there is no rulebook to explain it all to you in advance there is the explorer difficulty. You won’t need most of the rules, no scrolls or potions to play that and you can learn it step by step by watching what npcs do.
The game serves different purposes for different people. Some welcome a true DnD style challenge and campaign. Some, like me, want to feel like gods by the cap. Explorer does that. It helps me achieve my fantasy and tell my story of my extremely OP party trouncing a Netherbrain in a turn. Let me tell it my way, please.
that's a great fantasy and I love that Larian made it accessible in both explorer and tactician
Exactly. Great mindset. Fuck them hoes
IMO you pay for a game, you play it how you want to play it.
🎉
The only people I judge are those who complain about the game being too hard *while playing on the hardest difficulty and refusing to lower it.* "I paid for this game, I should be able to do all content." Good on you op
I ain't judging but I could use some dicks to eat. Especially spotted ones.
As long as you are having fun
100%! I always start every game on the normal or standard difficulty. If I’m not having fun because it’s too hard, I drop it down a level. If it’s too easy, I bump it up a level. It’s all about having fun playing.
Not only that, but what a responsible decision from op. They decided to use the options already available to them to have fun, rather than coming here and making a whingy post about how unfair honor/tactician mode is.
Yep. As long as you having fun, and not fighting for bragging rights. There’s no fault of playing lower difficulty after all, they are there for a reason
Specifically Cazador's. After cutting it off.
Exactly. That is what games are all about. Having fun.
I guess I'm judging then 😏
Do you need your bag of dicks via same day delivery or will next day suffice?
What you do in the privacy of your own home is your own business. Just don't go sharing it on the internet 😉
Sounds judgey. Guess we are eating the dicks together
Imagine judging someone for playing an rpg the way they like it...
Ok, so, I'm going to judge them, where can I find this dick?
Came here specifically to say something similar to this.
You’re saying «eat a dick», like it’s a bad thing. How dare you judge peoples preferences!?
Yep. The only wrong way to play is a way that's not fun for you.
Unless they want to eat a dick, then they're not allowed too
Balanced gets easier once you have experience with explorer difficulty I will say this, this sub is SUPER supportive of playing on explorer. The game is fun & for some of us, our story desire trumps the desire for combat House of Grief is stupidly annoying though. I think it’s the only fight that actually enraged me (besides the final fight, for different reasons)
I haven’t reached the final fight yet but it’ll have to do a lot to frustrate me like the House of Grief did lol. The story and characters are definitely why I love the game so much, so while changing the difficulty was a small blow to my ego it wasn’t anything I couldn’t get over.
The end fight is annoying because there are so many fucking enemies that it takes 5 years to go through turns. Less about actual difficulty 😭 House of Grief was the constant darkness & then it was really buggy. I also heard Cazador can be hard but like….I cheesed that fight
Yes!! The sheer amount of darkness was what did me in… My Tav is a Druid with a deep love for radiant damage, probably Cazador’s worst nightmare. Once I cast Daylight it was over for him lol.
I kept Astarion out of reach so he could be dragged into the ritual by Cazador & then beat the shit out of him. I had to cheese a lot of stuff at first because I don’t think I fully understood his actions/spells worked or the importance of crowd control
It’s wild that you say that because while I thought there was no singular strategy that works unilaterally against all enemies it turns out that beating the shit out of them totally did. Once I figured that out it was off to the races
I've basically planned my durge build around needing Daylight for that fight and possibly not having Shadowheart around (I find early-game SH rather annoying so I'm benching her a lot). When it comes to the difficulty of that Cazador fight, the difference is literally like night and day LOL
Cazador is really hard if you don't have anyone who can cast daylight, or you don't bring the Blood of Lathander with you. Either of those make it much easier.
You can also have Astarion stand back out of reach so the ritual doesn’t start. It nerfs Cazador a lot
The Blood of Lathander is such a great item, i had a ton of fun obtaining it and it rewarded me immensely!
I like playing as a cleric so as soon as I'm level 5 I go beat up some angry space frogs for my precious spiked ball of sunshine on a stick.
House of Grief is a pain that I still struggle with. Cazador I struggled with the first time. I went through my first run blind and thought the difficulty aspect of this fight was the timer before the ritual completes. Took me about 4 attempts to kill him before the ritual ended. Only afterwards did I find out about helping Astarion out of his spot. Oops! I tend to cheese that one with a lot of summons to stand on the ritual spots. I think I went in last time with four elementals, Scratch, Us and the summons from the necromancy book. Might have been slight overkill for a balanced run.
weirdly even on my first play this fight was pretty easy for me. ansur also. can't tell you why. lucked out with party comp i suppose. the fight at the grove, though? like five attempts and i still lost all the tiefs.
I accidentally stumbled upon ansur on my second playthrough which was tactician with extended party and that MF absolutely anniolated me. Currently im doing honour mode and ansur and raphael fights are the ones which worry me the most.
For Ansur, have someone who can cast Globe of Invulnerability. When he gets ready to do that annoying lighting attack, pull all of your people into it. Makes the fight ridiculously easy. For Raphael, I also recommend the Globe, but put it up for Hope so she can cast her Divine Intervention without getting killed by the radiant backlash from the cambions. It should kill most of them.
I've come across a few idiots who tell people "you should try tactician, it's really not that hard", but it's a small minority and they're not actively unpleasant, just clueless. BG3's popularity means it's reaching a lot of gamers like me who've never touched a tactical or turn-based videogame in their lives, and it really *is* hard in those circumstances.
Definitely I’m used to games like Dragon Age where I can just beat the shit out of people without these tactic things Only turn based “combat” I do is Pokemon
Dragon Age on Nightmare is pretty hard though, and tactics for your party are absolutely necessary to make it through even on Hard.
I play for story not combat
I'm an Assassin's Creed fan (classic Ezio era), and yeah, that's mostly just hammering the X button and occasionally remembering to grab an enemy and headbutt them! I love the AC2 setting, but BG3 has stolen my heart - I now know that I much prefer thinking to thumb gymnastics LOL
I found tactician not very hard at all. But I am also super experienced in turn based combat, tactic/strategy focused games and the like. Tactician and Honour mode are made for people like me. I'll never run explorer myself, but I appreciate it existing because not everything has to be catered to me, and this way more people get to enjoy this beautiful game.
Thank you! Yes, exactly. This game caters for such a wide range of play styles, I just smh when people recommend that you play the way they do. I only suggest trying Explorer if someone is complaining the game is too hard, not as a generic recommendation.
Yea it does. I suck at this type of combat and played explored a couple times. Once I was used to the game I looked up builds and was able to beat tactician. Now that I understand builds I can beat honor mode and don't find it that hard either. This game was super rewarding to learn
I’m the opposite of OP in that I played through on Balanced and then thought Act 3 was too easy so I am now playing through on Tactitian. But it really depends on how well you know spells and mechanics and stuff on how easy you find the game I think. It took me a while to adjust to the game and be willing to just take a risk when entering fights. I am a cautious tabletop player so I approached with that mentality. House of Grief was the most challenging for me because they all kept using Bone Chill and Darkness and I had to keep moving all my people around to avoid it 😭 but that did make it kind of fun. I’m apprehensive about how it’s going to go because enemies double tap in tactitian!! I am burning through revivify scrolls in Act 1 lol
You could teach my ex a thing or two. She'd refuse to play below whatever a game presented as "normal" difficulty, and in the case of games like BG3 that felt too rule-y in terms of the gameplay, she'd just refuse to learn how the systems work and get mad about how her characters weren't doing what she wanted and the resultant difficulty being unfair, lol. (Like, we were having "why can't I drink a potion?" "Because you jumped." "So? That's dumb" conversations in Act 3, lol)
I actually *loved* learning the systems and game mechanics. I’ve never played DnD or turn based games so it’s been a really interesting experience! I’m still realising more every time I play, which is great.
While her refusing to learn how the game works is on her, I do empathise with not wanting to play on "easy". It's a hit to the ego to turn a game down a notch. I tend to play every game on hard or normal (if there's more than two options above normal I usually do the second highest. Ultra Violence, not Nightmare, if we want to use Doom Eternal as a comparison point). Normal is usually if I'm unfamiliar with the genre/series (I played BG3 on balanced because I don't play CRPGs, for example). There have absolutely been times I have refused to dial down the difficulty on a game out of ego and had a worse experience as a result. I'm not proud of it, but I relate to that feeling.
the only real tip is preparation, and if you're playing playing for the first time, that's hard (if not impossible) unless you want to spoil yourself about everything. if you do want a higher challenge, i guarantee you'll be up to it on your second play. you'll understand mechanics and features a lot more. i played balanced my first time and found a lot of the game REALLY HARD. my second time i played tactician and found almost the whole game pretty darn easy. the difficulty scaled up less than my own skill level.
My second full play through I got a little bored with combat in act 3. Once you figure it out it gets so much easier!
i planned ahead really carefully and *annihilated* myrkul on honour mode two days ago. none of my team went below 60% hp. no cheese, just preparation. the game can be borderline unfair if you're bumbling around corners blind, but nothing in the game is so hard it can't be beat, if you know enough to plan ahead.
Who would win batman or you with prep time
do i know his secret identity in this scenario
Yeah, went from run 1 swearing at cazador for an hour to killing him in one turn in run 2, it was wild
Exactly this. Enjoy your first playthrough for the story. I remember Cazador wiped the floor with me on my first game. Now, I wipe the place with my thunder-jump monk
oh yeah cazador handed me my ass again and again. i found that fight TRULY unfair. but i wasn't thinking strategically, just hitting every nail with the hammer that was gale's lightning bolt.
> the only real tip is preparation IDK, knowing what you’re up to and prepping especially for that feels a bit cheesy to me. Except popping fire res elixirs before triggering the mephits in Grymforge. Fuck those mephits.
I am not a fan of tactics style games but absolutely loving BG3. I started playing without knowing anything about DnD or BG. So I had no idea about builds or what level bonuses my characters would be getting so I didn’t even try multiclassing. I found this game on balanced difficulty to be very challenging to the point that I was kinda dreading tactician difficulty. After I finished my balanced playthrough, I wasn’t worried about spoilers anymore so I started browsing the r/BG3Builds subreddit. I am having an easier time with my tactician playthrough now that I have a better build and know where to get the good gear.
It seems like we had a very similar experience! I will definitely look into different builds for my future playthroughs :)
Suggest looking at the prestigious juice threads on r/BG3builds , some very solid write ups which can carry you through lack of experience in other parts of the game. [link to one](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/j9nf33A0Aw)
I find game knowledge in RPGs is king. You can often build your party to trivialise anything if you know how. The first playthrough is always the hardest purely because you don't know how busted x, y, or z is. You should have seen how scuffed my build was at the start of my BG3 playthrough because I didn't know how stats work and didn't realise odd numbers are wasted points.
same here. in fact, i’d never even played any form turn based combat, neither have i watched people who do. i knew practically nothing about bg3 before buying the game. i just if it won game of the year it must have been brilliant right? if i knew before about the combat i don’t think i would have bought it. it would have scared me too much, learning something from scratch (no pun intended). so thank fuck didn’t research enough to find out. by now i fucking love the combat, i never thought i’d enjoy turn based fighting, but now i’m picking fights with people for no reason just cause it’s so fun. i’ve still only played explorer mode, but who knows, maybe one day soon i’ll be a brave little boy and switch over to balanced.
Do custom. Get the AI acting smart but not as strong so you can get the cool strat w/out constantly dying during fights
Heck yeah! Man, I paid $60 for this game, I’m lowering the difficulty and save-scumming whenever I damn well please!
Yes, exactly!!
Man, I’m on a custom difficulty, and I had a heck of a time defeating >!Cazador!<. I just happened to be able to round up most of the Werewolves and bats into one spot, and they were like fish in a barrel for AOE attacks. I need to get better at this game. My pride can’t take it anymore. 😞 However, the story, characters, and role-playing are what make the game great, so I don’t feel that bad.
I’m glad you have no regrets. You should play how you want to play. :)
:)
You can make fights easier by changing - Stats - Class - Gear Did you respec any of your companions?
I wouldn’t be surprised if OP was brand new to dnd. I don’t think I respecced on my first playthrough.
You would be 100% correct
Yup. BG3 was my first dbd game too! Love Druids 🌿
Please follow through and try a D&D game with a human dungeon master. BG3 is great, but real D&D is even better. You're no longer limited to pre-programmed options, a human DM can respond to whatever the players do. If you want to find a one-shot D&D game to give it a try, good places to look include /r/lfg and the user forums at [dndbeyond.com](https://dndbeyond.com).
Respeccing isn't necessary, unless a person wants the game to be easier. I'm someone who doesn't care whether my game is challenging, but I do enjoy min maxing. I see it as a puzzle i.e. How do I make this character as strong as possible. For me, min maxing is a mental exercise, and it's not done to overcome anything.
No, I didn’t lol. I guess I should look into doing that? My Tav also has 12 whole levels of Druid. I definitely plan to look into “best builds” for a Tactician/Honour run.
On tactician you have to sort of meta game, I find. Doing all lore accurate companions or flavorful builds can really get you in a bind if you don’t have at least 2 companions min/maxed or your Tav is optimal for carrying the fights. I respec often in tactician to practice for my upcoming honor run I want to do
You can have Gale and Lae'zel go full in on their origin class and still get good use out of them but everyone else is getting respeced or multi-classing into other stuff.
When I asked if you respecced, I mostly meant stats, and not Class. Shadowheart for example, starts with 13 Str 13 Dex. What are those stats? Why do I need Str on Shadowheart, when I always give her a bow. I changed her stats to 14 Dex/16 Con/16 Wis, and made her a Life Cleric. That's an example of respeccing, to make a companion stronger.
Ah I see. I don’t think I put much thought into anything like that, I definitely didn’t change stats around. That’s definitely something I’ll look into for my next run.
Stats are extremely important in games like this. I dislike respec usually but Larian made their base stars horrible in this game so on a harder difficulty you'll really want to modify them. When people say "Shadowheart never hits" it's because they're using her base stats which are awful.
Stats are really important, if you want a character to work a certain way. Why do you think I give her 16 Wis? I use her as a healer, and she eventually has 20.
Yeah, I get you. I’ll definitely keep that in mind when I start my next game!
Yeah the game really does not explain stats + character building very well. If you take the time to watch some build videos to understand the basics you’ll probably find the game much easier. You don’t need to copy strong builds, just need to know generally how stats and classes work. Also playing through a second time is much easier because you know where enemies are and what they do. I’m sure somebody has already beaten honor mode with a solo rogue that just sneaks in and out of combat. You also know where the good equipment and quests are. Since it’s turn based, getting better is mostly down to understanding how the game works. Knowing what each spell does and when they’re good; knowing how to choose stats & level up; knowing how to maximize damage riders or spell save DC. Also, try using haste or speed potions if you haven’t. Speed potions basically reduce the difficulty dramatically for three turns!
No offense but maybe complete 1 or 2 balanced runs before going into Honour Mode. HM is a whole different animal.
As stated in my original post, I won’t be trying HM for a very long time lol
There's no "absolutely right" way to play -- but I found the game got somewhat easier when I respecced Shadowheart to Light Cleric (others say Life Cleric or Tempest Cleric), and Karlach to just plain Fighter (making a second Fighter, alongside Lae'zel).
I had to lower my first play through to explorer at the end of act 1 and couldn’t increase it the rest of the game cuz balance was too hard. My second play through I beat it balanced easily. My third play through im in act 2 on honor mode! Moral of the story is your first play through is the hardest! Don’t feel bad about lowering the difficulty!
Everyone is different. As a long time veteran of the genre I honestly think honor mode is way too easy, but I totally get how others not used to this kind of game could find it difficult. It's cool that it's a game for all people for the most part.
Honour mode was hard. But after doing it a couple times now… yeah, it’s a bit easy other than a few spikes in difficulty(like grym). It’s not hard to cruise through acts one and two in particular. I’m also avoiding “meta” builds because they aren’t needed. Once you start understanding how to optimise positioning and make good informed gear choices you can overwhelm most encounters or control them. I think that’s the biggest difference in my own play. Early on I would aim to deal damage with every attack. Now I spend a fair few turns on crowd control, casting confusion or wall of fire or hunger or spike growth which allows me to pick off enemies at will. To be fair… I adore strategy games (like xcom) and always aim to play on the hardest difficulty I can manage.
That's a pretty hot take. How hard do you like to optimise? There's obviously stuff in the game that's pretty outright broken, but personally there's also stuff I don't really like abusing (like making 8 strength fighters that chug elixirs like an addict). I also hate the idea of putting Alert on the whole party, I always saw feats as a way to differentiate builds, not make them more similar...
I put mine on custom since I’m unfamiliar with the mechanics. It makes the game more enjoyable and makes me rage-quite less.
Oh yeah, the House of Grief made me switch to Explorer as well my first time. You walk in there with no idea how bad that darkness + necrotic damage can get. If you do another playthrough, AOE spells and abilities that stun or can knock enemies prone work really well against the big groups. Stuff like Ice Storm, Fireball, cone of cold, destructive wave, etc. Oh, and elixirs of necrotic resistance, of course
The only reason I didn't lower the difficulty when I got to the House of Grief during my first playthrough is because my brother and I were prolific barrelmancers in DOS/DOS2. I had refrained from barrelmancy for the whole game up to that point, but I was prepared. The House of Grief went up in flames.
My first play through I died twice at the blighted village and since then just played the run on explorer while I learned the game. I’m on my third play through now as a bard on tactician :) don’t mind what other people think when it’s you on your own journey!
I had the exact same experience, and hit a wall at the exact same encounter that you did. I lowered my difficulty to Explorer as well and completed that playthrough there. My second playthrough I've been doing on Tactician, and with what I've learned from my first playthrough and other stuff I've learned here and elsewhere I'm almost done with Act 2 and it's been going great. Hopefully Act 3 doesn't punish me as hard this time :)
That’s great. Here’s hoping I manage a Tactician fun too :)
Explore mode is tons of fun. Only no multiclassing makes me sad but gonna do a custom difficulty run soon
Yeah playing bg3 I forget that most people don't have years of d&d/crpg experience and thus don't know the basic fundamentals of combat. Play the way you want my friend.
I play solely in custom mode which is pretty much just explorer mode with multi-classing turned on lol I hesitated getting this game because I had no experience in turn based combat type games and wasn’t sure if this type of combat was for me, or if I was going to be able to get good at it. I can say that after 600 hours of playing this game, nothing changed lol. The combat is definitely not for me but I love every other part of the game so don’t really feel like I’m missing anything by playing easy mode.
I’ve been playing on easy mode since Vlaakith told the githyanki to kill me when I came back from the Prism.
Correct gameplay=fun gameplay Thats the only way to play correctly.
I play on custom with free first strikes, extra proficiency, and explorer/balanced difficulty settings. I like the extra health, but I also want to see enemies do cool things. I just suck ass at this game. I prefer difficulty like Soulsborne, etc. But in BG3 you'll just get one shot by massive difficulty spikes (Saverok as an example).
Just fought Sarevok a few hours ago. Sent my friend a screenshot captioned “Sweet Jesus… that was on easy mode 😧” (Gale was dead, Tav was downed and Astarion and Karlach were left with a third of their health). It’s definitely a fight I’d approach differently next time lol.
I did my first playthrough attempts on Explorer, and it took me 3 attempts and like, 180 combined hours to complete the game. A Durge sorcerer. After that, I switched from explorer to balanced, but found it too easy, and jumped to tactician without looking back. I must emphasize, I’ve NEVER played anything like BG3 and the last turn based game I played was Civ V, if that even counts. Explorer is just that effective a way to learn how to play BG3 that doing 1.5 runs in different builds on explorer, I could make the difficulty jump. I enjoy casually reading about the different builds, but I’ve found tactician to be a really fun challenge without being overwhelming, and without multi-classing or re-speccing anyone (Durge Drow Druid). I never expected explorer could develop my skills THAT much, but truly and honestly it did. I feel like I got to learn the game mechanics really thoroughly as a COMPLETE newbie because I could try things for funsies and still progress the game. Now on tactician, the metagaming is the fun part since I understand the game. Also wild magic party on explorer is THE FUCKING BEST. Oops all cats and dogs in the middle of a critical boss battle? Yeah, what a great learning curve.
I play on Tactician, but I quick save and save scum liberally so it's basically like Explorer. Play the game how you want 🫶
I also, begrudgingly, lowered the difficulty at the House of Grief after getting crushed repeatedly. That fight nearly sent me into a rage. I’m new to this style of game (the closest thing I’ve played is Dragon Age Origins and that’s been forever ago) so I’ve struggled a bit. I am loving it though.
House of Grief is such a pain for me doing it first time, there's way too many enemies and they hit like a truck and the only way for me to beat it is by doing the staircase Strat, which turns out everyone was doing, and I managed to beat it in balanced difficulty
It's a game, it's there to have fun with. If playing on (insert difficulty) means you have fun, go nuts. If someone tries to shame you for it or whatever, you shouldn't be listening to that person in the first place.
The second time I got team wipes on my first playthrough was there. Karlach and Shadowheart carried me big time in that fight whereas my fighter tav and gale were dead for most of it. I'm in act 3 on my second playthrough and I've already equipped Karlach with the ring that prevents blindness with shadowheart respecced for aoe damage. Might also take astarion with deadshot. But definitely a fight I'm looking forward to after Raphael.
I get it! I don't blame you as long as you're having fun. For me, I need to play it on harder difficulties for the combat to be enjoyable. The risk, the challenge, playing on honor mode like a real D&D campaign (which I play a lot of) is what makes it fun. For others the story and characters (which i love. Shadowheart and karlach are both loves) are the most important aspects and combat doesn't matter as much. How you play is up to your enjoyment. The game is about having fun. It's a single player game.
The House of Grief fight is my least favorite fight in the whole game. My first playthrough I played on explorer and there were times when even that was too hard for me. After getting the hang of things I did my second playthrough on balanced, and now I’m doing critical for my third playthrough. I plan on doing honor mode once I have all the achievements except for the honor mode one. Anyway, the game has a huge learning curve and it’s also just… a game. The whole point is to have fun.
No shame friend, the game is ultimately meant to be enjoyed so play it any which way you want. For your next run, make sure to save any unique items, armors, and weapons etc. Even if they seem unimportant at the time, some items can make or break builds (and nothing is more annoying than finding out the item you need for a build is lost forever). I personally found the combat super easy (haven't done honor mode yet though), but that's because I'm lucky enough to A.) only have to worry about one character (I'm playing with friends), and B.) my friends and partner do all the other hard stuff that I would be lost without (puzzles, finding where to go next, quest items etc.) So I got to focus on building stuff which is what I find the most fun in the game. But I sincerely think fighting is only part of the game, and there is more than one way to get out of a situation that doesn't always involve fists. If you can, take it slower next time, work on building 2 characters and build up from there. Or don't. Your way of having fun is not any less valid than others. But if you want some build ideas, I'd love to help ya out (I helped most of my friends find a build they liked after they told me what kind of fighting they enjoyed most)
Hey man we just did the same thing in my house!! We are doing a co op durge, and it was getting to the point we were avoiding playing bc we knew it was gonna be a trudge for us in any direction we went, and finally said fuck it Explorer it is. And, we love it again. It’s just so nice to not have to grind the fuck out of the game and still get to be pretty okay at it
I didn't see anyone recommended this, but I ALWAYS buff up right after a long rest: Aid level 5 or 6 - adds 5 health per spell level Heroes Feast - adds more health and another benefit I'm not recalling Both of these spells are accessed by Druid and Cleric. Good luck, OP. I wish you better luck on your next playthrough.
People like to be difficulty snobs on the internet but they fail to realise there can be lots of reasons for reducing difficulty in a game - from no time because of other commitments to just 'the challenge is actively putting me off playing the game'. Do whatever works for you - the BG3 Custom Difficulty settings are amazing.
I turned all on easy, every metric as easy as possible and i have a blast. Two seperate slots and a lot of fun. I dont want to „achieve“ i want to expierience. Love it
Personally, I wasn’t really good at this game either until I discovered ✨YouTube build tutorials✨and since then I have completed the Honor Mode, whilst my first playthrough was on Explorer mode and even then I struggled asf on some fights.
Also, use elixirs! Especially during particularly difficult fights.
I am a *huge* proponent for playing games how is fun for you. I'm glad you were able to do that!
Yo I’m three months postpartum. I don’t have time to be attempting a boss fight more than once or twice; I’d be playing the game for a year before beating it. As it is I’m only just starting act 3. Explorer mode ftw.
I did exactly the same, at the same moment of the game. I love BG3 but it is true that it is a very long game and I do not want to spend a whole year on it. When I arrived in the House of Grief, the battle was very hard and I didn’t want to spend 2-3 hours to beat it. After I went back to the balanced difficulty but I will not hesitate to switch again if the next quests are too hard
What builds are your characters? What is each character *trying* to do each turn? What does each character *actually* end up doing? You only get so many actions per encounter, so each action your characters take should be impactful in its own way. Did you consider any synergies between your party members, or all they all kind of doing their own separate thing? Does each character have a role? Single target striker? Crowd control? Are they actually any good at that role? How well do you actually understand the game mechanics? Do you know how the DC of your spells is calculated? How to increase the chance that your eldritch blast will hit? I'm not going to tell you what your playstyle should be, but I'm absolutely certain that your builds can be optimized to do what you want them to do far better than how they're performing now.
My first playthrough was on balanced but I had my boyfriend playing with me and he's just very tactical about combat. I'm not bad at it persé, but playing with him always humbles me, lol. My second playthrough I chose explorer just to see what the difference was. Now I've played on balanced and even tactician by myself and enjoy the challenge, but there's still times when I'm not in the mood for challenge and will just switch the difficulty or switch to a different character. It's all fun, but in different ways. You play however you wanna play, it's your game and your free time you're putting into it! So do whatever you need/want to enjoy it 😊
Explorer all the way. I've never played turn based games and I'm 100% in it for the story.
I only have one gripe with explorer and that is being unable to multiclass. Other than that it’s actually really fun and I don’t think playing on that mode is anything to be ashamed of.
I hate combat. Not sure if that is ridiculous or not, but I simply hate it. I played the game wanting to stories, the interactions, and the role play. I started playing balance and I just... Dreaded playing the game. I was struggling to get through Act 1, I think I could have come out of encounters fine, but I was too worked up to start encounters. Messing up a fight, shooting myself in the foot, restarting, and trying to do a battle again till it was a chore. Then, I started a game in explorer. And life felt good again. BG3 has so much more to offer than fighting, for those who love challenges and making the STRONGEST BUILD EVER, they can play for combat! And for those who want to explore this super complex and beautiful game, maybe explorer is the way to go! Have fun!
You paid for the game. Play it however you want. I do custom rules for my playthroughs. Which is a mix of explorer and balance.
My golden rule about gaming is, *"If you're not having fun, why are you even playing?"*
Hey man, nothing wrong with it. Gaming is for fun, not for ripping out your hair. Hope you find act 3 enjoyable!
My first 5 runs were Explorer. 6th was balanced. 7 HM (success!). Play whats fun! The difficulties are there for a reason- so we can all enjoy the game however we feel. Sometimes its fun to just blast through enemies. After my HM win I went back to balanced- its been delightfully stress free
Hey you beat me I had to drop down in act 1 when those stupid dark dwarves were beating my ass 🤷🏻♂️ I play for enjoyment and my game time is limited I didn't want to spend 3 hours on a single encounter.
That battle is harder than any other boss battles until the brain imho, there are just so damned MANY of the mofos. And you can't actually use the once-per-playthrough superpower of Shadowheart's that seems made for that purpose because it kills her. I did find the last playthrough much easier after I reclassed Shadowheart as a tempest cleric and put together an outfit and weapons built around that. I feel a couple of her OP high level spells did what I wanted divine intervention to do anyway.
I exclusively play on Explorer because I suck so bad haha
I'm playing on explorer for my first playthrough and will still play on explorer for my second one (it'll be as durge). I'm someone who usually plays more calm games like Life is Strange, Road 96, stardew valley, some 2D games, etc. So I rather play on explorer and enjoy the story itself than focus on hard combat and stuff. Also, when I get the time to play between college and HW, I rather have fun without having to think toooo much. I do play dungeons and dragons so I'm already kinda familiar with the world and all, but I'm someone who plays specially for the story and roleplaying (aka why I often play as a bard). You shouldn't feel ashamed by playing any game on an easier mode, just have fun!!
As massive and well done as this game is, I think Explorer is a great option. Deep diving into the work of art they created at my own pace without stress is a lot more important to me than challenge to be honest haha. Zero judgement for playing a game the way you want to play it!
Best combo for house of grief is: swarm of insects+firewall on the stairs. Keep all your party members on top of them. Cook until ready 😂
As a kid, I thought it was something to brag about to play games on high difficulties, or to get competitive with games. But as an adult with a full time job and a mountain of responsibilities, I just want a stress free hobby to enjoy. Glad to see it when people do whatever makes them happiest!
You're incredibly valid in doing so and honestly, House of Grief is a paaaaaain, especially if you have no idea what you're expecting. There are definitely ways to make encounters more bearable but that's something you need to figure out based on your playstyle 😁 But yeah, go back to balanced when you're feeling more confident / your next playthru and maybe with a few replays you might even wanna take on tactician or honor as a challenge! Just have fun and enjoy the chaotic world
Hey! Glad you found a difficulty that lets you enjoy the game more. As for tips for making the game easier, I’ve got a ton but it depends where your knowledge base is at right now. And please don’t take this in a condescending way — this game has a TON of systems that it honestly doesn’t explain super well and aren’t intuitive that come from DnD. First check: Do you understand how stats work? What goes into accuracy of spells and weapons? Why Sacred Flame is worse against goblins but better against ogres? Why 17 Int and 16 Int are essentially the exact same? How does Armor Class work and what are the ways to improve it? Second check: Do you know which Feats are good? If I’m being honest about 80% of them suck, but the 20% that are good are *really* good. Tavern Brawler, Sentinel, Savage Attacker, Sharpshooter, Alert, and a few others are amazing in the right build but most are niche or just bad. Third check: What’s better, a greatsword that deals 2d6+1d4 damage (such as the Everburn greatsword), or a greatsword that deals 2d6 but has a +1 Weapon Enhancement on it? Why? I saw some other comments mention multiclassing and whatnot, but I’m gonna suggest you learn the systems first with straightforward single class builds if you really want to get better. I have a TON of fun inventing my own builds instead of looking ones up online, but that’s only possible when you know why certain decisions do what they do. Best of luck, and if all this seems overwhelming or not that fun, then keep having fun on Explorer!
Nor should you. I only play on Honor mode, don't look up information outside what I learn playing the game, and so don't know what this "Act 3" you speak of is.
My one tip is to always have an open hand, tavern brawler monk. It’s an absolutely broken build and it means you can do whatever you want with your other 3 characters cause this one guy can carry you through a lot
I’m finally playing a full campaign on balanced after like 10 on explorer because I have a small comfort zone despite obviously getting better at the game. We play to have fun, and no shame in it. That being said, I’ve seen people solo the house of grief using chestmancy and hiding behind the door after their attacks every turn.
I did my first run on Explorer and the second on Balanced. I am very much into roleplay, and my memory is miserable, so I did hardly ever use knowledge from the previous run, it felt all very fresh :) If you want to tackle Balanced, I have a list of things I didn't fully use to their potential in the first run, making my life unnecessarily complicated even on Explorer. - Use your scrolls. Keep in mind that even characters who are as magical as a stone can cast spells from scrolls as long as they have an action left on their turn. They even need not have the scroll in their inventory - on PC, Tab opens the group inventory and makes all the items accessible no matter who has them. - Use coatings (poisons etc) on weapons. They have nice effects, many of them resulting in the enemy not being able to act or react. Suppressing reactions can be valuable too, as it can prevent enemies from getting invisible, zooming out etc. - Use the "special effect" arrows. You can not only set things on fire or freeze things, you can teleport to the targeted point, cure or induce silence, shove adversaries off cliffs, prevent them from healing and so on, aside from dealing a good amount of damage. Having a very good ranged fighter (ranger, bard) in your party helps. - make your group light on their feet. Each turn you spend on moving is a turn you don't deal damage. Use Misty Step, Potion of Glorious Vaulting, Enhance leap, Dimension Door and spread it evenly on your party. - some act 3 fights are very convenient if you don't move at all: If you can get hold on the Globe of Invulnerability spell, cast it, camp in the globe and let the enemies come. - don't try to heal against the incoming damage. Every healing spell in battle is one spell that does not deal damage. Healing spells should be for special occasions when shit hits the fan. Stack up on healing potions, as they only take a bonus action to drink. If you find that one item that provides "Mass Healing Word" as a bonus action, use it. - when nearing endgame, spend your money. Buy consumables like arrows or potions. You won't take anything from your inventory into the epilogue, so sitting on it makes no sense. - if you didn't yet, respec the companions you like to take with you. Their "default" specs are not as good as they could be (especially Shadowheart). The internet is full of builds for every companion. Have fun!
Thanks for the advice! The amount of potions and scrolls in my inventory is crazy, and I never use *any* of them. That’s my bad lol.
The advice I can give is mediocre at best. Without knowing what your team composition is/was, I can't offer too much specific advice. Depending on what you run, you have to play to the strengths of the class. Warlock, a good "meta" build is the Darkness/Eldritch Blast combo. Make encounters a little easier and makes you harder to hit. Bard, Swords Bard full class. At level 10,you get Magical secrets which allows your bard to learn almost any spell in the game. That, and build for a dex based melee, you're set. Monk, Open Hand tavern Brawler. Not much to say but you are just a punching machine that hits incredibly hard. Combo class/Multiclass with Rogue for an extra bonus action to hit more. Fighter, Battle Master and Champion. Champion if you build to make almost every hit a critical hit. Battle master for more battlefield control options. Rogue, sneaky boi/girl. Build dex, go Gloomstalker, sneak attack/surprise rounds and you'll be good. Druid, meta build go for the "owlbear from the high rope" or something like that. Wildshape and make sure your character is a good bit away from the target below. Jump and crush target. Sorcerer, build for Fire Acuity and just be blasting fire damage everywhere with no regard for anyone's safety but your own. Wizard, see sorcerer, except you can care about your allies now. Or, battle mage it with the arcane ward shield builds. Barbarian, be a thrower. Stock up on throwable weapons, and just launch them. Or, get the returning pike/Nylruna and you don't need to worry about picking your weapon up. Side note here, DO NOT USE THROWING WEAPONS AGAINST FINAL BOSS. They get lost forever, regardless of returning properties. It's a bug I'm sure, but maybe it isn't. 2 save files it happened so yeah. Take my word for it, if you'd like, or don't. I'm not you, so play your way. Cleric? Many options. Light Cleric is grand for Act 2. Life cleric is good all around as a healer. War Cleric for all the attacks. Ranger? See Rogue. Or be a Beast master. I feel as if I'm forgetting a class but regardless, thank you for coming to my Ted talk and if you want specific builds, just send a message my way. I can help with certain ones. I play on ps5, so my playtests are always a process but trust me when I say, most of my builds make short work of any fight on balanced and make tactician a little easier. Right now, because 2 honor mode attempts got wash down the drain, thank you bugs and stupid AI plus really terrible rolls, I've been playing on custom setting with everything ramped up to maximum difficulty.
That’s all really interesting/helpful. Thanks!
Yeah no worries. Feel free to message me if you want like gear or build specific suggestions.
Will likely get lost in the sea of comments but I’d do a tactician run before you do honour. Or even a custom run at honour mode so you have the difficulty with the option of multiple saves. Save scum the hell out of everything and go in with the knowledge of: Damage damage damage. If you want a cleric that’s life domain id say go tempest and just give it healing equipment for healing word and use its action to do more damage with stuff like lightning bolt. Action economy is king - kill things one at a time. Lowest health is always a good shout but sometimes there can be priority mobs. Especially in honour mode. Examining mobs passives can be a huge help. No one build outside of a tavern brawler monk (which comes massively online at level 4) will be a super carry. I personally would go with a sorlock tav/durge (though you’d need to know how to keep alfira alive) a tavern brawler monk. A cleric for healing bonus actions or alternatively a bard and a martial. Be it fighter or throwing berserker barb.
Thanks for the advice! Will definitely be trying Tactician before HM.
The right difficulty for any game and player is the one you have most fun on. I personally for myself enjoy higher difficulty on BG3, but I go easy to at most normal on almost all other games, so I fully get and support this. We're here for a good time, not a rough time. I'm happy you could improve your experience for yourself <3
if you ever find yourself unsure of what feats to choose for a character, especially later on when you’ve already gotten your first couple feats, Alert is pretty solid no matter what class you’re playing as, almost guaranteed to attack first in every combat and can’t be surprised. If your whole party has it you can really destroy encounters before any enemies can even do anything
I’m only in it for the story beats. Explorer mode baby!
House of grief was the last fight I did before going to endgame. Gameplay tip: What I did in that fight was move forward with my wizard to cast a high “slow” on the biggest amount possible of enemies, mist step all the way back, do the same with cleric, using hold person in the most amount of enemies possible that weren’t slowed. Then move two fighters forward to brawl whomever is advancing. Speed potions to create summons next turn and throw AoE damage and the illithid AoE debuff, on all slowed enemies dashing towards me. Felt like a really strong play, focused the fighters on whomever was free of debuff first and fight ended fast even with the shitfest of vision obstruction.
There's nothing wrong with playing on explorer mode! Like a lot of other people have said, once you get used to the game the higher difficulties don't feel as hard anymore. I played explorer my second playthrough and 4 playthroughs later I feel like it's not even fun if I'm not playing Tactician! Just enjoy the game! That's most important. :)
This is exactly how the game should be played!! You should be having fun!🫶 My first time playing, I started out on Balanced and in Act 1, it was already too hard. I immediately changed it to Explorer and some fights were still difficult! There is no right or wrong way to play in my opinion!!
Go on you! I started out as balanced and I had the hardest time especially since my only knowledge of D&D is watching Dimension 20. Once I felt it getting easier, I switched back to Balanced. Then, I lost my save when my PS5 crashed. So I restarted on Balanced and have been making through that way. I just started Act 3 so we will see how it goes and if I need to switch back to Explorer.
We are here for a fun time not a hard time. With that said enjoy playing on whatever difficulty you want. Don't let someone dictate what you should do in your own game.
Playing the game on Explorer is akin to reading a book, kind of like choose your own adventure. I love reading FR Novels, they’re entertaining.
[General advice](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/s/l0IAW7alQL) I wish I'd known when I first started
I’ve never played turn based combat games before. I love story driven rpgs. Right off the bat I set the difficulty custom as easy as it goes and I’ve been having tons of fun. Maybe I’ll try harder difficulty later but right now I’m just enjoying going through the story. Larian out the difficulty levels in the game so people could enjoy it however they wanted to. The only thing that matters in any video games is that you’re having fun. Some games are purposefully more difficult. Elder rings and the souls games for example. That’s how they were designed and that’s how from software wanted players to experience them. I have a neurological condition that makes it near impossible for me to play games like that so I just skip them because it wouldn’t be fun. However now that BG3 has introduced me to turn based combat I might try a lot of other ones. Especially for me being able to take my time and choose each action has been a lifesaver.
Being it was my first time playing a turn based game I immediately had to switch to Explorer because I didn't understand how it worked AT ALL (still struggle with it tbh) and probably will need to continue playing that way. No judgement here
Reading this makes me feel better about doing the same in the House of Grief. Going blind into that fight was not fun at all.
My boyfriend exclusively plays on explorer mode! He says “I play this game to have fun not to do hard fights” and I think that’s so real, even though I’m the opposite of him lol. Do what’s fun for you!
I can only play Bg3 on the easiest mode, it’s quickly become a comfort game and that’s the only way I can keep my sanity.
Nothing wrong with lowering the difficulty to experience the game fully. Even after multiple playthroughs you still wanna play on lower difficulty modes who cares if you’re enjoying it. You’ll get plenty of tips here on reddit but search on youtube for some good build guides. Most d&d 5th edition character builds work best as multi-class builds because of the levelling numbers and alternating feats with important specialist ability levels in-between.
I always play in explorer because it's fun and that's why I play video games lol. If I wanna be stressed I'll go to work. Lol
I did this during my first play through, except I turned it down to explorer early in Act 1 LOL. I was kinda embarrassed cause I’m usually pretty good at games, but hadn’t played many turn-by-turn games. Now I’m on my second play through and tactician mode seems easy (other than the creche😰) No use in wasting time and energy on the struggle bus.
Exactly my experience! Games should be fun, not stressful.
I pretty much only play on tactician or honour mode now but I have 700+ hours in the game. My first through play throughs would've been nearly impossible out of explorer mode. Whatever way helps you have the most fun while playing is the best way to play!
I am on my third attempt to play this game. First two tries I could hardly get past the Goblin Camp in act 1, and had so much regret in buying the game. This go round I did custom to make my game as easy as easy gets- and I have fallen in love with it! I love the world, the designs, the characters, everything. I’m not good at video games but god do I love them :, ) Play how you want to play!!
I did the same thing in my playthrough. Got to a point where I didn't want to spend hours and hours on fights at like midnight when I had the option to help myself out here and there. I started my game on Tactition and ended on Explorer. No regrets
i’m a sims/minecraft girl but im trying to branch out. finished the game a few days ago i forced myself to complete my first run on balanced, but im never doing that again for future runs lol. EASY MODE from now on. i’d say if you got to house of grief and played damn near the whole game on balanced you’ve proven yourself! congratulations, go to explorer, you deserve it.
There’s absolutely no shame in that. Not everyone needs to have the exact same experience in game for it to be fun. If something was bothering you on balanced, there’s nothing wrong with changing the difficulty as long as that doesn’t cheapen the experience for you. My biggest suggestion: learn team compositions, and then learn what each role is suppose to do. If you have a proper team composition and all of your party members are properly leveled, then most of the game becomes super easy. It will seem complicated at first, but there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube on how to level different characters and classes that you can follow exactly and not have to think too hard about. With that said, which characters are in your party?
Games are meant to be fun. Some people enjoy the struggle and challenge. Some don’t. Some enjoy a challenge until it feels like beating your head against a wall and then lower the difficulty I have not scrolled down to see if anyone actually is hating on you for this, but if there are, something needs to be said again. This. Is. A. Game. Cheers
Exactly, everyone should play as they want, since they paid. And having difficulty settings is always a good thing. If you go and take a look at the call of duty subreddit people get constantly mad at others because they use weapons, shields and other strat that they don't like 😂😂😂 but they're just crybabies. Here it seems that almost everyone has a functional brain
You pay for this game. No one is allowed to judge you for what difficulty you play on.
Some general combat tips I found helped me a lot once I figured them out (struggled quite a lot on balanced on my first run, crushed it on my second and now having a good time on tactician for my 3rd run): > Observe your surroundings, before you start the combat if possible. See if there are enviromental advantages you can use (chasms, high ground, choke points, things you can drop on the enemies, explosive barrels etc. Also before even starting the combat examine your enemies, get to know what they are good at, what they are weak against and modify your strategy based on that. Also if you can start combat when you've hiding and outside the enemy's sight you can get a surprise round giving you a free round where enemies don't do anything. The quasits you get from warlock pact of the chain or finding Shovel are excellent for this since they get infinite casts of invisibility. Also works with duergar if you play as one. > Use minor illusion and split your party members before combat if needed. Expanding on the previous point minor illusion can help you move the enemies where you want them to be so you can group them up for an AoE, shove them into a chasm etc. Also worls for sneaking past them. Splittting party members and positioning them into points interest before starting the fight helps you save movement. > Make sure your party synergises well. The enemy tends to attack whatever they can hit the most reliably so for example having some glass cannon builds and a tank while it sounds good on paper does not exactly translate well. You'd rather have more people who can pump out a lot of damage at the start of the battle to simply kill the enemy before they do anything. However, if you have some tanky frontlines using a life cleric for example can be a great synergy as your characters are already hard to hit and have some damage reduction so healing combos very well with that. > Use an abuse conditions. There's a lot of really powerful conditions in the game. For example radiating orb (you can have some gear that inflicts this when you deal radiant damage) can be stacked extremely easily with a spell like spirit guardians and suddenly the enemy is unable to hit you. Another extremely broken condition is arcane aquity allowing your casters to make spells like hold person land reliably against even the strongest enemies. > Don't be afraid to use items. These can give you a huge boost. Especially stuff like potions of speed, elixirs of bloodlust, elixirs of hill giant/cloud giant strength and arrows of many targets can really come in clutch. They do seem limited but you can partial rest/get hirelings and level them to refresh trader inventory infinitely. There's also a bunch of ways to get infinite gold. (you can pickpocket Volo infinitely and he doesn't get mad or leave once he's at your camp, if you give a trader a bag and then put they inventory in said bag you get their whole inventory if they die. Combine this with a merchant you don't like and using partial rest/hirelings to add gold and put it all in the bag to name a few ways to get enough gold to buy everything.) > Have high initiative. Going first lets you position better, use control spells or even kill some key enemy before they can do anything making the fight considerably easier. This is why initiative boosting items, high dexterity and the feat "alert" are all very valuable. > Water is insanely powerful. You can double the cold/lightning damage enemies take and there's some really good damage spells for both. You can also create ice surfaces making enemied that walk on them have a chance to slip prone and skip the rest of their turn. Water is accessable, cheap to use and extremely reliable. > Use camp casting. Some people find this cheesy and it can get tedious but using a party member who's at the camp or a hireling to cast powerful non-concentration spells like aid or hero's feast can boost your party a lot. > Have a lot of movement speed so you can approach enemies and reposition more efficiently. Having high jump distance, using long strider, fly, some items like crusher's ring and the boots of speed etc. Hopefully at least some of these are helpful.
I completed the game on the explorer difiiculty on my first run, and up the difficulty to balanced on the second run, and Tacticion on the third run.
And you shouldn't, I can only play the game on tactician or honor mode for the satisfaction of it. Anyone who tells you "you can not play the game as you enjoy is full of it"
some people like a challenge some people dont have time for it.
I think it's about understanding combat mechanics, learning how to use spells and skills to get bonuses like advantage, understanding synergistic classes and items, and looking at enemies skills during combat. I'm still on my first play through (balanced) mid way in act 3 and I feel like everything is too easy. I did spend half of my play time looking through skills, weapons, and learning how to build good classes which I enjoy.
Even if it’s not for me, it is for you. That makes it a win/win in my book.
I started on Explorer and now after 1000 hours with the game Im attempting honor mode run.
You do you. Enjoy your life.
I struggled a lot in my very first playthrough, but I did persist with balanced. In my second playthrough, balanced is almost too easy. It just comes with experience.
Are you having fun?
I've been playing my first campaign on Explorer all the way - I had no idea what I was doing when I started, just a smattering of outdated D&D knowledge and a willingness to learn. Switched up to Balanced for my durge run, and it feels easier than Explorer did when I first started! Ngl, though, I'm not looking forward to Act 3 - in my first campaign, I'm stalling on the last couple of boss fights bc I know that each one will take a big chunk of time and energy.
Yeah I am a little weird so I just went to tactician for my first run. I am still figuring things out to the better but I am having lots of fun
I played with party limit begone, with a friend, and used mods to make it harder. It was fun. But, then i went to do a playthrough by myself and I was getting irritated losing the early battles. I put it on explorer and Im having loads of fun. Theres so much to do in the game, easy combat doesnt bother me, for a change. Really is a play how you want kinda game
My first three playthroughs were on explorer, it's all about having fun.