Normal vs Hard

[bronzepoem]

Just wonder，will diffculty level change looting and EXP？

[Karranthain]

Just wonder，will diffculty level change looting and EXP？

 

It'll change looting since each difficulty level adds more enemies to the encounters.

[isms]

 

Better to start hard and then decrease the difficulty ingame if there are huge problems

So can someone please confirm, that you can change the difficulty in-game? If so then hard it is, if I get demolished I can then switch to normal...

 

 

You can switch between easy, normal, and hard at any time. If you choose Path of the Damned, you're locked in.

[Mazisky]

Hard is better for a completionist playthrough.

 

You are incentivated to do all side quests and take every bit of xp and loot to beat that tough enemy and continue to the main path. 

[KingsGambit]

I think I'm going to go with Hard difficulty. From the sounds of it it provides a decent challenge with interesting encounters and enemies that aren't gimped, whereas PotD is for the more masachistic players.

I don't min/max obsessively but do power-game to an extent. Saying that, I'm looking forward to a role-playing experience more than anything. I haven't seen any gameplay videos at all, only of character creation but am experienced in RPGs. Bring on the challenge. )

[Nomadmerc]

Path of the Damned, Expert Mode, and Ironman mode or bust! I can always rehire my min/max party members that die off as I am largely skipping the 8 npc companions. Just have to worry about keeping the main character alive so it will be something ranged.

[kryadan]

It all depends on the achievements for me.

[kryptix]

So if I played BG1 and BG2 with all of the popular difficulty mods activated (SCS, Ascension etc.) what difficulty would I want to play this at?

[Calurin]

So if I played BG1 and BG2 with all of the popular difficulty mods activated (SCS, Ascension etc.) what difficulty would I want to play this at?

 

^ Extremely easy.

[etagloc]

It didn't take me more than a few encounters to get the hang of hard in the BB. 

just plan ahead and don't rush into combat.

[PIP-Clownboy]

I just really hate that expert mode doesn't have the AOE indicators. You pretty much have to memorize every spell's radi and there alot of spells. And how the hell are you suppose to aim that one druid spell that shoots in a V. Will be frustrating mostly due to silly friendly fire deaths on POTD. 

Edited March 25, 2015 by PIP-Clownboy

[Suhiir]

I start most games on normal then once I get a "feel" for them after a few hours of play I may well restart in hard.

[mrmonocle]

in BB there were a lot of new types of enemies on hard that were not present on normal and below.

Edited March 26, 2015 by mrmonocle

[Dr. Snuggles]

I played IWD2 solo. How hard is this in comparison to hard mode in Pillars?

I am bit scared by the description, that veterans would face a challenge. I do not consider myself a veteran.

Edited March 26, 2015 by Dr. Snuggles

[Tinki]

Ive played 3 different builds over the last few hours. Rogue, Cipher, Chanter. I am not a veteran either but have scoured vids of gameplay and builds for about a week now. I tried "hard" and it worked , but I needed to rest after a few encounters and this is just the very beginning of play,

 

Where to stand in combat, not letting eye candy of combat itself make you forget your needed pause for tactics, gauging who to target first etc is a learning curve. so maybe 'Normal" is best if just to get the hang of things.

 

I long to be on "hard" mostly for cool factor and extra enemies; that is ;going to have to wait.