Challenge runs - your House-rules?

[FluxWing]

There are a lot of great guides on how to get the most of your characters in this forum. There are countless topics on how to make your  way through the PotD -mode while minimizing the difficulty encountered.

 

But how about the other way around.

Do you ever keep keep yourself from relying on the same crutches over and over? Do you ever set up rules for yourselves to prevent oversights in game-mechanics?

 

Of course there is the almighty solo triple crown, (Expert-mode, Trial of Iron, Path of the Damned-difficulty).

But that is way too tedious for me, it feels like I am trying to chew through a brick.

 

 

For me I set more loose rules, such as:

 

Exclusion of a certain class.

I found myself relying on a mechanic available only to a certain class.

Ex.

• No Priests, to avoid the powerful buffs that make some of the most difficult encounters into a thrash fight. No to mention their high damaging spells.
• No Mages, to avoid some of the more powerful spells such as "the colored wall" spell that seem to drop even the most resilient bosses.
• No Ciphers, to avoid the Defensive Mindweb spell, and to avoid the feeling that you only fight disabled enemies.
• ...
• No spell casters. Excludes all of the above for a greater challenge.

Exclusion of a certain abilities.

If the above rules are too extreme, ie. you love Ciphers conceptually, but want to avoid the cheesy spells.

Ex.

• Cipher allowed, but no CC-spells. Only buffs and/or damaging spells.
• (same as above for other classes...)

 

Exclusion of certain strategies.

If you find yourself relying on a particular strategies.

Ex.

• No divide and conquer, or splitting groups by running away from them.
• No bottle-necking. Limits the usage of glass-cannon builds have little to no defense.
• No peaceful solutions. How much of a challenge is it to talk down a dragon...?
• No skipping difficult encounters.
• Other way around, skipping as many encounters as possible? Stealth challenge without any Rogues perhaps.

Exclusion of certain build strategies.

Are you relying on some stats being worth more than others?

Ex.

• No dumping of stats below 10, 7, 5, whatever sounds reasonable for you. This would limit the amount of points available.
• No maxing of stats, ex. No starting 21 Might builds.
• No Moon Godlike, no excessive healing.
• No tanks, not including 1-2 characters trying to maximizing their survivability will probably create quite the challenge for the Dragon encounters.

Exclusion of certain items.

Are you using the same items over and over, without them you just can not get through? Then not using them could be quite a challenge.

Ex.

• No summoning items. Cannon fodder can be quite a good way to way to swallow multiple strong spells like Cleansing Flame from high-level Priests, or Sun Lances from the Magran's Faithfuls.
• No shields. Are shields mandatory? They give a huge boost to survivability, especially to your tanks, can you make it without them? No Outworn Buckler/Little Sanctuary auras.
• Only single 1H weapons. Not a lot of topics explore this option, despite the huge +12 accuracy bonus.
• No ranged/reach weapons. Is focus-fire behind a tank the only viable strategy for you? Try without.
• No potions. "haste"-potions addiction? Infuse Vital Essence got you hooked? No heal-potions?
• No scrolls.
• No unique/soulbound items. Perhaps you are relying too much on the "X on hits/crits" effect on items.

 

This is not a suggestion on how people should play. This is more a question on how you limit yourselves to keep the game interesting. A query of "House-rules" if you so will.

 

[MaxQuest]

Do you ever set up rules for yourselves to prevent oversights in game-mechanics?

 

Of course there is the almighty solo triple crown, (Expert-mode, Trial of Iron, Path of the Damned-difficulty).

But that is way too tedious for me, it feels like I am trying to chew through a brick.

This is not a suggestion on how people should play. This is more a question on how you limit yourselves to keep the game interesting. A query of "House-rules" if you so will.

Tbh I don't like to limit myself in terms of builds, races or classes. If any of these are imbalanced it's the problem of the game.

I am through quite reluctant when it comes to use of non-rechargeable/non-restorable items. Only from second playthrough and onward do I finally stop hoarding potions and scrolls and actually use them. Ironically they could be of greater benefit when I was less experienced with the game.

 

Regarding strategy part. I do avoid splitting enemies, especially if encounter seems to be designed around fighting all of enemies at the same time (like adragans + adra dragon). No skipping difficult fights either. At least not until it's clear that there is no way to win this fight with given party/level. For example it took me 6 attempts to realize that I cannot solo beat the bear(s) in the cave, at lvl 1 when I met him.

 

I might try some fights with naked characters, occasionally, for fun. But again I'd rather not limit myself, and increase the difficulty instead. So it's a no to Expert Mode, but yes to upscaled PotD. Current run in also on trial of iron. Although I already can say: I don't like it. It's not really harder, but you are unable to load an older save in order to test some new builds against specific yet-alive enemies. I'd better look how to mod and complicate potd even further.

Edited July 4, 2016 by MaxQuest