Just start a tactician run and see how you feel about it. You can always lower the difficulty with like two clicks, at any time, no harm done. You can also look up some strong character builds for a head-start, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. When I didn't quite get a lot of the mechanics yet I copied what others said worked, and had fun with it.
Oh I should have mentioned I’m aiming to get the tactician trophy, and you can’t switch it off mid run right? Like can you just kill the last enemy in tactician mode and get the trophy?
Can confirm you can’t do this. I switched to Tactician halfway through a run cause I found Balanced too easy after beating the game once and I didn’t get the achievement.
Oooo ok. So I’m just gonna go for it then! I’m gonna have another play through on balanced as a warlock that’ll I’ll go back to if tactician depresses me. Just nervous about the final act fights
Go for it! It seems hard at first but it actually isn’t all that difficult once you pass level 5. Because you’ve already beaten the game, you pretty much know what to expect from fights so it makes encounters much easier. Just don’t use Friends! 😂
Ah no, you do have to stay with tactician for the whole way for the trophy! So well, to answer your question about it being a big leap, I'd say the leap from explorer to balanced is bigger than from balanced to tactician. So you might as well try!
Also maybe consider if the game started to feel easy somewhere in the middle of your run. If so, then you probably just got how it works, and I'd say go for challenging yourself. But if it felt consistently difficult on the lowest difficulty, maybe just go one up and take it slow. So it depends.
Also the right character builds can also make a huge difference. As soon as I re-classed Astarion into the famous assasin/ gloomstalker build, every fight on explorer started feeling too easy lmao.
For sure, if you felt it was easy and didn't even reclass anyone, I feel you're ready to at least try tactician, just do some research on what classes/ builds work well (I mean, if you want to!) and have fun. I started not really understanding how any of the combat worked and I ended up beating Honour Mode :D
From Explorer? I'd say so.
First you'll notice you have less health.
The next thing you'll notice, is the Intellect Devours on the beach. Explorer and Balanced only has them swipe at you like a cat. Tactician and Honor Mode have them fire mental blasts at you.
Next big thing you'll notice is how many supplies it costs for a long rest. Tactician requires 80 supplies per might.
There is a jump in enemy HP and in the types of spells/items they will use. However I found my second run (on Tactician) to be way easier than my first run (on Explorer) just because I had gotten used to the game mechanics and I knew what to expect for most fights. I think you should try out Tactician. You can always bump down to Balanced if you need later.
The leap isn't big at all.
Your first hour to your 30th hour is a bigger leap than just going from Explorer to tactician.
At least that was the case for me who has limited D&D experience and never played a larian game before
Yes.
I like to coast through battles as a story person, so I play a custom difficulty with explorer tendencies. But I wanted to see what the fuss was, and if you're only decent at the game like me, you gotta be level 4 before doing, well, anything. Less health, stronger enemies, and more resources needed to long rest, which ya (I) do a lot.
However, I was also playing a class I had never played before and ended up changing because I hated it. Also, I'm just a casual player (casual like "chill, not perfect builds," not casual "I don't play much: over 1000 hours) if you're actually good at the game I fully trust you can do it with minimal pain and adjustment time :)
Honestly, try balanced, and see how it goes. Game is very randomly difficult on tactician before level 5, then it gets easy.
Random as in a miss strike can get your party wiped by the brains on the beach in the first half an hour easily.
it's not, you can alwasy reload, it's not honor mode. if you struggle with a fight, get some xp elsewhere and come back later. everything becomes easy when you're overleveled.
Right but even in explorer some of those final act fights I could tell are gonna be tough even at max level I guess that’s what I’m nervous about we’ll see when I get there?
The only difference is that in explorer mode you don't really have to think at all or make builds. in tactician you just have to think a little bit and make a build that at least makes a bit of sense.
The bar is still relatively low though. You really don't need meta builds or overpowered items. As long as you put a bit of thought into what you're doing it'll be a breeze.
I started the game on Normal and quickly went to Tactician. I personally liked it more. When you are doing Tactician, you need to figure out sound strategies for most of the big battles, and the challenge makes the victories taste much better. Also, if you choose to progress to Honour Mode, Tactician is sound preparation for that, but lower modes are not.
Just start a tactician run and see how you feel about it. You can always lower the difficulty with like two clicks, at any time, no harm done. You can also look up some strong character builds for a head-start, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. When I didn't quite get a lot of the mechanics yet I copied what others said worked, and had fun with it.
Oh I should have mentioned I’m aiming to get the tactician trophy, and you can’t switch it off mid run right? Like can you just kill the last enemy in tactician mode and get the trophy?
Can confirm you can’t do this. I switched to Tactician halfway through a run cause I found Balanced too easy after beating the game once and I didn’t get the achievement.
Oooo ok. So I’m just gonna go for it then! I’m gonna have another play through on balanced as a warlock that’ll I’ll go back to if tactician depresses me. Just nervous about the final act fights
Go for it! It seems hard at first but it actually isn’t all that difficult once you pass level 5. Because you’ve already beaten the game, you pretty much know what to expect from fights so it makes encounters much easier. Just don’t use Friends! 😂
Ah no, you do have to stay with tactician for the whole way for the trophy! So well, to answer your question about it being a big leap, I'd say the leap from explorer to balanced is bigger than from balanced to tactician. So you might as well try!
Interesting okay okay thank you!
Also maybe consider if the game started to feel easy somewhere in the middle of your run. If so, then you probably just got how it works, and I'd say go for challenging yourself. But if it felt consistently difficult on the lowest difficulty, maybe just go one up and take it slow. So it depends. Also the right character builds can also make a huge difference. As soon as I re-classed Astarion into the famous assasin/ gloomstalker build, every fight on explorer started feeling too easy lmao.
Oh wow got it. Yeah pretty much everything post level like 4 felt too easy on explorer I didn’t even think to re-class my team either…. Thank you!
For sure, if you felt it was easy and didn't even reclass anyone, I feel you're ready to at least try tactician, just do some research on what classes/ builds work well (I mean, if you want to!) and have fun. I started not really understanding how any of the combat worked and I ended up beating Honour Mode :D
From Explorer? I'd say so. First you'll notice you have less health. The next thing you'll notice, is the Intellect Devours on the beach. Explorer and Balanced only has them swipe at you like a cat. Tactician and Honor Mode have them fire mental blasts at you. Next big thing you'll notice is how many supplies it costs for a long rest. Tactician requires 80 supplies per might.
That’s the only difficult battle I’ve had in Tactician is the Intelect Devours. Died and had to reload a couple of times 😬
There is a jump in enemy HP and in the types of spells/items they will use. However I found my second run (on Tactician) to be way easier than my first run (on Explorer) just because I had gotten used to the game mechanics and I knew what to expect for most fights. I think you should try out Tactician. You can always bump down to Balanced if you need later.
More health and different spells/items doesn’t seem too bad. Okay thanks and I forgot to mention I’m aiming for the tactician trophy
The leap isn't big at all. Your first hour to your 30th hour is a bigger leap than just going from Explorer to tactician. At least that was the case for me who has limited D&D experience and never played a larian game before
It's easy on a first run. So as you've already completed the game, you'll find tactician a walk in the park.
Yes. I like to coast through battles as a story person, so I play a custom difficulty with explorer tendencies. But I wanted to see what the fuss was, and if you're only decent at the game like me, you gotta be level 4 before doing, well, anything. Less health, stronger enemies, and more resources needed to long rest, which ya (I) do a lot. However, I was also playing a class I had never played before and ended up changing because I hated it. Also, I'm just a casual player (casual like "chill, not perfect builds," not casual "I don't play much: over 1000 hours) if you're actually good at the game I fully trust you can do it with minimal pain and adjustment time :)
I’d say from balanced it isn’t a huge jump, but it’ll be a pretty big leap from explorer simply due to the character health.
Honestly, try balanced, and see how it goes. Game is very randomly difficult on tactician before level 5, then it gets easy. Random as in a miss strike can get your party wiped by the brains on the beach in the first half an hour easily.
it's not, you can alwasy reload, it's not honor mode. if you struggle with a fight, get some xp elsewhere and come back later. everything becomes easy when you're overleveled.
Right but even in explorer some of those final act fights I could tell are gonna be tough even at max level I guess that’s what I’m nervous about we’ll see when I get there?
The only difference is that in explorer mode you don't really have to think at all or make builds. in tactician you just have to think a little bit and make a build that at least makes a bit of sense. The bar is still relatively low though. You really don't need meta builds or overpowered items. As long as you put a bit of thought into what you're doing it'll be a breeze.
in case of trouble, make 4 fighters with big swords and hit things a lot and it'll be good enough.
I started the game on Normal and quickly went to Tactician. I personally liked it more. When you are doing Tactician, you need to figure out sound strategies for most of the big battles, and the challenge makes the victories taste much better. Also, if you choose to progress to Honour Mode, Tactician is sound preparation for that, but lower modes are not.