During the latest presentation on Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian revealed the details of the game’s highest difficulty level, called Tactician. In addition to the features from Divinity: Original Sin 2, such as increased enemy stats and more aggressive AI, the new mode also includes unique changes to many encounters to increase the chances of opponents.
We have two difficulty levels: basic, which applies to all characters in the game – these are the main points, like increasing health or increasing chance to hit. Then comes the local level. We’ve added a bit of “pepper” to every BG3 fight to make it a little more spicy and challenging.
— Senior Combat Designer Matt Holland
To demonstrate this, the hosts on the stream went through the same battle scene, first on “balanced” (normal) difficulty, and then on “tactics”. On Balanced difficulty, a duo of monks took on a group of goblins scattered around the city. The player characters had one loss but otherwise handled the fight fairly well.
In Tactic mode, the same goblins received fire arrows, and the main entrance to the city was littered with barrels of oil and explosives – one monk was defeated, and the second was on the verge of death in one turn. AI changes in Tactics mode will make many suffer from hardcore. As Holland explained, “We want you to feel like you’re up against a Master (DM) who’s trying to push you to your limit.”
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On this difficulty, enemies can focus attacks on “soft targets” and ignore tanks, or avoid traps set by the player. In general, according to the developers, the ultimate difficulty level should be launched with full awareness of how difficult it will be to play. And the main thing to remember is that if you can’t get through the fight in any way, then it’s not the game’s fault.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is out on PC on August 3rd. Console gamers will have to wait until September.
