Balance in 7.9

Can anyone already give some information about balance in the last mod.
Is the difficulty now more in balance with the new content so that I should build a rather maxed out party. Or is it still that with growing XP content becomes quite easy and it's more of a challenge to play with some self constrictions (like do not use holy weapons, craft items, use area spells, etc)?

 

I haven't got to verbobonc yet, but the earlier path is much as it was, but of course without HB you progress slower, so perhaps that does make it more difficult. I still play with plenty of self restrictions. Not sure what will happen later on...

 

Ok, Arena of Heroes had been my next question.
But in general seems like a more experienced player does not have to be that much self- restricted any longer to keep up the challenge.

 

I don't know if it's a change in the AI, but the bad guys sure seem to consider my party as a WIZARD who has a few lackeys with him.

I almost feel like I'm playing Knights of The Chalice, which is a good thing.

 

"She's a witch! Can we burn her?"

 

But... how do you know she is a witch?

 

Because she floats you silly boy......

 

We could build a bridge out of her...

 

She weighs less than a goose?

 

is that with or without the stuffing?

 

That was the principle of the ducking stool and dropping weighted witchs into large ponds etc - if you survived you must be a witch and should therefore be burnt at the stake.

(There is nothing new in the world - not even misogyny on UK Twitter)

 

SO I have got right through to Verbobonc, and I think that the challenge rating is now better. I have played ToEE a lot, so I know all the upcoming combats, where to buff etc, so I still find it easy and counter that by nerfing my parties, but that doesn't mean the balance isn't right, just that I have a very unfair advantage! Even so, I still suffer kills from time to time whenever I get blasé about the whole thing!

Thumbs up to the new order - I'd even like to see the Book of Heroes moved to post temple to take place in the arena in Verbobonc. Think that might be planned already right? I'd also be happy to offer my services to deepen some of the pre-temple content with some loot randomisation and additional quest resolution and dialogue options, if the Co8 folks have the patience to give me a little guidance on the how to do it side.

 

Thx for the feedback so far. I decided to go with a non optimized group that is definetly not weak on the other hand but not too strong: Ranger, Cleric, Bard and Thief. All with good stats.