GameBanshee Forums

Hi There,

Could anyone out there explain to me the EXACT differences between "Normal" and "AD&D Core Rules" difficulty?

The way I understood it was in Normal mode you get max hp on level up and spells are always successfully scribed - but other than that they are identical.

Now im hearing that when you install the expansion, it says under Normal mode that "monsters only deal 3/4 damage". Is this true?

Anyway, like I said im just looking for the EXACT differences between the two. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

My understanding of the differences between Normal and Core rules is as follows.
Core is AD&D as per its ruleset. Normal follows the same ruleset except under these circumstances; Characters cannot permanently die, all scrolls are 100% successful in scribing and all hit point rolls are maximums.
I haven't heard anything about them changing this with the expansion installed.

ElvenKing

I do remember seeing, when I was looking through the config program, that on normal difficulty monsters only do 3/4 damage.

Now, whether it was like that before the expansion or not ... I don't remember.

Combine what Elvenking and Dan said and you have it. I'm positively sure.

3/4 damage? That would make me feel lame and cheating... Are you sure? Can't remember ever having seen that.

I believe if you look under the game difficulty setting in the options screen it now does say normal difficulty is 3/4 damage. This was never announced before TOB, but it may have been there all along <shrug>.

As I recall, in Core, you also can't resurrect Elves. However, I may be confusing Core with previous rules iterations.

I think you're thinking of Icewind Dale, fable. But I have a question: How come you can't resurrect someone that had an "explosive" death with the rod of resurrection or a resurrection spell?

Too much damage. In IWD, if you had too much damage the protrait had -10 hp, IIRC. In BG2, the Protrait disappaers.

you need the bones too and well the bones are disentergrated or blown to smitherens

Okay. I just thought that Resurrection was supposed to have no restrictions, unlike Raise Dead, which requires an intact body.

@Magus: You're correct (at least in PnP )
For "Raise Dead" to work, you need an intact body, and you can't raise Elves;
For "Resurrection", you need just a piece of the body (a few hairs would do), and there is no restriction on the recipient's race.
But that's not how it's implemented in SoA/ToB

TC, Geert

IMHO even if you resurrect elves, they should turn hostile towards you since you just pulled them away from their form of heaven....

now serious: I never seen during core rules that someone with low con did not get raised, because he/she did not make her res survival check... shame

Back to the original question... Can anyone confirm that "Normal" in SoA gives you 3/4 damage?

I'd hate to have to adjust the difficulty every time I level someone or scribe a scroll... I'd hate having a totally unfair advantage even more.

I had a good idea to always play with "Core rules"
Noone did mention that about raise dead/resurrect, the main difference between BG/IWD and core AD&D is that in core rules a raise/resurrect not only has a chance to fail (if target fails his Survival shock % roll), BUT also, if it was successful the target LOST 1 CON point,permanently !

I don't understand why BW didn't include this as an option... When playing I try to NOT reload when a NPC dies, I resurrect him, and now it's totally free, there's no penalty associated with dying, not fun...