Recently bought NWN2 (complete) on GOG - already owned and played the original and all expansions when they were first released but couldn't resist the complete package with no searching for patches etc for $20 when I wanted to revisit the game as I impatiently await the release of Project Eternity and the new Torment title.

I loved the ease of installation and I've started runs in the OC, MOTB, and several in SOZ - my gaming style is to play on hardcore with a minimum of cheese and somewhat more of an RP style than a power-gaming one.

The game is performing well but it just has a feel of being too easy compared to what I recall from the countless hours I played originally.

I'm currently focusing on a MOTB run with a str based rogue 3/ranger X with archery style but more focused on melee and I recently finished the Okku fight and Okku was surrendering even before Gann announced it was time to focus on him.

The battle with the death knights in the shadow temple was also over quickly (altho that might have been due to my knowledge of their vulnerability to heal spells).

In SOZ I have several starts and in spite of completely ignoring the crew members on the beach every party earned the "protector" feat for keeping them all alive and several other battles I recalled as quite difficult before ended relatively quickly without reloads.

Was there perhaps a late coming official patch that nerfed the difficulty on hardcore level that I am not recalling or is it possible this is related directly to the GOG version -

Has anyone else noticed this?

I haven't played the GOG version yet, and I'm not aware of any changes to the difficulty in any of the official patches, but I think it's quite likely you're far better at tactics and resource management than you were when you first played it. And your knowledge of what's upcoming and what the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents are will have an effect on your play as well.

Oh, and welcome to the GOG forums, Wanderon. :)

I did consider the idea that my awesomeness levels had possibly increased during the years after I set NWN2 aside and I frittered away the hours playing DA:O & DA2 and more recently BG:EE but I'm fairly certain that now that I'm almost 65 I had probably reached the awesome cap sometime in the last decade or two!

The pre-knowledge is also unlikely to be the culprit either since I am by nature a chronic restarter and thus have intimate knowledge of the early game long before I ever even reach the mid- game and sometimes never make it to the end game - so if preknowledge were the answer I would have found those battles much easier back when I was playing the game full time and thus it would not be a surprise to me to find them easier now.

The other issue with pre-knowledge is it does not take into account the -42 memory penalty that occurs at my age LOL - I can recall vividly things I did as a youngster but not why I walked across the room!

One possibility that had occurred to me was the games AI had perhaps been tweaked in one of the later patches as I often let my companions run on their own AI unless I have something specific I wish them to do (after turning spellcasting down to scaled casting) altho I think I might have still been playing SOZ when the last of the patches came out but then theres that whole memeory thing to consider so that may be incorrect.

Anyway thanks for the reply and the welcome - maybe someone playing the GOG version will have some input as well.

Yeah, the game is way too easy. Even in boss battles you can just charge right in and wipe them out.
No reason to worry about death, if anyone dies they self-resurrect after the battle.