I've added context and my reasoning below, but if you don't feel like reading and just want to answer the question then I would still be interested in your opinion.
Context
I recently started playing Divinity Original Sin 2 for the first time and quickly noticed my play style was to keep running after engaging an enemy and sometime even flee and rejoin combat to get more damage in (if you have two character that share initiative then it is possible to use this flee tactic to keep damaging the enemy without letting them get a turn, a real cheese strategy.)
With proper game knowledge, I imagine it is possible to find builds and routes that don't force one to kite every encounter, but at the moment it feels like this is the only way to beat an encounter I am otherwise under leveled for.
Since this feel very cheesy it got me motivated to try a new BG3 run without cheesing or fleeing any fight.
The rules of my current HM run.
No stealth tactics:
This means no hiding, turning invisible or attacking an enemy to start combat. I've added no stealing or other 'red actions' since that feel in the spirit of the challenge.
No barrelmancy:
Since barrelmancy is a bit vague as a precise mechanic, I am interpreting this rule broadly as no preparing the environment for an encounter. So before combat I cannot:
- buff characters
- throw potions
Before and during combat I cannot:
- move items
- drop items from inventory
I am still allowed to do the folling
- blow up barrels that have been placed by the devs.
- throw grenades and barrels.
No kiting:
This one is also a little hard to define and retreating with a character or just moving them to a better location is a key part of fighting strategically and the point of this run is to challenge to find the best approach to any encounter rather than just consistently use one overpowered tactic.
The rule I have come up with here is no increasing my movement speed. Among other things, this means no:
- longstrider
- enhanced leap
- woodelf
- Nyrulna
- haste
The idea is that even slow enemies can catch up to me by dashing, so even if I try to run away as much as possible enemies with still be able to reach me, or do ranged damage. I am allowed to use things like plant growth and ray of frost to slow as these effects are temporary or inconsistent. To ensure that this really does not allow kiting, I'm adding the rule:
No moving enemies:
- No pushing.
- No thunder wave.
- No repelling blast.
In conclusion I'm enjoying the run so far, but am still in the early game and haven't had a hard fight yet. Any feed back, suggestion of other rules I should follow or pointing out of unforeseen consequences of these rules is welcome. The no buffing before combat puts me on more even footing with npc's (who only cast mage armor during combat), but it has meant I had to leave Astarion at camp after he became happy and I'm planing to rely on the lantern for act 2 and avoid Isobel's blessing.