I'd argue it can be even more difficult than hard mode, with the right toggles on. The "Toggle options" choice in the Randomizers dialog has many options for making the game more difficult. I have plans for the afflictions (other than Bad Dreams) and some other pretty awesome stuff is on the works, you can check the Giannan Treck thread in the discord for that (potential spoilers).
Thanks! Those spells and tomes should be removed with the harder cures toggle right? There's also a curse that increases how often status effect land. Maybe I should make a toggle for that, or directly make enemies more aggressive in that regard, as you suggest.
I've turned on almost all toggles offered in this mod. The Bad Dreams, the Real Curses, the Limit Fast Travel, the Difficult Cures, the Harsh Ambushes, and the Hard Enemies, all turned on. Turned off Instant Items as well. Played half the game in this state and haven't really gotten much trouble, mostly due to defeating mobs and bosses with ease, without getting hit by many significant and permanent Afflictions.
All of these mods have indeed made the game significantly harder, but I'd argue not as hard as
hard mode since mob and boss stats are still rather low. But as I said, I advise against increasing their stats as to making things more grindy.
Though at the same time, how are we ever going to get afflicted by Masochism or Shameful if we never lose to these very specific and weak encounters? Our party would need to be already severely cursed from before, weakened to a state where even small fry like bandits and dragon worshippers can whop their asses.
And so I hope to see more ways to get frequently hit by permanent and demeaning statuses along the way!
Especially the Afflictions you get from witch curses and the clown, are very well balanced in how they start small but build up in power. They just need to come in place much earlier in the game,
before we get all the additional 100 party members to throw around! ^^
The Difficult Cures is one of my most desired changes to Gianna since ever, and for the most part it does indeed make obtainable cures scarce enough to
really fear getting transformed. < 3 Although I've still found a few cure tomes here and there, and Samona is still allowed to cure puppets infinetly (why would she
ever want to cure puppets? =p).
But yeah, all the curses and afflictions are awesome and
would make the game hard and softlocked enough, if they just appeared a bit more frequently due to, idk, more traps and more witches?
Oh, oh, idea! How about scattering around fake chests, that curses several party members instead of giving an item?
They could either be placed in place of already existing chests, making every chest a 1/6 gamble or something, or they could be placed in addition to the old chests, testing your Gianna knowledge on which to open and which to not.
I'm leaning more towards the latter, if it's not too much work. Since I wouldn't want any significant, unique item like the rings or cockrings to disappear in place of curses. But then again, those of us most experienced could prob easily discern which chests look suspiciously out of place...
So maybe the first one
is the best option, as long as none of those unique items are being poofed away entirely.
