The Nightmare difficulty setting introduces three major differences to combat:
1. Attacks cause friendly fire. This cuts both ways, as not only can you hurt your own companions but enemies can also hurt each other.
2. Enemies now boast elemental immunities. Refer to the Bestiary for details.
3. Enemy toughness is scaled up. They inflict even more damage on you and take more to kill. Assassins have a chance to steal potions from the party and their stealth attacks bypass the victim's armor completely. Commanders are able to direct their troops at party members for a concerted attack.
Playing on Nightmare therefore requires a more careful style of play. The following tips will help you get the right habits:
- You are your own worst enemy in Nightmare. The friendly fire of your best attacks will wipe out companions who get in the way. AoE spells that only target enemies include Sleep and the electricity attacks of the Primal tree.
- Micromanagement squeezes the most from your party members, ensuring they work in a coordinated fashion. Pause the game frequently to monitor their status and issue new orders.
- Cross-class combos are essential for grinding down enemies, which is why it is important that you choose when your companions unleash their talents. The damage multipliers possible against enemies you have deliberately set up with specific status effects make it possible to grind down the toughest enemies.
- If you have a Spirit Healer with Second Chance, you no longer need to worry about injuries. Otherwise, away from home, use any injury kits to cure as soon as possible: you’ll force the game’s generosity in providing up to the inventory limit of four from loot piles and containers. Such drops come as additional treasures and do not replace money or item loot.
- Battles remain ongoing while there are still enemies in the vicinity (red dots visible on the minimap). If you can retreat a sufficient distance, you can force the conclusion of the battle and some recovery time, not to mention a save game opportunity.
- Crafted poisons, potions and bombs are extremely effective combat aids. Imbuing a rogue’s twin blades with slowing effects can turn the tide of a tough battle, and you don’t have to be a mage to swig a Rock Armor Potion for impressive damage resistance.
- To perform any kind of Area of Effect ability safely, you will need to keep enemies grouped and isolated. The Force Mage specialization sacrifices damage for effects that repel, slow and pull enemies to where they can be hammered and blasted. Warriors can use Scatter to drive back a few enemies at once. Use Hold Position to stop your characters running off into the fray.
- One-hit kills from enemies can ruin your day. If your mage cannot survive long enough to raise a Barrier or Glyph when an assassin pops into stealth, buy more health with equipment properties and spend some attribute points in Constitution. Note that a character with less than 10% health remaining will bleed out to death unless healed.
- Crowd control is essential when critters and archers can pose a serious knockdown threat. Enemy damage and force scales with difficulty, and a mage can no longer afford to Mind Blast with allies in the vicinity because of the AoE effect.