Oh noes!

I've heard about damage reduction instead of AC (ease of use I believe). Is this considered cheating or no?

Any unofficial mod or change could be seen as cheating, but, when you get down to it, it only really matters in two cases:

1. multiplayer (when people who knowingly cheat and don't inform their fellow mp game players should be drawn and quartered)
and
2. bragging rights (and cheating to gain bragging rights is just sad :D )

Beyond that, IMO it doesn't matter. You decide what mods to use, and the other effect it has is on your games. If you don't like a mod, or consider it unbalanced or cheating, just don't use it. No skin off anyones' back [img]smile.gif[/img]

-Raffin

Dont use MODS unless you have beating the game once or twice, and certianly dont MOD in MP, i think thats becoming a problem these days :(

Gaming what?!?

Well in my opinion it depends on how it's done. I never tried it because it seemed unbalancing. I heard of people that did it with a Barbarian and got hit for almost nothing...

But if it was balanced seriously, it could work. If trough the game the ammount of damage you ignore because the ennemy missed you and the number of damage you would ignore because the armor reduced it is the same, then the balance is the same, but without the randomness.

But doubt it's possible. I'm pretty sure that even a reduction of 2-3 damage from all attacks in the game would in the end make you ignore more damage than you would from the miss the ennemy get from you wearing a full plate. It would also make some encounter trivial. Any time you would encounter a horde of low damage ennemies you would be totally invincible.

I hear that it makes HoF mode unbelievably easy. If you think about it, the only way to achieve an AC high enough to effectively tank HoF is with ridiculously powergamed characters, such as the ugly, weak, deep gnome monk/dreadmaster/rogue/mage. With damage reduction, a single class fighter can tank HoF mode.

<font color = lightgreen>Having gone through the game "normally" at least once, subsequently installing the damage reduction mod is perfectly acceptable. It isn't like the game will have any surprises for you the second time around, except for maybe dialogue options you didn't get in previous games.</font>