This mod is designed to work together with the other mods in my "New Game Plus" series and also plays nicely with Custom Difficulty Tweaks.

If you have suggestions, feedback, or would just like to discuss anything related to this mod, please feel free to join our Discord community at: https://discord.gg/KtQUHSsHHY 


Installation:
Extract the .rar content into the modmanager\Games\DragonsDogma2\Mods folder in Fluffy Mod Manager.


Mod Design: The main goal of this mod is to rebalance most of the enemies/monsters in the game so that they are strong or tough enough, in various ways, to challenge players that are in end-game gear and starting a New Game Plus. Each creature sub-variant is hand-balanced so that fighting against them feels interesting in different ways - an outcome that is impossible to achieve with blanked damage and HP modifiers. This mod takes a "lore" based approach, that generally sets up the power level of different creatures based on what you would expect from what they are and how large/powerful the lore says they should be.

Changelog details are at the bottom of this description.



Details

Chimerii

Chimera
- Much tougher in general
- Magic attacks are *extremely* deadly now
- Some resistance to magic
- Tail throw more deadly now

Gore Chimera
- Similar to Chimera except **extremely** resistant to magic, a bit more physical damage, similar toughness – strongly suggested to not rely on spellcasters against this creature
- Even more magic damage than the normal chimera (by a tad)
- Goat head much tougher
- Unique spells/head revival *much* faster
- *Much* more vulnerable to holy damage, especially the goat head

Minos

Minotaur
- Extremely difficult to get on top of/climb around on - much more capable of throwing climbers off now (can still be tired out by throwing enough people on top though)
- Quite a bit tougher - same weaknesses as base game apply
- Charge attack does *MUCH* more damage now (it turns out getting hit by a house moving at 40km/h does a lot of damage)
- Somewhat more resistant to all forms of magic (destroying horns still dramatically reduces this resistance though)
- Much harder to knock off balance

Gore Minotaur
- Similar changes to the base Minotaur but slightly less tough, more aggressive and higher damage
- Similar magic resistance to base minotaur but more physical defense comparatively (strike/blunt damage is still effective at breaking horns)



Griffon & Flying Beasts

Griffon
- Flies a bit higher now during combat - should be somewhat harder to hit and if you fall off it’s going to be a bad time
- Griffon lightning attacks are now almost the strongest in the game - beware
- Does much more damage and is tougher, being slightly stronger vs most magic (still somewhat weak to fire)
- *Much* more resistant to being knocked down/knocked off balance (hitting it in the face is still effective though)

Sphinx
- **Good luck**



Harpys

Harpy
- Still very easy to kill but does a lot more damage now

Venin Harpy
-Ranged AOEs a bit larger
- Poison is much more deadly now

Gore Harpy
- Made *MUCH* tougher and more resilient to physical damage (though shooting them in the face is still effective)
- Much more damage on their melee attacks now
- Weakness to ice replaced with weakness to fire

Succubus
- *Incredibly* more magic resistant now
- Physical damage is still somewhat low, and not very tough, but the power of their magic (as well as the AOE size) has been *massively* buffed
- Their unique soul suck ability has also been made much more deadly


Goblinoids

Normal Goblins
- Tougher, but still quite weak
- Quite a bit more damage, though still only a threat in very large numbers - capable of interrupting and killing casters if left unchecked

Choppers
- Slightly tougher than vanilla
- Do *much* more damage, especially with their ambush attacks
- More mobile
- Some resistance to non-weakness magic damage
- “Elite” chopper variants are now very difficult to stagger

Hobgoblins
- Warlord types (usually those using the big shield) have *very* strong guard defenses
- Elites have much more resistance to magic damage
- Elites do more damage
- Elites are much tougher to kill than the base game
- Normal hobgoblins are tougher to kill than the base game - do similar damage

Knackers
- Much more damage than vanilla game, and a bit tougher as well
- Elite variant *much* tougher and does very high damage - very aggressive - extremely difficult to stagger


Saurians

Saurian
- Made *much* tougher compared to vanilla - damage still similar - standard weaknesses remain
- Slightly more resistant to physical damage, especially non-slashing

Asp (Elite poison variant)
- Poison made *much* *much* stronger - you will want to cleanse this
- Toughness not much higher than normal saurians
- Deal much more damage, in addition to the poison additive
- Much more resistant to physical damage, less weakness to slashing (tail weakness remains)

Rattlers
- Resistances to physical damage increased even more (except for the belly weakness of course) - weakness to strike/bludgeoning damage reduced
- Resistance to fire and thunder strongly buffed, resistance to seism and other non-element magic also strongly increased - weak resistance to ice and holy kept the same
- You *must* roll these things with knockdown/strike damage to kill them (or overload with ice)
- Note that shooting these in the eye/belly is also very effective
- Belly is weaker to fire and slash damage now
- The speed and damage of Rattler rolls has also been increased
- Demonic variant buffed to have greater damage and even greater overall magic resistance, overall HP is slightly lower though

Lava Scale
- Made a quite a bit tougher overall, with somewhat more magic resistance
- Much more fire damage from their attacks
- Burning/overdrive mode made *MUCH* stronger - you need to use ice to deal with these

Thunder Saurians
- Extremely magic resistant now - magic will be very difficult to use against them (outside of ice damage) - this includes meteor, though maelstrom will still hurt them
- Damage increased greatly - thunder chargeup more dangerous now too
- Overall toughness is still somewhat low though - physical damage is the key here - chop those tails


Canines

Wolf
- Slightly tougher
- Much more damage (especially their “pack” attack)

Black Dog
- A bit tougher and deals a LOT of damage - fast, more “offensive” variant of the wolf

Red Wolf
- *Much* tougher than vanilla, a bit more damage
- Extremely resistant to fire damage - general magic defenses much higher as well 
- “pack leader” variant even tougher

Garm
- Damage increased substantially, especially the unique “eat your character” attack
- Decently tougher

Warg
- Similar to Garms but even more damage, similar toughness
- Somewhat weak to holy damage, much less weak to fire, but still deals decent damage


Human Types

General
- Increased toughness across the board, especially for greatsword users and fighter-types
- Increased attack damage across the board, much more so for thief/mage/archer types
- The overall variety in the levels of these human opponents is fairly large, but from time to time, you may come across an *EXTREMELY* strong “hero” variant. Be careful.


Undead

Liches (Wights)
- Much more resistant to elemental damage, somewhat more resistant to “force” magic damage (seism and such), still weak to holy
- Strike damage remains a “semi-weakness”
- Overall vulnerability to damage when in “downed” state has been reduced
- Magical damage output is *much* higher now, though wights focus more on reliably hitting targets with their spells than doing raw damage
- Buffs have been made to the radius, homing ability and speed of most spells - specific buffs made to create more of an identity for each (for example, the homing bullets are now *much* better at tracking and hitting fast moving targets) 
- Dark-damage focused spells are stronger, relatively, than the elemental spells cast by wights

Ancient Liches (referred to as “liches” in the base game)
- Similar buffs to Wights, however, they have *much* less of a weakness to holy (though holy remains the most effective form of magic/enhancement damage)
- Dark-damage spells are much stronger than wights’
- Overall damage output is much *much* higher
- Tougher than wights, though not excessively
- The ultimate undead magic user

Skeletons
- Caster variants do much more damage now and resist magic very well (except for holy)
- Greatsword variants do much more damage, similar toughness to fighter/basic variants though
- Fighter variants are quite a bit tougher, otherwise similar to base game
- Elite versions of each skeleton type are much more deadly now (higher damage mainly, bit more HP)

Skeleton Lords
- Extremely resistant to physical damage - very high guard stats now - strike damage works ok
- Much tougher than base game and do quite a bit more damage (overall, still more of a defensive monster though)
- Much more resistant to all forms of magic - still retains holy weakness though
- Will be very *very* difficult to kill these without holy damage
- Somewhat less strong against fire damage now

Dullahans
- Their super death spirit is much faster and very difficult to avoid now
- *Much* tougher, especially against magic - small weakness to thunder, big weakness to holy
- Incredibly difficult to deal physical damage against
- Melee attacks are also more lethal
- Life siphon paralyzes it’s target much longer
- Dullahans attack much faster as well
- When ghost wrapped, they are extremely difficult to damage with anything outside of holy - disengage and switch to other targets

Phantom/Phantasm/Specters
- All have now been made basically immune to most forms of damage except for thunder (still very resistant) and holy
- Specters have been made much tougher, but are slightly less resistant to all forms of magic


Cyclopean

Cyclops
- All variants have had their HP increased *massively* as befits one of the largest monsters in the game
- Eye weakspot is even more weak now to arrows and slashing - blunt/strike damage more effective smacking the head
- Armored variants of the cyclops have similar HP to the unarmored ones, though one or two “elite” variants have a bit more base physical defense
- Damage output of the massive club has been increased *significantly* - getting hit by a club the size of a house is going to wreck pretty much any class - don’t try to tank it
- All cyclops are much more resistant to becoming unbalanced as well - the elite variants even more so


Ogres

Ogre
- Generally made somewhat tougher and do more damage, though they have not been excessively modified as I’m fairly happy with where they are in terms of their balance
- Blunt/strike damage is much less effective compared to pierce/slash (except for very specific parts of their body)
- *Extremely* difficult to knock down/knock off balance - don’t even bother

Grim Ogre
- Similar to base Ogres, just with quite a bit more damage


Golems

Golem
- As tough as the base game (requiring weak point sniping) but does a LOT more damage with it’s laser now (and to a lesser extent body)


Draconic

Drakes
- Overall, made to be pretty much the strongest enemies (when operating by themselves) in the game - in general, you will need to be a vocation with high mobility, or be at least at light weight to have enough speed to avoid some of the more dangerous drake attacks - no more walking away from meteors
- Heart weakspot damage multiplier reduced - vulnerability time reduced - heart closed time increased - head is slightly less resistant to damage
- *Massively* more fire breath damage - do not attempt to tank this unless you have maximum fire resistance - physical damage on most attacks also increased
- Fire breath hits a much wider area - run away!
- More resistant to slashing and arrow damage in non-weakspot areas - strike damage somewhat more effective
- Most magic except for ice will be ineffective unless targeted at the heart
- Drakes are more mobile and attack faster now
- Silence zone is *MUCH* larger now

Lesser (corrupted) Dragons
- Somewhat less tough than Drakes though similarly deadly
- Weakspots (especially the heart) give much less of a damage multiplier compared to true dragons/drakes
- Overall weaker to slashing and pierce (bow) damage
- Weakness to Holy damage, “somewhat” weak to fire damage - lightning remains a good option to deal damage
- Acid/corruption pools are *extremely* deadly now

Chaos Drake (Purgenator - both variants)
- Breath weapon and chaos vortexes made *MUCH* more deadly
- Overall somewhat tougher, and a bit more resistant to magic
- Overall offense buffed substantially
- Island encampment version (which also shows up in other locations if you are using new game plus+ encounters) has a massively buffed eruption mechanic (though it’s body is less tough than the other chaos drake you encounter)

The Dragon
- Good Luck




Changelog

v1.0.6
- Lesser dragon and drake toughness brought down slightly
- All Saurian family creatures’ damage has been increased significantly - especially their unique attacks
- Lightning Saurians (“serpents”) made much beefier