Just finished it on Nightmare difficulty with the final boss being finally fixed.
Some random thoughts.
The game is still the same tactical goodness as before, one of the best around.
All the encounters feel different and require different approaches.
Surprisingly the story makes sense throughout the whole game and ties up some ends nicely.
There is even a touch of C&C, - I sided with vampires back in Ruins of Limis, and now my Ranger kept sayig how the vamps were hot, and the Elf whined that sucking blood is gross.
There is a couple of new mechanics, but all in all DLC-3 is easier then DLC-1.
With increased levels in DLC-3 you get access to very powerful abilites that significanlty debuff enemy resistances (the bane of DLC-1) or provide very good buffs.
For example, the Priestess ability to heal 3 wounds is way overpowered with upgrade that gives 500 protection.
I think they should have made it impossible to use on characters without wounds, because used pro-actively it acts nearly as a round long damage-immunity.
Most memorable fights:
- The gardener girl (Petrolia?) - the first of the two battles I had to replay, as I got beaten by the timer.
- The ogre fight. The ogres kept disengaging to run off and heal up by breaking cages and devouring chicken.
- The first Dlul cultist fight which introduced Sleep mechanic. The way it works had me to adjust on the fly as I used to throw the Dwarf and jump the Barbarian behind the enemy line for solo forays.
- The 4 drows fight. There were 4 drows and waves of allied dwarves, the drows kept charming dwarves, turing the whole thing into a literal tug-of-war.
- The split-party fight in the dwarven storeroom. It was unexpected, but I think I would have managed to pull it off even with the initial composition.
- The 4th hourglass fight. If there is a way to stop the reinforcements, I did not find it, and the way the adds keep coming led to a nice "are they for real?!" moment.
- The final boss, the second battle I had to replay. It does seem overwhelming at first, but learning the flow of it makes all the difference.
A bonus picture, Lilura on leaving the Codex: