Normal. Hard is way too hard for me to have fun. And I don't even want to think what nightmare is like.

I play on normal.  Difficulty is inconsistent because of my group make up (melee heavy fights are a cakewalk, mages however dominate me pretty hard) and I am very pleased with the play experience.

Am I the only one playing on hard? I'm about 10 level in (13%) and after a pretty tough start my party is now balanced and developed enough to come up with some sort of strategy for every battle. In fact, I might even switch to nightmare because I'm not using the 4th member of my A-team at all in combat (well, she has a crossbow...) I bring her along for lockpicking and crafting (when I eventually take that up, that is). That's not to say there's no really, really tough fights to be had. Some of them take really meticulous planning (the pack of Mabari in a certain castle for instance). But that's what I like about these games, and boy does it feel good to win against impossible odds, with one party member left alive and only a slither of health remaining when delivering the final blow...

So what difficulty do you play, and how's it treating you?

(I wish these forums would allow me to either include a message with my poll or attach a poll to my message... what I had typed originally before clicking the creat a poll-button was significantly more and better info than this... sorry, but don't feel like typing it all again at this moment)

I play on normal because my first time through a game of this quality I want it to be immersive, not skin of my teeth survivalism.  I'll definitely be playing it on hard or nightmare once I'm done with normal.

I actually play this on easy. Don't get me wrong, I love extremely hard games (like Mega Man 9) but this time I'm in it for the story. It's great that they don't penalize the player for choosing an easier difficulty level, as many other games do just that. 
 
My second playthrough will most probably be on hard though.

Normal for a while, then I went to Hard because things where way too easy and now I play on Normal or Easy. The first 20 or so hours where extremely easy on normal but now I find myself switching back and forth mostly for boss fights, which more often than not annoy the living hell out of me. No tactics available to you when you fight a dragon or that damn lich-thing that killed three of my party members in a single hit.

Got the PC version, haven't really started yet. Thinking of either casual or normal. I've never really played this sort of RPG before and I want to enjoy it. I don't want it to have to be a grind to get through.

Normal; but even on Normal it's quite tough.

I usually go for normal.... Unless its a game like Ninja Gaiden 2 where I get confused and can't figure out which one is normal then I just pick the one that I think is normal.... Which in Ninja Gaiden 2's case was wrong!!! How am I suppose to know Acolytes are wimpier then Warriors???

Normal, the right level of challenge without being annoying i think. Do get stuck from time to time, but then i have a  think about my tactics, change things up and i can normally do it after a bit of hard graft. Change it to easy for side quests that are annoying me though, like packs of wolves when im travelling from place to place.

During the first playthough I always play on normal. And then I play the hardest on the second playthrough. Whatever the game. After that I play with whatever I liked the best :)

I'm starting on Nightmare difficulty when I receive my copy.

" Normal. Hard is way too hard for me to have fun. And I don't even want to think what nightmare is like. "

well, wasn't the PC version harder than the console versions? So now with this thread we still don't have a clue if we suck or not. 
 
I'm on the PC version and I'm playing Normal with an occasional bump to Easy for that fight that just kicks my ass relentlessly.

" well, wasn't the PC version harder than the console versions? So now with this thread we still don't have a clue if we suck or not. 

" Normal; but even on Normal it's quite tough. "

Easy. This is my first tactical RPG so I decided to ease into it.  I'm really really loving the game so far too. Playing on the PC. 

I noticed the first patch for the game pretty much decreased the difficulty of normal mode. Obviously, people must have been finding it too hard. I'm finding it just about right, so long as I stick with tactical gameplay. That means classic Bioware "cheesing," like picking off stragglers with bows without drawing aggro (damn it, I can't believe I used that term).
 
I'm just deathly afraid of what's coming up in terms of my first real boss battle. I'm playing a rogue, so I pretty much rely on no one directly attacking me, otherwise I get picked apart.

I've been playing mostly on Normal, but there have been a couple of stretches so far where I felt I had to give in and turn the difficulty down if I had any hope of progressing.  Specifically at the mages' tower and that god-forsaken dream dungeon.

I just play on normal. I want to play the game for the enjoyment and the story, not to get frustrated with battles and continue to die. Though that has happened even on normal, there are some rough spots! Especially when: (Arl of Redcliffe Quest:)

I'm playing Normal on the 360. For the first twenty hours or so things were almost too easy. I was steamrolling just about every fight I got into. Now things are starting to become more difficult and I'm finding myself having to try some fights two and three times. I'm definitely thinking about playing my next game on Hard however.

" @zyn said:

" Normal; but even on Normal it's quite tough. "

I played normal and finished Radcliffe (sp). I have now just finished the mage tower and god dang that last boss battle was very difficult. I had to drop it to easy to complete. I am a heavy tank dwarf. At times I find the battles to be very difficult and have spent a lot of time restarting battles. I have learned to pause the game more to better control the battles and also to just damn save after every fight. Very good game haven't had this kind of a challenge with this great of a storyline in any game in recent memory... "