Hello,

I understand that enemies become tougher in terms of amount of damage they dea, higher rolls to beat their AC, etc.... So, does Normal and Easy prevent foes from scoring Critical Hits on you?

Most importantly.... do you gain more XP or reward for adopting one or other difficulty setting? thx.

I believe that, in the current version of the EE, Easy has been replaced with Story Mode, which basically gets rid of all difficulty; your characters can't be killed and they become incredibly effective in combat. (I would actually compare this to cheating the kill sword (cheat only item that completely breaks the combat aspect of the game) and playing through with that weapon equipped.)

First, there is no XP reward or penalty on difficulty levels (DLs) on EEs. Although I believe higher difficulties summon more monsters resulting in more XP.

DLs do not prevent Critical Hits.

DLs Do not change your rolls or enemy AC. Only Easy gives you 6 luck which makes it easier to hit.

Enemy damage per DLs
Easy: 2/4 (1/2 but wrote 2/4 to make it easier to compare)
Normal: 3/4
CORE: 4/4
HARD: 6/4
Insane: 8/4

Other than those, on Easy and Normal you get MAX HP on level ups, always successfully learn spells (for mages) and your party members can not permanently die. There is also a separate option for MAX HP on level ups.

Also, Story Mode:
You are invulnerable (or at least are supposed to be), and your attacks almost always hit. Not recommended unless you want to breeze through the game and don't care about the combat at all, as there will be no combat challenges left on this difficulty setting. (It was actually introduced in IWD:EE, and makes less sense there than it does in BG:EE, as IWD is all about the combat, and removing all combat difficulty means there's nothing left.)

The EEs have changed that? Luck, in the originals, only affects fatigue.

many thx, didnt know there was a separate option for Max HP on level up...

Honestly, in my RPG life what I did was, only fighters get Max HP on level up while others at random.

Tsk! More overpowered bullshit.

If i want to play EE at the same difficulty as the original , is it normal or Core ?
What is the default difficulty in the original Saga?

Default is normal. Core is closer to P&P, and is slightly tougher.

If you want to play EE at the same difficulty as OE, you play OE, and don't touch EE.
Actualy, the difficulty-drop of EE is only a couple of times noticable, but in those cases the drop is so high, you should put it on Hard for those instances (not that it'd help much, given the most trouble is not the damage, but the effects).

The default difficulty though is in all cases Normal, but that's only 'cause gamers had no idea of AD&D and other p&p rpg-ing, so the preferred difficulty is actualy Core, if you got familiar with the system (stats and stuff).
Also for the point, that amongst players the "default'" setting for leveling up is Easy to maximise HP.

it only really maters in Sod as that came out MUCH later and Insane or Bhal are major changes to both hit points + how many of X type monsters you get... in short if this is your first play of EE then play Bg1& 2 at core but lower it to easy for Sod