I'm guessing tactic mods were made because lots of people were beating them on Insane and still found the games too easy. I'm trying to play through in this setting before picking up any mods. My party is Keldorn, Amonen, Imoen, Aerie, my monk, and Jaheria. So far, I've rushed through the chapters to pick up Imoen. Have had some challenging fights, but they've been workable. Now I'm trying to go through Watcher's Keep and a number of mobs are hitting me for 80 damage a pop (fire giants and iron golems, at least). This is beyond stupid, with Amonen leading the pack with 115 hit points. I know the game is only going to get harder as I progress, so, seriously, how are so many people beating these games on Insane?

Watcher's Keep is the bonus dungeon for the expansion, so unless you've finished literally EVERYTHING in Shadows of Amn, you probably shouldn't be trying to do anything past the first level of the keep. Just go back to other areas, do all of the quests in those areas that you can (save the main questline for last!), and come back once you've gained enough levels to start picking up HLAs.

I suspect that Imoen can’t cast any level nine (TS or CC) spells yet and Aerie is mostly worthless in a six man party so you will struggle with ToB content because of all the high level arcane challengers.

You can beat the game with any party but the one you have will be hard... It’s a good thing you have 3 characters that can raise the dead.

Use cheese, exploit the imbalances. When Aerie gets hit she only looses a mirror image and when they are gone she looses only a layer of stoneskin. And if she casts protection from magical weapons not even such things will happen for example. And there are even spell triggers and contingencies. Did you know that such spells can be recast so mages can survive hundreds of rounds without taking a scratch ?

Well what level are you? Level 1 is pretty easy, and level 2 is relatively easy except for the demon, but levels 3+ are substantially more difficult, and are designed to be played at level 25+ once you've already beaten SoA. Levels 5 and 6 can be a challenge even at level 40. You'll probably want some of the ToB loot, and you'll definitely want the experience, especially as a monk since loot won't do your PC a lot of good. HLAs like Hardiness and Greater Whirlwind Attack will make your life MUCH easier, and the bonus spells for mages and clerics are pretty amazing as well.

What sort of armor are your tanks using? If it's not at least AC -1, you need to go explore some more. In all honesty BG2 doesn't really get substantially harder as you progress until the very end, it generally gets easier, you just have to do everything at an appropriate level. More XP will mean your THAC0s and abilities are better, so monsters will die faster (and therefore do less damage), and more exploration will mean your armor and loot are better, meaning you take less damage. Also, make sure you're using potions (every round if need be), they'll help enormously. Strength and Invulnerability potions are super-helpful for warriors' damage and saving throws respectively, and Oils of Speed, healing, and regen potions are useful for everyone.

Another fun item is the Rod of Resurrection. You can get 2 of them in SoA and one in ToB, and in addition to rezzing people, they'll heal them to FULL health, though there's a delay of a couple of seconds. When I've soloed the game, I've used those instead of healing potions at higher levels. They've only got 10 charges, but as long as they have at least one charge left, you can sell them to a vendor and then buy them back, which recharges them. (This works for any item with limited charges, not just wands. The Amulet of the Shield is amazing for Kensai after it's been recharged. Necklace of Missiles is fun too.)

Also, use your environment. Often there are areas nearby that enemies can be trapped in, or choke-points for enemies to be corralled together for area effect spells, or corners that thieves can run around to re-hide, and you'll almost never have to fight an Iron Golem if you don't want to, because all of them are stuck inside rooms that they're too big to leave. Stand at the edge of the door and chop at them with a halberd or 2h-sword or staff, (enchanted spears don't have extended range like other 2h weapons, for some reason, probably a bug) or shoot them with the Sling of Everard or Tansheron or Gesen or Firetooth. The only place you'll face free-roaming ones are in the elven city. If an area is swarming with undead, use a Protection from Undead scroll on your fighter and go kill them alone one at a time while they can't see you, or send your cleric out alone to turn them.

Just come back later. Go do some more stuff back in Amn, which will have the added benefit of helping Imoen advance. You can still get HLAs in SoA, as long as you have the experience for them. However, with a 6man party, you'll have to do almost everything to unlock more than a few of them before going to the elf city.

Tip: A high level Aerie can load 3 ‘Bolt of Glory’ into a ‘Spell Trigger’ or ‘Chain Contingency’... makes a mess of most demon/ dragon encounters... it is just the experience drain of multiclassing that makes her underwhelming in a 6 man party.

I made it to the fourth floor, but we're talking massive amounts of reloads to do so. My monk and Amonen were 18th when I quit. Keldorn and Amonen had 117 and 115 hit points. When trash mobs are hitting for 80+, and frequently, I just don't see how so many are beating the game on Insane without using cheats or mods to at least modify max hit points. I think Aerie had just over 50 hit points with that fortitude belt clicky. Appreciate all the feedback. I'm breaking from Watcher's Keep for the time being to level up in the many other areas I've missed so far. Thanks again.

IMO you are overly fixated on melee combat as being what defines a tank e.g. if you have only 90 or so hit points and a THAC0 of 13... could this character stand up to melee against the same peons that are 80+ B-slapping your 117 hit points Amonen?

In a word yes... Haer'Dalis used “Cloak of the Sewers”, “Ring of Earth Control” & “Buckler +1” to bring his standard armour down to -8. He cast ‘Blur’ before the battle then steps up to the front line and begins doing ‘Defensive Spin’... now that his armour class is -23 those peons need a roll of 20 (out of 20) to hit him.

If the peons have a mage they could try to ‘Dispel’ the spin but he has ‘SI:Abj’ so that’s not a problem and yes he will take some hits however the standard ‘Mirror Image’, ‘Stoneskin’ & “Ring of Regeneration” defence will deal with any minor irritations... To be clear, he is not the only passable late game tank but my point is that usually surviving the Tob challenges "on Insane without using cheats or mods" * requires you to lock out taking the damage and having a high hit point total is not the be all and end all.

* Jidokwon

I play no-reload on core rules.

Yep, buffing is key. I'm looking forward to getting to Watchers Keep. :)

On a related note, I always thought playing on Hard or Insane would also deal out a larger percentage of XP from killing tougher creatures, but does it? I tried upping the difficulty yesterday and seemed to get same amount of XP for killing Y monster as usual Z. In that case, I'm not seeing much point. Mods like SCS do a better job of making the game more difficult and tactically satisfying.

Nope, the only differences are in monster damage. The break between Normal and Core Rules has some rules changes (max HP, no spell scribing failure, no permanent death unless you get petrified+chunked) but otherwise it's just monster damage. There's no real reason to play above Core Rules unless you're looking for a challenge.

As for SCS, it's a good mod, but I ultimately got sick of it and uninstalled it. I still ended up abusing the poor AI just like before the mod, only in different ways. I still reloaded after a difficult encounter once I knew what the enemies were going to do, just like before. While it did make combat more difficult (and more irritating in a lot of cases) I never really felt that it made the game any more tactical. Still, a lot of folks swear by it.

Not really no... core is the D&D rules as it says in the manual (there are some minor changes) hard and insane just artificially adjust the damage from hits but I believe hard/ insane does also adjust the random charts i.e. you could encounter Orbs instead of Ogres so that would change the overall experience gained from kills.

So rather than the knights in shining armor (tanks that can't two hits from basic trash mobs) protecting the weak and frail, it's the other way around, it sounds like. I've much to learn yet.

Basically, just how you can abuse all of the spells available in the game. :p

Haer'Dalis is designed to stop damage but your pc should be able to dish it out better... Anomen has the edge over both of you if the enemy happens to be un-dead.

p.s. I'm still learning after playing from day one.