As per the title. Last night decided to start a new run on Hard difficulty with a 6 member party. After ruminating about the game for the last couple days, it occurred to me that I'd never had a Paladin in my party. So I decided to rectify that. Current party is:

Human (of course) Paladin
1/2 Elf Bard
Gnome Fighter/Thief
Human Fighter/Druid (dual classed after FTR level 3)
Human Fighter/Mage (dual classed after FTR level 3)
Human Fighter/Cleric (going to dual class after FTR level 9)

I've also just discovered how incredibly powerful slings are (didn't realize they added your STR modifer to the damage - where the hell have I been, huh?) So they're waltzing through everything quite well, although I was taken a bit by surprise in the Orc cave when 2 Ogres showed up. Had to reload on that one a couple times. I took them to the entrance to Kresselack's tomb last night, so today it's into the crypt.

After I finish this run, I'll decide which of my 4 finished runs I'll continue into HoW with (at that point I'll have a party of 2, 3, 5, or 6 to choose from).

What exactly changes when you change the difficulty setting? Is it the enemy AI? Do the enemies get penalties/bonuses? Does the pc party get penalties/bonuses?

Enemies do 50% more damage, and I believe in many areas you get some tougher spawns (or more spawns). For example, the Orc cave had 2 Ogres instead of one, and it also seemed to me there were more goblins than I remembered in the Goblin base off the Kuldahar Pass. A couple places in Kresselack's tomb seemed to have monsters that were tougher than I remembered as well.

Your party does not do increased damage, but quest XP as well as monster XP is increased by 50%.

Just about to head off to the Severed Hand.

Definitely some extra spawns in some areas on the Hard difficulty (monsters have more HPs as well).

The Yuxonomei battle was particularly troublesome (not the goddess herself, but the Yuan-ti mages that spawn behind you as well as the numerous priests and champions/elites in the room itself), especially since I still have no Cleric. Not so much a big deal from a healing perspective, as I've been able to cope with that via potions and the Druid's healing spells, but twice in a row I had a character die in the battle and had to reload since I had no way of raising the dead. I'll definitely get my Cleric started in the Severed Hand (not sure if I'll get to reactivate my FTR levels before HoW though).

All in all, things are going well. While some battles aren't really that much different, there are a number of them that are just that much more challenging that I need to make judicial use of my spell selection in order to get through without 1 or more deaths. Good fun so far.

Finished the Severed Hand and am now off to Dorn's Deep. The Fighter that dual classed to mage was popping levels at practically every room in the Severed Hand for a while. She's now at level 8 Cleric (she dual classed after hitting level 9 FTR) with about 80,000 XP needed for the next level. Then it's a long haul until she finally gets her FTR abilities back. But I'm pretty certain it will happen by the time we hit Lower Dorn's Deep.

Of course, as per my other thread, I'm now tossing around idea for yet another run through the base game. I think I may do that, then export the best of my characters to form a party for HoW and TotLM.

Bloody addictive game...