...is it optional or does the new patch rises the difficulty of the game in general?

I think is "only" a rebalance of the final fight not a full new difficulty level for the main campaign.
Went throu it a few minutes ago from an old save and it actually felt way less easy.
Time for a new playthrough ;) I wish there was an option to disable achievement and start a
new game at lvl 10-12 just for fun.

Thanks for the info :)

You are welcome fellow adventurer :)

With all the great classic rpgs that were released recently, i didn't have the chance to play Solasta so far, though it is on my list for quite some time :) How's your opinion about it, especially about the side quests and the exploration aspects. Do you think it is comparable to Pillars of Eternity in some way, or is it a different kind of experience?

I actually finished the game 5 months ago, am a bit glad that I did so before now cuz it was by the skin of my teeth. Throwing everything in my inventory cuz I'd used most of my good spells before the final fight (Not sure if there was a long rest point just before it or not) and was stuck with not a lot. Thank goodness for hoarding of special bolts and arrows!

But yeah, not looking forward to getting my butt kicked when I get the DLC and make a new party.

So the end fight already was difficult in the original version of the game and now they made it even more difficult if i understand you correctly? That's a pity, because i like a bit of a challenge but I'm not looking for frustration. Does the game feature difficulty settings so maybe the boss fight can be set to "easy" or "normal" in case the new balancing makes things frustrating?

I really liked Solasta overall but exploration, side quests and gear variety are quite limited.
Is a very focused game and the focus is on tactical battles, so no romance options or secret ending or evil run, I love tactical encounters so I loved it, plus the story is good and D&D lore helps alot.
Considering is the first game of a small studio is a good start with plenty of space for improvement, weak points are content quantity, the writing and the crafting system is a bit convoluted.
Pillars is way bigger longer and more complex, btw if you like CRPG don't miss the new Pathfinder ;)

oh don't worry about difficulty you can change on the fly every setting in this game!

Thanks a lot again :) So far i only saw the tactical battles in a video and they looked amazing, I'll definitely buy Solasta at some point! Honestly, i don't care too much about romance and these things in rpgs, my cup of tea is the exploration and side quest thing, that really gets me excited in these kinds of games! Maybe Solasta will add more like this in a dlc in the future?
Of course Pathfinder is already on my list, but there were so many cRPGs like Trudograd, Encased, Gamedec and so on recently...i need more vacation :))

I really hope they add more, not likely to happen cuz small team etc but a man can dream XD

The dungeon maker is also pretty good/easy to use but to be a success needs talented people to use it.

For exploraion Encased should be the best hopefully with that fallout2 style map...on my wishlist for now.