Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Under dark is tough !

Lol - they are handy yes....ive just picked up the myconoid dude who can raise so maybe i'll have to resort to that if things are stacked against me to much ....bulette ive dodged all but once so far & the once was a one round party wipe.....lol

Even without the raise ability ( which I haven't used ), the myconid Sovereign has a bonus action that creates a haste spore cloud in a 2m area, which can double the actions and move distance of the whole party, every round. He also has poison and confusion spore clouds that can be used every round as a result of the haste.

That made all the underdark encounters workable, even though I didn't bother with stealth or resting, so most encounters just used base attacks and cantrips. Without the Sovereign, life would not have been so good...

In BG2 how hard Underdark is depends a lot on whether you explored other areas outside of Amn before going to the crazy house or not. I usually finished everything i could before getting to the Underdark so i would just rofl stomp through it. The Illithids were the only ones giving me a lot of trouble at first because i was low on tinfoil. Luckily Boo went for the eyes really good. And then later i made sure to stock on tinfoil and psycho potions in advance.

In this Underdark, i thought to experiment with the fire bolts safety system at the gate, so i kept trying to lure the Minotaurs to the gate and then close the gate and turn on the firebolts. But, by the time i managed to get a minotaur close enough without dying, the bolts didnt work anymore. And i even turned on all the lights i could around the big jewel on the statue thinking it may make it stronger. The jewel even starting showing animation of two beams connecting to the rubies up in the gate itself - which it didnt do when i just got there, But, it wasnt firing anymore. Cue Minotaurs jumping to the side of the gate and mayhem inside.

Only had to revive one or two comrades. Depending on the reload...

But then a funny thing happened later on, because i didnt go the the shroom village, but instead went exploring. And i saw this cool looking big glowing tree... so, I got Shade to cast that group sneaking spell and we went in sneaking. Mostly because the Bullet train past through us a few times already so i was expecting it to surprise us again at any time. So were sneaking in around the big glowing tree - AND THERE is the Bullet coming from behind suddenly... but it misses all of us, and it doesnt see us either.
So its just like turning around, while we are watching it. And then i thought, it would be cool if i could get the lone HookHorror to join in, maybe they will attack each other. But i couldn't catch it and draw it in and Bullet disappeared into the ground.
Drats i say and we continue. We see a few more Hooks chirping on the branches And i figure out we can climb onto the branches too. So we go up, i start a fight, and then the Bullet comes blasting in again, but under us down on the ground. And then all the Hooks jumped down on it and a glorious free for all everyone against everyone ensued.

Smack, bing, bong, wooosh, slam, shbang, dingity dang.

There is a problem with pathfinding on those branches, one character just fell down on her own and another got smacked off, but then seemingly got booted from the fight too. Couldnt use any skills or do anything for a few turns - but could walk normally as if he wasnt in a fight anymore. That glitch corrected itself after a turn or two. A Hook Horror attacked him so that got that character back into the fighting mode.

It was interesting to say the least.

Its not so tough when you tactic a bit ...
Dont drag your casters in close combat, split your group and send "tankiest" member forward ... keep close to potential high ground, and most of the time you should be fine.
But beware Minotaurs, those things are nasty, since they jumps really far!

I just fought the Minotaurs and the Bulette for the first time tonight. Honestly, I didn't find either encounter to be hard. (Same with the githyanki fight.) I'm not trying to brag or make myself sound cool, I just really didn't have any problem with them. None of my characters were downed in either fight. And I didn't use any cheese tactics or outside help or powerful consumables. No ogres, no barrels, no wyvern poison, no potions of speed, no scrolls, no box-stacking, etc. Really nothing but our class abilities, good tactics, a couple of vials of normal poison, and I think ONE normal healing potion. I didn't even long rest between the Minotaurs and the Bulette.

I play a Thief Rogue, and have Lae'zel (Battlemaster), Shadowheart (with Warlock Initiate), and Gale (Evocation).


Things which are Really Good:

1. Opening a fight with a ranged sneak attack from hiding in an elevated position, and surprising the enemies, sneak attacking AGAIN in the surprise round, and then luring them back to the rest of your party who are also in a superior position.
2. Battlemaster's Menacing attack, when that Frighten effect lands it's a bad day for even very powerful opponents. (Worked on the hag, worked on the bulette, worked on the spider matriarch.)
3. 2nd-level Sleep spell as soon as an enemy dips below 32 HP, and then finish em off with something big like Inflict Wounds (with the free crit from Sleep).
4. Casting Jump on one or more party members for incredible mobility and getting to superior positions.
5. Casting Dancing Lights as a bonus action at range, to make sure no one is taking a darkness penalty to attack.
6. Always be backstabbing, always be higher grounding.
7. Positioning and tactical movement are actually more important than just attacking every round.
8. Don't overlook Battlemaster's Rally skill, it's only a bonus action and it can be a literal life-saver.
9. Have Aid on the party always.
10. Have Mage Armor on your wizard always.
11. If a party member goes down, prioritize getting them back up immediately with either Healing Word or by throwing a healing potion at the ground by their body.
12. Obviously, Shove any time you have a chance to knock someone off something.