Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Need tactical advice for two battles

Hi,
I’d like to ask the group for advice for two battles: 1) the battle at the Twisted Tree and the battle against the Hobgoblin boss.

I’m completely stumped with regard to the battle at Twisted Tree. I used to do ok with Ragzlin. Either blow him up or push him into the spider pit. I can’t push him now and blowing him up just brings in swarms of gobbos.

Genuine tips will be sincerely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

While a bit more detail would be helpful, I can offer some general advice, at least.

The battle at the twisted tree, focus on the ancient ones (I forget what they're called) first, because they spawn the younger ones on their turn and letting them live too long can easily get you overwhelmed.

As to the hobgoblin boss, I usually save that battle for last (or just before Minthara but after the rest of the fort is cleared out), so I'm not dealing with any goblins outside his area. Also, I prefer to fight from the rafters (or ramparts, as everyone else calls them) there, both because of the high ground advantage and it makes it difficult for the enemy to get at me. There is only one way for them to get up there, the metal ladder to the hobgoblin's right (if viewing him from behind). Also, even since the last patch (not hotfix), I've not had too much trouble pushing him around, though I am working from the high ground (and using Lae'zel's pushing attack)

I actually managed to do the twisted tree battle with one man down before I learned about target priorities. My approach was:
1) Leave Astarian at home because that entire area is running water
2) Two melee characters + SH + Gale
3) SH and Gale get jump cast before the fight starts, one of melee guys gets it as well
4) SH and Gale jump on that small column where nobody can reach them. The only possible attack becoming spitting from below at a disadvantage because of height.
5) melee characters jump around and kill things
6) Use fire cantrip on tree things and also on those branches that can entangle you. They both burn good

Everything in shattered sanctum you can cheese up by moving to the upper level and sniping from above. Sometimes it is even 1 shot when they can't see you.

Against the hobgoblin boss, I killed after clearing minthara. You'll see there's a Battle drum near them, make sure to have someone to break it so they don't summon the whole camp. I set characters that could long range in the rafters at the very top. They were still passive toward me so I was able to move around pretty much anywhere.

Me and my friend have a party of 2 warlock 1 cleric and 1 fighter. I put my fighter at the drum and smashed it down. I started the fight and my friend used his warlocks to cast witch bolt at the hobgoblin. We kept our casters above the boss so he wasnt in any danger. They would sometime run toward the ladder so we had a grease bottle spread at the top of it. When there was enough of them going for the ladder we set it up on fire. Having a gunpowder barrel or a oil barrel can help a lot too because it'll explode when it hits the burning area and cause a lot of damage. I know you are supposed to be able to knock the braziers by knocking down the wooden thingnies holding them up so you can also spread a Lot of fire field that way.

Hope it helps!

General notes on goblin killing:

---Pick goblins off in sections. Save Dror Ragzlin (spell?) for last (all others turn hostile once he is dead).

---Destroy the drums. This will start the fight if they see you, but for many of the areas, you can sneak and destroy the drums without getting seen. Do not stand around a destroyed drum - if a goblin sees you near it, they will accuse you and failed 'diplomacy' rolls will start the fights anyway.

---Smokepowder barrels are your friend. Two of them going off next to a boss will kill or nearly kill any of the three goblin bosses. You can place them while the bosses are still non-hostile and use them later. Note: Smokepowder barrels do not work properly when they are broken - you have to hit intact barrels with flame to get the most bang for the buck. Luckily, there's a lot of smokepowder in the goblin sanctum, you just have to figure out how to get it...

---Avoid crowd scenes and look for exploits. There are programmed ways for many of the goblin encounters to either isolate the heavy hitters or kill off a lot of the scrubs at once.

The Wood Woad / Mephit fight: Somewhat spoilerish, so:

There is also another method for the Mephit fight, as well.
Soon as you enter the Bog, go left and go to the end of a dock....
Jump left from the dock onto a tiny island....
Move north toward the tree and jump to another rock which is on the main land with the Mephits.
Target an Ancient Mephit from hide/sneak and once battle commences, jump to another rock, fire, wait your turn, then jump onto a tall/high rock and continue taking out the Ancient Mephits.
You can pretty much wipe everything from that tall/high rock and they won't do anything but move while your taking everything out.
One solo toon/character is all you need...may take a little bit but you are safe in that position and literally can take your time killing everything, just make sure to target and take out the Ancient Mephits first (4 of them), as has been indicated already by others.

Just saw this so it might be too late but perhaps others will have the same question. Here is my take.

1. Ancient tree. (full party) Take out the ancient mephits first. Get a caster / archer on top of one of those pillars and take them out. (If it doesn't feel like cheese to you) the void bulb will pull them into range and or a surface you've created. Burn the twisting vines, this will create fire damage, eliminate the regeneration abilities and allow your melee toons to proceed. Take out any remaining summoned mephits with area spells or cleave.

2. Hobgoblin boss. (no cheese) Kill the other goblins in the temple first, use thunderwave and push to get the bulk of the goblins into the spider pit. Take out the rest using area spells. Use misty step to get away from spider pit once Ragzlin comes in close because he will push you in -- wear him down as much possible with spells and arrows and then take him out.

(cheese) drop a bunch of barrels around the room, get into the rafters and use a fire arrow / cantrip or other fire starter. Interestingly, this is the only way I've found to take out both the tadpole and goblin bosses.

You can use my guides on youtube. After that you will solo every battle with ease.
Google 'Ami Xp' .Thanks. I hope I can help.

Ancient Mephits take them out ASAP or you will be in for a very long fight ( from experience 😊).
Main goblin fight I’ve handled in various fashion depending on how the situation unfolds but wise use of defensive & offensive spells like aid, mirror image, bless etc helps a lot.