I understand that you are talking about the DnD, but I just want to say that this is a simple fight. I killed gnolls with first try, and boss too. This fight is much easier if compared it with Spider fight, which took me a really long time, just because I needed to understand 'web' mechanics. Maybe it shows the difference between DnD players and not DnD players. Your perception of the game can influence your battle strategy. Hmm. Because players who don't know DnD rules play with what they have and consider it normal.
I don't mind if Larian make game "more DnD".
This is an excellent point which hits at a big issue I have with the game and that I hope gets addressed during EA: the game does not do a good job teaching players how to be good at it. I'm not just talking about the tutorials, in fact I'm willing to be very leaninent about tutorials at this stage since there are still mechanics that are possible to change. I'm talking about early on creating situations where the player can learn to intuit what sort of play the game expects of you. Many combats require a level of attention and tactical approach that doesn't come automatically to a lot of players, and it can take players by surprise a lot of the time. I think working on the early combats so that a few of them force the player to make use of more creative tactics to win would go a long way in helping prepared players for knowing how to aproach more challenging encounters.
