Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Gith Patrol Fight

I did the gith patrol fight prior to patch #4 a few times and it was tough but doable.

After patch #4 my team got literally wiped before my first action, several times. It's the combination of raw damage, surge and sleep. My team is lvl4 druid, Lae'Zel, Shadowheart and Wyll.

Please spare me the "it was laughably easy for me" lines. I can imagine that with a lot of luck or using some exploit it's somehow doable. But if the team is dead before you can do your first move, there are really limited options.

They put a lady to warn the player on the bridge. Also, the quest used to be really buggy at that point. Could it be that they made the fight harder as some sort of dead-end until they opened up the content past this area?

To be fair, it must be said that the fight was difficult even before patch 4 (after all, the level 5 opponents sometimes have 2 actions per round) if you just walked in there without cover. However, if the rest of your group is already elevated, the fight should be feasible now

If necessary, you can call ogres or throw a certain bottle at your opponent's feet;)

I haven't reached that part in my patch 4 playthrough yet, but that fight for me was the hardest fight in the game pre-patch 4. If I was unlucky, I did get wiped in first round sometimes. The bullete or the spider matriarch (which is a hard fight imo) are a walk in the park compared to that.

The gith patrol is usually the one fight, I use barrelmancy and other helpful stuff.

I think the main thing that changed was the Gith Patrol all have +1 weapons. So the combination of an additional +1 proficiency for being level 5, an additional +1 on attack and damage rolls from weapons and them all having multi attack, this fight is really tough.

I was able to clear after maybe 2 resets, but I also went in without cover as though my party just walked up, but even then I was down to Gale with maybe 4 HP, but Lae'zel had just about full HP. Had to use 2 scrolls on myself and Astarion

The secret that you're not understanding is

Funny but true

When the full game releases, or when the level cap is raised, it will be a ton easier

Was always one of the toughest fights in the game. But if I remember right, only two of them hit particularly hard - the other two just fanny about teleporting and trying to put people to sleep. So I've always kept most of the party separated, on the bridge (for pushing antics), sent my tankiest tank down with ideally 19-20AC, summoned an imp or spider or whatever other decent familiar is available, swallowed a bunch of potions of speed and hill giant strength, and concentrated on the two big hitters. Usually had one team member downed but rarely worse.

However. I am about to take them on for the first time since the patch. So, WML

The +1 weapons make a huge difference. Less likely to miss and hit harder...

Do you have haste spores? They're crazy powerful for this fight. Controlling a point here is easier than with the Minotaur's, Bulette, or Phase Spiders.You get them from Spaw.
First, destroy the 2 ladders, closest to the gith, up to the bridge. Spread out your characters on the bridge, toss your haste spores. The flaming sphere makes a good distraction before your first attack. Keeping a couple potions of hill giant strength might be a good idea, if you get swarmed and need to toss some Gith off the bridge, but I didn't need them. I decided to challenge myself, and beat it with lvl 3 characters, the only equipment I'm wearing that isn't base is the headband of twisted intellect.

This thread inspired me to revisit this encounter in my patch 4 Druid run. It's one of my favorite fights as I love party on party action.

OP - I feel like you must have had terrible luck (especially during initiative) - as my experience was completely different. The encounter is 100% doable without any cheese or exploits. The intention here isn't too brag or disparage - but I must disagree with the claim that this fight is impossible without a lot of luck or exploits.

Yes, it's one of the tougher fights, but it's nowhere near as bad as described. For now, I think it's a very tough fight for a level 4 party with limited magical items (i.e. pre-goblin camp), and an easy to average fight for a 5th level party.


For clarity - the fight was done with a Level 4 party (Druid, Gale, Lae'zel, Shadowheart - pre-Goblin Camp) without the following:

• No pre-position (ran the chained party right into the conversation)
• No pre-buffing (outside of Aid, which is an always cast because it lasts forever)
• Did not use any psionic powers (fyi psionic pull will let you insta-yeet one of the Giths that teleport to the bridge for a likely instant kill)
• Did not use any 1-time consumables (i.e. haste potion, wyvern poison)
• Very limited magical items (mainly the Sword of Justice and Intellect Handband)

There was definitely some RNG involved (can't control it), and I did use height/backstab where I can (note, I did not start on high ground).

I'll do it a few more times to see if I was just incredibly lucky. Will record, upload and post them here.

I would greatly appreciate that. personally this fight felt harder than before but definitely doable with the right party and positioning.

I made 3 recordings. Playing this like a unplanned slugfest is fun. It's definitely one of the most fun encounters in the game - both parties are using highly varied attacks and abilities.

Kept weighted dice turned off because I think that is the harder way to go? (Honestly haven't tried it yet). You'll see that my party is somewhat a little sub-optimized (i.e. my druid was holding a quarterstaff, no shield, despite never really using the staff), limited magic items (this is pre-Goblin Camp). Like a true madlad as the fellow kids like to say, I had Gale go in without even mage armor casted.

I started all of these fights like a new time player not expecting a fight would - running right up to Lae'zel. Also begin the fight with most but not all my spell slots (thought it'd reflect an unsuspecting player's experience better. As mentioned, you'll see I have Aid casted and that's it. Started all fights on the ground and generally tried to fight it out from there for more of a worst case experience.

No fancy strategy - my general approach is just use the resources I have to survive, and do as much damage as I can with a focus towards denying action economy when possible. The Giths have great AC but some gaps in their defenses so I generally leaned on non-attack spells for damage, and forcing weak saving throws when I can.




First fight - made sure to get bless up and running to counter the high AC up front. The AI chose not to take high ground, which was a little weird, and definitely made thing easier (Gale survived a full barrage of arrows since they shot at disadvantage - he was in the shadows).




2nd fight, I approached it roughly the same way. The CPU did choose to take the high ground for this one and I mostly tried to fight it out from below just because it didn't happen with fight 1 and I wanted to see how much tougher it would be. You'll also see me struggling with the UI a bit lol.




3rd fight - I was way more sloppy this time (getting arrogant and complacent). Decided to not use Bless this time (just to change it up) and it ended up being much more of a drawn out slug fight. Some silly mistakes on my end (i.e. moonbeaming a sleeping enemy, forgetting Gale was ensnared, forgetting to jump with Lae'zel for extra movement etc). Gale actually does die, but I resurrected him mid-combat to avoid his annoying death cutscene.


All in all, this is a fun fight, and doable even if you're just running in and fighting it out without some Divinity-esque schemes.

OK, just completed my first patch 4 Gith fight: yes. Harder than before. One of my team was downed (but saved) and we finished the fight with that char on 4 life and everyone else on about half. Used a lot of spell slots and superiority dice, but no potions or barrels. Die rolls were so-so. Only one shove succeeded. Party was lvl 4, halfling rogue (thief, dual-wielding magical short swords), Lae'zel (battle master with Sword of Tyr), Shadowheart with Tough feat and Gnoll flail, and Wyll with Moderately Armoured, plus his Imp.

You get some OK weapons (nothing better than I already had) but NO MORE SECOND GITHYANKI HALF-PLATE, WTH LARIAN

It was definitely more of a slog. They did indeed hit more often and harder, and they were also harder to hit, despite wearing worse armour (CURSE YOU LARIAN WHAT HAPPENED TO MY SECOND SUIT OF GITH ARMOR). I think the AI was a little better too. But the tactic of sending down your tankiest tank and taking out the dual-wielders first still seemed to work.

Thank you for your responses. And @topgoon, thanks for the uploads, these are very helpful. I will try again.

It is a lot harder this patch. Unlike the other encounters where you can take a few hits no problem, in this fight a hit or a miss is the difference between life and death so it feels very RNG.

I replay this fight a lot because it feels the most like a PVP battle where the player with the better initiative roll wins. There are a couple of elements to this fight that could be improved on.

• If you start the fight spread out, the assassin stays in stealth and is capable of killing party members in one turn with backstab sneak attacks, if you keep a couple party members close together she will use firebomb instead which takes her out of stealth and does less damage overall.
• Baretha's trip attack is too RNG, it has the chance to knock you prone giving her advantage on her next 2 attacks which will kill any party member. If you are lucky and you roll a save she's suddenly a lot weaker because her follow up attacks will most likely miss.
• If you take out Baretha quickly the fight is easy, if you miss some of your attacks or don't have enough damage to kill her in one turn, the fight gets more difficult.

Hi @topgoon,

I watched all 3 videos. What's impressive is your party is not that well equipped with magic items/potions. You didn't use Gale Illithid Power - reflective shell, either - that would have given the ranger a hard time. But much focus on spells and raw damage w/ your Lae'zel.

Also, with the Druid, I was expecting to see a bit of Thorn Whip and pull a few guys off the bridge.

I think the play style of your party is centred around Lae'zel.

Well, you made it tree times !

The simplest and most reliable strategy I've found with this fight is to drop a few explosive barrels down at their feet as soon as it's your turn (3 is enough), then run back to a safe distance and detonate them. Yes, it does rely on NOT drawing the shortest straw in the initiative roll, so send a character with decent health and dexterity down to talk to them. Usually if two people go down and talk to them, and two people stay up at the bridge hiding to join in after the blasting is done, it works fine. You might lose one guy but so what? This is also a good way to kill Priestess Gut if you're immune to her sleep effect before she can raise the alarm.

This was a complete pain. I spend ages on it. In the end what I did was wait for them to Misty step to me. Drop a load of oil barrels misty step away and set the barrels on fire. This was repeated and although it is a malfunction of the game mechanics, being able to drop 7 barrels of oil shouldn't class as nothing, it was the only way I could do it.

I had posted previously about my troubles with this fight. pre patch 4 it was challenging (I party wiped at least once each time) but it wasn't frustrating, just challenging and, frankly, fun (I don't mind dying every now and again). But now I party wipe immediately and keep doing so - I haven't even come close. So I avoid the fight altogether for now. Yes; there will be those who are "I don't have trouble, you just need to learn to play the game" (massive eye roll here), or even exploit a glitch or something not a part of actual play as their work around. The point is that this fight is far too difficult now with level 4 characters v. Level 5. I am hoping for it to be more balanced. Larian seems to have a little trouble with that concept.