I felt exactly like the OP when I started with Patch 3. I had played all the old games from the 90's and on (BG, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter and the Dragon Age and Pillars games), but this was the hardest and most frustrating game to come into without knowing how to fight properly to begin with. A few You Tube videos and some guide reading and I got much better. However, I don't think making a game with the assumption everyone will research best practices first is the best idea.
I don't do a lot of the cheese - I don't dip (I forget) and I don't jump around all over the place. But I do go for high ground and use magic/scrolls and eat a lot of food. I can now win most fights comfortably outside the Underdark.
For me now it is not the AI advantage that annoys me, it's the RNG. Both with and without weighted dice it still kind of sucks, at least for me anyway. I've never seen so many Critical Misses in a D20 based game (including 5 in a row for my team once) and I swear Shadowheart is cursed - she consistently misses anything whenever the tooltip says 70/75% to hit. This draws the combat out, especially in the bigger fights. The only plus side is the RNG hates the AI as much, so I don't get wiped out in a round when they inevitably win the Initiative roll.
