We might be running into the issue where the DM is giving us a look at the main bads, expecting us to be frightened away by their terrifying display, but of course the natural reaction for any player is "how do I solve this puzzle". and yes, explosives are involved. i.e. why the dragon fucks off before we can capitalize on the DMs blunder
I think the Gith patrol is supposed to be equivalent to the Duergar squad in the Underdark, both covering exits to Moonrise Towers (and the end of the Act) So making it an easier fight doesn't seem like the way to go. In my experience(I went there pretty directly my first patch 5 replay), It's difficult to reach before level 3, which makes it a hard fight but not impossible
The problem is the duegar one (probably) has favourable terrain for the players, and the enemy health and damage are spread out over more npcs so you can 'chip down' the incoming damage. You can't with the Githyanki fight. I'm pretty sure a level 5 fighter doesn't get multiattack and have
nintey-six health. One character in this group has more health than the player's party, and one can nearly oneshot a character. I'm fairly sure they even have more than one action, because I'm pretty sure I saw a character multiattack and then attack a second character.
The encounter has too much health and too much damage to be handled without extreme minmax cheesing (and possibly lucky dicerolls) right now.
The problem is the duegar one (probably) has favourable terrain for the players...
I think most people are in the kill-zone for the Duergar fight at start barring a deception/perception check. I don't think I've won that fight flat-footed before.
If it comes down to lucky rolls it's not good, but if it comes down to going in with some prep and utilizing the terrain (like the bridge) then maybe not. I agree with you about the health though. I have been nearly wiped round one before (again level 3) but I didn't set up properly.
