Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Final Grove Fight SPOILERS!

+1 for more flair. Doesn't have to be scripted. Larian have shown they can direct the flow of battles via dialogue on the nautiloid where Lae'zel and the mindflayer give instructions mid battle depending on what you do, and in the first grove attack where the goblin leader tells the other goblins what to do. They could do a similar thing with Minthara's siege, with Tav, Kagha, Tav's companions, Lia Rolan and Cal, Halsin, and Zevlor all giving tactical orders to Tav, or to each other, which will push the fight along without it being scripted.

Say a second wave of goblins manage to breach the gate, on Zevlor's turn he gives orders to the tieflings to retreat to the lower levels near his cave. On Kagha/Halsin's turn, they give orders for most of the druids to retreat to the path leading to the inner grove, while some stay to secure/disable the elevator. This then creates the possibility for a two-pronged battlefield near Arron's camp, with each faction on either side. Then, on Tav's companions turns, they each voice their opinion on what they should do in the same way they do on the nautiloid. Astarion suggests they flee to the caves in case they need to retreat safely - let the druids die who cares. Wyll suggests they stick with the tieflings and protect the children. Gale suggests they ensure the idol is protected for spoiler reasons. Etcetera etcetera.

Larian doesn't actually have to force the player to do anything with scripted cutscenes, though they could add a gate-breaching cutscene if they wanted to in order to allow the player to agree with either or none of the options being suggested to them. The player would be free to pursue their own tactics and strategy, while Minthara sends in droves of goblins. She would be barking orders at them too, with waves of goblins, orcs, worgs and spiders proportional to the amount posted at the ruined temple of Selune and the abandoned village.

I think this would make that battle MUCH more fun. Currently, the goblins and Minthara seem more focused on killing the druids/Tav's party than fulfilling their actual goal which is finding the Gith artifact and claiming the Idol of Sylvanus. They don't use the secret tunnels that they KNOW exist already, they don't have scouts sneaking to where the bugbear assassin was located to use the elevator for a quick way down to the inner grove, they throw all of their goblinpower at the people on the frontlines rather than using already-established strategies to fulfill their directive. Needing to stretch your party across the several ways of being 'beaten' rather than just lumping everyone together at the front gate would make this fight incredible imo.

EDIT: I'd also add that I think they should push for this fight to be the ideal/most common progression of the questline. Have Zevlor or a partymember suggest subterfuge to lure the goblins out wayyyy earlier than speaking to Minthara. OR better yet, have the siege be a guaranteed consequence of not being quick enough to deal with the goblins. As it stands, doing nothing means the goblins never attack the grove, yet the game impresses a feeling of such urgency since they 'could attack at any minute'. Scrap that. The game already measures 'time' via turns, 6 realtime seconds = one in-game turn, when not in TBM. I'm not good with maths so I'm unsure of how many turns would be a good/fair amount, but say, like, 3000 turns into the game, which I think would be 5 real-time hours, the siege triggers no matter what. I think that would be really cool. I think 5 hours is a fair amount of time, and then the game could really back up their 'race against the clock' theme. Have goblin scouts show up on the road outside the camp more often. SHow the player that they are preparing to attack as soon as Minthara gets a whiff of its location.