Overall I felt like I should have been level 5 in there, but I was still powering through everything easily because of free unlimited Long Rests and the Help Action. The Help Action is generally too much of a safety net because enemies can't keep the PC's down and they have to waste time trying. Once a PC is down, it should require magic healing to get them back into the fight.
Combat has flaws, as usual:
Grym, Eternal Protector of the Forge - This is like the Phase Spider Matriarch cranked up to 11 with an environmental gimmick except now it's the only thing you can do. I hate these gimmick fights that play more like a puzzle than D&D. A construct that is immune to literally everything except lava, seriously? How lucky for us we fight it in a forge with a lava valve! It's ok to have the environment influence the battle but here it is the whole battle. This type of combat design makes character builds completely irrelevant, except I hope you brought a Fighter with a blunt weapon or have the patience to try to hammer it with the forge.
Devil pigs and Merregon - a cool intriguing encounter. I thought I would tank the doorway but what do you know.. Larian made the pigs fly too. This is getting so frustrating. Why must literally everything teleport? Tanky defenders are absolutely pointless in this game. Everything jumps/teleports and players are also showered with Haste, Disengage and Misty Step items for extreme mobility for everyone. Mobility should not be the only relevant aspect of tactical combat!
Mimics - lovely surprise and they look terrifying. The Larian version has a new ranged pull attack. I guess this one is a bit more acceptable to replace the grapple effect they have in D&D since melee only enemies would probably get completely cheesed in a CRPG after players know to expect them.
Teleporting to the Forge with one character and cheating the rest of the party in through the waypoint felt more like an exploit than an accomplishment. Also teleporting to camp for a Long Rest when some characters have Misty Stepped to a location they can't return from felt very cheaty and unimmersive.
The area design and overall mood of the whole place is great. And the place is huge. The amount of sidequesting is getting really extensive though. Exploring ancient forges and mining for ore and whatnot with the tadpole situation still being largely unknown and urgent. I feel like I'd like to deal with the tadpole situation first and sidequest extensively AFTER that.
