What is wrong with positioning in advance? O_o I mean sure in DnD session usualy everyone wants to be in middle of the action, since nobody wants to miss opourtunity to steal their few seconds on spotlight ... and you can hardly intervene with dialogue, when you are hiding in shadows 20m away preparing your poisoned arrow.
I think you answered yourself here - if it was entirely hostile dungeon with enemies set to attack then it would be a different matter. Of course, majority of players will want to experience the story content, so it is not good if that results in worse combat experience.
I don’t remember that encounter being too challenging, except the constant danger of being one-shot to death with shove due to nearness of lava and death pits on almost all sides of the arena.
In which case, positioning doesn't matter because you can be shoved into lava anywhere, practically.
But it depends on if you side with Brithvar or not, and how many duergar you killed during your exploration. If you are more of a pacifist, that duergar fight is brutal. To make it easier, you need to be a murder hobo as you go around Grymforge, slowly killing them off here and there. And then you need to pick sides so that they will fight each other.
I'm with Dierdre on this one, though. I had the same experiences. My first playthrough, I expected trouble with the hag, but that doesn't mean I'd show up at her house taking positions all around it and only sending one person inside or something. I showed up and walked in with my party because I expected they'd possibly be needed INSIDE. She runs out in no time, and the next thing I know, redcaps have made it to the house and are in melee range while I was battling her thinking I needed to kill her fast.
Is that bad strategy on my part? Maybe. Either way, it wasn't fun.
