Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks How to beat the Githyanki Patrol ?

Greetings,

I wanted to share my experience with a particular fight in the game and seek your input on how you managed to win it without resorting to a cheesy tactic. I must admit, I was able to cheese my way through this fight, but I didn't find it very satisfying. I'm hoping you can share your strategies so that I can enjoy the battle more.

To give you some context, my party consists of Lae'zel (Eldritch Knight), Astarion (Arcane Trickster), Shadowheart, and an Evocation Wizard. When I first attempted this fight, I found it quite challenging, as these Githyanki soldiers hit hard, tend to win the roll for initiative often, resulting in a defeated Lae'zel within the first round. I had to restart the match and provide her with Shield of Faith and a scroll of Mirror Image to help her survive.

The challenge with this fight is that you are required to have a second party member trigger the conversation, due to Lae'zel running off and temporarily leaving the party. I can't switch to a member who's not in conversation during this encounter, or I'd use an invisibility potion straight away on the member needed to trigger the conversation. Also side note, even when having strategically placed my Wizard and Astarion on top of the wooden construct, they magically appear when the conversation starts and disappear when it's over. This definitely needs some work, because it breaks immersion.

Anyway, I've pondered and tried a few tactics, including having Shadowheart cast Mirror Image before triggering the conversation and using Hold Person cast as a level 3 spell to remove two from the fight. However, these tactics have their limitations and can be challenging to execute due to the concentration required. I've also considered having Astarion cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter as an extra form of CC. However, I'm still looking for other viable strategies that don't involve cheesing the battle with a massive fireball, because my alternative tactics left a lot to be desired for.

If you have any suggestions or strategies that do not involve preemptively fireballing the patrol to death, and have worked for you, I would greatly appreciate your input. Thank you in advance!

TLDR:

Let's put it this way, let's say that Baldur's Gate 3 comes with it's own Tactician Honor mode, similar to Divinity: Original Sin 2, and on top of it all, if your character dies, there's no saving that character AND, this character has to be Lae'zel, because you want to play the game based on that storyline, what would you do? How would you make sure Lae'zel has the highest chance of surviving after failing the initiative roll? Because she's pretty much received a potential death sentence here.

It can help to summon the ogres if you have the horn. They soak up some of the heavy attacks that would otherwise be going to your party.

Disarming the githyanki helps. Sarth isn't much without a greatsword.

Maybe wear the minotaur's amulet, the one that gives resistance to slashing damage at the cost of a vulnerability to bludgeoning. Since none of the gith are using blunt weapons, there's no drawback to the item in this fight. And it will give some resistance.

Use your potions when you can in the fight. An invisibility potion, even after the fight starts, can save the day. A void bulb can pull together several of the gith if you want to get them in a group for something like a cloud of daggers.

Hey

So your definition of cheese is hitting them " with a massive fireball"?
If ive got a 5th level wizard in my party im sure theyll use fireball and or glyph of warding as they are great spells. But fireball isnt required to win the fight.

Some players use rain and cold/ lightning damage.
Is pre-buffing cheese? You can use mirror image/ blur scrolls, potions (strength is great), shield of faith, the absolute shield, spells to buff hitpoints.
Positioning: take the high ground and blast the Gith away with thunderwave etc.
Have your summons ready, buffed and in position.
Keep plenty of healing potions and haste potions.
Clerics with spirit guardians is good.
Laezel doesnt have to run off to them either.
Summon the Ogres and use the little spiders.
Of course bless is a great spell (which can be enhanced by a certain item).
i dont bother.. but you can use the wyvern poison. I cant recommend barrellmancy...but some players us it.

Good luck with the fight!

Disarming is an ability that comes from the Battlemaster maneuvers right? Or are there other options? As Lae'zel is an Eldritch Knight, in retrospect a questionable choice, but I also found it thematically fitting due to her race.

As for the amulet, didn't consider that one, but that might actually be an interesting choice. That being said, in this case, I feel that, storywise speaking, the Underdark comes after beating the Githyanki Patrol as, Will argue's that when having killed the goblin leaders, you should finally pursue Lae'zel her option. I'm not sure what comes first, logically speaking, but I think both area's sport level 5 creatures, so it's up for debate I guess.

The cloud of daggers is a spell I never picked, because the name alone really felt thematically more befitting an Arcane Trickster, yet sadly, choosing that spell so far, isn't an option, so I ended up never adding it to my Wizard.

It's more that tossing 2 fireballs trivialized the entire combat to the point that I felt like I was cheating, as I found the encounter without this ability much more difficult. What if don't have a Wizard in my party, but a Warlock I thought, then I'd definitely need an alternative tactic.

Lightning is a smart choice, or well, the Shocking Grasp might be, as it provides advantage on the attack role versus metal armor, which I think they're all wearing, but getting in close range with my Wizard or Warlock isn't where I'd like them to be.

I don't consider pre-buffing to be cheese, but I'm theorizing from a point of never having done that encounter before. That being said, you're approaching a group of murderous Giths encompanied by a dragon. A little pre-buffing is probably what any sane person would do, just in case.

I didn't consider the Spirit Guardian spell, that's a good suggestion, especially if the Cleric is down besides them. As for Lae'zel not needing to run off; can you explain this, because it's just part of the cutscene. The dragon destroys the bridge; then conversation opens where I get to talk to Lae'zel, after which she storms of to meet her kin. How can I circumvent this?

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As for the both of you, summing the Ogre's is a smart one, but I actually was saving this up to a tougher enemy, like a boss fight. Even though this is a tough fight, I don't particularly feel it's like a boss fight, but definitely more than a minor nuisance.

The Wyvern poison is something I ended up using versus the Beholder; otherwise my party would have been toast due to that ample supply of Drow attackers.

Which item enhances Bless?

The Staff of Arcane Blessing you get from the wizard's tower in the Underdark has a special version of Bless, Mystra's Blessing. Having guys up on he bridge usually helps me in this fight, its better to get there before they do at any rate. You can get another Wyvern poison...from "Stickshit" the put upon gnome? I think. I also wouldn't underestimate some good old grease and fog cloud, anything to buy your guys time while you take care of the spell casters.

I've never figured out if you can attack them before Lae'zel leaves, because I consider the conversation they have important to have, but you could always take her out of the party, or deceive them during the conversation.

Grease is actually a good one, easily forgotten/overlooked. Fog, just as well, but the one problem I have with fog is that your own character becomes useless in it as well.

More or less hoping you`ll later on get some goggles/glasses/mask that provides immunity from blind, if only specifically for Fog, to make it somewhat more appealing. I'm aware it's mainly used defensively, but it does have this pop smoke + use infrared goggles vibe to it.

As for taking Lae'zel out of the party is not an option for me, as she's the reason why we're going there in the first place.

I honestly think that you gimped yourself with Arcane Trickster/Eldritch Knight.
Their magical capabilities are really not worth it.
I never died to the githyanki patrol, not even on the first try.
My party: Berserker (my friend), Bard (me), Wyll, Gale
I opened the combat being prebuffed with Haste by Gale. The patrol attacks first and they beat the Berserker hard, but they didn't down him.
After this, the berserker goes frenzy and goes to town on the patrol, we are all focusing on a single target at first.
We leave Baretha for last, because the other ones have lower HP but still deal quite a bit of damage.
I use my bard to put a Glyph of Warding (frost) under the patrol and I kill 1 of them, and seriously damage 2 others. I use my bonus action to heal the berserker.
I use Wyll to Hex the weakest survivor and blast her, she dies.
I use Gale to throw magic missile on the remaining enemies, focusing on the one with the lowest HP. Survives.
Enemy turn begins, one of them instantly dies after trying to move and Berserker hits with an opportunity attack.
Baretha tries to escape and climbs up the ladder. The berserker jumps after her and hits her hard with reckless attack and bonus attack.
My bard shoots the dual wileded crossbows and Wyll finishes the fight by hexing Baretha and elddritch blasting her.
Keep in mind that I could've used poisons and various other sources of damage on the berserker's weapons, but I didn't. We didn't dip it in fire either. I dont think using haste as a prebuff is cheese either.

This fight was honestly never hard for me.
On another playthrough, all I did was start the battle with a fireball from a light cleric and then managed to shoot them again as I was the first in initiative. 2/4 died instantly and the rest was easy to mop up.

Have you ever done it with Lae'zel? Do you go through the conversation, or do you attack before that?

I play same format as you do, what works for me:

Ogres + burst down the gythianky archers

run from the leader , let the ogres take the L from her while you deal with the rest

I never said that I died to the Githyanki patrol, I said that Lae'zel got downed hard. In some instances they even cast Hold Person first and then multiple crits on her cause them to have enough actions left to down the second character next to her.

In some reloads, this ended up them teleporting next to my Wizard, before I could get off a double fireball, which then definitely forced me to reload.

Anyway in your example you're using a Beserker and a Bard, while these are awesome classes, they are sadly in my context irrelevant, as I'm playing the game with the origins characters/classes and none other.

Have I potentially gimped myself with the Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster? Presumably. I found them fulfilling these roles to ultimately be thematically fitting, but practically somewhat lackluster. This might substantially change with higher levels.

I did manage to beat them multiple times using the origins characters with this setup, without using Fireball. If you managed to beat them on your first try, I'm going to simply state, you got lucky.

This, because I've had reloads that prove that it's definitely possible for them to down 75% of your team in the first round, as I've equally had reloads where Lae'zel got the initiative which changed the tides dramatically.

In the end, it's still a chance game. Also, initiating the battle with a fireball is again, not how I want to cheese through that battle and it's against my own rules. Lae'zel is in my party and we have to go through that initial conversation.

Magic missile is a much better option than fireball and skill is much better than relying on luck

Is this a spoiler?
Don't know. Don't read. Lol

But you can get the ogres to fight for you more than once, takes money and or a good roll.

Larian debuffed the Gith at some point, but they are still one of the relatively toughest fights in EA, especially for newer players.

Magic Missile is factually not a better option than Fireball. Casting Magic Missile as a level 3 spell will at most do 5d4+5 damage, which on average will equate to 17.5 points of damage.

Fireball on the other hand, with its 8d6 damage, in case of the 4 Githyanki targets will do an average of 112 damage, 28 per target that failed to make a Dexterity saving throw. Granted, they have a 45% to succeed with the saving throw, but that still makes them suffer 50% of the damage, which means they will at least on average take 14 damage, per target. Since I'm targeting 4 Githyanki, there will at least be 56 damage on average, all the while Magic Missile does a fraction of that. So no, factually, it's not a better option at all, in this scenario.

There is infinite ways to defeat them ...
Depends a lot on what level you are, what spells you have, what consumables you have, and what equipment you have.

Fighter at level 5 ... with action surge and haste potion is able to attack ... six times in first turn if i count corectly ... wich alone is just devastating with Wyvern potion, even for Githyanki.

Its true that loosing initiative is basically death sentence for your frontman ... so if you really feel lucky with dices, you may send down your high-dex character to negotiate (prefferably with misty step scroll to get them to safety fast).

But bread and butter is positioning here ...
High Ground makes huge difference and it gives you one or two turns before they reach you.
Or HUUUUGE damage, if they port on you and you manage to shove them back down.

Spike Growth is spell i love a lot ...
For eason most enemies (including Gith) decide to run across that, rather than avoid it ... this is especialy kind from Gith, who should be able to jump over full length.

Another superusefull spell is heat metal, especially if you have crown that gives you another BA, allowing you to cast its Bonus Action damage twice per turn (thrice if you are a Thief) ...

Its not a bad idea to send pets close to their archers, so they either need to waste one attack on them, or have greatly reduced chance on hit.
For some reason they often dont risk AOO. Even as trivial as this one.
If you still have spider egg, this is great place to use it!

Obviously you cant go wrong with sussur weapon, or amantine armor here ... oh and speaking about armor, make sure your frontman have metal helmet so Gith dont erase them with two critical strikes.

That should do for basics ...
Is there any particular tactic you would like to expand uppon?

The spell Command has an option to make enemies drop their weapons.

Also Heat Metal will cause them to drop metal weapons on a failed con save. I can't think of any other ways but there might be. Make sure to pickup the weapon when they drop it.

If you're against fireball, then you're probably against smokepowder. Keeping Lae'zel alive is difficult for me too, having a martial Tav down on the ground with her sometimes draws some fire, the best I can do is buff her, and give her a shield, while doing what you can to break up the attackers.

Just keep in mind if the Ogre leader dies you won't be able to use the horn again. Not sure if intended or bug.

A fighter with potentially 6 attacks, using the Wyvern potion is quite potent and while possibly a bit wasted on the Githyanki, it is in truth an extremely deadly combination, but it relies on a lot of luck where your front-man needs to win the initiative roll, which is putting an awful lot of faith in chance.

Let's put it this way, let's say that Baldur's Gate 3 comes with it's own Tactician Honor mode, similar to Divinity: Original Sin 2, and on top of it all, if your character dies, there's no saving that character AND, this character has to be Lae'zel, because you want to play the game based on that storyline, what would you do? How would you make sure Lae'zel has the highest chance of surviving after failing the initiative roll? Because she's pretty much received a potential death sentence here.

Interesting I never even realized the horn could be used multiple times, because I kept saving it up for a good moment, which never came.

I guess you could say that, but the Berserker has reckless attack which allows advantage on attack rolls so you will have a rather hard time missing, also, while you are in a frenzy I think you have 50% resistance to slashing/piercing/bludgoning damage. Add to that that it was a dwarven Berserker so we had 17 starting CON and STR, both of which were 18 at lvl 5. Tons of HP, tons of damage, wearing the Helmet of Grit allows the guy to have 2 bonus actions that you can use for attacks in a frenzy.
In my experience with this game so far, Wyll is the best single target blaster companion, and at lvl 5, he can have 18 Cha and his Eldritch blast shoots 2 projectiles. Add the Hex spell to that and he is basically going to murder almost everything very fast. And Eldritch blast can crit as well, meaning that he can deal some hilariouly high damage.
Only these 2 guys are dangerous enough, so maybe I just picked the right guys for the job, but I think many things depend on your class selection.

Well ...
Depends on how much you would be willing to cheese it.

First step would be level 5 ... i mean, this is nobrainer.
As i said Metalic Helmet is must have, since then NPCs cant critically strike you ... wich helps a lot with survivability.
Ofc, if i visited Grymforge allready, Adamantine armor helps a lot, since if you get hit ... your attacked get reduced chance to hit you again ... prefferable piece here would be Helmet: https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Grymskull+Helm ... since you can then still wear Githyanki armor and have more AC.
There was quite good suggestion here to give her a Shield, to raise her AC even more ... it requires a bit of metagaming, or ignoring her bonuses tho ... since Lae'zel is more Great Weapon type. But anyway ... prefferably, this shield: https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Glowing+Shield
I would also recoment boots that gives you few bonus HP, when you heal: https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Boots+of+Aid+and+Comfort
And resistance you can get from neck as suggested abowe: https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Amulet+of+the+Unworthy ... in case the gloves allready work as inteded.

So ... just out of this, for Lae'zel herself, and no help from outside:
She would have if i count corectly 19AC (15 Armor, 2 Dex, 2 Shield) ... could not be striked criticaly ... if hit, attacker would get -1 to another attack ... resistance to Slashing damage ... and if even trough all this they would reduce her to 50% HP, she would automaticly get 12 Temp. HP ...
I would say that is quite good survivability.

Then you can boost it (as you surely know) with some magic preparations:
Basic stuff you should allways cast on your party aftear each rest is Aid: https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Aid
As you said, Shield of Fate is great spell ... and if you wish to make sure that Shadowheart (or your other cleric) will hold concentration, its nothing easier than leave them up on the bridge: https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Shield+of+Faith
Since you said your Lae'zel was Eldrich knight ... i would certainly recomend boost her starting HP with False Life (or use Scroll): https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/False+Life
You can also summon Shovel and hope that they will attack him, its a weak defense but every bit counts. https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Scroll+of+Summon+Quasit
Drinking some potion of resistance is also not a bad idea ... but wich element? Your guess is as good as mine, fire damage is said most common one.

And quite honestly i dont really remember if duration of spells during dialogue is stoped (but i think it is) ... but if you wish to be extra sure, you can also cast Scroll of Mirror Image on yourself: https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Scroll+of+Mirror+Image

And if i didnt miss anything ...
I believe thats it! This is the most Tankish Lae'zel you can make before the battle even starts ... if she dont survive like this, you were very unlucky.

Oh wait! There is one more tiny little thing.
If you play Fighter, or Paladin yourself ... and are using a Shield ... and have Protection: https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Protection
You can use that aswell to make her survive, since your Tav have to go to that conversation aswell.

And ofc ... there is that option to simply talk out of the situation.
That is certainly safest way.

I think "Hoarding important Buffs or powerful one-time use Items in Video games" needs to be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM5) - it's so common yet debilitating. I speak as an occasional sufferer.

Objectively, the Githyanki fight is the MOST difficult fight in the game as of now. You can, of course, talk your way out of it, but most people don't want to because the Kithrak is so arrogant and rude.

Since saves will not xfer to full game you might as well just go nuts with buffs. Haste Spores/potions, Wyvern poison, Ogres, Potions of Hill Giant Strength (which you should be using anyway, since they last until long rest now) and so forth.

Just to help lighten the mood, May I suggest this thread for some reading on the Gith Patrol - I think the team gets up to the patrol by the third post.

The Philosophy of Ka'chu'ka, Wizzard

For me the Gith fight has to be fought from dialog, as that's how the game flows. I find it difficult to win with lvl 4 and difficult to lose with lvl 5, no matter in what party composition. I never lost the fight with lvl 5, but the combats differ quite a lot. In one breeze-like fight I had no deaths in my party and many spellslots still available on my three casters, in one fight my last survivor in the party, my Light domain Cleric main, with 10 hp left killed the last Gith with his bow while running away because all spellslots were empty. In the last fight mentioned I used three fireballs and all hit only one of the Giths each with full damage. It's some randomness involved, as it should be.

So, my main advice is, be lvl 5.

I just did another playthrough to test this fight, at level 5 it's literall faceroll if your wizard/sorcerer has speed potion and do a double fireball...

at level 4 even if they initiate first and kill lae'zael first round , is a way to counter it with a few speed potions

I don't like the Haste potion and never use it, it seems to me as such an easy way to go against the general rules of combat. Are/were Haste potions so common in TT DnD or older BG games as they are in BG3? If they are so common why do not the enemies use them much more often?

The potion does exist in the 5e rules - it's a Very Rare magic item, that you might see one of in an entire campaign, if you do see one.

Haste potions are labeled as "very rare" in the Dungeon Masters Guide of DnD 5e. That's the same rarity as weapons with a +3 bonus and is intended to be a possible reward for players above level 10. Additionally most magic items aren't available for sale and even common magic items like healing potions might require some quest before the alchemist is willing to sell them to you.
And fun fact, if you want to craft a haste potion, you need raw materials worth 25k gold for a single potion.

The Haste spores are much more OP, since you can just have indefinite haste as long as you stay near them and pop in and out of the cloud.

In BG1 honestly i can't remember,
in BG2 the campaign starts at level 8 and goes all the way up to level 20+ so both haste potions and spells + improved haste were just spamable.

Honestly they are kinda op but D&D on low levels in the form of a video game really feels quite shallow. So not a big surprise they got those potions as a way to make combat more interesting.

Oils of Speed people

Reminds me of the old days of the EA when we could get oil of sharpness. From memory it lasted until a long rest.

I parked Lae'zel near the Burning Inn - to keep her from running off to pet the dragon - and sent SH to spy out the land with Potion of Invisibility. She successfully crawled under the dragon to discover the "end of map" barrier but on the way back she was caught.
And then she talked her way out of getting killed by the evul! Gith. Shadowheart has ovaries of steel! And good rolls on her various checks.
After enduring various variations of racist and ableist "u so worthelss worm! imma no bothered to kill you! muahhaha!" shit talk she finally watched the Gith Hit Team bugger off!
SHAR IS GREAT!


In a previous save and attempt to get past the Patrol I called upon my Secret! Ogre Allies who barely registered as speed bumps for the Gith ...



I suspect that the glut of buff potions is a manner of circumventing Concentration preventing the casting of multiple buffs on the party - in BG1/2 in combat everybody had Haste, Bless, Stoneskin, Bull's Strenght, Eagle's Splendor, Cat's Grace and Gods know what else cast on them ....

its very winable at level 3 but yes 4 or even 5 are clear the best options