Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Am I doing something wrong? TPK every encounter

Hey all, long time D&D pnp player, long time BG and even older D&D game player, and long time turn based CRPG player, who just picked up EA to "get a feel" of the game before launch day.

Every. Single. Encounter. is a total party kill for me. Am I stupid or doing something wrong here?

I've watched several dozens of hours of BG3 game videos, PFHs, etc. I've DM'd and played thousands of hours of low level D&D games. I've played thousands of hours of CRPG and tactical turned based games. However, I've never had a TPK on every single encounter in any of those games. If I were a pnp player, we'd have fired our DM or found a new DM by now.

So far, I've barely made it to the crash site, but I've had to redo every encounter on the ship and crash site at least 2-3 times in order to not have a TPK. Even for "normal" difficulty, this seems like too much for a level 1-2 party. I know the "explorer/story" difficulty will boost the PCs abilities, but I feel like I should be able to play "normal" difficulty and not have a TPK on every single encounter (maybe 1 or 2 deaths, but not a TPK). I also understand that not every encounter is a combat encounter and some can be avoided via talking, which I have done when possible.

I've seen a bunch of walk throughs with tips on each encounter from those who learned over the last 3 years of EA of where to position your party members and pull or shove or sneak or whatever to help set up the perfect encounter situation, but I feel like I (and new players) should be able to experience the game on my own without having to lean on 3 years of EA knowledge to avoid TPKs on every encounter.

I'm only a few hours into EA and I'm nearly ready to rage quit due to frustration. Don't get me wrong, I think the game is amazing in depth and breadth, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong in terms of encounters, because I'm playing as a new player in similar ways that I've played other games (not rushing into combat, equipping best spells and weapons/armors, having balanced party, etc.). Is the base "normal" difficulty just more extreme than other games? Or is it one of those games that just expects you to continuously die and then reload saves until you eventually get passed that encounter with luck?

Can you provide some more details? What's your class? Which spells/abilities you're using? Are you missing a lot, or just low initiative?

I honestly don't think I've died on the ship in any of my 6ish playthroughs...

Definitely not.

Record some of the fights and put it on youtube. It is hard to say what you are doing wrong.

Did you attack the intellect devourers or thralls on the ship by chance? Or tried to go toe to toe with the Cambion commander? Or were you just unlucky with getting hit and not hitting yourself?

Those are the most likely reasons I can think of.

I mean... in my most recent playthrough Lae'zel nearly died in the fight near the helm, but that just due to some unlucky rolls.

Currently, playing as a Ranger. I had the Gith and Shadowheart on the ship as companions and died quite a few times there until I just started avoiding some battles. Now, I'm lv 2 Ranger with Gale, Shadowheart, and the half-vamp companions on the crash site.

I guess I'm just missing nearly every attack roll and the enemies just have too many HP. I rarely see any "hit chance" greater than 50-60% and I usually miss about 90% of the time even with 50% odds (it's like XCom math for me here).

Well, for one the "big fight" Fiends vs Mind Flayers on the Nautiloid is NOT something that you are *supposed* to go through. In fact the game advises you quite strongly against joining the fight.
A lot of people attempt it anyway, because it's not that hard if you know how to leverage a couple of tricks.

When you get to the control room you are supposed to just run for the transponder and activate it.

Experienced players can kill all the Cambions and really good ones can do it without using the restoration Pad glitch.

You know the best way to learn to play? Jump into a multiplayer game and let them know you are new. You can get help in real time and meet new people.

Larian's Discord is here:
https://discord.gg/larianstudios
head to #Bg3-LFG and look for a group.

For your ranger what are your Dex and Str scores and what kind of weapon are you using? You should have a +4 or +5 to your attack mod, which should give you higher than 50% for the imps on the ship.

Also there are only 2/3 mandatory fights on the ship: 1)Imps after meeting Lae'zel. 2)Imps at the top of the stairs (possibly skippable). 3)Assorted devils/fiends at the head of the ship, not including the cambion or mind flayer.

Any additional fight is likely to be more difficult, but still doable.

Do you have karmic dice toggled on in the settings? If I remember correctly, someone tested it a lot in an earlier patch and came to the conclusion that it was broken, making combat a lot more difficult than it should be.

I avoid the fight with the Cambion with the greatsword. I realized there's no way in the nine hells for me to even come close there. I've died in the various imps battles and even against the mindwalker things on the crash site.

As far as weapons, on the ship I used whatever I had. Now on the crash site, I'm still using the original items since I haven't found anything worthwhile. As far as stats, I just used the recommended stats thinking that it was just a throwaway character I was going to use to 'test' out the game to get a feel for it, so I didn't put any though into the actual build other than just using recommended.

What are your stats? Are you utilizing defensive positioning and the high ground? Are you trying to get the jump on your enemies?

Yes. I'm basically playing like I would with normal games. So using walls/corners/high ground, etc. I get the jump on "known enemies" (like shooting arrows to try to kill them before they see me, etc., but not when there's conversational starts).

I guess it's just taking me a while. I was able to free the Gith by defeating the 2 tieflings without anyone dieing. There were only 2 enemies, but at least it wasn't a TPK or resulted in any deaths.

I'll second others' responses. You need to tell us your stats, weapons, and ideally typical spells that you use, for us to give you usable advice. A video of a combat that you play slowly, spending time hovering over the combat log and enemies would be helpful.

Common happenings:
- You are trying to cast ranged attacks/spells while in melee, giving you Disadvantage (effectively a -5 penalty) to hit.
- You are attacking while in darkness, which means your characters can't see well and have Disadvantage to hit
- You are trying to use a weapon that a character isn't proficient in (or wearing armor you're not proficient in)
- You are trying to use a strength weapon for a dexterity based character, or vice versa
- Your stats are suboptimal and are affecting your combat effectiveness.
- You have Karmic Dice enabled

Ways to boost your effectiveness
- Use potions and other consumables
- Use High Ground for +2 to ranged attacks (including spells)
- For spells that cause Saving Throws, make sure you're using the appropriate spell for the enemy type. Some enemies are more dexterous than others, making spells that cause Dex Saving Throws less effective against them.

From what you say, you clearly know the basics and the way you approach combat seems correct, I insist, check if you have karmic dice toggled on in the settings, it could be messing with your dice rolls.

Can you just look and tell us your ability scores and weapon? It's hard to help without the details.

For instance I would assume you are using a bow as a ranger, however if you're using a str based weapon with a low strength score that would make everything harder .
It is possible you're just getting low rolls, but your percentages should generally be higher than 50% for the Imps. They should also only take 2 hits max to kill.

I will admit that first fight on the beach with the intellect devourers has been a bit more dicey for me on some playthroughs. Don't remember many TPKs but one character has dropped on several occasions.

Ranger
STR 12
DEX 17
CON 13
INT 8
WIS 14
CHA 11

Using TWF scimitar and scimitar with 1d6+3 and +5 to hit and shortbow with 1d6+3 and +5 to hit.

Based on distance, situation, etc. I'm using either shortbow or scimitars. I prefer melee, but I use shortbow when it's the clear better option.

This is your issue right here. You should be able to get >60% chance to hit on most attacks, so something is up. Your Dex is a bit low if you're level 4, but not low enough to explain <60% hit chances. You're using finesse or ranged weapons, so that's good - you're actually using Dex to attack.

If you could provide us a with a screenshot where you're in a combat and have that <50-60% chance-to-hit, that'd be great. In the same place it tells you your chances to hit, it should also mention any bonuses and penalties to the roll. The combat log specifics of the roll after the attack is made might also be helpful, as it (might) tell you exactly what was added/subtracted from the roll.

Are you familiar with Dnd 5e at all? Do you know advantage/disadvantage, proficiency, etc rules?

Btw 13 Con is too low. That is one of the reasons you die too often. What is your AC?

Learning curve?
Not using the various explosive/corrosive/flammable Potions? Not using Health Potions? No Healing?
Getting hit by Attacks of Opportunity not having noticed the red arrow from the enemy (it was a PITA initially for me)?

I understand advantage and disadvantage rolls. And I'm using the various throwables along with grease+fire spells as well. I also understand AOOs. I'm no expert on 5e, but I've been playing it for years, so I have an above average understanding. (Also, played 1, 2, 3, 3.5, and 4e.)

I'm seeing a ton of Critical Misses. In a single round, maybe 1-2 of my heroes get Critical Misses. I just did the fight at the entrance where Wyll is at and on the first turn 2 of 4 party members had a Critical Miss. Then I had about 3 more Critical Misses during the fight. I was able to not die during that encounter, but it also helped that there were a few NPCs fighting the goblins as well. In the first round, both goblin archers and another all attacked my MC character and he barely survived, but at least I was able to cure wounds as soon as Shadowheart turn.

Looks like I just suck at lv 1 and lv 2 encounters, but I'm eventually getting a little better. It's much less frustrating now than an hour or two ago, since I've now went 2 encounters (freeing Lae'zel and the goblin/gate encounter) without having anyone die on me.