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.
