Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks How the hell do you save

I do not agree with your last statement.

First engage the encounter while concealed (crouched is sufficient). Second, choose the dialogue option that most directly causes you to intervene. This may simple be the "attack" option.

Those two steps "should" create a condition that allows you to act prior the hostile npc no matter what your stats are or how the initiative rolls land. You can increase the chance of this by ungrouping the other members of the party and parking each one of them close enough to be able to respond yet out of the way prior to activating the encounter.