Hey guys,

Figured id explore the entire map even if I already got 2 options to end the EA. I just ran into a bunch of Gith at the end of the valley where they torch the bridge with their red dragon and I tried the encounter a few times and im wondering.... Are....SUPPOSED to fight them?

They did some very nasty things to my party and lets just say that I dont survive the fight for longer 2 rounds :O think I managed to kill 1 or 2 or such but the named character absolutely MURDERS my partty on her own.... Tried CC'ing her but that doesent work either.

Did you guys manage to win this fight or arent we even supposed to try?

You can talk your way out of a fight if you have LZ in your party.

The fight itself isn't so tough if you're level 4, If you're 2 or 3 and the named wins initiative then she'll murderchop your party yeah.

You can also magically disguise yourself as a Githyanki to get the same dialogue options Lae'Zel gets.

I managed to kill them using barrelmancy, the second time.

But yeah nasty lv 5 filled with 3 attacks a round + misty step is a very mean combo. Lost 3 out of 4 characters before being able to play my first action...

I guess this encounter will be balanced to be winnable when lv 3-4, currently unless being veeery lucky (like giths failing all their attacks) or unrealistically prepared (mirror image / mage armor on everyone + speed potions + temporary life buffs), the fight is near to impossible.

Guess Larian want to test some hard fights to know how to better balance in the future. Like the swamp fight, the hag fight, and other "end-act" bosses/mobs ; you cannot possibly win those without knowing exactly what's coming to you.

So it counts on how you approach it.

If you do not have Laz'ael in your party (she'll run in), you can fight like it a DOS game.

Sneak up to the top on that tower.

Sneak to the edge, attack, step back, hide, rinse and repeat.

Attacking straight on, it's a hard fight because they are what, level 5 and there more then 4 of them and they have misty steps so porting all over the place.

No cheese tactics like barrelmancy required to win this fight (if it comes to that, which it likely will). I wouldn't recommend trying unless the party is fourth level. It can be tough, but definitely beatable straight up (no deaths last time I tried it).

You gotta get the high ground and keep them off of it, its like every other fight, high ground is more important than character statistics, loadout, equipment, and level. High ground turns an iron golem into a flesh golem with more hitpoints and a knight in platemail into a naked wizard

I'd prefer if this was more like 5e and this wasn't the case, but alas

Never had the high ground when I beat this fight

My party is 4th level. LZ isent in my party because she was rude to me so I walked off to let her cool off which caused the game to inmediatly decide for me that id never return for her..... Explored the Underdark before deciding to check the rest of the map. 1st time I passed the skill check, Gith looks in my brain and sees parasite. Combat commences. After loading my last save because my party got slaugheted I tried the stealth route. Get caught. Fail skill check in conversation. Party gets murdefed.

Both times I got to move last and both times Gale was dead on the floor before anyone even got a chance to make a move. Although tbh id do the same thing if the enemy party has a low AC spell caster so fair enough.Might have been bad luck on my part but theyre all lvl 5 and the odds are so stacked against my favour that il just find another route.

Which seems to be an option so yay! Was just wondering how other people approached it.

ive gone thru this encounter a few times and i agree that it can be a tough fight for sure depending on what lvl you encounter it and your strategic approach - but my frustration with it is that there are largely only two outcomes. 1) the gith knight flies away and you fight, or 2) the gith knight flies away and the remaining patrols scatters to continue their search. i understand that it is ea, but going into that encounter i would have thought that i would have been able to gain some kind of info as to where the gith nest is or what the deal is with the gith artifact, but the concluding dialogue with your party post that encounter regardless of the outcome remains watch the skies and keep looking for the creche - i cant travel back to the creche with the gith patrol or atleast get directions?

has anyone else had any more success in this encounter besides trying to stack boxes and jump the bridge?

I admit I did seem to get good rolls last time I did it (which probably why no one died), but I didn't have any set positions or anything. Party was all right in front and after the dialogue ended, game on. Just use big hitters (light cleric 'daylight' spell or whatever, mage AoE 3d8 spell, 2nd level magic missles, specialty dice attacks, cleric Mending Word to get a downed party member up with a bonus action, Mirror Image). Maybe a few other things, but I don't think so. I didn't have high ground, or barrels, or even a set position before hand. Still a tough fight, but definitely beatable.

If you kill them .

Now you are getting me thinking, because I don't recall looting any such item from the bodies. The dragonrider isn't among them when you are fighting, right? Wasn't for me. Just the four Gith

It's a super hard to fight, by design, as you're outnumbered by level 5 enemies - and if you speak with them then there's no advantage of attacking out of stealth / surprise (so do a runner).

From a story prespective, you should have approached the Gith with *extreme* caution as they're fanatics and callus towards the "lesser races". At level 4 the fight is do-able with an optimised setup, and defeating them gives you a story item that continues the quest (outside EA), but generally the encounter is designed for Laz and her arc.

(Also if you're level 2 you can still stealth shoot them from the bridge for an easy win).

I didn't get the option to talk my way through it without a fight, even with Lae'zel in my party. The kith'rak dude just decides that we have what he's looking for and orders the rest to kill us and loot our bodies when they're done and flies off. That was my outcome even when I took over the conversation with my character and beat the skill checks, it always ended in combat. It took me a few save scums to beat it, too, and even then my whole party except Lae'zel got downed pretty much immediately and I had to kill them all with her.

Shadowheart definitely lasted the longest in my final try and killed 3 of the 5 with Lae'zel, and I tried upping my own warlock character with a scroll in a hard to see corner from where the gith enemies were on the bridge, but somehow (and I suspect it's just a bad, buggy fight, honestly) they shot her back own immediately, through the floor of the bridge. Wyll got ensnared early on and that killed him pretty quick, even with me potting him on his turns, and Baretha(?) went in immediately for my character. (Seriously, Larian, fix your AI. The immediately optimized strats and movements from them is top-tier ridiculous for a game whose difficulty setting is supposed to be "Classic." Classic what? Death?)

It felt a little cheap that every single gith enemy had 3 attacks per turn, and I'm over here with one per turn per character, except for Lae'zel, who gets Action Surge! .... one per short rest.

I also got NO story relevant drops from any of them, so once again, stupid buggy fight.

ya i dont recall any story drops either and went back and checked the save but idk - i guess ill try that encounter again

IIRC it's from the female named Gith, not the dragon rider.

The dragon rider flew off every single time for me?

Yeah, dragon rider flew off every time. I don't remember getting anything off the female named Gith. I will have to go back and check

This is one of "harder" encounters ...

Your ass will get wiped hard, if you just run towards them with whole group ... sometimes even at level 4.
BUT!
If you try to prepare a bit with hiding ranged companions on that cliff, and will not be cheap on potions, special arrows and spellslots ... it quite fast become close to mid-rated threat.