Larian Studios
The major issue I have with this quest is that the fire spreads in real time, while our characters are locked in place during conversation and the especially egregious use of dice-rolling here. Since the fire is spreading in real time, then the game is acting like this is an action game, with a time-sensitive component to complete our tasks (getting the people out of the burning building). But the UI and character movement are the opposite of what an action game's UI and movement should be. And if this quest is not supposed to be an action game, then the fire should not be spreading in real time while our characters are forced to stand around talking and rolling dice.

There needs to be better coordination between the environment designer and the quest designer.
Agreed, I have yet to be able to save both. And if you go up on the south west side and knock down the wall, jump the pile of rubble to save that one guy, then once you revive him he runs the wrong way out through the fire thus immolating him. And throwing water down only lasts for a few seconds then the fire pops up again.
Use the Conjure Water spell. The fire won't spread until you break the doors open, so save the Duke's counselor first, and then go to Benryn and grab him, conjure water your way out. My bigger issue is with the atrocious pathing and AI in this game causing NPC's to get stuck or not follow you as they should rather often.

Or your companions or NPC's walking right through your druid's Moonbeam and getting angry, etc.
Originally Posted by Aazo
Agreed, I have yet to be able to save both. And if you go up on the south west side and knock down the wall, jump the pile of rubble to save that one guy, then once you revive him he runs the wrong way out through the fire thus immolating him. And throwing water down only lasts for a few seconds then the fire pops up again.

I have been able to save both, but it's just not fun having to fight the mechanics of foisting an action sequence onto the sluggish UI, dialogue boxes and dice-rolling. I would save before entering the burning building and there's always a chance that Benryn gets blinded or gets himself stuck while following my party out of the building. I'd then reload and try again.
Originally Posted by Zenith
Use the Conjure Water spell. The fire won't spread until you break the doors open, so save the Duke's counselor first, and then go to Benryn and grab him, conjure water your way out. My bigger issue is with the atrocious pathing and AI in this game causing NPC's to get stuck or not follow you as they should rather often.

Or your companions or NPC's walking right through your druid's Moonbeam and getting angry, etc.

I've never tried saving the counselor first. I'd have Lae'zel pick up 2 or 3 water barrels to put out the fires, but I'd get only 2 seconds of reprieve before the ground that is now wet is burning again.

Yes, the terrible pathing and AI compound the problem of the mismatch between the environment and UI and dice-rolling mechanics. There shouldn't be any dice-rolling in a time-sensitive portion of the quest at all.
Definitely agree and had the same feeling when playing this part of the game. Like as if this was some kind of odd real-time action sequence being grafted onto a game that doesn't work that way elsewhere. You'd expect it to at least automatically initiate the turn based mode, so everything can burn in 6 second intervals.

I'd expect the same if trapped in a room that was suddenly filling with water where the PCs might drown. This should be signaled to the player by entering turn based gameplay as if a combat was occurring.

It should really autosave beforehand if they are throwing stuff like that at us. Really it should autosave at the start of every combat encounter and during any area transition. But certainly before we enter an environment that has a ticking clock before sudden doom. Esp when the whole rest of the game seems to take place outside of time altogether.
Originally Posted by Black_Elk
Like as if this was some kind of odd real-time action sequence being grafted onto a game that doesn't work that way elsewhere. You'd expect it to at least automatically initiate the turn based mode, so everything can burn in 6 second intervals.

Yeah, exactly. You put into words what I was thinking better than I could.
While "Torment: Tides of Numenera" was not really good, especially compared to planescape torment, I liked the crisis system there.
Most of the time it was normal combat, but there were also some good examples where the game started turn based mode otherwise:
- Two groups are talking. If you do nothing they will fight each other. You can spend your turns to convince them not to fight each other or you can side with one of them or you just wait and watch how they kill each other.
- Your party has to distract a guard while one of your chars tries to mess with their computer. You have to ask him to show you around and you should ask him stuff and slow him down al the time. If he sees one of your chars working on their computer the whole area becomes hostile.

Yes, everything in the game should go turn based there.

navigating in buildings is terrible sometimes.
You click somewhere and the chars run on the roof or to the level below. And then the camera moves so that you do not see your chars at all.
Originally Posted by Passerby
I've never tried saving the counselor first. I'd have Lae'zel pick up 2 or 3 water barrels to put out the fires, but I'd get only 2 seconds of reprieve before the ground that is now wet is burning again.

may I add that a wet floor that is covered with the contents of 3 water barrels hould absolutely NOT start burning again until all the water is evaporated, which would take quite a while (so long that you could make it out EASILY); burning building or not.
Nearly a year on and this problem still persists. Really hoping patch 7 will fix this!
I distinctly remember the panic setting in the first few times I attempted this. It felt more like micro-managing a real time strategy game rather than turn based.
I played Benryn's rescue via Turn based mode. Problem is, it glitches if you do it entirely in TB.

So, I found out you have to TB it from just before opening the door to leading him out of the room. Once out of the room, then Realtime it again. If you don't, and you lead him out in TB mode, it glitches and doesn't complete the quest or you get locked in TB mode. It won't even let you save the counselor.
Originally Posted by GM4Him
So, I found out you have to TB it from just before opening the door to leading him out of the room.

Ah, that's probably what went wrong for me in my latest attempt. I was sure I'd managed to rescue him in TB mode in an earlier patch, but this time the whole room went up in flames while I was desperately clicking the turn-based mode button to no avail. Ended up reloading and breaking down the door from the next building in TB mode and he ran out that way after quitting TB mode with no problem. As folk said earlier in this thread, even just automatically going into TB mode when one of the doors opens (as already happens with some traps) would be a big improvement.

Hope we'll soon see this addressed in patch 7!
Did anything change in the latest patches?

I tried this a long time ago and I could not recue anyone:
- The camera inside buildings was often bad. There was often a wall or the roof in the way so I had problems to find a path.
- When clicking somewhere, sometimes my char wants to go to the level above or below me. Moving chars when there are several floors on top of each other could be a desaster.
- I am not sure when the fire starts to spread, especially if you do something else then entering through the main door.

So you have to find two people in different places in the burning building, talk to them and they have to follow you out while the fire is spreading fast.
From your comments I understand that you should do it in turn based mode, split your party and one group jumps to one person while the other group goes through the house to the other person.
They changed the way scripted effects and turn-based mode interacted: https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=821275#Post821275

I eventually parked all other characters in camp, equipped my MC with Crusher's Ring and Longstrider, and rescued both the councilor and Benryn with one character in turn-based mode. With only one character in-scene, the scripted effects do one step at a time like they are supposed to.
OMG jawdrop

Thank you for the link.
You saved me (and hopefully many other people) lots of trouble.
Originally Posted by RBarbare
They changed the way scripted effects and turn-based mode interacted: https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=821275#Post821275
.
frown
Now that’s just silly
Posted By: Anonymous Re: Problem with the quest to rescue Benryn in Waukeen's Rest - 20/07/22 08:59 PM
Get to the door next to him (from the outside).

Enter TB mode.

Smash the door and click on the beam.

Pass the check and he will see himself out.
The quest is broken for me right now because Benryn won't get up at all (no matter what option, pass or fail checks). It's been a bit wonky the last 2 patches, honestly.
I had my problems with this quest too.
Normally I go into the house, in which the body of Benryn's wife can be found, and destroy the wall to the other house and safe Benryn.
This time it was very difficult and as I had rescued him, he falls down to the floor and I can't help him. In the questlog it is noticed that I saved him and he will not be harmed by the flames.
When I talk to him the regular animations about grieving his wife death and his aks to search for the hidden money like always.
Posted By: Anonymous Re: Problem with the quest to rescue Benryn in Waukeen's Rest - 22/07/22 04:14 PM
The good news is, after you do it once, it's easily repeatable.

The bad news is that most people who are coming in cold will be frustrated too.
Originally Posted by Topgoon
The quest is broken for me right now because Benryn won't get up at all (no matter what option, pass or fail checks). It's been a bit wonky the last 2 patches, honestly.

I encountered the same thing. What I discovered was that even though he didn't get up, the game seemed to think he had and so didn't burn him. So my solution was to leave after freeing him, fast travel away, long rest and fast travel back. I found him where he was supposed to be, kneeling over his wife's body (I reached him by going in through the side building, not the front btw, so I don't know where he goes if you come from the front building). Cue quest progress as normal.

It is an annoying quest, though, both because of that bug and by poor mechanical design. I could only talk to him without us both roasting to begin with by entering turn-based mode before breaking in the door and talking to him. The fire spreads way too fast otherwise.
Originally Posted by Van'tal
The good news is, after you do it once, it's easily repeatable.

The bad news is that most people who are coming in cold will be frustrated too.
If you "saved" him opening the door next to the suspended corridor rather than from the main hall of the tavern, all you have to do is attempt to talk to him from outside the door to trigger the scene where he cries his wife's name.
After that he "teleports" away from the burning room.
I hate this quest a lot and often skip it. The way Larian does excessive fire reminds me of the Blackpits
Posted By: Anonymous Re: Problem with the quest to rescue Benryn in Waukeen's Rest - 26/07/22 03:27 PM
Originally Posted by Tuco
Originally Posted by Van'tal
The good news is, after you do it once, it's easily repeatable.

The bad news is that most people who are coming in cold will be frustrated too.
If you "saved" him opening the door next to the suspended corridor rather than from the main hall of the tavern, all you have to do is attempt to talk to him from outside the door to trigger the scene where he cries his wife's name.
After that he "teleports" away from the burning room.

Interesting...will try that.
I'm still having trouble getting through this quest. If I open the door to the room with the chest, things explode and send the character opening the door to the far side of the inn(!?). If I go through the mostly-burned door, the room next to the person I need to rescue is engulfed before I can get my characters into the room. Then I try and talk to the guy calling for help, and the game won't interact with him. The camera/mouse seem to think I'm pointing at the lower floor, because anything I click on sends my characters back out of the room and running downstairs. The pathing in this is INFURIATING.

I know there's a second person in the building, but I have no idea where they are because it's been a YEAR since I've been able to successfully complete this quest.

I've tried most of the suggestions above, and nothing seems to work. This quest is so busted.
Originally Posted by Shadowchasers
If I go through the mostly-burned door, the room next to the person I need to rescue is engulfed before I can get my characters into the room.

I wouldn’t worry about the room next to Benryn. I think I went to the trouble of rescuing the chests in there once a couple of patches ago, but there wasn’t anything very good in them so I never bother now.

I do agree that this quest is annoyingly fiddly and unintuitive, but I’ve never failed to complete it (unless I failed the rolls) when going into turn-based mode outside the partly broken door to the room where he’s trapped that leads from the upstairs of the building next door. If you break down the door in melee then you’ll get knocked back and prone, so make sure you have a party member standing out of the blast zone so they can get into the room without wasting time getting up again.

Oh, and you don’t need to rescue Benryn in order to rescue the Councillor, who is behind the door which the Flaming Fists will lead you to.

I don’t think I’ve ever had the problem you mention with pathing. If you have a savegame from which the bug is replicable then it might be worth sharing with Larian … unless someone else confirms they’ve already done so.
I really hate this quest. It's the one quest that makes me feel like DOS2 made me feel. There's just so much chaos going on, I feel lost and overwhelmed in there, I hate it. I didn't even know the councellor existed to be saved until I played in patch 9, that's when I found her actual room and didn't just save Benryn. And since then I've not been able to save Benryn. I can't figure out how to lead him out of the room even though I manage to get the back door out of the room open. He just stays there and dies. It's frustrating and I really hate it.
"Lost and overwhelmed" is pretty much how I'd describe how I felt during the whole area, to be sure. I feel like it would've been better handled as a 'storybook' sequence like in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, where a sequence of skill checks and player choices let us navigate the situation without having to struggle with clumsy controls and fiddly pathfinding in such a life-or-death race against time. I get so frustrated and angry just trying to figure out what's going on and where the triggers are that will cause scripted events to progress, it takes me right out of the narrative and reminds me I'm playing a video game, and a broken-feeling one at that.
Originally Posted by The Red Queen
Originally Posted by Shadowchasers
If I go through the mostly-burned door, the room next to the person I need to rescue is engulfed before I can get my characters into the room.

I wouldn’t worry about the room next to Benryn. I think I went to the trouble of rescuing the chests in there once a couple of patches ago, but there wasn’t anything very good in them so I never bother now.

I do agree that this quest is annoyingly fiddly and unintuitive, but I’ve never failed to complete it (unless I failed the rolls) when going into turn-based mode outside the partly broken door to the room where he’s trapped that leads from the upstairs of the building next door. If you break down the door in melee then you’ll get knocked back and prone, so make sure you have a party member standing out of the blast zone so they can get into the room without wasting time getting up again.

Oh, and you don’t need to rescue Benryn in order to rescue the Councillor, who is behind the door which the Flaming Fists will lead you to.

I don’t think I’ve ever had the problem you mention with pathing. If you have a savegame from which the bug is replicable then it might be worth sharing with Larian … unless someone else confirms they’ve already done so.


I'm having a lot of problems with the game selecting the wrong level of multi-level areas since I picked up this playthrough after a month or two off. It's a major pain and I don't know what's different that is causing it. I seem to have a bit more lag, as well, but that might just be my memory playing tricks on me. Either way, I try to click where I want my characters to go, and it'll frequently target something on the wrong level (usually under) and the characters will scramble around trying to find a path, usually running in the opposite direction of where I'm trying to go, and disappearing off my screen before I can figure out where they went to.

In an area full of timers and hidden triggers for scripted events, this has led me to endless reloads and quicksaves just trying to do simple things like 'Go up the stairs, cast create water, and kick that door down.' Or 'Break down this door and interact with that character to free them from the rubble.'

I spent an hour yesterday just trying to accomplish thirty seconds of gameplay, and gave up. I'm stuck at level 4 and want to get to level 5 before I confront the Hag, so I can unlock some new spells, but I'm about ready to shelve this game entirely until August 31. It's so frustrating.
Originally Posted by Shadowchasers
I'm having a lot of problems with the game selecting the wrong level of multi-level areas since I picked up this playthrough after a month or two off. It's a major pain and I don't know what's different that is causing it. I seem to have a bit more lag, as well, but that might just be my memory playing tricks on me. Either way, I try to click where I want my characters to go, and it'll frequently target something on the wrong level (usually under) and the characters will scramble around trying to find a path, usually running in the opposite direction of where I'm trying to go, and disappearing off my screen before I can figure out where they went to.
Are you by any chance an Old Age Person like me? My son keeps on grumbling that I'm playing almost exclusively with the mouse, instead of having my fingers dance over the WASD keys ...
Originally Posted by Buba68
Originally Posted by Shadowchasers
I'm having a lot of problems with the game selecting the wrong level of multi-level areas since I picked up this playthrough after a month or two off. It's a major pain and I don't know what's different that is causing it. I seem to have a bit more lag, as well, but that might just be my memory playing tricks on me. Either way, I try to click where I want my characters to go, and it'll frequently target something on the wrong level (usually under) and the characters will scramble around trying to find a path, usually running in the opposite direction of where I'm trying to go, and disappearing off my screen before I can figure out where they went to.
Are you by any chance an Old Age Person like me? My son keeps on grumbling that I'm playing almost exclusively with the mouse, instead of having my fingers dance over the WASD keys ...

I mean, I've been playing video games since the 1970s?

But I use the WASD keys to control the orientation of the camera, and the scroll wheel on the mouse to control the height of the camera. So, I'm not EXCLUSIVELY using the mouse, but it is my main input device for the game. It shouldn't matter for the problem I'm having, though.

EDIT: Though, I must admit, I'm very much looking forward to controller support promised when the game launches. Mostly because the interface looks bigger and therefore easier to read. I play on my TV set, so not on a monitor inches from my face. So a lot of the user interface is impossibly small to read without physically standing up and walking over to the TV screen, it's very frustrating. I can only imagine the challenges people with actual disabilities have trying to play this game. It's a real shame there isn't a simple way to scale up the text and the user interface. Solasta is so much better in that regard (though not perfect). In fact, so MANY of my problems with Baldur's Gate 3's gameplay simply don't exist in Solasta, that if I had the kind of rich character-driven story experience with that game that I'm hoping to have with this one, I would uninstall BG3 and not look back. But I really want to play a story-rich game like BG3 is promising to be... I just don't want to struggle with the interface every dang step of the way.
Originally Posted by Shadowchasers
"Lost and overwhelmed" is pretty much how I'd describe how I felt during the whole area, to be sure. I feel like it would've been better handled [...] without having to struggle with clumsy controls and fiddly pathfinding in such a life-or-death race against time. I get so frustrated and angry just trying to figure out what's going on and where the triggers are that will cause scripted events to progress, it takes me right out of the narrative and reminds me I'm playing a video game, and a broken-feeling one at that.

I don't have anything deep to add, but I wanted to highlight this. Not that it's an extremely uncommon comment. On the contrary, I've read this too often (and I share that experience). But it's a good summary.

While there are many things that Larian won't change because they are part of their vision, like Shove I would presume, it is (hopefully) not part of their vision to have the game Ease-Of-Use being that poor. And to have players lost and overwhelmed. And generally to have players struggle, and describe their experience with words such as clumsy, fiddly, tedious, hassle, wrestle, frustrating, unfair, etc.

Larian could easily improve usability without compromising on their vision.
Originally Posted by Drath Malorn
Originally Posted by Shadowchasers
"Lost and overwhelmed" is pretty much how I'd describe how I felt during the whole area, to be sure. I feel like it would've been better handled [...] without having to struggle with clumsy controls and fiddly pathfinding in such a life-or-death race against time. I get so frustrated and angry just trying to figure out what's going on and where the triggers are that will cause scripted events to progress, it takes me right out of the narrative and reminds me I'm playing a video game, and a broken-feeling one at that.

I don't have anything deep to add, but I wanted to highlight this. Not that it's an extremely uncommon comment. On the contrary, I've read this too often (and I share that experience). But it's a good summary.

While there are many things that Larian won't change because they are part of their vision, like Shove I would presume, it is (hopefully) not part of their vision to have the game Ease-Of-Use being that poor. And to have players lost and overwhelmed. And generally to have players struggle, and describe their experience with words such as clumsy, fiddly, tedious, hassle, wrestle, frustrating, unfair, etc.

Larian could easily improve usability without compromising on their vision.

I really do hope so. I've put over a hundred hours into this game, through various patches, and it keeps getting better... but there are still chunks of it that feel wildly misplaced in this game, or mis-designed for the interface. I want to support the company for their goals of making a deep, player-choice-driven game with loads of clever options for clever players, but I feel like there are times where their reach is clearly exceeding their grasp.
Just completed this quest - yes knocking down the wall from the south side jumping in and then grabbing him is the trick. He fell down again and didn’t follow me but I jumped back in and second time he was fine and followed me out. I did notice the fire seemed to barely come near us which was a first in many many tries ….
I successfully rescued Benryn, got the cut scene where he thanked me. When it ended, he was back under the beam and I could not move around the room. No fire though.
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