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Joined: Oct 2020
stranger
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I just met the Red Dragon for the first time.

Battle is 4 guys. All my guess are level 3.

Me (thief)
ShadowHeart (Cleric)
Gale (Wizard using Evocation)

The 4th is La'ezal or whatever her name is.

Now they have 1 woman that does a massive damage. Kills my tankiest person in 1 turn since she gets 3 attacks. Two others that port around the fight and kill my rogue and mage in two turns. I use bless on 3 characters before starting the fight, but it doesn't sway the outcome at all. I have killed everything I have found so far, so not sure how to level further or buy better gear/items.

I try to start the fight with all but the tank stealthed (tankiest is Laezal) but when the guys port, they see me right away anyways.


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apprentice
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I'd recommend leveling up to level four, first and foremost, before engaging these foes. after that's done, I'd make sure that you split your party beforehand, use to position them properly, and attack from the bridge/ramparts/high ground above.

Joined: Oct 2020
journeyman
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You can go in with just Lae'zel with the others on the bridge, and then cast Jump and get Lae out of there, kiting them up the hill. Becomes a shooting gallery. Legitimately hard fight just going in as if its normal dialogue and getting jumped, though.

Last edited by QuietCountryCafe; 12/10/20 08:44 AM.
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I was able to run Shadowheart back up and push a teleporter off the bridge, which helped a lot.

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enthusiast
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They are level 5, facing them as level 3 is asking to get your ass whooped.

BUT, if you insist - I basically put all my ranged guys on the bridge and sent Laezel as a bait to initiate. If you build her as a proper tank, she probably can hold off just enough time there for your ranged to do the work. They will teleport to bridge with racial power, but it's once per day thing, so you can shove them off at which point they are mostly harmless like kittens. Then you can just have all your ranged murder them all with massive advantage, while having Laezel concentrate on gulping potions and tanking.

You can always go suicide bomber route and have Laezel toss an explosive barrel in their face too. That will chunk them nicely.

Last edited by Gaidax; 12/10/20 10:45 AM.
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stranger
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Hm, I am pretty sure I have already killed everything, so not sure what else is left out there to get to level 4. I guess I can go back and see if I missed anything. Actually, I remember a cave with Gnolls and a spider, but I was having some trouble rthere so I just hid and looted what I could. That might be a good spot to start.

I was positioning myself on the ramparts while hidden to get ranged sneak attacks, but the teleport guys just teleport right to me. I like the pushing idea. I've done that before to the Gnolls protecting treasure when one of them was low on life, so I should have thought of that.

I hope I have a save where Laezel is not already discussing things with them.

Thanks all!

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Pushing enemies off high places is the key to winning many battles it seems. I hope when they add Monk they get to use Judo throws. Try to buff the party up with any spells you can before the battle.

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I was able to use misty step to get my ranger up high. They kept putting Laezel to sleep which was frustrating. Unfortunately they can also teleport but this turned out to be a good thing because I was able to shove two of them off to their death.

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Yup, Buff the party, Bless, Aid, Mage Armor etc, then split them to individuals. Ranged on the bridge then have Lae'zel go in to start it. Once going click your party members one at a time to get in the rotation. Pushing and jumping are OP and make most fights quick if you get position on the enemy.

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old hand
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It's better to beat them with a level 4 group. Level 3, your HPs are too low and the gyth strike hard.

I put all my guys except lae'zel in stealth on the fortification above. Then I send lae'zel in to talk. Once the combat starts, potion of speed on lae'zel and use of her skill to add one more action per turn so she strikes 3 times early on. If she's got the sword of justice, you are almost guaranteed to kill 2 of them at the beginning of the fight.

Last edited by Nyanko; 12/10/20 03:22 PM.
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Honestly it depends on your party setup. If you know you're going to be in a fight then setup your party accordingly. I setup my ranged members on top of the bridge and used the hide feature while I had an additional melee character hide near the boulders to the right of the group.

They have two characters that teleport onto the bridge. While my ranged characters are hidden, I use the push function and knock them off then hit them with a ranged attack which usually kills them or puts them near death.

My melee character is a rogue so I used duel wield, sneak attack and then the second attack function and eliminated roughly three of the NPCS before they could attack.

However, if you want to make it more interesting, save prior and setup exploding barrels in and around the area.

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stranger
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My party is all level 4, and I'm having trouble with that encounter as well, I haven't tried splitting them up but I'm sure that will do the trick.

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You can actually change to other characters mid-dialog to reposition if you went in blind. Small button in the lower left to switch. As long as they're not engaged in the dialog you can move them all over the place. It works exactly the same as DOS2 did.

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Level 4 is a must. Separate the party and position them crouched in High ground, shove is your friend and burn every spellslot, sleep is the only reliable CC right now


Necromancy is just recycling...
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Some general tips:

First and foremost, get to level 4. This is a tough fight and being two levels down is a _huge_ handicap to overcome. I did this battle at lvl. 4 and only had a bit of trouble.
Remember to bless your damage dealers. That extra d4 to attack might sound like a little, but adding 5-20% to your hits can decrease your miss chance by 50% (you should have a ~40% miss chance without advantage, so getting that down to 20% would be a 1/2 reduction in miss chance).
By the same token, remember to Bane your enemies.
Cast mage armor on Gale since he is squishy and will be focused by their ranged damage dealers. If you can, give him temporary hit points as well.
If you have the Sword of Tyr (or whatever it's called) from the quest at the tollhouse, use that to give someone an extra 2 AC.
If you've completed the goblin horde quest and have the Absolute's Shield (or whatever it's called), you can use its power to give someone Bane (not sure if this is a bug or intended since the text implies bless rather than bane). Put the shield on ShadowHeart since she can't do much with her bonus actions, and then use the shield's Bane on their ranged archer if you have the chance.
Drinking a potion of invisibility only takes a bonus action. If you have some, use them.

In this specific battle, the ranged Gith (two of them, I believe) will Misty Step and move up to the bridge to get advantage. This makes it very easy for you to shove them off for massive damage. It also means that you can seed that area with explosive barrels so you can insta-kill them. Or pre-position a melee character there. Lots of options when you know where your enemies are going.

That leaves the two melee-oriented Gith to deal with. They're actually quite easy, but you should focus on them one at a time. Your rogue PC should focus on melee DPS since dual-wield backstab sneak attack is *great* melee DPS. You should have +1 weapons by this point so a +3 dex should get you something like 20 damage a turn. IIRC, 2d6+2 from 2x shortsword+1, 2d6 from sneak attack, 3 from dex -> 19 avg damage assuming you hit (action + bonus action). Gale can do Magic Missile for guaranteed 3d4+3 damage (never underestimate guaranteed avg. 10.5 dmg; more if you have the amulet from the underdark that adds psychic damage). Lae'Zel can attack either with a Greatsword+1 (IIRC, 2d6+1+3 for avg. 11 dmg) or have her cast Magic Missile as well if she's an Eldritch Knight. With ShadowHeart you can do lvl. 2 Inflict Wounds, dealing 4d10 -> avg. 22 damage. Averaging 60 dmg a turn from your party, you can 1-shot either the rogue or the fighter, or get them down low enough that you can Sleep and run. Instead of Gale doing Magic Missile, you can try Scorching Ray which does 6d6 -> avg. 21 damage but I tend to find the miss chance not being worth it unless you've got ~90% on the attack (~70% all three rays hit; ~95% 2+ hit). But, long story short, you have enough DPS to one-shot an enemy every turn if you focus fire and get a bit lucky.

The fight shouldn't last long enough to burn through all of your spells, assuming you're fully rested, so go wild with your slots.

Sometimes, the ranged Gith will go into a debuff loop and focus on your weakest character. This is good since their debuffs do less damage than their actual attacks and sleep+entangle can both be remedied by a single Help action. If you successfully one-shot one of the enemies in the first turn, then they only have 3 actions while you have 4. If they waste 2 actions to waste two of your actions (debuffed character + helping character), then they have 1 worrying action vs. your 2 remaining actions, probably giving you a big DPS advantage. Or, you can let one of your characters go down and pursue an all-out aggression strategy where you out-DPS your opponents. Remember that your characters have death saves whereas your enemies simply die. And death saves can soak up lots of damage if your enemies attack them. And a revived companion with 1 HP can still take an attack to the face and save your useful party members the damage.

Joined: Oct 2020
journeyman
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I found this encounter yesterday for the first time and won it first time (in contrast I've never beaten the Matriarch Spider). The battle went as follows:
1. Lae'zel went in alone;
2. Other three stayed back, not far, but one tier up and readied themselves.
- Dwarven Battlemaster drank a Speed potion as well as the Oil of Sharpness;
- Shadowheart cast her Shield spell;
- Astarion made himself look pretty.

Lae'zel went down in the first round, 3 attacks and bam.
Dwarf closed in and hit hard.
Shadowheart moved to Help Lae'zel.
Astarion moved to attack the already wounded (dual wielding with 3rd attack).

We took out the major attacker fast, got Lae'zel back on her feet and the battle turned in our favour. They got into a losing cycle of taking damage whilst another healed them. One managed to teleport up top but but they were on the run. Having a Dwarven tank with a Speed potion really gives you an edge.

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stranger
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Well I thought I had explored everywhere so at level 3 I thought I was where I was supposed to be. I went back and forgot I had a bunch of the Goblin town undiscovered. So I just killed the 3 specified enemies for the bear. Got some upgrades and level 4.

I know the Early Access at this point is capped at 4, but I'll kill everything else in the caves to see what loot there is and then head back.

How do buffs work? Normally they last for a predefined amount of turns or something, no? I don't see the length specified in tool tip. What if I cast bliss or mage armor before going down to dragon, does the timer still tick during the animations or dialogue?

Thanks for all the helpful strategies!!

Joined: Oct 2020
old hand
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Disguise self as a gith. Boom.

Havent actually fought them yet because I talked my way out


What is the problem you are solving? Does your proposed change solve the problem? Is your change feasible? What else will be affected by your change? Will your change impact revenue? Does your change align with the goals and strategies of the organizations (Larian, WotC)?
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FYI the game will hard stop you from hitting level 5.

Joined: Jun 2019
journeyman
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Originally Posted by angerbeaver
Well I thought I had explored everywhere so at level 3 I thought I was where I was supposed to be. I went back and forgot I had a bunch of the Goblin town undiscovered. So I just killed the 3 specified enemies for the bear. Got some upgrades and level 4.

I know the Early Access at this point is capped at 4, but I'll kill everything else in the caves to see what loot there is and then head back.

How do buffs work? Normally they last for a predefined amount of turns or something, no? I don't see the length specified in tool tip. What if I cast bliss or mage armor before going down to dragon, does the timer still tick during the animations or dialogue?

Thanks for all the helpful strategies!!


There is a number in top right corner of the skill, this represents the number of rounds the spell will last. For instance, if you hover over Bless it will have a 10 on it, this means it will last 10 turns as long as you maintain concentration. Sucky thing is, most decent buffs do consume a spell slot....so its still one or the other, not a buffed caster.

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