Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback FEEDBACK - Mind Flayer almost TPK - 1 Plyr Lived

edit: changed Title from Stuck to FEEDBACK

edit 3: when the Mind Flayer comes back to life after eating your NPC or You it has 50 of 70 hps.

I got to the part in the beginning (After 2nd Playthrough) where the fishermen are trying to save the Mind Flayer.
Missed my roll and the Mind Flayer ate the brain of Shadowheart.

Mind Flayer Insta killed My Character (Ranger) and Lae'Zel.

Wizard successfully runs away and out of combat.

I camp but cannot sleep because of the dead PC and NPCs.

UPDATE: was able to rez Lae`Zel and she ran into fire and died, again. (My fault for not, painstakingly, directing her path).
Rez'd Shadowheart and she zoned into the chapel.
Rez'd my PC Ranger and she escaped but during the escape, I ran past the fishermen - and they agro'd and killed, first my PC, which Gale used the Help Action to get back up, and subsequently killed Gale who got hit by arrows from the fishermen and fell unconscious and then died from the Mind Flayer.

We ran right past the Vampire NPC (who I refuse to have in my party because it is obnoxious), and the Mind Flayer ignored it.

Now. I have one last Rez scroll and two dead NPC and not a lot of loot to sell - - - IF i survive the battle at the front gate of the Grove since I have not discovered it yet there is that battle

UPDATE: got Lae'Zel and Zoned into Chapel. All three party members have only 2 HPs

Now I will try to survive the fight in front of the Druid Grove with 3 people - I think I'll try to kill the fishermen first for siding with the Mind Flayer against me -
BUT NO WAY IN HELL WILL I RECRUIT THE OBNOXIOUS VAMPIRE. JUST NOT DOING IT.

UPDATE: On way to kill fishermen, Shadowheart walked past Gale's corpse and died from his Necrotic aura damage LOL> GOD I HOPE THEY DON"T HAVE HARDCORE MODE>
UPDATE: killed Fishermen and the Mind Flayer Agro'd from wayyyyyyy far away but then de-Agroed when fishermen died.

So, Two NPC, almost dead, cannot camp, going into Grove Fight to get Rez scrolls ... who the F*ck designed the Mind Flayer coming to life with 50 HPs AND Level 5! after insta killing a party member? ALL at Level 2 because it is at the very start of the Game!

EDIT: going past the vampire caused his cut scene to play, I used every negative response hoping for a "attack" option, but I just left him where he was. Didn't invite him to my camp. First playthrough, I turned him over to the vampire hunter.

OMFG. Here are my options: One way to freedom is running past/ jumping over, Gale, and his death aura (I have very few HPs left and no way to heal, no food, potions, no rest, no camp) or past the Mind Flayer blocking the path.
Going to try jumping over Gale. - Phew - That worked.

Onward to the Druid Glade Fight!! (with 2 heavily damaged players - My Ranger has 7 of 20 and Lae'Zel has 4 of 20)
Whoot! Won fight handily. Poor Barth ... Rally worked well and My Ranger Rocked from the upper ledge!

Maybe the carnage will provide loot! Not much ...
Selling ... My Ranger with a 10 charisma or Lae'Zel with an 8 Charisma. UGH>

WHOOT I can afford 3! Count em, 3 - Rez Scrolls. ... I'm back in business ... I hope!

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UPDATE >>> LAST EDIT: I went back to the save before the Mind Flayer's Mind F*ing my party.

You do have the option of simply ignoring the Mind Flayer - or as someone posted below, attacking it, which I did after reloading - if you attack it, you auto kill it.
So, it was my own fault I got carried away with making my rolls and got greedy.

But if you do do as I did, you are in for a World of Hurt. But, you also have a level 5 Mind Flayer to fight when you get to level 4 which might be fun to try.

Firsf of all, your post isn't really "Suggestions & Feedback"

Secondly, maybe avoid playing mindgames with a mindflayer?

Well, you did try a mental armwrestling session with a MIND Flayer at level 1-2 when the game gives you plenty of 100% reliable options to best him.
Both in dialogue (not even a roll required) and in combat (you can target the downed mindflayer rather than fight the fishermen and be done in one single hit with the encounter).

Kill mindflayer before anything starts, problem solved.

I'm confused.

I think it is Feedback. There was no way around (maybe scum saving) around the encounter once you get near ... unless you reload reload reload so many times you know what some of the people in this thread are suggesting.

I just want the developers to get "FEEDBACK" on an encounter that, if you fail the checks, have dramatic consequences.

An easier way is to simply reload, try, reload, try, reload reload ... Whoot ... I made the checks ... I'm such a great player!

You can also choose not to pick the dialog option that gives you dramatic consequences if failed

You know, sorry for the smart ass post above ... Next playthrough ... I'll do that. But this is a suggestion to do AFTER you know what the encounter will entail.

Worst-case scenario, you end up wiping and have to reload a save.
Then you know what not to do next time, or start thinking of creative solutions.

I dunno, the first time I came across the mindflayer, I stopped and thought "Well these things are clearly evil as fuck. It's crippled and at 3 health."
"Judging by the dialogue from the NPCs, their minds are clearly being manipulated and that thing is still very dangerous."
"What if I just shoot an arrow before getting into combat and..." Problem solved.

But just to resolve the post, you weren't stuck, you just didn't want to reload.
Being too proud to own up to the bad decision that you made in a game isn't a bug or a balancing issue, it's a judgment issue.

It was the Only option. A Wisdom Roll - cannot remember the number I needed ... like an 8 or something ... but I missed it.
It was 1) Resist (Wisdom)
2) Give in and allow the Mind Flayer to Feed off your body

For #2 above it actually said that you would be giving your life to allow the mind flayer to eat you and get sustenance ...

So, there was only one real option.

Give it a try and see.

What about the dialog choices before that? It allows you to just step away

I reloaded the save before the conversation that went bad.

After fighting the fishermen defending the Mind Flayer. YOU CAN SIMPLY ATTACK IT and that is that. So, I guess it was my own darn fault.

I made the rolls in the previous dialogs ... guess I got greedy ...

I went back pre disaster, you are correct.

After the fight with the fishermen defending the Mind Flayer and BEFORE starting the dialog, the Mind Flayer has 3 hp and you can simply attack it and I did (Nat 20 ... Gods will??)

So, It was my own fault. ...

Yes, there was.
As I said you can pass this encounter in at least two ways with 100% reliability without even needing to pass a roll.
And WITHOUT being forced to kill the fishermen, either.

I've had this dialog exactly one time. In the other 4 games I've started, I can see what they're trying to rescue, and shoot it. Problem solved, no "save scumming", no exploits, and no rolls against a creature I should almost certainly autofail against due to level differences. All fishermen alive as well.

Well, to be honest, it is an example where if you fail the roll, you must reload. You cannot "roll with it", that is accept the failure that alters the story a bit : you get clobbered by the Mind Flayer.

Larian said they want failure to be fun and not require reloading.

I got screwed once. Now I just kill it on sight before any dialogue.

Suggestion : it could get up with 1 to 10 HP maximum, giving the level 1 "party" (often main plus Shadowheart and pets) a chance to defeat the thing... possibly. Or, better, some RP situation where the Mind Flayer recognizes you as a potential Absolute and let's you go. It probably already controls you (failed Wisdom Save) if it gets up anyhow.

Even when you fail the cha checks and start fighting with the fishermen, you can still kill the mind flayer during the fight. It’s still very easy to kill at 3 HP and killing it immediately ends the encounter. I think you somehow found the one way to make it very difficult.

This thread can be summarized as "I made bad choices and suffered consequences." Welcome to the RPG genre. This isn't a problem that needs fixing; this is proper RPG gameplay where your choices matter.

Eh. I don't think the mindflayer needs much adjusting. You have like 4 options to prevent it from eating your brain
a) Ignore it
b) Kill it while it's weak
c) Take the free dialogue option to free your mind (by not probing deeper, I think this didn't require a roll..?)
d) Pass 2 (I think?) checks to resist its control

Plus the other scenario where you don't fight the fisherman and the mind flayer at the same time. I'm not really sure how you managed that...in all my playthroughs the fishermen aggro first while the mindflayer is still weak. I kill them. Then I interact with the mind flayer.
Plus the ability to actually win the fight. Again, the worst possible scenario seems to have happened to you: 3 of your characters going down in the first turn. If only 2 go down, you can Help the other 2 and play whack-a-mole since the mindflayer will only target 1-2 PCs each round. Eventually you'll kill it.

If you fail at achieving every single one of above options, then you die. Your character was too naïve and got their brain ripped out. But there is a pretty recent autosave, so reload and try again.

I'm in favor of there being enemies/NPCs that I am unable to kill (or at least it'd be really really difficult to do so) at low levels, as long as its somewhat easy to not need to fight them.

That said, I would also be fine with the game giving a Game Over screen if the host's character gets their brain eaten.