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Wait, you're one-shotting the goblins? How? It takes me two hits minimum, sometimes three to take the goblins down and this is when I'm at level 4. Only Lae'zel is capable of one-shotting them. I actually tried burning the webs and that didn't work so I stopped trying. I died to the goblins outside the goblin camp twice and even the third time I had like, two or three charcaters being downed or outright killed over and over. I don't know how you built your characters but one-shotting a 50 hp enemy? None of my characters are anywhere close to that.

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I forgot to add an additional point. The triangle of 5e you might say.

Action Economy is King. The side with more Actions tends to win, so figure out how you can get more Actions (Summons) and deny enemy Actions (Disabling abilities/spells)

Party Synergy is Queen. Recognize what works well together. One party member using their Action to make every other party member hit a target *and* disabling that target is ideal.

Advantage Hunting is Princely. Learn all the different ways you can gain Advantage (high ground, attacking from the side or rear, Restraining/Enwebbing a target, certain spells like Faerie Fire, etc). Once you learn that, combat gets a lot easier. Make sure you are always attacking with Advantage, while finding ways to make your enemies attack with Disadvantage.

One more general tip. You can't take an Action if you're unconscious. Using an Action to help an Ally is trading one Action for another character's Action, generally a zero sum gain (Cure Wounds, Help action). However, trading a Bonus Action to get an ally up, well that's just tasty. Fancy way of saying Healing Word is the best spell in the game. Bonus Action ranged heal. A character with 1 hp deals the same damage as a character with 100 hp. Use Healing Word.

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Have you try stab enemies with two hand spear? I'm doing this and ofter 1-3 enemies are down before big fight. Just be sure that every one using stealth.

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Originally Posted by Gray Ghost
Wait, you're one-shotting the goblins? How? It takes me two hits minimum, sometimes three to take the goblins down and this is when I'm at level 4. Only Lae'zel is capable of one-shotting them. I actually tried burning the webs and that didn't work so I stopped trying. I died to the goblins outside the goblin camp twice and even the third time I had like, two or three charcaters being downed or outright killed over and over. I don't know how you built your characters but one-shotting a 50 hp enemy? None of my characters are anywhere close to that.


Long bow is 1d8 plus 4 at level 4, plus hunters mark 1d6. Plus 1d8 Colossus slayer if they're hurt. Throwing an aoe throwable at any that are grouped up handles that.

Potion of speed gives you 2 actions per turn. If you're up in the rafters of that place when the fight starts you cannot miss because of the bonus to hit that height advantage currently gives you, so that's two dead goblins per turn, think I got the boss guy down to 30 or so and then the rogue smashed him when he got to the rest of the party on the ground.

That's just my ranger, with no magic items because a +1 bow doesn't seem to exist.

Rogue damage is crazy burst, sneak attack and two offhand hits? Bonus for being behind a target means again you can't miss.

You just need to read these skills, and the stuff Larian has added. All the surfaces, bonuses and throwable stuff makes it trivial.

Did you realise that Ray of frost is pretty much a guaranteed way to knock someone prone, and that means your rogue gets sneak attack and advantage for all 3 attacks? 6 dice rolls gives you such a big chance to crit.

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Damn. I do not have the bandwidth to absorb all that stuff, especially not for a first run in a game. To give you a sense of my skill level, Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire is my favourite game, I've played through it twice on story difficulty and It wasn't until my third playthrough that I felt confident enough to play on normal and that's still a genuine challenge for me and I struggle to process and take advantage of all the tools at my disposal. I'm not going to be able to play anywhere close to your level until I've had several playthroughs to absorb and understand everything-I've only started taking advantage of hunters mark for my ranger 19 hours into the game. At this point I don't feel like I can experiment or take extra risks on things I'm not certain of because it feels like one mistake will put me in an inescapably bad position.

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I put my strategy for dealing with the priestess and the rest in spoilers because taking her out sets the whole scheme up.
If you are a rogue or have one you can start with the Goblin camp on level 3(you will get to 4 fast). Hide the rest of the party inside the dark corner of the Priestess room then talk to her and get her to the room. Kill her with the whole party then stealthkill the NPC horde which will arrive later. They will not see you in the dark corner where you hide the casters and only dash out with your rogue to snipe the rest.

Once the priestess and her ensemble are dead you got a room full of barrels of exploding stuff. You need two for the drow priestess where you set them up near her so she looses half her health and the mob beside her is killed (necessary to avoid him running to the drum) which leaves the priestess and one extra mob. Manageable.

If you got the Blade of the Frontiers in your party as I did you can kill three Goblins on the far side of the captured Goblin priest in the cage adjectant to the Goblin priestess for extra exp by throwing them into the pit next to them. Now clear the warg cages by putting your melee near the two big goblins on the left(from entrance), your casters on the opposite side up the steps from them and your rogue starts the encounter with the bear putting the gate upon that bigger mob in front. Then eliminate the two runners with your casters and rogue while the "bosses" are tied down with your melee fighter (you could also use some barrels on them but it is not worth it as they have too much hp for my liking and you would need too many barrels). Just remember to kill the beastmaster with concentrated fire next to avoid mark on the bear and to despawn the spider. Then tell the druid to hide in the room.

Why this and not the Hobgoblin right after the Priestess? Because his death turns everyone against you and you want to pick the fights the way you want to. Now you are ready for the inferno. Get the Illithid corpse encounter cleared so he sits on his throne. Then everyone gets as many barrels as he or she may carry. Everyone and their dog needs one or two barrels alongside them. I gave the boss three alone and one near him so the chain reaction is guaranteed. There are more barrels above if you think you need more (I realized that after I killed the group so you usually should not). Split your party and move them up the ladder on the left side (from entrance) to the sparrows. Save, smile and throw a vial of fire down to the boss. Watch them all burn. In my case the boss had one hp left after running around like a burning chicken and I sniped him with my rogue.

After this everything is covered in ash and you can hide your party above while you snipe the rest of the goblins inside with your rogue and dash. You can even cheese the Hobgoblin body guard of the priestess in the temple by hiding your party at the enrance, stealthily climb the ladder once the oaf turns around with your rogue and snipe him to death from the shadows without any risk to yourself.

All was done with a less than ideal party of woodelf rogue main, shar cleric, wizard and warlock as I killed Laz in my second playthrough because I could not stand her in the first and I rather take the companions which don't cost me fun while playing.


Solo kill list: One stupid evil (displayed alignment) Githyanki warrior, a dark grove, a Zhentarim hideout full of "experienced" rogues, half a Goblin camp including two hobgoblins, two minotaurs, a bunch of underworld monsters and their wannabe sorcerous overlord
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Yeah one failed roll in a coversation, and at least one of my guys goes down, before I even get my turn.

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Honestly, I agree about the combat. I'm sure the next 10 posters will tell me how they win every battle in a party of one etc, etc, etc, but I'm not that guy. I actually stopped playing at the goblin ambush where they spam AOEs all over, but most of the enemies are too high to hit with a bow. I guess I didn't want original XCOM...

That said, it may just be that there's something I'm not seeing or an approach I'm not thinking of. Looking forward to good community guides and the like. Yes, original BG was like this - a lot of 'stump the chump' battles that would be unwinnable without metaknowledge (who really keeps 10 spells of Mirror Eyes at the ready for basilisks?)... I think the game is too much of a chore.

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They do same hard at first s skill up your tactics.
First, look for any moment to shovel or push an enemy from a height. For the big spider, when she is on a web bridge, what if that web bridge broke? She would take fall damage. Bust up her eggs before hand. Scout and sneak around to understand the environment.
Use consumables. Dip your weapons, poison your blades, etc.
Make sure to buff weaker party members with spells.
The best spells are not that ones that do damage but the ones that control a situation. A well placed grease, sleep, darkness, fog, etc all make a big different.
Look in the area for things to break that can crash down on enemies. Take out guard tower stuctures so enemies fall.
Break line of sight from ranged attackers or blind them with fog.
Tank the beefy melee enemies and use strong DPS on weaker ones.
Get to higher ground and keep enemies from going up.
Placing hazards on the ground will cause enemies to avoid them.
Keep the party close together but not so close they get hit with area of effect things.
Try to get suprise rounds.
Lure enemies into areas that you have the best positioning in.
Try to unchain/split sneakier characters from the group and have them in stealth.
Use bonus actions to fall back and hide.
Find cover.

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The first times, I often died.

The next time around I often won easily, as you discover weaknesses, tricks, etc. (like barrels of oil, objects that can fall on the enemies, cheesy shoves down pits, etc.)

But, yes, a few fights are really hard and a few unlucky rolls can force you to restart the fight.

( and I have been playing D&D for over 30 years )

Last edited by Baraz; 11/10/20 03:01 AM.
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Some fights are just not balanced. Like the goblin fight near windmill and the ones near that villages gate or w/e it was called.

Like 3-4 archers dropping bombs and what not and you take like 15 dmg bc of surface and unavoidable dmg they have from divinity for some reason. It's always the same for the most part, you got enemies on high ground, throwing crap at you, and you're always at a disadvantage. It's just annoying and not fun when most combat starts the same way.

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Originally Posted by Myrnodyn
I think most of what's causing the current difficulty is that DnD's armor system (AC ratings) doesn't really gel well with Larians unavoidable ground-effects. Low level dnd characters survive by virtue of not getting hit a lot. For fighters this means wearing a lot of armor and putting points in constitution, for mages it means staying out of harms way, and blasting away anything that comes close. Unavoidable damage that ignores AC ratings is therefor a bit painful.


Very good point. I felt something is off but couldn't put my finger on it.

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The combat is simply too hard until you hit level 3.

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The windmill fight is pretty hardcore : they have elevated ground and pommel you with advantage and also melee.

I have only tried it once after failing the dialogue (therefore bad positions). I got butchered and my crowd-control spells did not last their intended durations.

Next time, I might send only Laezel in dialogue, while the others take position.

Last edited by Baraz; 11/10/20 03:05 AM.
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So far I'm having an easy time of it all.

Some things to remember on your first play through if your unfamilair with how things are working.

1. Spells, weapons, etc remember what is working. On your second play through if there is one you'll know more about everything and can find easier ways to do things. At times it's easier to go through the slog of a first play through partly then restart as a new character.

2. Never use your heavy spells for simple fights, or minions. Instead focus the big guys, just pummel the hell out of them with your heavy damage abilities, then mop up the minions after that.

3. look for spell synergy have a warlock. Use true strike, then witchbolt on same target, need more drop hex on that target to. Have a wizard grease and fire spell. Fighter give them a couple haste potions, and nearly all your healing potions. Pop haste on first round, dash to a target and unload. Same with action surges.

4. Use height to gain advantage so your missing less with spells, and sneak attack from ranged until your tanks (most armored and healthiest characters generally Fighters) can get into positon. Then begin to run in with rogue, and sneak attack with a double team. or just stay back and sneak attack from ranged.

5. Have an escape for your wizards, misty step is great. Can't hit someone magic missile the hell out of them. It never misses though damage isn't as high as other spells, still your doing damage.

6. Armor up before fights with spells they stay on until you long rest for the most part. Beef up your characters AC with cleric buffs before fights, or their stats.

7. Debuff the enemies heavy hitters. If it's a melee character using a big 2h weapon hit them with a strength hex, if they have alot of hp hit them with a con hex.

8. look, listen, learn. Look around to see what you see. Narrow choke points, interactables lovingly placed to plummet on enemies heads, plants that entangle, etc. Listen oh not much here. Learn from everything you do. save before battle to test it out if it's your first time, see who's hitting the hardest, who your missing the most etc.

9. Deny, deny, deny! Deny the number advantage of your enemies with sleep spells, or halt spells, throwables that force them to roll a save, like grease bombs etc. Use these and if a couple people end up falling blast the grease with fire!

10. Look at every spell you have on level up, stop and think how you'd use them, how they work together.

11. never use health pots/spells to heal outside of combat. Use the food you find to heal up, short rest, or even long rest. Conserve your big heals, health potions for and only for battle. Don't use healing word unless you can't get to the downed person within 3 turns. Cure wounds heals far more on average. Which brings up this one. Your cleric is your life, protect them. (unless your wizard has Larianed healing spells.) even then wizard won't heal as much as a Life Cleric, and he should be pumping out damage, or denying movement. Also his heals are (in my opinion haven't tried it out and wont) going to be weaker then your clerics. (this part is an assumption and not tried by myself)

12. Last of all..... uggg... cheese them... just straight up fumundah cheese them. If they're close to an edge give them a bonus action shove, to help them down. I mean everyone needs some help even if they don't understand they do. To close to your Wizard give them a shove, and a face full of magic before running away.


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Originally Posted by clavis


7. Debuff the enemies heavy hitters. If it's a melee character using a big 2h weapon hit them with a strength hex, if they have alot of hp hit them with a con hex.



Hexes dont work like that (it does not decrease an enemies stat) it only affects creatures ability checks

ie. constitution hex is almost useless becasue almost no abilities use this as a check.
str/dex somewhat helps on melee enemies but they dont use abilities often, they just run and smack you in the face
more helpful against caster enemies that use an ability almost every turn.
or at least in my experience so far.

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I'm with you, OP. Iim at the point where I've beat all the gnolls, I've killed everything in the goblin camps. About the only thing's I've not done is I abandoned fighting the Hag, and I'm finding the Githyanki hard as well (I mean, they all get 3+ hits, action surge, and the archer can teleport on top of the bridge.. Really!?)... I've been ma level for a while now, so, I'm going to try my hand again at the Underdark and see how that goes. This time I'm going to call in those 3 giants to help me (cost 500 gold), we'll see how it goes. But so far, a couple of the fights the characters really aren't high enough level for at max level.

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I believe I finished EA (before going back and finishing other encounters) at level 3. Yeah, it's hard. My setup is CHARNAME -- Wizard, plus the wizard, rogue, and cleric. Perhaps not the best balance, but it's how I want the story to roll.

#1 know your spells. Makes or breaks being able to either make or take a hit. Mage armor, for instance, allowed me to prevent taking a single hit during a late-game encounter. I also buffed up equipment, but combined with bane/bless could actually hit the friggin things.

#2 location, location, location. Those cliffs made creatures smack my fellows to their deaths. I then used this tactic to throw enemies off the cliff. Great stuff. It also made a difference when I figured out the earth diggers in the underdark. I was not sure how I'd pass the level until I jumped to a new place and avoided it entirely. Which leads me to...

#3 you don't always have to fight. Or at least not everything at once. A big strategy is learning where you can keep your fights behind closed doors. OMG if I had a dollar for every creature I've P'O'd my character wouldn't be doing these quests....

#4 know your action, bonus action, etc. I use potions, scrolls, spells, sneak attack, etc. Everything is planned, so I can't just blaze my way in like on an easier difficulty. My rogue uses melee or ranged depending on proximity, cleric buffs the party, mage 1 uses crowd control, mage 2 uses one target spells. Oh and those %$@! dice have a factor, but, hey, that's D&D. (but really, guys, where's my dice jail???)

And remember it is EA. I think that the encounters are great for a medium to advanced player, but it needs an easier difficulty, a story mode, or something. I agree that it is really tough until you hit level 3, but even then I've had my fair share of spamming the reload button. So for more casual gamers who like the RPG aspect...? It needs to have some options. My mom should not start this game up until there's a scale. Or I'll be fighting her battles XD

Edit: Forgot to mention, I took the underdark route. Holy hells it was not what I expected... Hopefully the alternative isn't so brutal.

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Originally Posted by Gray Ghost
Most of my big combats end by the skin of my teeth after having pulled out every spell and ability I have.


And that is absolutely the perfect scenario.
The feeling of achievement is sky rocketing when things work out in the end.
If the victory is achieved by some devious tactics, it only enhances the joy.

I would always prefer a difficult "almost disaster" for a "Ah well. Another six enemies bit the dust. Let's find some more".


Great last words.

Oh no. Not again...
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Yeah, I have the same issues on one hand, that the encounters are too hard for the average user, but I can see that they can also be trivial once you found a way to exploit the system, or when you are very knowledgeable of the source material.

The real issue is that BG3 requires you to know an awful lot to succeed, but does not actively give you the knowledge and does not show you examples on how to make the best out of your resources.

For example, while I appreciate the hit-chances being displayed, I have no idea how it is calculated or how I can modify it. Now I can only guess that range and height, might have something to do with it and that it does not help to have multiple enemies around me, when I am trying to shoot my bow. I just came here to find how this is calculated and modified, the game never told me (or might have in two sentences with a tooltip), but it never showed me. It did not tell me that immovable, stunned or knocked over characters modify that (it is logical, but can not be seen as a given). Even the position of myself is important, which is horrible since it applies to me as well. So I am getting hit more, because my back was turned towards the enemy, and the game never told me how to rotate characters after actions/movement. If possible at all.

It is the same with sneaking. When I enter sneak mode, I never know what breaks it, or if my attack is a sneak attack. I assume that it has to do with the red area on the ground, which breaks stealth, but noone told me. Noone told me how to exploit or even apply sneaking in combat, so I just auto-attack with my sneaked rogue and maybe I am getting a sneak attack?

Also, synergy of skills and spells etc.. In the whole tutorial I never knew that when I locked an enemy with my crippling arrow that he will be knocked down with the ice bolt. Blood will also turn to ice. A sleeping enemy is prone to sneak attacks, probably a held person, too. I just today thought that I might be able to light my arrow on the candle that I just lit, I do not know though, nobody told or showed me. I am also not fully aware of how initiative works and how the enemies move and turn or what they are capable of. Is it good to go for the strongest first, or the caster? Or should I remove certain characters from the combat now, to deal with them later? If I want to use synergy, how do I exploit the turn times so that my character 1 who sets the trap comes before character 2 that exploits the trap?

Resource management and consumables: I have not yet rested, but most skills and spells naturally are not available to me now. I do not know what short and long rests will do, or if there are any penalties. I got the typical fear of using my bombs and poisons, because I do not know if I need them later in a harder fight. Nobody told me that in a game where you have one action and one bonus action and can move whenever and how often you want, you will face off against more enemies than you have companions, so reducing the amount of actions, bonuses and movement is key. A melee fighter that can not move also can not act. A ranged unit that lost his action can not attack, just flee. A silenced mage can only resort to low damage melee or ranged. And so forth. If haste gives me one extra action, it can mean that I can exploit my trap myself, so say I can throw an oil bomb, light my arrow and set them all on fire. Or I can fully take out a large opponent by myself. Or cripple two enemies negating their turns.

Environmental assets: So I can use the environment to my advantage? So this crane weight can fall down and take care of two guys? Awesome, however it only highlighted after I moused over it randomly, after the fight. This is generally a problem that not all objects you can interact with are highlighted, just containers.

Group movement: So I know combat is ahead, but my comrades keep following me when I try to setup a good position. I can not block a certain position with my melee fighters, because my mage trails in behind totally not in cover. I can only clunkily remove one, or select sneak individually to move them one by one. This system is cumbersome, unintuitive and hurtful in combat. You can also initiate combat by yourself beforehand and to setup, but this is also just explained as a sidenote and not shown as a tactical tool.

A perfect example of everything is a fight in the ruins that starts as soon as you unlock a door. So my main is a rogue, he opens the gate. My melee fighters are behind him and behind them is my mage. The enemies are mostly ranged. My rogue starts, unsneaked so I figure, best get a shot off and let them come to me. It only occured to me tonight before sleep that I could have lighted the candles left and right of the door, lighted my arrow and hit the oil barrel in the middle of the room, the stuff just never lighted up and I was never told. Next in line are three ranged dudes of them, they approach get in range to hit my mage and let loose, that is three arrows hit and the mage goes down. So reload and try to get my group into position, but I can not really, because of the movement system. So I do the best I can, start the fight in sneak, and manage to kill one guy right away. My plan is to cast a fog so I can move up my melee fighters, however initiative makes it so that I should have done that last turn, so my fighters can move up this turn, so it is delayed. Meanwhile one enemy just throws an oil barrel into the doorway and all bets are off again and the plan fails, as anyone moving through fire or acid will take a lot of damage. So I sit there until the fire is out and otherwise can only pop out and shoot arrows. Once it is out, I move, but the ash is hindering my movement, never knew that, so my fighters take a beating while not approaching as far as possible. My mage misses his fire bolt and the sleeping enemy is out of my shortbow range. The fight was not particularly hard, but it was long and not particularly fun, because my options were limited and I limited myself, because the endless possibilities were not known to me.

So all in all the combat is pretty unintuitive, cumbersome, unpredictable, hard and unbalanced because the possibilities are obscured and nothing is known to the player, since it is not taught or shown.

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