Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Which optional hard encounters are "worth it."

Hello all,

I've been working my way through EA more slowly than a lot of you. Two kids and a wife who's not very understanding regarding gaming limits my time. I've explored most of the main map though, and am now closing in on the goblin camp, meaning the endgame is coming soon.

There are various encounters I've left undone as of yet however. These include:

1. The owlbear cave
2. Auntie Ethel
3. The phase spider matriarch (and the underdark)
4. The Zhent hideout (dunno if it's hard, every time I try and go in deeper though everyone attacks me).

I've already hit the level cap, so the XP alone isn't worthwhile. I'm more wondering if the gear is worth it than anything. Last night I went back to the mud memphit encounter, and finally beat it. I was really let down how there was basically nothing on the island at all other than some apples and pears and some useless vendor trash. I wasted a bunch of consumables on this fight (including an arrow of darkness) so I was really let down how little was on the island. I don't want to be in a situation where I go through a punishing combat to find out there's no good party gear.

1 2 and 4 are good gear for some companions. 3 I have not done yet.

There are several in the Underdark and they are by far some of the hardest fights in the game.

Not a lot of them are worth it imo.

Like I busted my ass to kill them! They could down 1 companion in 1 turn level of difficulty and after killing them with cheese tactics all I get is a piece of meat, some scrolls and 20 gold? Are you kidding me?

3 gives you a recolor of Gale's robes, i think? It's alright but nothing to write home about..
1 gives you the chance to get your own owlbear cub (assuming you only kill the mother) and lets be real that's better than any loot (gives you extra cutscenes and approval from gale/shadowheart/wyll)

Loot aside, Auntie Ethel is so bugged that it doesn't seem worth it until that's fixed.

Auntie Ethel bugs every time for me. You can just whack her to death with zero resistance. The fight never initiates.

Zhent and owlbear were surprisingly easy IMHO (not any sort of "how cool am I?", I'm pretty crap at combat and tactics). Owlbear loot was vaguely interesting, Zhent loot was quite profitable.

Other difficult but optional fights might include the one for the sussur bark, which IMHO isn't worth it as it gives you a +1 scratchy weapon like a greatsword, but by that time I'd already amassed a collection with the same stats; the creature guarding the ruined tower seemed tougher than it was and the main bonus was being able to wander around the Underdark without the daft great lummox bashing my entire party off my feet; spider matriarch is just too moody, and while I may like spiders I don't like *her*, so I'm leaving her alone; er... that's all I can think of. There's another couple of mobs I have yet to deal with.

The critters guarding the sussur tree are a rare example of being able to not have to deal with everyone at once, so I just used my archer and buggered off when it looked like it was getting a bit hairy; and it's not necessary to deal with them when rescuing the idiot.

The spider matriarch can be very easy IF you're lucky and have removed all the eggs prior to the battle. She has a tendency to teleport on webs, so you just destroy the web and hope that the fall damage will be enough to take her out fast. But again, IF you're lucky. Very often she would not teleport on the web and stick to solid ground and at that point it's a chore to defeat her.

I thought the Zhent fight was way too easy for two reasons:

1) my level 3 party was able to take out the leader before she could even react. I suprise-attacked from the high ground and it was over very quickly. Hunter's Mark, nice arrow shot, 2nd-level magic missile, bam. She should be higher level.
2) not everyone in the cave went hostile and joined the fight. This is definitely a situation where that should have occurred.

I also hope that in the not-early-access story, this encounter ties into later events, and there might be decent reason to not murder-hobo them all.

Owl bear isnt hard, use a pindown and / or CC spells. The Ogre / Bugbear lovers were 10x harder than the owlbear.

I find all the fights to be worth it; it's playing the game. I do not need a reward for everything I do.

The only fights that arent worth it are every fight after reaching level 4 as you cant level up anymore yet