D&D General Baldur's Gate 3 will now be releasing August 3rd on PC and September 6th on PS5, increased level cap, race & class details and more

[Andvari]

Used a barrel of smoke powder to defeat a tough boss encounter I'm guessing would have gotten the better of me otherwise. Good thing the monsters used the overhead camera so they couldn't see me setting up in the distance.

 

[DarkCrisis]

By the time you reach Karlach you should be level 3, at which point those enemies should be easy (there are only 3, a paladin, a ranger and a wizard, all level 4). One of them is a caster - usual D&D tactics apply - shut them down. Because of critical hits characters will drop in one sometimes. Healing Word gets them back up in one, so not a biggy. Make sure you have karmic dice turned off.

If you are still having trouble, I suggest you reduce the difficulty level. Grinding isn't really a thing in BG3. Enemies don't respawn, there are few trash mobs and there aren't many fights that are easier than the one you are struggling with. You can get xp for doing non-combat stuff like exploring, but at some point you will need to learn combat tactics.

More in spoiler thread.

Yeah we are level 3. Stuff like the leader would move and swing 3 times which dropped 2 characters usually. Or dropped one and severely wounded another. His pals firing poison spells and arrows quickly wiped up rest and any I tried to get up with spells and potions just dropped again.

I finally beat it on my 3rd try by finding a better defensible position that they could only come at me like one at a time and even then i still got really wounded. Their leader was a beast.

FYI I was using my sorcerer, The Cleric, the Barb, and the Rogue.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah we are level 3. Stuff like the leader would move and swing 3 times which dropped 2 characters usually. Or dropped one and severely wounded another. His pals firing poison spells and arrows quickly wiped up rest and any I tried to get up with spells and potions just dropped again.

I finally beat it on my 3rd try by finding a better defensible position that they could only come at me like one at a time and even then i still got really wounded. Their leader was a beast.

FYI I was using my sorcerer, The Cleric, the Barb, and the Rogue.

1) Why are they getting a turn before you? (I can answer that, it's because you have a certain character in your party and they aren't hidden).

2) Why do they have a line of sight on you? Use cover.

3) Why are you not imposing disadvantage on ranged foes by moving a character into melee range?

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Relating to that fight, my Ranger's Ensnaring Strike finally came in useful, because without a certain someone's big multi-attacks, it wouldn't matter what the others did.

He also did NOT switch targets with his multi-attacks, but kept hitting the original target, even if he downed him on the first hit. Which somehow killed them right away, rather than just adding to their death saves. I found that a bit spiteful.

 

[DarkCrisis]

1) Why are they getting a turn before you? (I can answer that, it's because you have a certain character in your party and they aren't hidden).

2) Why do they have a line of sight on you? Use cover.

3) Why are you not imposing disadvantage on ranged foes by moving a character into melee range?

1. Tried the sneak attack route the 2nd time. Somewhat worked.

2. The other 2 had height on me. Plus trying to disengage from their leader meant a free sword swing from him on an already wounded party.

3. Third time once I knew where they all stood and tactics I did use stealth effectively and dropped one then got the other 3 where they had to funnel to me. Again the leader was a beast though. Not to mention them using spells like Hold Person didn’t help me either.

But yeah going into that fight without striking first was rough. RP wise first try I wanted to talk to them which got most of my party into the same room. IE the first attempt was fubar just for trying to talk/RP first.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

found the Barb. Wants me to help her stop some baddies nearby . Sure. They proceed to one shot my group one by one. Barb drops in one attack to their leader. What the absolute fudge.

I’d go grind xp at this point if there was a way to do it.

You just have to approach these situations tactically and not face first. You know there's going to be a fight and they don't so you get to choose how and when it starts. You can use choke points, fire, all sorts of spells, pushing people off cliffs and so on. For example with that specific fight

Spoiler

I normally open that fight by waiting for their wizard to walk on to the balcony (as she does) and getting my strongest character to just shove her off. Hit turn based mode as she steps outside to ensure you can do it. This kill her 100% as long as one of your shoves works (or any similar knockback, like thunderwave or mobile flourish or maybe even you can throw her with Karlach or Laezel though I doubt it). Sometimes the people inside don't even notice, but even if they do, the room next door is an amazing chokepoint, like you can drop a cloud of daggers on the doorway and go out of LOS and they'll have to come through it. Or move a character up and CC one so they come staggered.

Really, if you are willing to start a fight and not go in face first a ton of extremely hard fights become very doable. Which seems very D&D to me (particularly 1st through 3rd edition admittedly). PC Paladins of Devotion may not be able to do this, admittedly but hey if you choose to handicap yourself!

 

[DarkCrisis]

You just have to approach these situations tactically and not face first. You know there's going to be a fight and they don't so you get to choose how and when it starts. You can use choke points, fire, all sorts of spells, pushing people off cliffs and so on. For example with that specific fight

Spoiler

I normally open that fight by waiting for their wizard to walk on to the balcony (as she does) and getting my strongest character to just shove her off. Hit turn based mode as she steps outside to ensure you can do it. This kill her 100% as long as one of your shoves works (or any similar knockback, like thunderwave or mobile flourish or maybe even you can throw her with Karlach or Laezel though I doubt it). Sometimes the people inside don't even notice, but even if they do, the room next door is an amazing chokepoint, like you can drop a cloud of daggers on the doorway and go out of LOS and they'll have to come through it. Or move a character up and CC one so they come staggered.

Really, if you are willing to start a fight and not go in face first a ton of extremely hard fights become very doable. Which seems very D&D to me (particularly 1st through 3rd edition admittedly). PC Paladins of Devotion may not be able to do this, admittedly but hey if you choose to handicap yourself!

Yeah this game is definitely leaning more into AD&D's "use tactics" form of battles over 5E's "just charge in and you will kill them 90% of the time" form of battles.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

1. Tried the sneak attack route the 2nd time. Somewhat worked.

2. The other 2 had height on me. Plus trying to disengage from their leader meant a free sword swing from him on an already wounded party.

3. Third time once I knew where they all stood and tactics I did use stealth effectively and dropped one then got the other 3 where they had to funnel to me. Again the leader was a beast though. Not to mention them using spells like Hold Person didn’t help me either.

But yeah going into that fight without striking first was rough. RP wise first try I wanted to talk to them which got most of my party into the same room. IE the first attempt was fubar just for trying to talk/RP first.

I was playing on Normal difficulty and was level 3. I'm no CRPG tactical genius but I did use the abilities available to me. It was a tough fight but not overly so. I'm trying to think what could be the difference between your experience and mine.

I have an archer ranger with a beast companion as a main character. My companions were Karlach (streamed into Berserker), Shadowheart and Wyll. So lots of range options (my beast is typically a raven, which has great mobility and the ability to Blind opponents) and Eldritch Blast and various cantrips from Shadowheart. Karlach has both Action/Bonus Action attacks as per her class.

 

[Demetrios1453]

PC Gamer just gave it a 97 in its full review, its highest score in over a decade, and one of its highest scores ever:

Baldur's Gate 3 review

The new pinnacle of the genre.

www.pcgamer.com

Baldur's Gate 3 is PC Gamer's highest scoring game in 16 years. Here's why

It's been a long time since we've been this excited by a new PC release.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Scribe]

I was playing on Normal difficulty and was level 3. I'm no CRPG tactical genius but I did use the abilities available to me. It was a tough fight but not overly so. I'm trying to think what could be the difference between your experience and mine.

I've reloaded a lot of fights, and early on especially it can come down to initiative and a roll of the dice. If you get the jump a fight can be over before it really starts.