How to properly beat the hag's guards?

[Vaarkhan]

I've been wasting the past two hours trying to defeat the swamp hag's masked guards and they've been kicking my ass so hard I've been on the verge of despair many time. Insane healing output, insane damage output, damage actions and reactions, AoE damage, DoT damage, impossible accuracy... meanwhile my group misses 70% shots all the time and makes saves only in the rarest occasion.
I've now managed to beat them but Astarion died... I don't care, screw that posh pony if that's what it takes to finally get past these guys. Holy damn.
A fight on the same level (4) shouldn't be so damn skewed. No other fight has been this insanely difficult so far.

[Nox]

If you are struggling with the hag's guards turn around and come back when you are level 5. I am not kidding the hag fight after is easily 8 times harder, timed and - impossible at your level.

To take out the guards, sneak around and bum rush the archer first. Dump everything on him fast because he's the CC guy. next, drop the mage who goes down super fast and you only have two left.

climb up to the platform and abuse the heck out of repelling blast and invoke duplicity.
drop grease at the bottom and buy time to avoid retribution man.

The fight feels super contrived (I know, I know) - even more contrived than D&D. these aren't classes or monster manual things they are bespoke things with way, way, way overpowered abilities.

[sajmon]

Originally posted by Vaarkhan:

Originally posted by Pan Darius Loveless:

Place an object on top of their vent.

I don't see any vents? I've carefully scanned the entire cloud with my mouse, no vent appears.

its perception check

[Dr.Liam]

Originally posted by Nox:

If you are struggling with the hag's guards turn around and come back when you are level 5. I am not kidding the hag fight after is easily 8 times harder, timed and - impossible at your level.

To take out the guards, sneak around and bum rush the archer first. Dump everything on him fast because he's the CC guy. next, drop the mage who goes down super fast and you only have two left.

climb up to the platform and abuse the heck out of repelling blast and invoke duplicity.

I beat it at level 2 💀 did have a character die though and everyone else was at 1 hp the guard fight took me like 10 tries but got hag second try

[Vaarkhan]

Originally posted by sajmon:

idk, i didnt have much problems with those guys (tactician difficulty), so cant help
but clouds: you can jump over them, place object on vents if you can spot them and exploding traps - you can shoot them to explode

Yeah I figured out the petals can be shot at - only if previous discovered by your characters, however. I also spotted a single vent but it's down below, so I can't really block it.

This entire section seems really annoying to me. It would've been fine if you just needed to explode the gas but having the solution to pass be RNG-dependant (Perception) is just really cheap and forces you to take immense damage if you get unlucky.

[Nox]

Originally posted by Dr.Liam:

Originally posted by Nox:

If you are struggling with the hag's guards turn around and come back when you are level 5. I am not kidding the hag fight after is easily 8 times harder, timed and - impossible at your level.

To take out the guards, sneak around and bum rush the archer first. Dump everything on him fast because he's the CC guy. next, drop the mage who goes down super fast and you only have two left.

climb up to the platform and abuse the heck out of repelling blast and invoke duplicity.

I beat it at level 2 💀 did have a character die though and everyone else was at 1 hp

You're saying you beat the hag in the basement in time to save the girl with level 2 characters? With newbie itemizations and skills? The hag has > 100 hp, and she summons 4 copies of herself that cast hold person 4 times a round and who cast acid blast for half of a level 2 character's hp as a bonus action. I'm thinking that sounds pretty unlikely.

Care to share how?

[sajmon]

Originally posted by Nox:

Originally posted by Dr.Liam:

I beat it at level 2 💀 did have a character die though and everyone else was at 1 hp

You're saying you beat the hag in the basement in time to save the girl with level 2 characters? With newbie itemizations and skills? The hag has > 100 hp, and she summons 4 copies of herself that cast hold person 4 times a round and who cast acid blast for half of a level 2 character's hp as a bonus action. I'm thinking that sounds pretty unlikely.

Care to share how?

maybe explorer difficulty ;p

[HozzMidnight]

This area is by far the most annoying in all of EA.

[Dr.Liam]

Originally posted by Nox:

Originally posted by Dr.Liam:

I beat it at level 2 💀 did have a character die though and everyone else was at 1 hp

You're saying you beat the hag in the basement in time to save the girl with level 2 characters? With newbie itemizations and skills? The hag has > 100 hp, and she summons 4 copies of herself that cast hold person 4 times a round and who cast acid blast for half of a level 2 character's hp as a bonus action. I'm thinking that sounds pretty unlikely.

Care to share how?

Tbh is was lucky af I was running moon druid do bear used up all my spell slots to heal tanking her and forcing her to attack me while my other characters spat out dmg. I used create water on the cage to put out the fire on my second try. The people I had with me were shadow heart the wizard and the warlock. My character ended up dying when hag had about 40 hp left and the warlock was eating attacks I was using shadowheart to heal him and by the end everyone was down but my wizard finished her off and I just revived my character

[Twiz Amber]

Poison resist potions + feather fall from the top and just jump all the way down. Easy way to avoid those poison traps.

[sajmon]

Originally posted by Vaarkhan:

Originally posted by sajmon:

idk, i didnt have much problems with those guys (tactician difficulty), so cant help
but clouds: you can jump over them, place object on vents if you can spot them and exploding traps - you can shoot them to explode

Yeah I figured out the petals can be shot at - only if previous discovered by your characters, however. I also spotted a single vent but it's down below, so I can't really block it.

This entire section seems really annoying to me. It would've been fine if you just needed to explode the gas but having the solution to pass be RNG-dependant (Perception) is just really cheap and forces you to take immense damage if you get unlucky.

well you can just jump around them - i think its possible to do it without taking any dmg if you find the right spots (do it with party members un-grouped too)

[Dr.Liam]

Originally posted by sajmon:

Originally posted by Nox:

You're saying you beat the hag in the basement in time to save the girl with level 2 characters? With newbie itemizations and skills? The hag has > 100 hp, and she summons 4 copies of herself that cast hold person 4 times a round and who cast acid blast for half of a level 2 character's hp as a bonus action. I'm thinking that sounds pretty unlikely.

Care to share how?

maybe explorer difficulty ;p

Balanced

[Dr.Liam]

Originally posted by Dr.Liam:

Originally posted by Nox:

You're saying you beat the hag in the basement in time to save the girl with level 2 characters? With newbie itemizations and skills? The hag has > 100 hp, and she summons 4 copies of herself that cast hold person 4 times a round and who cast acid blast for half of a level 2 character's hp as a bonus action. I'm thinking that sounds pretty unlikely.

Care to share how?

Tbh is was lucky af I was running moon druid do bear used up all my spell slots to heal tanking her and forcing her to attack me while my other characters spat out dmg. I used create water on the cage to put out the fire on my second try. The people I had with me were shadow heart the wizard and the warlock. My character ended up dying when hag had about 40 hp left and the warlock was eating attacks I was using shadowheart to heal him and by the end everyone was down but my wizard finished her off and I just revived my character

I aimed at her clones since they go away with one hit and she only used hold person on me maybe 4 times the entire fight

[Mad Max]

Sneak around the guards in turn-based mode.

Poison clouds try blowing them up with fire in turn-based mode, throw some water down, and then quickly disarm the trap. (or flower..it works whatever).

For the Hag fight, Use Gale's Magic Missiles to target all the copies to easily find the right one and then have the lovely Karlach kick her ♥♥♥♥ in.

EDIT: Also, when the hag sets the cage on fire put it out with water.

[HozzMidnight]

lol the gas traps are DC30 on balanced now? WTF They were 10/15 in EA.

[Vaarkhan]

I think I am done with the game for now. I'm extremely frustrated with it.
First I waste way over an hour trying to defeat an insanely difficult encounter at my level (which would be OK on its own, I managed to beat it eventually), then I run into obstacles I can't remove no matter what I try (apparently failed perception checks screw me over?) and then when I finally have enough I venture out of the hag's den to explore elsewhere and a random level 3 "addled frog" attacks me and deals 21 damage to two of my characters with one spit attack, downing both of them (they had some damage from trying to clear hag traps).
This game is... I'm speechless. It has such a solid foundation, great atmosphere, good story... and then it's absolutely out to frustrate you with the cheapest crap you would NEVER encounter in a game of D&D. If I attacked my players with a single frog that could potentially oneshot them they would ask me if I have brain damage.