Getting clapped constantly

[Jager]

A rare forum post not concerning the woke meter of the game:

I'm new to these types of games and by no surprise, I am terrible at it and am constantly getting demolished by enemies. Some fights are nice and all but when it involves multiple or god forbid a giant sponge with numerous allies it is nigh impossible for me to win. I get it that i can utilize short rests and what not to replenish spells in the such but that can't really help if I'm getting 1 tapped (or triple tapped in the same turn by the same enemy..nice meme) constantly. Is there some form of leveling system I'm not aware of? My dudes are level 3 and I stopped rocking mages since they get obliterated first every match. I tried utilizing the environment but the AI appears to be sentient and avoids my traps. Thanks.

[Dre G Writer]

This is a type of game where you have to learn the rules and mechnics of the game to do really well to succeed.

Waltzing into a fight fair and square and boping enemies in the head with big stick and shooting enemies from range with small pointy stick will only take you so far before the game starts slaughtering you, as im sure your already aware.

You need to use strategy and tactics to overcome these challenges but to form a strategy, you need to first learn the mechanics and game systems, which the game does NOT tell you about as the game is based around getting creative. Smooth brains not welcomed.

Take these tips and learn from them.

1. Have only one team mate start combat:: If party is close to each other when combat starts, everyone in combat. if ungrouped and far away from each other, only the one who started combat is fighting. The other three will not be in combat and this brings advantages. Have other three sneak up to enemies and get in sneak attacks before the fight even starts.

2. Get ranged characters to high ground: High ground attacks increases hit chance a lot, and enemies on the low ground decrease their hit chance a lot. This is why having starting battle with one character is important, the other three can get into positions like high ground while sneaking.

3. You can swap to other characters while in conversations: This freezes the two people talking, in time, allowing your other characters to set up traps for them(surround them with oil barrels to blow up with a single fire attack) if they are about to start combat or pickpocket them.

4. Use cover if not in melee range: But something between you and the enemies line of site. No seriously, after you attack, you should be trying to move your character behind something if they are not in melee range of an enemy. This forces the enemy to charge targets or force them to move to another location, often running pass your melee characters, and taking opportunity attacks to get back into line of sight.

5. DO NOT group your party up close together in combat: The enemy will take advantage of this and hit you will AOE effects or attacks. Spread your party out. range always in the back melee up front and spaced around 3m or more apart.

6. Use shove to knock enemies off ledges This can deal high damage or even kill them, and give you the high ground buff all at once.

7. Dont be a horder, use your items: You got bottles of grease, use them if the enemy hasnt gotten to you yet and create a area of denial for your enemies. Then have other team mates throw down more bottle of grease for a long line of grease. They will walk around if another path is open or walk right into it if they have no other means to get to you. hit the grease with fire and now you got a kill zone where the enemies have to go through to get to you. pop in and out of cover and hit them with spell/arrows/grenades and pop back into cover.

8. ALWAYS stealth if your not in enemies line of sight: this is especially true for rogues since they can stealth with bonus actions. If you can't take some type of attack on your enemy, and they arent seeing you (hit shift to see if your in their cone of vision) then you should stealth. enemies cant target stealthed targets. Use this to your advantage to not take more damage.

9. know what your stats: knowing what proficiency is what what stats effect which weapons is very important. If your rogue who is good at DEX is using a straight sword which is a STR weapon, then your not going to be making a lot of hits. Learn which stats your character has thats the highest and finding spells and weapons that uses these stats for better damage and hit chance. Some spells use WIS and not INT, and some spells use CHR. So you could be missing and not even know that your using a spell or weapon thats TERRIBLE for that character and thus missing a whole lot more.

10. ALWAYS examine your foes in combat: This is probably another reason your missing a lot. Your using weapons or spells that character is really strong against. You do not want to use WIS save roll spells against a foe who has high WIS like 16 or higher. It has a HIGH chance or failure, thus a lower percentage chance. Know if the target is weak or strong to certain damage types. Dont want to use a slashing weapon against an enemy who takes half damage from slashing attacks. Also very important to know what the enemies level is. If the enemy is a higher level than you, even a single level, be prepared to get slapped around and a tough battle.

11. If things are looking bad, flee from battle: If you move far enough away from the battle, theres a button next to the end turn button that will say FLEE or it. allowing you to run away, and come back later and revive killed team mates at camp.

I have more tips, but this is long enough thus far.

[Jager]

Awesome! Thanks man.

[Snobby Hobo]

Far more condensed and less elaborate pieces of advice: rightclick enemies and examine them. This will show their weaknesses and some of their abilities. It helps tremendously in understanding what you are up against.

Difficult terrain is your friend. The AI is quite dumb and will frequently try to traverse it against better judgement. Grease and Ice are the most powerful as they can cause the character to fall prone (slip and hit their noggin on the ground). This immediately ends their turn. It happens OFTEN too, which means it can generate insane value.

Think about your team composition. Have at least 1 mage, 1 cleric and 1 frontliner of some sort (Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, whatever you prefer) unless you want to play gimmicky with stealth or something.

Another tip: stealth is boring as ♥♥♥♥ and kind of trivializes the game. It did so in all Larian games. It makes the game feel sluggish and samey.

[BeelzeBob]

Originally posted by Dre G Writer:

This is a type of game where you have to learn the rules and mechnics of the game to do really well to succeed.

Waltzing into a fight fair and square and boping enemies in the head with big stick and shooting enemies from range with small pointy stick will only take you so far before the game starts slaughtering you, as im sure your already aware.

You need to use strategy and tactics to overcome these challenges but to form a strategy, you need to first learn the mechanics and game systems, which the game does NOT tell you about as the game is based around getting creative. Smooth brains not welcomed.

Take these tips and learn from them.

1. Have only one team mate start combat:: If party is close to each other when combat starts, everyone in combat. if ungrouped and far away from each other, only the one who started combat is fighting. The other three will not be in combat and this brings advantages. Have other three sneak up to enemies and get in sneak attacks before the fight even starts.

2. Get ranged characters to high ground: High ground attacks increases hit chance a lot, and enemies on the low ground decrease their hit chance a lot. This is why having starting battle with one character is important, the other three can get into positions like high ground while sneaking.

3. You can swap to other characters while in conversations: This freezes the two people talking, in time, allowing your other characters to set up traps for them(surround them with oil barrels to blow up with a single fire attack) if they are about to start combat or pickpocket them.

4. Use cover if not in melee range: But something between you and the enemies line of site. No seriously, after you attack, you should be trying to move your character behind something if they are not in melee range of an enemy. This forces the enemy to charge targets or force them to move to another location, often running pass your melee characters, and taking opportunity attacks to get back into line of sight.

5. DO NOT group your party up close together in combat: The enemy will take advantage of this and hit you will AOE effects or attacks. Spread your party out. range always in the back melee up front and spaced around 3m or more apart.

6. Use shove to knock enemies off ledges This can deal high damage or even kill them, and give you the high ground buff all at once.

7. Dont be a horder, use your items: You got bottles of grease, use them if the enemy hasnt gotten to you yet and create a area of denial for your enemies. Then have other team mates throw down more bottle of grease for a long line of grease. They will walk around if another path is open or walk right into it if they have no other means to get to you. hit the grease with fire and now you got a kill zone where the enemies have to go through to get to you. pop in and out of cover and hit them with spell/arrows/grenades and pop back into cover.

8. ALWAYS stealth if your not in enemies line of sight: this is especially true for rogues since they can stealth with bonus actions. If you can't take some type of attack on your enemy, and they arent seeing you (hit shift to see if your in their cone of vision) then you should stealth. enemies cant target stealthed targets. Use this to your advantage to not take more damage.

9. know what your stats: knowing what proficiency is what what stats effect which weapons is very important. If your rogue who is good at DEX is using a straight sword which is a STR weapon, then your not going to be making a lot of hits. Learn which stats your character has thats the highest and finding spells and weapons that uses these stats for better damage and hit chance. Some spells use WIS and not INT, and some spells use CHR. So you could be missing and not even know that your using a spell or weapon thats TERRIBLE for that character and thus missing a whole lot more.

10. ALWAYS examine your foes in combat: This is probably another reason your missing a lot. Your using weapons or spells that character is really strong against. You do not want to use WIS save roll spells against a foe who has high WIS like 16 or higher. It has a HIGH chance or failure, thus a lower percentage chance. Know if the target is weak or strong to certain damage types. Dont want to use a slashing weapon against an enemy who takes half damage from slashing attacks. Also very important to know what the enemies level is. If the enemy is a higher level than you, even a single level, be prepared to get slapped around and a tough battle.

11. If things are looking bad, flee from battle: If you move far enough away from the battle, theres a button next to the end turn button that will say FLEE or it. allowing you to run away, and come back later and revive killed team mates at camp.

I have more tips, but this is long enough thus far.

This is a great breakdown of how Larian wants people to play, and also a great breakdown of why I installed the fast xp mod because this is NOTHING like how combat works in the tabletop game. I get a lot of people love Larian's approach to combat, but to me this is all very tiresome and runs completely counter to the power fantasy of D&D.

[Thaddeus]

you could also enable Karmic Dice and lower the difficulty

[ShadowBastard69]

lol just wait till you get act 2 and you have to kill a banger of a boss not once, not twice, but three ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ times.

[BeelzeBob]

Originally posted by Thaddeus:

you could also enable Karmic Dice and lower the difficulty

Karmic dice actually make the game a bit harder. They're also active by default, so I'm guessing they're already on in the OP's game.

[Neeko]

Also be sure to have a balanced Party. Have two frontliners with at least AC 20, two Backliners with high offensive stats, and ideally some kind of summon or animal companion.
If you struggle with 4 People, turn someone into a Ranger Beast Tamer to get an Animal Companion as a minor 5th Party member. Cast Barkskin on the Animal Companion to get their AC to 16.

[BeelzeBob]

Originally posted by Neeko:

Also be sure to have a balanced Party. Have two frontliners with at least AC 20, two Backliners with high offensive stats, and ideally some kind of summon or animal companion.
If you struggle with 4 People, turn someone into a Ranger Beast Tamer to get an Animal Companion as a minor 5th Party member. Cast Barkskin on the Animal Companion to get their AC to 16.

Given that the game is pretty stingy with better armor early on, how exactly are you getting two frontliners with "at least 20 AC"?

[Power]

Originally posted by Jager:

A rare forum post not concerning the woke meter of the game:

I'm new to these types of games and by no surprise, I am terrible at it and am constantly getting demolished by enemies. Some fights are nice and all but when it involves multiple or god forbid a giant sponge with numerous allies it is nigh impossible for me to win. I get it that i can utilize short rests and what not to replenish spells in the such but that can't really help if I'm getting 1 tapped (or triple tapped in the same turn by the same enemy..nice meme) constantly. Is there some form of leveling system I'm not aware of? My dudes are level 3 and I stopped rocking mages since they get obliterated first every match. I tried utilizing the environment but the AI appears to be sentient and avoids my traps. Thanks.

Mages are powerful. Wizards have some of the highest damage output not to mention they can buff and debuff.
Flight spell or long jump means you can get to high places that your enemies can't reach.
Fog to blind them.
Create water to spread electricity. grease for fire. Etc. You may be an area you're just not the right level for. May wanna do a different side quest etc.
You can turn the difficulty down if you're not tactically minded til you get the hang of it.
Push enemies off ledges so they die to fall damage. Use summoning spells to have more allies for damage or distraction. Use healing potions to keep the health up.
Keep your casters away from enemies obviously. High ground means you can reach hella far. If there's distance already keep your melee back too and use their range attacks to wittle away.
Charm and sleep etc to keep control.

Etc etc. You have a lot of tools. Gotta think about the moves.

[Jager]

All the info is highly appreciated guys. If anyone is down, I'm cool with adding some of yall to play to watch me suffer in the first person. Either way, thanks again for the info!

[Stumpy]

If you’re getting the clap constantly, I know sex is rife in the game but make sure you use some protection

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

You're getting clapped no caps fam? That's based.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Originally posted by Stumpy:

If you’re getting the clap constantly, I know sex is rife in the game but make sure you use some protection

Mage Armor has more than one use...

[ratty165]

Originally posted by BeelzeBob:

Originally posted by Dre G Writer:

This is a type of game where you have to learn the rules and mechnics of the game to do really well to succeed.

Waltzing into a fight fair and square and boping enemies in the head with big stick and shooting enemies from range with small pointy stick will only take you so far before the game starts slaughtering you, as im sure your already aware.

You need to use strategy and tactics to overcome these challenges but to form a strategy, you need to first learn the mechanics and game systems, which the game does NOT tell you about as the game is based around getting creative. Smooth brains not welcomed.

Take these tips and learn from them.

1. Have only one team mate start combat:: If party is close to each other when combat starts, everyone in combat. if ungrouped and far away from each other, only the one who started combat is fighting. The other three will not be in combat and this brings advantages. Have other three sneak up to enemies and get in sneak attacks before the fight even starts.

2. Get ranged characters to high ground: High ground attacks increases hit chance a lot, and enemies on the low ground decrease their hit chance a lot. This is why having starting battle with one character is important, the other three can get into positions like high ground while sneaking.

3. You can swap to other characters while in conversations: This freezes the two people talking, in time, allowing your other characters to set up traps for them(surround them with oil barrels to blow up with a single fire attack) if they are about to start combat or pickpocket them.

4. Use cover if not in melee range: But something between you and the enemies line of site. No seriously, after you attack, you should be trying to move your character behind something if they are not in melee range of an enemy. This forces the enemy to charge targets or force them to move to another location, often running pass your melee characters, and taking opportunity attacks to get back into line of sight.

5. DO NOT group your party up close together in combat: The enemy will take advantage of this and hit you will AOE effects or attacks. Spread your party out. range always in the back melee up front and spaced around 3m or more apart.

6. Use shove to knock enemies off ledges This can deal high damage or even kill them, and give you the high ground buff all at once.

7. Dont be a horder, use your items: You got bottles of grease, use them if the enemy hasnt gotten to you yet and create a area of denial for your enemies. Then have other team mates throw down more bottle of grease for a long line of grease. They will walk around if another path is open or walk right into it if they have no other means to get to you. hit the grease with fire and now you got a kill zone where the enemies have to go through to get to you. pop in and out of cover and hit them with spell/arrows/grenades and pop back into cover.

8. ALWAYS stealth if your not in enemies line of sight: this is especially true for rogues since they can stealth with bonus actions. If you can't take some type of attack on your enemy, and they arent seeing you (hit shift to see if your in their cone of vision) then you should stealth. enemies cant target stealthed targets. Use this to your advantage to not take more damage.

9. know what your stats: knowing what proficiency is what what stats effect which weapons is very important. If your rogue who is good at DEX is using a straight sword which is a STR weapon, then your not going to be making a lot of hits. Learn which stats your character has thats the highest and finding spells and weapons that uses these stats for better damage and hit chance. Some spells use WIS and not INT, and some spells use CHR. So you could be missing and not even know that your using a spell or weapon thats TERRIBLE for that character and thus missing a whole lot more.

10. ALWAYS examine your foes in combat: This is probably another reason your missing a lot. Your using weapons or spells that character is really strong against. You do not want to use WIS save roll spells against a foe who has high WIS like 16 or higher. It has a HIGH chance or failure, thus a lower percentage chance. Know if the target is weak or strong to certain damage types. Dont want to use a slashing weapon against an enemy who takes half damage from slashing attacks. Also very important to know what the enemies level is. If the enemy is a higher level than you, even a single level, be prepared to get slapped around and a tough battle.

11. If things are looking bad, flee from battle: If you move far enough away from the battle, theres a button next to the end turn button that will say FLEE or it. allowing you to run away, and come back later and revive killed team mates at camp.

I have more tips, but this is long enough thus far.

This is a great breakdown of how Larian wants people to play, and also a great breakdown of why I installed the fast xp mod because this is NOTHING like how combat works in the tabletop game. I get a lot of people love Larian's approach to combat, but to me this is all very tiresome and runs completely counter to the power fantasy of D&D.

I don't mind this. It encourages using everything you have available to you to get an edge over the enemy. Your enemies are not stupid and you shouldn't be, either, and with just how many things you can do in this game (ie pushing people off ledges and such) it really allows for every combat situation to feel like a unique experience. I do kind of wish leveling up was a bit faster, but overall, even in spite of the frustations, I enjoy the combat overall.