How do people manage the combat in act 1?

[sick duck]

I often had problems in the low levels, half the fights from 1-4 were just quite hard for me. My strategy was to try every fight at least once, and if I couldn't get close to winning I would go somewhere else and come back for an easy fight after gaining a level and better equipment. I resurrected a lot of people, like I spent thousands of gold across the campaign on bringing people to life.

[Balekai]

As a blaster Warlock, the way I handle some of the most difficult act 1 fights on tactical was:
When the enemies start neutral, lure one with minor illusion to somewhere high. Then blast them off for fall damage kill. For example the false Paladin after Karlach. not one of them landed a blow when I started the actually fight through dialogue. Why? Because after stealing everything form the female Paladin, I lured them one by one to the rooftop with minor illusion. The two lackeys I blasted off the rooftop with my Warlock one by one. If they survived the fall I had the rest of the party sneaking to finish them off in one blow.

Then the main Paladin I would start the cutscene from the rooftop, softened him up with party then blasted him off the rooftop too.

I similar strategy was used on the Owlbear. I snuck up to the higher part of the cave and srted the fight there. The Owlbear would spund most of it's actions trying to jump up to the party to no avail (or just dashing). When it did make it up I would just blast it back down for more fall damage after some good melee hits from party.

Findal same thing. Although ane asy fight I minor illusioned and blasted them off one by one.

When exploiting heights isn't a thing I try to lure enemies through corridors or bottlenecks. Usually starting a fight via sneaks so I get an extra turn from surprise.

For hard bosses I try to lock them down with things like Hold person or Tashas. I was able to kill all the tutorial enemies before time was up by savescumming for best rolls, looting the extra mindflayer explosive thing near Shadowheart and bringing it to the fight, using all of the explody things to blow up the entrance once the Cambions came through, then locking down one cambion with Tasha's while I killed the other and savescum to not break Tashas with attacks to kill the last one.

Basically the less you get hit the better and the less enemies taking their turns the better. So start eliminating enemies before even starting a fight through cheese/stealth and find ways to either lockdown, debuff or slow down enemy attacks/approach. Which usually includes barrel usage and using the environment to your advantage.

[BeautifulFlowerField]

İlk olarak sick duck tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak BeautifulFlowerField tarafından gönderildi:

If you sell loot and know what items to buy none of the fights are hard - I think people who are struggling with early game are lacking in gold and maybe buying lesser items, or not prioritizing the right things. Like holding onto the everburn blade is a mistake - I found the gnolls hard enough to pay attention to and saved the harpies for level 3, but there was no challenge in act 1 besides that. The fight with the reanimated dudes in the church maybe could be tricky because they cast silence. Basic straightforward strategy will suffice for every encounter (phase matriarch is probably worth setting up for), if you buy good items. Just get +1 weapons and +1 armor asap across the board. Don't pick a horrible subclass like eldritch knight or arcane trickster. Don't pick horrible battlemaster maneuvers (most of them).

I didn't buy stuff in act 1. I barely used any of the things I picked up, so it felt pointless to go shopping.

no wonder - itemization is incredibly important, you're supposed to have +1 everything by the time you hit level 3. The difference between a normal weapon/armor, +1, and +2 is HUGE. Not having adequate equipment is a massive handicap, it's like the most important part of the progression by far. Even everburn blade is too weak for what you should have now. if you're level 4 you should have pretty much +2 on most weapons and armor, full rings and amulets for everyone etc.

[nullpo]

Respec shadowheart into literally any cleric beside trickster. I choose light for defensive bonus and really powerful for act 2.

Then always carry shadowheart and astarion. Shadowheart guiding bolt and the necrotic spell she got first is incredibly powerful. She can also help teammate without using action via healing words.

Astarion starts as rogue, which means if push comes to shove and your party is dead, as long as he's hidden you can always sneak attack, hide, repeat. Saved me from total wipe 5 times throughout the game.

[⇧⇨⇩⇩⇩]

İlk olarak nullpo tarafından gönderildi:

Respec shadowheart into literally any cleric beside trickster. I choose light for defensive bonus and really powerful for act 2.

Then always carry shadowheart and astarion. Shadowheart guiding bolt and the necrotic spell she got first is incredibly powerful. She can also help teammate without using action via healing words.

Astarion starts as rogue, which means if push comes to shove and your party is dead, as long as he's hidden you can always sneak attack, hide, repeat. Saved me from total wipe 5 times throughout the game.

No, instead take Gale in character creation, instantly respec him to bard and then solo the game with only Gale.

[rservello]

İlk olarak sick duck tarafından gönderildi:

I often had problems in the low levels, half the fights from 1-4 were just quite hard for me. My strategy was to try every fight at least once, and if I couldn't get close to winning I would go somewhere else and come back for an easy fight after gaining a level and better equipment. I resurrected a lot of people, like I spent thousands of gold across the campaign on bringing people to life.

It's harder the first time you play. My second campaign has been a bit of a cake walk...and I'm playing Tactician. I remember the captain in the Creche leading to the inquisitor was a NIGHTMARE the first time. We just destroyed her before she even got a hit in. I think after you finish the game you are more in the mindset of what works and what doesn't.

My first playthrough the Grym Automaton was a BEAST!!! Second playthrough I decided, since I knew what to expect I would try something different! So I put the mythal in. Put the mold in. Left Shadowheart down there with Sanctuary. Shot the switch with an arrow to lower the platform. Shot the wheel with an arrow. Then I used Shadowheart to draw him over to the hammer....since he couldn't hit her and she was the only one down there I was able to use my other party members still above to shoot the levers to crush him. I had to throw potions at shadowheart to get her back up because in order to crush him she had to be in range to also get crushed...but she only needed to stand up and lead him through the lava. Did that a few times and he was defeated without anyone really getting touched (an imp did a little damage to Lae'zel by heating her sword but that was it).

I've actually found the second run not only easier...but much more enjoyable. I've been able to come up with even more creative solutions.

[Blurp]

astarion sneak attacks can literally carry you through entirety of act1
also at the first oportunity you get do go and reroll companion stats to optimise them better, the default ability selection is a mess

[em_t_hed]

died alot and reloaded

before i figured out how to separate camera position from character position to allow me to read the map before entering battle to judge battle positions/stations...

before i figured out sneaking will allow you to see cones of vision or trigger points for the start of the engagement

i mean if you've played xcom.... you'd see the connection between battliefield layout, positioning, movement, etc... without being on tactician difficulty... group makeup... melee casters mix etc. ranged or cqc... granted cqc has no crowd control abilities unless you're something 'like' an eldritch knight with things like fog or darkness... so something like moonbeam and a doorway threshold against a mob of tiny rats... lets you decide to not enter and clear the room but to trigger the engagement and back out so the mob (many) can't spread and fan out and surround and funnel down to a choke point.

died alot and reloaded

[nuther]

Lae'zel slaps. That's how you beat Act 1.

If you main a Bard, she gets 3 short rests out in the field.

[sick duck]

İlk olarak Blurp tarafından gönderildi:

astarion sneak attacks can literally carry you through entirety of act1
also at the first oportunity you get do go and reroll companion stats to optimise them better, the default ability selection is a mess

Does Astorian have special advantages? People say a lot of good things about him. I know about the blood drinking at camp thing already, it is just moving some of my stats over to Astorian from what I can tell.

[❃ Galiäna Krüger ❃]

Gangbang.

[⇧⇨⇩⇩⇩]

İlk olarak sick duck tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Blurp tarafından gönderildi:

astarion sneak attacks can literally carry you through entirety of act1
also at the first oportunity you get do go and reroll companion stats to optimise them better, the default ability selection is a mess

Does Astorian have special advantages? People say a lot of good things about him. I know about the blood drinking at camp thing already, it is just moving some of my stats over to Astorian from what I can tell.

He has the best whisper voice making pickpocketing more enjoyable. :)

[Aelanar Brightfield]

İlk olarak sick duck tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Blurp tarafından gönderildi:

astarion sneak attacks can literally carry you through entirety of act1
also at the first oportunity you get do go and reroll companion stats to optimise them better, the default ability selection is a mess

Does Astorian have special advantages? People say a lot of good things about him. I know about the blood drinking at camp thing already, it is just moving some of my stats over to Astorian from what I can tell.

He gets a bite attack later on that lets him drain enemies to give him happy, not sure exactly how/when you get it though

[Bob]

gang up on one enemy , also know that healing is D and D is terrible no cleric can out heal the incoming damage so forus on damage and spells that stun , blind etc

[Strez]

İlk olarak darrenmalin tarafından gönderildi:

gang up on one enemy , also know that healing is D and D is terrible no cleric can out heal the incoming damage so forus on damage and spells that stun , blind etc

Life Clerics can heal a fair amount with their Channel DIvinity and their buff to all healing spells.

[dD]

First, you just might have a bad char build or something similar. Next is about the environment.

1. Use grease bottles
2. Use spells that modify the envrionment
3. Pick nice places to fight. Position your group and use a single char to lead enemies into an ambush.
4. Make enemies come to you.
5. Explore the map before the fight.

Then you need to make sure that you're bursting the key damage dealers. In some cases it's a mage, in some it's a ranger, but in other it might be that 1 fighter is simply 90 HP and everyone else is 15. Kill all the 15 hp units in 1 move & focus on the big problem.

Make sure to look into your inventory. Some of those grenades are awesome. Poison your weapons. Look for scrolls.

Basically, don't be rushing until you get a decent level and items.