Someone please tell me how you're supposed to save Isobel

[Quadsword]

Isobel has the stupidest AI of any friendly NPC I've seen. I cast sanctuary on her to prevent her from getting attacked. Literally the first thing she does on her turn is cast guiding bolt at point blank range, misses, thus losing her sanctuary status and then decides to eat 2 opportunity attacks for no reason. Then she gets surrounded and killed. Doesn't help when I somehow keep rolling critical misses even when I have advantage.

I don't know what I'm supposed to do here besides pray for good RNG. Isobel is so bad at keeping herself alive it's not funny. It's like she wants to get kidnapped by the cultists.

[Moonbane]

Banishment is the spell you are looking for.

[Humpenstilzchen]

Focus on marcus and blast him down first either by using haste on your fighter and/or barbarian or cast hold on him and then crit him to death.

The rest of the enemies are easy to deal with, just keep an eye on isobel and heal her up if needed. Sanctuary doesn´t really help as you have seen since she will keep attacking and thus break the spell.

[hornsounder97]

Chug an initiative pot right before the battle, cast sanctuary on her.

[Maxx_Crowley]

I had to seriously focus Marcus down, and have him make a mistake or two, while keeping A dedicated healer on Isobel. The fact that Marcus decided to eat 4 Karlach opportunity attacks really helped. Still took 2 tries.

[Moonbane]

Originally posted by hornsounder97:

Chug an initiative pot right before the battle, cast sanctuary on her.

Sanctuary doesnt work if she immediately breaks it by attacking.

[hornsounder97]

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Originally posted by hornsounder97:

Chug an initiative pot right before the battle, cast sanctuary on her.

Sanctuary doesnt work if she immediately breaks it by attacking.

Yup, it can be finicky, but if you get to go before her at least you can neutralize a big portion of the risk. And hopefully recast it on her before she gets taken down.

[Moonbane]

Dont forget that sanctuary have a debuff that needs to expire before it can be reapplied.

[Quadsword]

Finally did it. Isobel had 4 HP left by the end of the fight. That was the most irritating fight I've done in my tactician playthrough so far.

Larian, can you please educate Isobel on the rules of DnD and why it's a bad idea to keep darting in and out of enemy threat zones? Or tell her how sanctuary works so I don't create another forehead shaped imprint on my desk? That'd be great.

[Moonbane]

Dont forget you can heal her.

[Vertigo]

Originally posted by Quadsword:

Isobel has the stupidest AI of any friendly NPC I've seen. I cast sanctuary on her to prevent her from getting attacked. Literally the first thing she does on her turn is cast guiding bolt at point blank range, misses, thus losing her sanctuary status and then decides to eat 2 opportunity attacks for no reason. Then she gets surrounded and killed. Doesn't help when I somehow keep rolling critical misses even when I have advantage.

I don't know what I'm supposed to do here besides pray for good RNG. Isobel is so bad at keeping herself alive it's not funny. It's like she wants to get kidnapped by the cultists.

I had a hireling paladin who could heal her, along with one of my regular healers. I boosted her A/C with a cleric divine shield and then controlled both doorways. I even moved a crate or a barrel mid-fight to block one of the 3 doors.

It's definitely a hard fight. This time I am playing a 'dark' character who legit tried to save her, but failed [marcus critted her like round 2] and it even changed the way I am developing the character. I had her as an elemental monk until that point, but after having to kill the shadow harpers and everything, I respecced her as a 'shadow monk' and then gave her next level as an oath of vengeance paladin. It's not worth it if you haven't already saved her in another playthrough though because I am going to miss out on a ton of content in act 3. But it is a darker world and the tragedy allows some different role playing choices. IMHO.

[Boss]

Requires a bit of luck on initiative. and the fail state is a bit too liberal (first time we lost on initiative, put Marcus to sleep, and when she got owned, Marcus is just magically awake. I mean I get it, some limitations in the engine, but still felt cheap), but it's more than possible.

Buff her with defensive spells, and keep her healed. Kill Marcus as fast as you can, and try to control other enemies so they can't get to her, blocking off paths. Preparation helps too. Get Shadowheart (or better yet, a hireling Cleric, because Shadowheart sucks without a complete rebuild) to cast Warding Bond on her, so even if she takes damage, it'll be minimal.

We nuked the hell out of Marcus with Astarion and I believe an Arrow of Abberation slaying, but we had plenty of wiggle room left even without that

Big Act II ending spoilers:
Finally, don't forget to kill her after everything is resolved and she's no longer needed to protect Dammon from the Shadow Curse. Because if she has such poor self-preservation instinct, she deserves to die

[Ironwu]

It is actually quite simple:

* Bless everyone in the party and Isobel. Should have high enough caster to post 5 Bless.
* Let Isobel tank Marcus. Heal Isobel as needed.
* Focus down the upstairs flying rats first.
* When upstairs flying rats are all dead, then focus down Marcus.
* Kill the downstairs flying rats.

Don't need anything special for this fight. With Isobel Blessed, she will hardly ever be hit.

If you want an even better advantage, I assume you have the mace from the monastery. Just go amble over to Marcus with it and keep him blinded.

[Quadsword]

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Dont forget you can heal her.

Doesn't make a difference when she decides to eat 3 opportunity attacks on the next turn for no reason. I seriously don't get why she doesn't just disengage when she gets surrounded.

[OzFalcon]

Are we talking "Last light Inn"?
If you retrieve the Nightsong BEFORE you speak to Isobel, The story plays out differently.

[LordOfTheBread]

Did not know you were supposed top save her.