how to defeat viconia if you don't betray Shadowheart?

[Sky Striker Ace - Kagari]

Hello. How can you defeat Viconia with all her army around? 4 vs 20 people (or so) seems very unfair to me. Another problem is that they start first and strike first. I'm lvl 9. Help please.

[靐]

Had 4 sorceries with alert. Simply mist step back to the entrance, run away as far I can and place cloud of daggers in their pathway. Nearly all of em died from that stuff and others got simply spell nuked. gg ez.

[Sky Striker Ace - Kagari]

Originally posted by WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW:

Had 4 sorceries with alert. Simply mist step back to the entrance, run away as far I can and place cloud of daggers in their pathway. Nearly all of em died from that stuff and others got simply spell nuked. gg ez.

they are faster than me and they kill my whole party...

[butbka]

It's hard to help not knowing your party composition.
General advice:
1. If Shadow is Shar-sided you can convince most of sharists to join you.
2. You can wait for level 12.
3. You can lower difficulty level to normal.
4. Don't take paladins and guys who do radiant damage.

[Mander]

Crowd control, pets and prioritizing targets.
Viconia turns into a wolf immediately and strangely enough, is the least dangerous enemy you’ll face until she stays in wolf form (the opposite is true when she reverts).
Pets offer more targets and should be used as a meat wall until you’ve reduced the number of enemies. Prioritize targets that cast darkness (they are not really a hassle, but they can force you to lose a turn navigating the terrain, which is a problem)
But the most important thing to bring to that fight imo, is crowd control: hypnotize and confusion spells, anything that turn a terrain in a hazard (wall of fire, insect plague). Create chokepoints or retreat leaving behind a horrible mess of terrain to navigate and pull them through.
Also, do NOT use radiant damage: they have radiant retort. Other than that, potion of speed to allow 2 attacks per turn from your team is another “nice to have”.
Viconia’s fight remains one of the most challenging fights in BG3, but it’s not hard per se: it’s the sheer number of enemies you face the problem. Therefore, turn the table on them as much as possible. Do as the Spartans did.
Let them discover that they may have you surrounded, the poor bastards, but the only thing you’re surrounded by, is fear and corpses.

[靐]

Also lvl 9 seems really underleveled at that point.

[靐]

Originally posted by Negan:

Originally posted by WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW:

Had 4 sorceries with alert. Simply mist step back to the entrance, run away as far I can and place cloud of daggers in their pathway. Nearly all of em died from that stuff and others got simply spell nuked. gg ez.

they are faster than me and they kill my whole party...

Yeah that's why I had alert (and 16 dex). Got tired of stuff nuking me before I nuke em.

[ᛈᚢᛒᚲᚱᚨᛚᚱ13]

Immediately pull your entire party all the way back to the very top of the stairs you came in on. This creates an ideal chokepoint, and if you cast Wall of Fire across the foot of the steps, you can just pick them off en masse. This was a ridiculously hard fight until I tried that, but after I did, I was shocked at how easy it was.

[Mander]

Originally posted by pubcrawler13:

Immediately pull your entire party all the way back to the very top of the stairs you came in on. This creates an ideal chokepoint, and if you cast Wall of Fire across the foot of the steps, you can just pick them off en masse. This was a ridiculously hard fight until I tried that, but after I did, I was shocked at how easy it was.

Confusion, command and Hypnotize (or Hold Person) are also quite viable XD.
Nothing like cycling crowd control while Lae’Zel or Karlach massacre the whole lot.

[ᛈᚢᛒᚲᚱᚨᛚᚱ13]

Originally posted by Mander:

Originally posted by pubcrawler13:

Immediately pull your entire party all the way back to the very top of the stairs you came in on. This creates an ideal chokepoint, and if you cast Wall of Fire across the foot of the steps, you can just pick them off en masse. This was a ridiculously hard fight until I tried that, but after I did, I was shocked at how easy it was.

Confusion, command and Hypnotize (or Hold Person) are also quite viable XD.
Nothing like cycling crowd control while Lae’Zel or Karlach massacre the whole lot.

Very true!

[Moonbane]

Definitely going there way too early. Im usually lvl 10 by the point i enter act3.

[Supply Slut]

1. This is why the alert feat is so good. Going first is the most important single thing you can do to turn a lopsided situation into an easy win.

2. Without knowing your party comp it’s hard to give you specific advice. I would recommend mass CC spells, like hypnotic pattern, slow, or something similar. You want to tie up as many enemies as possible for a couple of turns. Slow doesn’t outright stop them, but it lasts long, can usually effect more people, and doesn’t go away when you attack them.

Edit: confusion is another CC spell that would probably work well here. For 3 turns they will waste actions and attack anyone near them, including other enemies (their own allies). Trick with this one is to land it just behind their front line, so you’re not the closest target to any effected by it. You can also upcast this to increase the radius.

3. You should probably load a prior save, do other stuff so you can level before returning to this fight.

[Soji]

my game acted weird on the one time I tried it. I was having a really hard time with just the funnel you're forced into and all the pieces on the board in general when combat would start after I exited dialogue so I just ended up trying to initiate combat immediately instead and i was able to scorching ray Viconia like 3 or 4 times without initiative ever rolling. She ends up dying, everyone in the room just lets me walk right past them after murdering their leader right in front of them. They even let me talk to them and they'd say how they dont know what they're going to do without her around now.
Larian clearly accounted for this happening but the weird part is after i went to the room in the back to complete shadowhearts questline and i started walking out, the entire place then decided to attack me. Why then but not as im chatting with each of them 5 minutes before hand but whatever. That made it a lot easier at least without her being annoying with Sanctuary in the equation.

[Sistalis]

If you have Lv5 spells with you Cleric Blade barrier is your your friend. So many ennemies just crashed in the barrier trying to reach my group. They love casing darkness so try jumping out of the darkness clouds. Avoid grouping to much cause a few clerics have AOE spells don't give them the satisfaction of hitting everyone at once.

Summon, monsters to help. They will either cause distractions or can back attack. Also focus on the hard targets, some of the novice clerics are nothing and will die from a blade barrier. Search for the Justicars they are the battle harden ones that will attack you spellcasters...

You are level 9? look at your scrolls you might have powerfull magic at your fingertips for gale to cast even if you are not at the proper level.

[miofio]

More evidence BG3 combat sucks

[General Malaise]

You can wait until you're a higher level. You can also use equipment or Feats to get your turn sooner. There is a bow that gives +3 initiative, another that gives +1, and several other items that improve initiative.

It is a hard battle, no doubt about it. I was Level 10 before I fought Thorm, so you've probably missed stuff. I didn't do this one until I was Lvl 12.