I'm having trouble with combat on BG3. Any tips for a beginner?

[Avulazi]

Read all the guides, and feel like I have the hang of combat. Suddenly whenever I enter combat and there is more than 5 enemies, I get absolutely decimated. Really discouraging to play and constantly have to flee fights (which is very hard to do), and I don't know if it's just a huge skill issue or what. For context, I've played and beaten several combat-based games before.

Is there a way to make combat easier than the easiest difficulty LOL

EDIT: My party screenshots are up on my profile and set to public. My current progress is I just finished saving the emerald grove quest, and wanted to go to the mountain pass but it says it would be too difficult at my level. Went south to the swamp area, got swarmed by flying mud things, and had to flee because I was not prepared to deal with like 15 of them at once D:

[Bloom]

I am struggling and I REALLY wish this game had a damn demo because after 2 hours you're unable to refund and I know damn well that's not enough time to test a game out.

*sigh* Astarion is hot, but my skill in this game is NOT.

[Chaosolous]

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bg3+combat+tips+for+beginners

[Trachinus Draco]

Use chests to block a doorway or a choke point so enemies can't reach you and then snipe them with a bow.
You can even beat the tutorial boss on highest difficulty (honour) by obstructing the 2 demons reaching the helm room.
You can easily access chests by storing them in camp and fetching them when needed (You can go to camp anytime without ending the day).

You should also store all explosive barrels in camp incase there's a tough fight.
If the barrel is "too heavy to carry" then use a potion that increases streght.

You don't need to kill all enemies in one fightt.
You can kill one or two then flee from fight (invisibility or jump and dash far away to flee fight) and then come back finisht the rest (abuse the suprise mechanic).
Have some items that increase your movement or use a potion.
Also you don't necessarily need to finish enemies yourself. They follow you if you run so run to allies (like tieflings in ch1) or a place where you can get to high ground and they can't (for example use ladder and destroy it so they can't come up)
(or stack boxes before hand and get to high ground and destroy them)
Easy way to kill the Hags underlings for example is to run to tiefling camp and use fly potion to get to top of the gate where you just snipe them.

Also the best tip in the game. Leave Gale in the portal thing.

[jack_of_tears]

Don't forget to use your "Short Rests", people forget they have those and they're incredibly valuable between fights. Otherwise, be sure to use your potions and scrolls - check the duration, some last "until long rest", which basically means all day, so apply those when you leave camp after a rest. (some only allow 1 affect at a time; while others are "concentration" meaning it will drop if you take some other actions - read the description in the game)

[jack_of_tears]

Originally posted by Bloom:

I am struggling and I REALLY wish this game had a damn demo because after 2 hours you're unable to refund and I know damn well that's not enough time to test a game out.

*sigh* Astarion is hot, but my skill in this game is NOT.

Take it slow and follow the advice people are giving. This is not an action game, so be sure to take your time and check for loot, be aware of your surroundings and use it to your advantage. Also, you can quicksave almost anytime you want, so be sure to save before each fight and even in the middle of a fight if you're doing really well.

Make sure everyone has armor of a type they can wear, and be sure to have the magic users (Gale and Wyll) cast magical armor spells on themselves so they have protection. Remember to do that for yourself if you're a magic user.

Read up on how to change the spells in your spellbook and how to know when you're running low on memorized spells. Don't forget you have 2 Short Rests you can use between each Long Rest - don't be afraid to camp if you used up your spells.

The game is good, and not particularly hard for the genre, but if you're new to it you have to kind to yourself and not get frustrated while you learn. Every person who plays this game with ease once went through a painful learning period in the genre - do not lose heart.

Astarion only gets better as the game progresses - everyone does - so you don't want to quit yet.

[Recjawjind]

Originally posted by Bloom:

I am struggling and I REALLY wish this game had a damn demo because after 2 hours you're unable to refund and I know damn well that's not enough time to test a game out.

*sigh* Astarion is hot, but my skill in this game is NOT.

You'll get there :>
Learning to put together cohesive builds is the most important part, once you got that down, honour mode will be an absolute breeze.

[BOT Larry]

so i am like you a newb, bought the game on thursday.
First 12 hours I struggled and fked around, head butted all the way untill I had enough with the game. After that made new toon cuz characters felt dog sht using random stuffs I upgraded them with lol. Right now I am lvl 6 at act 1 and Im at specific area right around before act 2. What I do is I save often(like I save as soon as I see enemies. By the way press
( ` ) this key right of your number 1 key and toggle highlights so you can visualize where enemies are at. I get decimated like you. and then load. Go back to the area where the fight is. Position my party where we can have some what of an advantage. Example, the swamp area where you are at with mud things. There is a little island area before that big island where they are spawning. I had my fight there. Flying creatures do fly there but them tree giants cant come at you.
I fought the flying ones as they come, while constantly buffing and healing as I went.
Same thing with all fights. I fight first, see how it is and figure out enemy positions.
sometimes, I detach all members, hide them or position them at tight place, have one member run at the enemy and trigger fight, run or teleport back to party, buff and wait lol.
Sounds tedious but I had success there(playing on normal mode). Even though i am playing on normal, I am over leveled I think cuz now it feels like easy mode since I am lvl 6 at act 1.
I heard many finish act 1 at level 5. I am no multiclass and dont even know wtf that is yet. The only guides I saw was class tiers as usual lol. Take time bro. It is really fun game and Im really liking it. dog sht mechanic where I miss alot for sure(felt like diablo2) but other than that, fights are actually thought provoking. Hope you can find your way of getting around the game and happy Xmas.

[RoughGalaxy]

See I'm an experienced D&D player (4e and 5e) and I'm playing on balanced and I'm just getting handled by combats heading toward what I presume is the end of act 1. One route is just death and the other is still putting me up against and entire group of enemies a full level higher than me. I feel like Larian doesn't understand difficulty settings. Explorer should be easy, plain up, lots of potions, can smash through with melee and no tactics. Balanced should be a reasonable challenge but should be doable by non-tactical game players. I should be able to brute force it if I have too. Only above balanced should you HAVE to use tactics and carefully plan each chess move. On balanced I feel like I need to min-max everything and grind for every xp point to survive. In my opinion, the difficulty curve is a little over tuned toward being hard (and the abundance of threads both here and elsewhere on the internet would suggest this is true). I want to be very clear too all you "skill issue" types. "Normal" shouldn't be hard. "Hard" should be hard. That's why higher difficulties exist. As a fairly average skilled player (previous larian games, xcom games, etc under my belt) I shouldn't feel like I'm struggling on normal difficulty.

[maestro]

I've found that keeping your team grouped together, or at least in defensible positions, helps a lot.

Sending your MC out on a full 9m walk on the first turn of combat is only going to get them ganged up on by the entire enemy party.

I like to keep my melee grouped up, that way if I see someone targeting someone else who is wounded, there's backup there to get attention away, or help take down someone before they get their next turn.

If you have all of your characters split up, then there's nobody who can assist each other.

If you have ranged characters, move them to places where enemies must move around your melees or around obstacles to get to them to initiate melee combat.

EDIT: I also like to identify the worst threats and focus-fire. If you have 5 enemies at once, identify which one of them is the most dangerous and get rid of that one fast, depending on its strength.

If it's just too hardy to take down in a round or two, focus-fire his smallfry first. Don't set each one of your characters on their own foe, have them gang up on one, be it the main threat, or small fry.

Your first priority depending on situation should be to either reduce the # of foes as fast as possible, or take out the strongest one first. Depends on situation, but you should be doing one of those two things.

EDIT2: Choke points are another valuable strategy. Open a door, and have everybody standing off to the side of said door so that nobody can use any ranged attacks until they come through that door where your people are waiting. They can only come out that door one at a time, and your people are waiting to nail them as soon as they do.

[jack_of_tears]

Originally posted by RoughGalaxy:

. I feel like Larian doesn't understand difficulty settings. Explorer should be easy, plain up, lots of potions, can smash through with melee and no tactics. Balanced should be a reasonable challenge but should be doable by non-tactical game players. I should be able to brute force it if I have too. Only above balanced should you HAVE to use tactics and carefully plan each chess move.

That's not the kind of game this is. The easy setting is fairly easy but crpgs are a genre of game that expect you to take your time and explore. The need for strategy in fights is a feature that keeps encounters from becoming boring wandering obstacles.

The game is meant to feel like a tabletop experience and in tabletop you are encouraged to explore, be thoughtful about your moves, and look for advantages in fights. You aren't supposed to cheese fights in a ttrpg, so it wouldn't be appropriate to play the crpg that way.

[maestro]

Originally posted by jack_of_tears:

You aren't supposed to cheese fights in a ttrpg, so it wouldn't be appropriate to play the crpg that way.

Uh, cheese is the name of the game in BG3, lol.

Like for example, fighting those bandits in the first underground temple at the beginning of the game.

Throwing some Grease into that room and watching the whole room go up in a resounding "BOOM!" is quite the cheese.

I've heard a lot of major battles can be won with quite a lot of cheesy, cheap tactics.

And in Tabletop, you hear stories all the time of players finding the most cheese ways ever of winning fights, some of which just make the DMs go "... wtf?"

[Red Says]

5E plays like garbage at low levels and its exacerbated by Larian's constant need to turn fodder encounters into these giant, stacked encounters even at the very beginning of the game. The game is good but the NPE is bad for people who aren't well-versed in 5E and the encounters aren't designed in a way that compliments the system they have based the game on. If you aren't already on the easiest difficulty I would recommend starting there to at least get through the game with a class you are interested in and then revisit it.

[Mr Fred]

Originally posted by Red Says:

5E plays like garbage at low levels and its exacerbated by Larian's constant need to turn fodder encounters into these giant, stacked encounters even at the very beginning of the game. The game is good but the NPE is bad for people who aren't well-versed in 5E and the encounters aren't designed in a way that compliments the system they have based the game on. If you aren't already on the easiest difficulty I would recommend starting there to at least get through the game with a class you are interested in and then revisit it.

You literally cant die at low lvl unless you pick your nose for 2 straight rounds instead of getting whoever getting down up... just how much more streamlining are you guys asking for? might as well put an auto battler mode at this point...

[[Ger] Daen]

Play on easy or consider using cheats for some especially hard fights.
I'm not a good BG3-player at all and I play on easy.

Whenever I'm not good enough for a fight after trying 3 times I activate the app wemod and give me a little edge.

This game has so much more to offer than combat, for me it is more annoying than exciting.
I'm a gamemaster for PnP for about 30 years and I give my players always a possibility to avoid combats if they are not into fighting and more into NPCs, Lore, worldbuilding, looting or exploring. And in my opinion the game is a liiiittle bit to much on the combatside.

So, long story short: You bought it, play it the way it suits you best. :)

[er.tz]

It is all about information. Read the dnd 5e player book to get a general idea of how everything works. Then apply that knowledge to the game adaptation of these rules.