This game isn't as hard as you think

[Akulvo]

Its not hard, you just don't know how to play 5e.
I've seen a few threads about people complaining the game is too hard, they need to save scum to beat encounters, the game is about finding that explosive barrel, you can't beat it in a legit fight...
Rather than making the same kind of reply in dozens of threads, I thought this would be a good thread to post tips for people who are obviously getting frustrated with the game.

To start.
A lot of combats will have a sort of environmental gimmick, such as burning webs arching over a gap to make the spiders on top of those webs fall and take fall damage, blowing up the explosive barrels, pushing people into the spider pit. You for sure don't need to use these gimmicks but they do help, less so for the barrels if theres only 1 in the arena.
If you want to fight 'legit' and not lose either to a difficult encounter or to bad rng with the dice, just play smarter. Easier said than done though. First you should know what role each class plays and how to use their abilities to their fullest.

Cleric is not a healer! Don't think of cleric as a healer class, that will make you end up never using cleric's incredibly strong spells for buffing, debuffing, and dishing out damage. When your cleric's spells are out, they tend to just act as a martial fighter that has a ranged spell (though sacred flame kind of sucks ass since its a save-based cantrip). Shadowheart does a lot of damage with guiding bolt so try using that more. Keep missing attacks? Have her use bless on your main damage dealers, it adds 1d4 to your attack roll (the roll you make for 'accuracy').

Fighter is not a tank! Neither is barbarian for when it comes out. These are martial classes, don't be fooled by their higher hp and higher ac into thinking that they need to pull aggro and take the focus of all the enemies all at once. You'll just get immediately blown up and killed in 1 round if all the enemies focus you. these classes are honestly some of your best DPS classes. If you're a strength based fighter that uses heavier weapons, try to keep them in melee and have them get after enemy spell casters or archers. Keeping an enemy near a ranged enemy will give them a penalty to ranged attacks and most likely they'll run away and off of their highground they usually have. If you're a dex fighter, your ranged attacks won't be bad so you can go either dual wielding shortswords into melee or stay at ranged if you have a really good high ground position.

Wizards don't stuck. You're just not using the spells correctly. Your spells are limited, very limited in the early game. You shoot a spell and miss, now you wasted that spell slot. It really sucks, I know. So try to use them when they matter the most. Save that scorching ray for the real big lads with lots of hp. If theres a lot of low hp enemies (1-4 hp), try using magic missile and have each missile attack each enemy. Group of enemies on highground? Cast fog cloud on there so they can't see from that high ground anymore and force them off of it. Mage keeps getting focused during fights? Sounds like you're too close or you have the lowest AC. Use the mage armor spell and try out mirror image to make enemies not want to attack you.

Rogue is more simple as not many people are really using them wrong. However, you have to read the sneak attack rules carefully. While you might cast the skill and stab a goblin, but if you check the damage rolls you will see that only your weapon did damage and your sneak attack bonus didn't get added in. This is because you need advantage on the attack or you need an ally within 5ft of your target. Even if you're attacking from range, as long as there is an ally near them, you will get the sneak attack bonus. Try to have your rogue ONLY attack people who are either easily killed or have an ally near them. The ally can be an illusion, shadow heart's duplicity, or a familiar. I don't know if mage hand works but it probably does in the video game, in table top it wouldnt.
You can also gain advantage by attacking a proned enemy with a melee attack, attacking a sleeping target, or attacking from stealth. I suggest attacking a bad guy with your sneak attack, moving out of their line of sight, and use the sneak action. If you have dual melee weapons, you can go thief and get 3 attacks off as well using your bonus action twice.

Warlock isn't super complicated. Just use hex and eldritch blast. Cast hex as a bonus action onto your target and spam eldritch blast. If you learn scorching ray, use that for some BIG damage. You can also try to learn magic missile since each missile adds the hex bonus damage in the video game (not the table top though). Warlock is like a martial class though instead of using a sword or bow each turn, they use eldritch blast each turn.

Now, who do you attack in fights? You would think the big boss in each encounter, right? No, that is not an efficient way to go about encounters. A level 1 goblin with a dagger will deal 1d4+dex damage. A level 5 goblin with a dagger will deal 1d4+dex damage. Each level doesn't change the damage all that much, so even if theres a huge ogre with a big great club and 30-50 hp and it deals 2d6+str damage you should not focus it unless theres not many good targets. Its better to try to kill all the small guys first as even though each of them might have 5-10 hp, they still deal just as much damage as an enemy with a similar weapon but has double the hp.
Generally, the side with the most turns in a combat wins unless theres a huge difference in skills available to each side. Work your best at removing the enemies action economy by killing the lower health enemies first. Usually the mages or archers have the lowest hp so they're your best targets AND the mages have all kinds of battle changing spells so its good to focus them anyway. Now if the big boss does get to a position that is dangerous for you, it might be better to turn and start attacking them instead, especially if they have spells.

I won't describe each class in detail but you should get the point by now. Theres so many very minor tips and tricks you can do to not suck and be able to win fights through tactics and a bit of luck as luck is really everything in dnd. You will miss, you will double crit fail an attack despite having a 100% chance to hit. It happens, the only thing you can do about it is try to recover and try it again. Make the best out of a bad situation.

Not sure if anyone will reply to this but I love helping people learn the dnd5e rule set so if you honestly have questions, just ask and I can give some strategies and such. Or post your troll "but muh barrrreellls" comments...

[Gibolin]

The game has to be balanced around fun and interactive fights. It's not an issue at all if at the end, it completely differs from the last D&D edition.

The game is in the testing phase, so now is not the time to ask to the players to adapt, but at the contrary, to tweak the game regarding players criticism.

It's not about winning fights, it's about how you win it that count in a game.

[Mr Fred]

Not sure I get your post OP. Its super easy BECAUSE its 5e, you know the entry level edition with 1/20th of the depth of 3.5

There is nothing to not instantly grasp with 5e so its for sure not the cause of bad players having difficulties which is sadly 100% on themselves.

[Akulvo]

Originally posted by Mr Fred:

Not sure I get your post OP. Its super easy BECAUSE its 5e, you know the entry level edition with 1/20th of the depth of 3.5

There is nothing to not instantly grasp with 5e so its for sure not the cause of bad players having difficulties which is sadly 100% on themselves.

Thats entirely what the post is about. For people who are entirely new to the rule set. While its an easy to use rule set for you and I, for brand new players, not really. They're not used to missing on 80%, knowing what 2d8 means, etc etc.

[Akulvo]

Originally posted by pandariuskairos:

Combat is BG3 is simultaneously too easy and too hard.

Every encounter is overtuned to the point that a straight up fight (without using exploits, gimmicks, or DANGER GROUND everywhere) is extremely difficult (though not impossible in some instances). Enemies are way more powerful than their tabletop counterparts (Goblins with 18-22 hp? Goblins in 5e have around 7 hp).

To counteract this, Larian has peppered the battlefield with all kinds of gimmicks, like explosive barrels and other DANGER GROUND effects, as well as made some mechanics, like stealth, extremely powerful (in part due to how bad the enemy AI is). If you can't blow it up with a barrel, then hide and shoot, hide and shoot.

The problem with the way Larian chooses to balance these things is that it makes your class build and party composition far less important, and the environment and DANGER GROUND effects that are far too common the most important factor in a fight. It doesn't matter if I spent hours meticulously crafting a character and party, this is all rendered obsolete from the fact that I can win simply by exploding the barrel.

And this isn't a rare thing for flavor, either, but rather the standard way in which nearly all fights in the game are balanced.

It's Larian's way of giving you the finger for daring to use your intelligence to craft a well balanced or clever party of adventurers, and instead saying, "Nope, just shoot the barrel brujah, there's nothing more to it!"

The fight with the goblins at the gate of the grove is probably the best fight at the moment, in that it only has terrain (high ground vs. low ground) and not a single explosive barrel. It's telling that most of the good guys often die in that fight (at least they do every time I play it, although to be fair I'm always doing it solo because I killed all the companions except Wyll) and Wyll gets killed almost immediately.

Some of us don't want to play against overtuned enemies using gimmicks and exploits - some of us are looking for a squad based tactical high fantasy game where our individual character builds and party composition matters more than an oil slick or patch of frozen ground or other DANGER GROUND effects matter, or where winning just means abusing some limitation of the combat AI by hiding and shooting over and over until everything is dead (it's really amazing how many times I've used this, from the ID's on the beach, to the bandits and undead in the crypt/chapel).

Some of us want it RAW.

Goblins don't have 18-22 hp, they have 7.

Not sure if you even read what was said in the post but thats one thing I was specifically talking about, how to fight without abusing barrels and danger ground. Though, whats the problem with using these gimmicks? It gives you a level of strategy in each area where you can recognize "oh thats a hole with spiders, I can push these bad guys in there instead of having to fight this hoard of goblins 1 by 1!"
Also raw dnd monsters are boring, especially raw humanoid monsters. Homebrew it up! Goblin necromancer with 80+ hp? Hell yeah.

Theres not many places throughout the entire game where I ever used a barrel, except for on the ship where the thralls are manning the canons so that I can try to squeeze out as much exp on the ship as I could. I don't entirely enjoy the barrel stuff either so I promise you that using actual strategy, you can beat EVERY encounter through player only attacks. Meaning not using barrels, not using spider pits, not pushing people off of ledges. But this style of gameplay is kind of boring and static. Why would you not want to use these game mechanics to a degree?

[Akulvo]

Originally posted by Xaoyu:

The game has to be balanced around fun and interactive fights. It's not an issue at all if at the end, it completely differs from the last D&D edition.

The game is in the testing phase, so now is not the time to ask to the players to adapt, but at the contrary, to tweak the game regarding players criticism.

It's not about winning fights, it's about how you win it that count in a game.

Nothing about the post is asking anyone to adapt to a new or unique way of playing the game. Its helping people understand the strengths of their classes and their weaknesses so that they can find more satisfying ways to use them and outsmart the enemy with strategy rather than shooting the oil barrel.

[belangf]

I understand the basic rules, but at this point it`s hard to know what will happen until you try a fight. For instance, I followed the goblin true soul to her chapel and thought now that she's alone I can kill her easy. But all her minions came and were shooting me with spells and arrows from outside the room while I was fighting one of them in the doorway. Meanwhile it was saying Gale was out of reach to target even the ones just outside the door. But some fights were pretty satisfying when they work well. It's just that now it's hard to tell what is a bug, an oversight or an intented feature.

[Akulvo]

Originally posted by belangf:

I understand the basic rules, but at this point it`s hard to know what will happen until you try a fight. For instance, I followed the goblin true soul to her chapel and thought now that she's alone I can kill her easy. But all her minions came and were shooting me with spells and arrows from outside the room while I was fighting one of them in the doorway. Meanwhile it was saying Gale was out of reach to target even the ones just outside the door. But some fights were pretty satisfying when they work well.

I 100% agree with you on that Gut fight lol. I haven't tried to fight the encounter where she takes you to the room yet as it seems... honestly very difficult with that setup. Especially since she locks you in a room with your main guy. You could try to pot up your entire team throughout the area around the door and fight from the high ground perhaps. Maybe have an invisible imp in the room too so its a 2v1 against her and you can kill their strongest spell caster that way.
If you can get control of the high ground, you'll have a huge advantage for that fight. but that fight is one of the harder ones in the game in my opinion depending on how you try to take it. Start it frmo the middle of the room you meet her and you're surrounded by 3 sets of enemies on high ground. Start in from the room and you're locked in a 1v1 against her.
Best bet is have 1 guy talk to her while the rest of the party positions throughout the room for the fight.

[belangf]

Originally posted by MrTinySpoon:

I 100% agree with you on that Gut fight lol. I haven't tried to fight the encounter where she takes you to the room yet as it seems... honestly very difficult with that setup. Especially since she locks you in a room with your main guy. You could try to pot up your entire team throughout the area around the door and fight from the high ground perhaps.

In my case my whole team followed me in the room when she said to come. Killing her was no problem, but then all the minions came to the rescue. I thought I could bottleneck them with the door but they had no problem killing all my party from outside the room.

Also in the blighted village, the goblins on the roof could kill me through the ceiling after I backstabbed the one in the house. When I reloaded and tried to sneak onto the roof they were not there, until they suddently appeared all at once and started the fight.

[Akulvo]

Originally posted by belangf:

Originally posted by MrTinySpoon:

I 100% agree with you on that Gut fight lol. I haven't tried to fight the encounter where she takes you to the room yet as it seems... honestly very difficult with that setup. Especially since she locks you in a room with your main guy. You could try to pot up your entire team throughout the area around the door and fight from the high ground perhaps.

In my case my whole team followed me in the room when she said to come. Killing her was no problem, but then all the minions came to the rescue. I thought I could bottleneck them with the door but they had no problem killing all my party from outside the room.

Also in the blighted village, the goblins on the roof could kill me through the ceiling after I backstabbed the one in the house. When I reloaded and tried to sneak onto the roof they were not there, until they suddently appeared all at once and started the fight.

I played a drow so i was able to get them to like me. I think others are able to do the same through a persuasion or deception check but I haven't tried. If you can get them to like you, you can sneak right up to them and either back stab em or push them off the buildings. Also theres holes in the roof on the right side that the archer is shooting you from. You can shoot them through the hole too or jump down it to melee her. This is for the blighted village by the way.

As for the Gut Fight. How I did it is I fought near the spider pit area, positioning all of my lads in the doorway between each area but trying my best to stay out of push range to be knocked into the spider pit. Next I keep that high ground and try to keep enemies away from it. If the archers stay up there, whoever my fighter is will take care of them while my warlock keeps hex+eldritch blasting anyone at a distance. Shadow Heart does her low ass damage since I used all of her spell slots to kill Dror Raz and Minthara but just sacred flame and some mace swings is all I need from her as she ties up a few of the enemy melee fighters.
Over all, that fight is the least interesting one in the goblin camp to me as it seems to just be a high ground slug fest. Even with a great strategy, if you have bad luck you can still easily lose it too since they have so many enemies. Don't move your characters throughout the battlefield too much as if you move up the stairs on either side, you'll attract more people into the fight who would otherwise just sit out.
Its also really good to kill Minthara before that fight as well because a goblin boss patrols back and forth between those areas so he might randomly join in on the fight as well.

[Pipinpadaloxicopolis]

idk about the "abusing exploding barrels" thing people keep talking about, personally i keep that to a minimum. still made my way through it easily enough. only thing i really abused was height advantage (and shove to get people off the heights they climbed up to attack my characters).
so far most of the fights havnt required abuse and i rest as a limited amount of times as possible
(food NEEDS a nerf btw, free hp from scarfing down 10 potatoes is silly)

[hicks.daniel.j]

Originally posted by belangf:

I understand the basic rules, but at this point it`s hard to know what will happen until you try a fight. For instance, I followed the goblin true soul to her chapel and thought now that she's alone I can kill her easy. But all her minions came and were shooting me with spells and arrows from outside the room while I was fighting one of them in the doorway. Meanwhile it was saying Gale was out of reach to target even the ones just outside the door. But some fights were pretty satisfying when they work well. It's just that now it's hard to tell what is a bug, an oversight or an intented feature.

I suspect this might be some quirk or bug with aggro in the Cathedral. I approached this area by sneaking around the rafters with a rogue, leaving the rest of the party near our entry point. Because Dror Ragzlin was relatively isolated I decided to start in his room, and spent like 15 or 20 rounds sniping down everyone there one at a time. During that entire time only the NPCs in Dror Ragzlin's room were hostile. The moment I killed Dror Ragzlin every NPC on the map (with I think 3 exceptions) turned hostile.

[Akulvo]

Originally posted by hicks.daniel.j:

Originally posted by belangf:

I understand the basic rules, but at this point it`s hard to know what will happen until you try a fight. For instance, I followed the goblin true soul to her chapel and thought now that she's alone I can kill her easy. But all her minions came and were shooting me with spells and arrows from outside the room while I was fighting one of them in the doorway. Meanwhile it was saying Gale was out of reach to target even the ones just outside the door. But some fights were pretty satisfying when they work well. It's just that now it's hard to tell what is a bug, an oversight or an intented feature.

I suspect this might be some quirk or bug with aggro in the Cathedral. I approached this area by sneaking around the rafters with a rogue, leaving the rest of the party near our entry point. Because Dror Ragzlin was relatively isolated I decided to start in his room, and spent like 15 or 20 rounds sniping down everyone there one at a time. During that entire time only the NPCs in Dror Ragzlin's room were hostile. The moment I killed Dror Ragzlin every NPC on the map (with I think 3 exceptions) turned hostile.

If an any used a drum, it would've alerted the entire camp

[Laiders72]

Originally posted by pandariuskairos:

Some of us want it RAW.

Goblins don't have 18-22 hp, they have 7.

To tackle this specifically, a basic goblin with no class or levels or extra hit dice etc has about 7 HP. Do you know what their CR is? Oh right 1/4. 4 goblins make a mild to moderate challenge for a standard party of 4 at L1. They will have to burn some resources (maybe a spell slot, consumable or skill) and take some damage to kill four goblins. We do not fight goblins at L1 but rather 3 to 4. The goblins should have a corresponding increase in their stats unless you'd rather 12 goblins for every minor encounter and a heck of a lot more for any encounter that is meant to be challenging.

Moreover, using the absolute basic goblin stats and increasing their numbers would mean so many goblins per encounter that you might well lose due to action economy difference. Facing 24 goblins as a challenging encounter sounds pretty unfun to me.

I guess the other solution for a purist would be to make all the goblins hobgoblins. However, hobgoblins are very different to goblins so the story wouldn't work as intended. Hobgoblins are already an organised, disciplined and effective military force. They need no external organisation by some greater evil, though they will work with BBGs if they stand to benefit.

[hicks.daniel.j]

Originally posted by Xaoyu:

The game has to be balanced around fun and interactive fights. It's not an issue at all if at the end, it completely differs from the last D&D edition.

Everything the OP is saying are standard 5e tactics. Larian overdoes the environmental effects and surfaces, but things like visibility, terrain, and exploding cobwebs aren't out of place in 5e.

[hicks.daniel.j]

Originally posted by MrTinySpoon:

Originally posted by hicks.daniel.j:

I suspect this might be some quirk or bug with aggro in the Cathedral. I approached this area by sneaking around the rafters with a rogue, leaving the rest of the party near our entry point. Because Dror Ragzlin was relatively isolated I decided to start in his room, and spent like 15 or 20 rounds sniping down everyone there one at a time. During that entire time only the NPCs in Dror Ragzlin's room were hostile. The moment I killed Dror Ragzlin every NPC on the map (with I think 3 exceptions) turned hostile.

If an any used a drum, it would've alerted the entire camp

Every turn I started by being hidden up in the rafters, fired a shot, and then hid again. Because they never saw me they were hostile but just stood there yelling threatening things. None of them moved, towards a drum or otherwise. Also, everyone else went hostile instantly upon Dror Ragzlin's death, not before, and at Dror Ragzlin's death he and I were the only two characters in combat on the map. So it wasn't a drum. I made some suggestions for improving the AI against hidden characters here.