Am I supposed to lose fights constantly?

[A Cute Kitty]

Every physical attack Shadowheart does misses, four enemies move first and usually cripple 2ish teammates before combat starts. My personal character can't even focus down one person. Gale dies after two ranged attacks. Astra-something is the only one to land attacks, but they all do less damage than what the actual tooltip says and I'm lucky to kill two people before everyone is dead. What the absolute ♥♥♥♥ is this game's combat since I can't even get through 2 turns before someone's dead.

[Saica-Fox]

i assume ur level 2 or 3. your not suppsoed to lose but u need to do things that increase your chance to hit or enemies chance too miss also need high ground when u can and mostly just need to use everything at ur disposal

[Drake]

You need to learn the rules. There is no other way around. You lose because you're not capitalizing on your strengths. Preparing for fights is pretty much mandatory, the first round is the most important. You have gale, in hard fights, use grease to cc enemies, with shadowheart use spells not your weapon, she's a support, buff your chars.

Then look at the levels of enemies. It's d&d, an enemy with one level more than you is dangerous enemy, they can wipe your party if you're not careful.

[[OTS]EchoZenLogos]

Shadowheart isn't great for melee with her stats - give her a shield and have her cast from behind the front-line. You also should have another melee character like a fighter or barbarian or like at bare minimum to help take damage and deal damage in melee.

If Gale is getting range attacked to death - then keep him further away and maybe cast invisibility on him when things get rough (if able). Astarion should be doing as much damage as the tooltip says (check the combat log on the right for specifics), but use him in stealth for best results (you can also sneak attack in melee if the enemy is threatened by an ally).

In short: no, you aren't supposed to lose fights constantly. I win most of my fights on Balanced, though some of the scripted fight scenes I might lose 2-3 times before I win due to me being careless or getting in way over my head.

[A Cute Kitty]

Originally posted by Saica-Fox:

i assume ur level 2 or 3. your not suppsoed to lose but u need to do things that increase your chance to hit or enemies chance too miss also need high ground when u can and mostly just need to use everything at ur disposal

There's nothing I can use anywhere down in this crypt thing. There's no high ground except back down the stairs where I came so I'm just eating a turn to defeat a debuff, I cannot get everyone through the doorway to attack while the 2 archers and mage just turn said doorway into a fatal funnel? I have nothing beyond the starting gear.

[Ancient Toaster]

Shadowheart is not meant to fight melee. Use her as a Healer/Support character and use Cantrips to attack.

Unless of course you respec her late to be like a War Domain cleric, then you can allocate stats around.

You're still early in the game. There are a LOT of places you can go that will be out of your league. Just follow the story and stick to things that are around your level. Good examples are the Ruins near the beach area, going towards the Grove, where the Druids and Tieflings are.

Once you hit level 3 you will be more capable of doing things around you.

[katzenkrimis]

Originally posted by A Cute Kitty:

Four enemies move first and usually cripple...

That's why you use a Monk & Rogue. They have speed and initiative. They go first.

You can dump Shadow. You don't need her.

Add a fighter to absorb damage up front, and a Ranger to snipe from a distance.

Bob's your uncle.

[Havok]

I don’t know where you are or what difficulty you are on, but…

On tactician, all throughout act 2 I was getting stomped. Somehow I missed out on a bunch of stuff and was super underleveled, however, I was able to overcome.

More times than not, if a fight is stomping you, you need to see what is going on. Are enemies grouping up and you’re not using aoe stuff and missing your window, are you focusing the wrong enemy, are you using the environment and advantages correctly.

There is a fight that, if you don’t analyze it, it will absolutely stomp you. 1 attack and a character can be killed.

Also, are you playing into the class. Gear and buffs specifically

[Estellese]

What are you trying to fight, and at what level are you? You need to pay attention to advantage/disadvantage, your chance to hit, and all that. You also gotta be extra careful to never fight something higher leveled than yourself unless you know what you're doing. (It is very possible, just hard.)

Gale will die quickly, he's a mage, mages are squishy. I don't know what you put your character as, but casters in general are frail. Especially if you have low CON. I am personally running with a cleric MC who has 8 CON, so literally everything one hit kills me. But I go into fights with a strategy, my MC is a healer, not a fighter. So I always have the sanctuary spell on her which makes it impossible for enemies to attack her as long as she doesn't attack them. So my MC can just chill on the front lines and spam heals/buffs on the team, and will never be hit. (For the record, I did not know DnD rules going in, and did not know this would be possible until I made it into the game and read the available spells. It's just one of my favorite characters to RP, so I made the character and assumed I'd figure out how to make it work later.)

Then I have Shadowheart as a backup cleric. Only one healing spell, and a lot of CC spells. She's the team tank, and should my MC accidentally take a hit she can res the MC real quick with the ranged heal spell, and then the MC can put sanctuary up again.

I got Karlach to just deal out a crap ton of consistent damage. She charges in and starts slashing/throwing people. And Astarion to handle stealth and burst damage. He hides in the back and shoots from stealth. Because he is in stealth and MC is in sanctuary, the enemies can only target either Shadowheart, the tank who is really hard to damage, or Karlach/Laezel, who is also kinda hard to damage.

And in my co-op run, same setup only Karlach is replaced with Laezel, they play pretty much the same role. And my fiancee is playing a barbarian and replaced Shadowheart. So no backup heals for my MC, which makes my mistakes much more punishing but we deal a lot more damage so it works out okay.

Now your own strategy doesn't need to be that complex, but you do need to learn the rules of the game. Learn how to use advantage, learn how to avoid disadvantage and apply it to the enemies. Learn risk assessment and which enemies need to go quickly. Something as simple as having Shadowheart cast bless on the team will make you hit MUCH more often. Makes every attack roll two dice, and take the highest result, and it can be cast on three people at once. (just remember, each character can only use one concentration spell at a time. So after casting bless, stick to normal spells or bonking things.)

If you need more direct help, I don't mind joining up for a fight or two to help. Not tonight though, I have work in the morning.

[Gingermonkey]

In regards to the crypt, theres 3 other ways into there, so you could always try to come in from a different direction, or open the door and make them come towards you, set your companions up around the room and make it your own kill box.

[A Cute Kitty]

I just tried the fight again, and the barbarian just doesn't take any meaningful damage, meanwhile my characters all die in two hits. This is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ garbage game compared to Divinity 2. I can't believe anyone thinks a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ slog like this is enjoyable in any way.

[RACHMANOVSKI]

Originally posted by AncientToaster:

Shadowheart is not meant to fight melee. Use her as a Healer/Support character and use Cantrips to attack.

Actually she does.

She can Invoke Duplicity, which helps her and companions gain (range) advantage against the enemy.

Try it. And give her the best shield and mace.

[Lashane The Simp of Mimi]

I've won all my fights so far until the Spider Queen in the well cave area because i did not expect her to be so powerful, even then i figured it out.

Cloud of Daggers potent.

[RACHMANOVSKI]

Originally posted by A Cute Kitty:

I just tried the fight again, and the barbarian just doesn't take any meaningful damage, meanwhile my characters all die in two hits. This is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ garbage game compared to Divinity 2. I can't believe anyone thinks a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ slog like this is enjoyable in any way.

LMAO.

I have some tips:

1. Lower your difficulty setting, I promise I will not tell your mom you're playing baby difficulty.
2. Use your potions your scrolls if you have it.
3. Shadowheart (if you have her) has concentration shield spell which increase AC by 2.
4. Did you cast Mage armor for gale?
5. Did you have/cast Mirror image for Gale?
6. If you already know that enemies will attack you and you lost in initiative: hide your most squishiest companion and let them join the fight later.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

it sounds like you're fighting the large bandit group in the chapel tomb. A tough fight early on.

Chokepoint them at the door. Use AOE spells (i.e. Ice Knife) and grenade items you've acquired. Use Potion of Speed if you have to. If you can, lock down the barbarian with crowd control; he's no fun to fight in melee.

For Astarion, to get the most damage out of him you need to use Sneak Attack. You will probably need to use Cunning Action: Hide to get sneak attacks off. Have him shoot the bandit wizard if at all possible.

[RACHMANOVSKI]

Originally posted by Lashane The Phantom:

I've won all my fights so far until the Spider Queen in the well cave area because i did not expect her to be so powerful, even then i figured it out.

Cloud of Daggers potent.

Shoot the web bridge once the Spider Queen stand on it.

Find the web shoes so that you will not stuck.

That fight is either you get upper hand quick or Spider Queen ruin your day in 1 turn.