Combat initiative

[Pec]

Had a few cutscenes that went into fights where i would just get slammed before i could make a turn

Example though tiny spoiler in early act 3

Recently battled a mage in a tower trying to get immorality from a angel and he would semi nuke my party before i could spread them out. Generally there is always a way to get through tough fights with more creative approaches however a few seem to be meat grinders

Any advice would be appreciated as those encounters do bother me as while stuff like ambushes are kind of fair the more forced scripted stuff kind of frustrates me

[Metallicus]

You can use the buttons at the bottom of the dialogue to select your other party members and move them around, start combat or even cast buffs all while your main character and the NPC are in a conversation.

[Yasahi]

High dexterity, Alert Feat and the Elixir of Vigilance could all help you in that case.

Alert seems to be often overlooked. +5 Initiative means that unless you're at 8 Dex, you'll be high on the list of characters going first. Some weapons and other items boost initiative too and since the rolls can't be that high, having bonuses means that you'll usually go first.

[Mork]

Use some Elixirs of Vigilance?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3037239677

[Broan]

You can easily get first in Line because BG3 homebrewed the initiative Rolls to everyone rolls a D4 and add their bonus. It's very easy to get first because even rolling a low number doesnt matter THAT much compared to DnD 5e original initiative - where there is a HUGE difference between rolls with the D20 - Because when you roll a 1 your bonus stats cant help that a lot most of the time, Rolling a 1 on a D4 is half bad.
Most Enemies will have an initiative between probably 2 and 4/5 maybe 7 if they have high Dex.

That being said - the easiest way to improve your initiative is by boosting your Dexterity with every character. It gives every character a solid bonus, no matter the roll. If you have a +3 in Dex that means you always have at least 4 initiative most likely 5/6 which will make you go before higher dex enemies most of the time.

You can improve your initiative also by taking the Alert Feat (which gives you a +5 to initiative AND on top the bonus that you cannot be surprised - no matter what) combine that with your dex bonus and you most likely be first. All the time.
Even without any Dex(having a Heavy armor build for example) you always have a 6 in initiative with Alert, which is really solid.

There are also some Items which will boost your initiative (you just have to equipt them, don't even have to use them actively) and some classes can boost their initiative too

In Normal D&D the range of initiative is way wider, because if one gets lucky with their roll (a 19/20) the bonus stats won't matter that much when the other one rolls low their bonus stats won't help as much.
In BG3 the static Bonusses weight way more for initiative because of the D4 rolled which places everyone pretty close in initiative no matter what.

[Broan]

Additional Advise - If you can already guess there will be a fight when you enter an area (in case of your mentioned fight for example you know that it will happen) you can also prebuff your team beforehand. Many Buffs have Timers on them (eg lasts for 3 rounds/10 rounds etc) which will always pause, while in dialogue. So you can do that before you enter and they won't run out. Haste is a great example for that aswell as Bless

[hannibal_pjv]

Or use turn mode before entering the conversation.