Absolute D&D noob, struggling with combat.

[TheDude]

I'm really liking this game but I'm having such a tough time with combat I feel I must be missing something.

My current party is Shadowheart, Gale and Lazeal (sp?). I've manage to meander my way through the dank crypt/ruins a few different ways and have come across this group of about 6 or 7 bandits/bad guys. I'm pretty sure I have to fight them as I've manage to find 3 different way to engage them but so far it always ends with me dying.

Any tips/tricks/guides/videos that you think might help please send them my way. Thank you!

[lil scallop]

a few quick tips

- try to maximize the action economy each turn, i.e. use your movement, your bonus action, and your action. if you can do something as a bonus action instead of an action, that's probably a good bet because then you can do it first and then do something else with your remaining action

- if you have any casters in your party, make sure you understand how spell slots work and how to recover them. mainly, don't go into battles with no spell slots. long rest to regain them (or short rest in the case of warlocks). there are also potions and some abilities which help you recover spell slots.

- examine your enemies (right click > examine). it's a free action that will give you a ton of info about their resistances/weaknesses and status effects so you can make better decisions about how to defeat them.

- try to have a balanced party comp. i.e. don't just have all wizards who do a ton of damage but die from 2 attacks.

- think through each character's class and whether or not you have a grasp on their specific mechanics. i.e. if you're playing a rogue, are you making use of sneak attacks by gaining advantage (e.g. holding shift to see enemy sight lines, moving outside them, hiding, and then sneak attacking?) - or if you're playing a glass cannon caster, do you have enough mobility or utility spells like Misty Step to get out of melee range in an emergency? that kind of thing.

happy to provide more tips if you can be more specific about what you're struggling with

[SigilFey]

Do:
+++ Build a party that covers as many bases as possible. In general, while more specialized approaches are possible, if you're learning the ropes, the best bet is to go the classic route: fighter, cleric, mage, rogue. The game even ensures that you get this basic party out-the-gate. The first playable characters you meet are a warrior (Lae'Zel), a cleric (Shadowheart), a rogue (Astarion), and a mage (Gale). Who ever your character is should swap out with the most similar character. That will give you an "answer for everything".

++ Do study what different weapons, spells, and items do. Having a range of different effects you can potentially apply besides upfront "damage" will have way more of an effect that you might think.

+ Try to pick your battles and your battlefields. Use surprise to your advantage (entering turn-based mode, positioning, and opening up that way, rather than just walking straight in, which will give enemies the advantage.) At other times, based on the party you have, you may just want to avoid combat all together. You can very often fool enemies. (For example, have Shadowheart disguise herself as a drow female, then walk straight up to a bunch of goblins and watch the reaction.)

Don't:
- Avoid using all of your special abilities up front. Unlike MMOs or ActionRPGs, the abilities here are valuable resources that need to be used in the right situation. Very, very often, repositioning with a dash or just holding enemies in place for a turn with standard attacks to position them for a bomb or powerful spell is way better than trying to do "moar DPS".

-- Don't just attack the nearest thing. Like lil scallop mentions above, be sure you're taking all the time in the world to learn about different enemies using the examine function. D&D is thick. There's so much involved. Try to prioritize targets with the basic, following ideas about enemy threats: Enemy warriors can cause lots of damage, but are the easiest to control. Enemy ranged can really put a hurting in your group over time, so they're a greater priority. Enemy clerics buff and heal, so they are a greater threat than warriors or ranged because of attrition. Enemy mages can do area-of-effect damage and upfront burst damage, making them the single greatest threat. So, the baseline approach will normally be: kill mages-->clerics-->ranged-->melee. Just know...it won't always work out this way. ;)

--- Try not to focus on making one character "the hero". D&D always presents characters with strengths and weaknesses. The team needs to synergize to become more than the sum of its parts. Be sure you're always trying to use the best character you've got for the task at hand. Like chess, it's not always about how much damage you can do now -- it's about playing the board to set up a checkmate perhaps 2-3 turns later.


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Other things to consider:

1.) It's a Larian game in addition to being D&D. Look for environmental advantages. Larian peppers the game with all sorts of lateral-thinking advantages and ways to synergize the environment into your plans. Carefully observe barrels, and remember you can move them around. Look for puddles, and electrocute them if the opportunity arises. And it can get a little nuts: Throw a smokepowder bomb in a puddle...and it will go out. Hit it with an acid arrow...and the acid will eat the casing, spilling smoke powder everywhere. Hit the spread of smokepowder with fire...and bbbBBBOOOOOOOOOooommm! There are lots of things like this you can figure out.

2.) Check your Karmic Dice setting. If enabled, it will guarantee you get both good rolls and bad rolls. Meaning, if you just had a few good rolls, you can 100% expect the enemy is going to get good rolls next. If you had a streak of bad luck, you can 100% expect the next rolls will be in your favor. Conversely, if Karmic Dice is off, the game will just use pure RNG...with all the crazy streaks that involves...good and bad. (In general, Karmic Dice feels a bit contrived, but will ultimately cut down on reloads / retries.)

3.) Try to push forward. Without spoilers, using long rests will advance a sort of invisible timeline in the game. Meaning: the game world will progress without you. This can change the whole experience. While this is cool as @#$%!, definitely try to get as far as you can between long rests.

Last thing: Definitely do NOT try to play it like a common ARPG. Trying to kill every enemy and fight every fight is not only unnecessary -- it can actually have far reaching effects on the progression. Instead, try to play it like an RPG. Choose your goals, recognize you can never please everyone, recognize you can't win all the time, and push forward. One the greatest things this game does is react to the player's decisions and carry that forward in really surprising ways.