I simply have no idea what to do.

[Rubicon]

I rarely ever post on forums. But I just don't know what else to do. I desperately want to enjoy this game, but i just cant, because it is simply too damn hard! I've even turned the difficulty down to the easiest setting, and I feel like that barely makes any difference at all. I just keep hitting wall after wall and, even though I really don't want to, I'm seriously considering quitting and giving up on this game.
Here's what's happening. Whenever I get into a battle, It "literally" takes everything I have to get through it. My party seems to miss about %70 of their attacks, and whenever they do land a hit, they barely do any damage at all to enemies. Whereas enemies rarely ever miss my party and they do insane amounts of damage to them. Either that, or they cast some kind of extremely powerful AOE spell on them, which damages all my party members so much, that it pretty much renders the fight unwinnable. I've equipped them with the best gear and weapons I am able to buy, but I feel like every single enemy encounter in the game is a life-or-death battle. No matter how small the enemies I'm fighting. Even when it comes to the magic users, I'm simply finding magic almost useless, as it takes every single spell they have to get through a battle, which means they have nothing left by the time the next fight comes.
So I'm stuck in this cycle of spending hours trying to get through a single battle, and getting party wiped over and over again, only to get frustrated and quit, making no progress at all.
Balders Gate 3 has such wonderful lore, writing, characters, art ETC... And I feel like I'm unable to enjoy ANY of it because I just cannot get anywhere in this game because of the absolutely insane difficulty.
I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing wrong, but I'm honestly considering giving up on this game.
If anyone has any advice at all, I would greatly appreciate it.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Rubicon:

I simply have no idea what to do.
I rarely ever post on forums. But I just don't know what else to do. I desperately want to enjoy this game, but i just cant, because it is simply too damn hard! I've even turned the difficulty down to the easiest setting, and I feel like that barely makes any difference at all. I just keep hitting wall after wall and, even though I really don't want to, I'm seriously considering quitting and giving up on this game.
Here's what's happening. Whenever I get into a battle, It "literally" takes everything I have to get through it. My party seems to miss about %70 of their attacks, and whenever they do land a hit, they barely do any damage at all to enemies. Whereas enemies rarely ever miss my party and they do insane amounts of damage to them. Either that, or they cast some kind of extremely powerful AOE spell on them, which damages all my party members so much, that it pretty much renders the fight unwinnable. I've equipped them with the best gear and weapons I am able to buy, but I feel like every single enemy encounter in the game is a life-or-death battle. No matter how small the enemies I'm fighting. Even when it comes to the magic users, I'm simply finding magic almost useless, as it takes every single spell they have to get through a battle, which means they have nothing left by the time the next fight comes.
So I'm stuck in this cycle of spending hours trying to get through a single battle, and getting party wiped over and over again, only to get frustrated and quit, making no progress at all.
Balders Gate 3 has such wonderful lore, writing, characters, art ETC... And I feel like I'm unable to enjoy ANY of it because I just cannot get anywhere in this game because of the absolutely insane difficulty.
I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing wrong, but I'm honestly considering giving up on this game.
If anyone has any advice at all, I would greatly appreciate it.

Start with the basics
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3107682627
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3025093305
which is understanding how attack rolls work and what party composition you are using

One of the biggest challenges for newbies of the game: it is seemingly relentless, smashing you to the ground before you even get a chance to level up enough. That feeling what you have is normal and it is supposed to be like that, just not that strong. Where players have to prepare accordingly for an adventure. Running unprepared equals a death sentence.

What party are you running?
What class is your character?

Here is a simple outline of the "stations" you visit at the start of the game to level up

1. Emerald Grove - battle at the gate
2. Emerald Grove - investigate the situation and look for a cure
3. Beach next to Emerald Grove - you get there from the ritual place
4. The old sanctuary to the east - it counts as first dungeon and trial of fire if you will, many players might start with that too
5. Helping Wyll with Karlach - make sure to avoid the Gnolls, they are for later as they are quite strong - like road blocker to tell newbies to go elsewhere first
6. Investigate the Blighted Village / move forward towards Goblin Camp to search for Halsin
7. Rescue Halsin/make a decision at Goblin Camp
8. Visit the South exploring the teahouse
9. Either continue with the Goblins quest or continue with Gnolls exploring the North
10. Avoid Githyanki battle / return later
11. Explroe the Underdark
12. Explroe the Mountain pass once you finished the Goblins issue

Take that as guideline of quests and places which are easier to visit when you follow them in order.

Take inspiration in the beginner friendly classes mentioned in the guide above.

Especially playing a Wizard/Sorceress can be hard because they feel so squishy at start. Multiclassing as suggested in the beginner friendly classes can remove that weakness.

Feel free to ask more. Good luck and happy adventuring!

[Rubicon]

Thanks. I'll take a look at this.

[Drefk2000]

Also think about positioning. Use high ground, and try not to bunch up. Plan ahead if you can. For some fights you get thrown in to it, but usually you can sneak around and put your characters where you want them before initiating combat. Focus fire the biggest threats. Once you get used to it it becomes quite simple.

[Rubicon]

Thanks for the advice. People tell me things about positioning and sneaking and such. But I'm also confused by that as well. Rarely ever do I seem to get in a situation where positioning is even a factor. Almost all enemies I've encountered are just not visible from a distance, and they're in rooms or fields with no reachable high ground or advantageous spots. As for sneaking. It just flat-out doesn't work for me. Even though my character is a Rogue, the enemy FOV is everywhere and I get spotted no matter how I approach. And on the occasions where I can actually sneak up on an enemy, again, I'm lucky if I can inflict any damage in the double digits. It just seems like every fight I get into is a war of attrition, where all I can do is chip away at enemies while they absolutely slaughter my party with just a few attacks. Every battle I've won has been just by the skin of my teeth, leaving my party absolutely drained of health, items and spells. And I really hate resting at camp after every single battle, because that seems to advance the plot, and I don't want to blaze through the entire story.
For reference. My party is level 7 and I've just now reached Moonrise Tower. I was stuck in the Gauntlet of Shar for about a week because I just couldn't make any progress. I was only able to get through it by using some major cheeses, which I hate doing, because I feel like I'm missing the experience.
I am trying my hardest to enjoy this game. But no matter what I do, it just feels like an absolute slog.
I mean, I "think" I'm a competent gamer and all, but I'm seriously beginning to question my own skill now because of this.
Again, thanks for all the advice, it's very appreciated and I'll continue to look over it and see if I can maybe learn anything new.

[Ironwu]

So, here are my recommendations (you may already be doing some these)

* START OVER. Things will go SO much more smoothly now that you know some of the basics of strategy and tactics.

* Prepare a balanced party FIRST before you go into major combat. Here are the Companions you should recruit first. They take little or no combat to get:

- Lae'zel FIghter
- Gale Wizard
- Astarion Rogue
- Shadowheart Cleric

* You should select one of those above roles for your character (I recommend Wizard). Then when you reach the final Companion to recruit (you can only have 4 in the party) send the duplicate to camp and recruit the final one.

* When you have Withers in camp and the gold, respec your characters specializations:
- Fighter to Battle Master
- Rogue to Thief
- Cleric to Life
- Wizard to Evocation School
Whichever you choose for your class, start that way.

* For your FIRST Feat, take 'Alert'. Yes, other folks might recommend Ability or some other one, but it is a total game changer to be able to FIRST every single time.

* Don't jump into major fights early in the game. You want have a full setup before going hard in the game. EXPLORE. You get EXP for exploring. Talk to everyone. Read every book. Take what you can and send it to camp to sell when you reach a vendor.

* Quicksave often. Watch out for when the game Autosaves on its own. That means there is probably something important coming soon. Like a big fight. I have my Quicksaves and Autosaves limited to 3 each. I Manual Save at important points, like after a big fight or right before a major area.

* Make sure you are using Armor and Weapons you are Proficient in. Otherwise, severe penalties are applied!

Have Fun and don't sweat the small stuff!

Good Luck

[jonnin]

there is a lot to learn. The top few ideas in any fight:
- look for a way to take some high ground or a choke point like a doorway. You need to limit ranged attacks and spells on your people, and prevent your casters or weaklings from being smashed right off as best you can.
- high ground lets you shoot better chance to hit.
- dark is bad. if you can see in the dark (spells, races) it helps but its limited in range. Light is good. Casting light spells strategically negates the to hit penalty of darkness, and an early quest grants a necklace to cast a light spell as often as you want!
- don't talk. if you gonna fight, walking up into their ambush / defended area and talking about it first is a good way to lose. Go around, get a better position, and just shoot them before they realize you are unfriendly.
- learn which targets matter. For example in the blighted village windmill fight, a single round focus fire on the boss will send the others running away, rather than deal with a big ugly fight for lowball xp. In many other fights, a single (or a couple, whatever) of nasty wizard or archer or something is the kingpin of their group, and the rest are there to keep you distracted from killing the nasty one. This takes some learning curve, as the names of the enemy don't always indicate their danger level. Unnamed enemy are weaker than named ones in general (eg priestess gut is likely more dangerous then 'goblin acolyte' )
- learn about advantage and disadvantage and how to get/avoid them.
- learn to use spells strategically. Blowing up that 'goblin thug' with 13 health with your biggest spell may be FUN, but maybe that was wasteful? Also learn about concentration spells: they are powerful, but if you get hit, its done usually. So you have to retreat to maintain it.
- learn to move, shoot, move so you deal some damage without being exposed to damage. Use cover etc. The ai is OK at this, not awesome but OK, and will happily demonstrate the technique at you.
- learn cheap tactics. Its lame to resort to those, but placing explosives before a big fight or taking advantage of the ones already in place (eg in wither's dungeon, the interior bandit group starts out clustered on an oil barrel... boom!!). Shoves into nasty things can outright kill or greatly mess up enemy, explosives, stuff like the rock you can drop (withers exterior) to kill 1/2 the enemy without any risk, .... it works, if you feel like the fight without such is too much.
- scout the area. Every single fight in act 1 has a better way to approach it where you can get a better position before the fight. Every single one. It just takes looking around a little and thinking it through. Some examples... you can cut the web from under the giant spider for a TON of fall damage. The rock wall climb into the blighted village lets you gain the roofs before being seen, equalizing the ambush / terrain advantage they had on you. The goblin ruins (main temple and camp), same deal you can climb the rock wall and have a secure attack on the gate guards, then you can also pretend to be friendly and climb the fort to the top before fighting all the ones in the courtyard. And so on. About the only early one where you can't get a massive advantage is if you choose to fight the owlbear.

- out of combat, if you group into a perfect tight square, you can throw those healing potions on the ground and heal all 4 as if you used 4 potions instead of just 1. This is critical on harder difficulty.

In act 1 on easy, its hard to imagine the problem is your build, class choices, or gear. Esp before the last 10% or so of act 1 if you do the harder content (you should). The biggest goof you can make is low hitpoints, if you left your con at 8 or something like that... anything else should function. It has to be positioning or skill use or something.