This game is punishingly hard

[Ruben]

I mean, really. I am absolutely no stranger to D&D or 5e. I set out with a stacked squad, thanks to getting to roll attributes over and over. But I can't even get past the first lizardfolk section. TIme and again, I can't get past it.

I have a Paladin with 18 STR and CON, with a 20 Cha (Half Elf), a Wis 18 Cleric. A dex 20 rogue, and an Int 19 wizard. But I keep getting my ass handed to me. I hate yet to see my cleric actually hit with a sacred flame. my wizard has yet to actually successfully land a spell. My last Sleep rolled 9 HP, which is like the floor of what that spell can do.

Seems very much like rolls are stacked very badly against the party. I dearly, dearly want to love this game. And I'm going to keep playing it, but it seems like the RNG is badly stacked in favor of the enemies.

[Ruben]

Okay, this is now the 20th time I have tried to get out of the lizardfolk caverns you find after the starting mission. I cannot beat this encounter. The lizard folk come upon my part in some jumping platforms and I...cannot hit. Like I've reloaded 13 times and I cannot hit. And no matter how many times I reload, the enemies always hit. Like I understand wanting to make this challenging, but this is just brutally unwinnable in the worst way possible. And I have looked for a difficulty slider, but it is no where to be found. I desperately want to love this game, but I cannot get past what is supposed to be the beginning level. Can you please, please, look at startign difficulties. And I say this as someone who should be starting well above the curve with my rolled attributes.

This is not fun, this is torture, and I bought this game to have fun.

[Ruben]

Okay, as of this time, I have been trying to get past the same section for two hours now. And I have looked for a difficulty slider, but that is absent. I do not feel like I should be punished this hard for a game I have paid money for. And even that, I have yet to actually have an enemy fail a save against my spells. I rolled a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ NINE on my sleep spell, which is basically the minimum you can roll.

I dearly want to love this game. This is a game I should love. But I cannot even get past the first few missions, and unlike other games, I know what is going on. I have not made character creation mistakes. I haven't screwed things up. But the numbers are so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ weighted in the monsters favor it's not funny. If I cast Sacred Flame with an 18 Wisdom, enemies should rfprobably fail around 60-70% of the time. I have yet to actually succeed, on now 12 castings. Sure, some of those are restarts, or reloads, or what have you, but you'd think a spell I have a stastical liklihood of succeeding on would hit at least 1-3. But I haven't even seen the one.

[Hobo Elf]

They are going to include new difficulty options, including a couple of easier ones below the current Normal level.

You didn't mention what races your other characters are. Are they Humans? If they are, are you using light to help them with their attacks? When you fight against enemies in the dark as a Human you roll for disadvantage, meaning you roll two attacks and pick the one with worse results. Using light to illuminate your enemies will alleviate this problem. Whenever you hover your cursor over an enemy when choosing a target, you will see a little green pip to show that you have advantage over them, a red one if you have disadvantage and nothing for a normal attack.

Sacred Flame is an attack that can be saved with Dexterity. I think Soraks have quite good DEX, so they will save against it quite reliably.

Focus fire on enemies. D&D5 enemies have a lot of health, so spreading your damage too thin is not a good idea.

[Arlen]

Position/terrain, Surprise, and Ranged are key to this encounter. If I understand the encounter you are doing, you are escorting two of the Fort soldiers with you, one of whom, Beryl, is also a cleric. Your Paladin should have a longbow or light crossbow at this time, your cleric and rogue can also use a shortbow, and your wizard should have at least one ranged cantrip. Utilize caution, and the left high ledge, and attack from stealth to gain a surprise round. Using ranged, focus fire on the enemies, and you should be able to eliminate 2 of them before they get into melee range, When they do get into melee range, switch your Paladin to Sword and board, and as a bonus action cast shield of faith on him, bringing his/her AC up to 20, Beryl can cast Bless on the Paladin and Rogue and one other. Position your chars in ways that you can shove enemies off the ledge, and use your Paladin and Rogue(s) or rogue/fighter (depending on who the second escorted Soldier is) to keep them away from your clerics and wizard. The light cantrip is a must as well. Good luck.

[Ruben]

Okay, that is all great advice. To give a rundown of party.
Half-Elf Paladin: 18 Str, 20 Cha, good scores elsewise. Can't seen to use a javelin for ranged attacks no matterw here I go. Beats otherwise.
Human Cleric, 18 Str, 18 Wis, 14+ otherwise. Has sacred flame, guidance, resistance, me4dicine prof to bring back from dead.
Halfling rogue: 20 Dex, 18 Int, 16 Con, 13+ otherwise. Only seems to have attacvks half the time. Has missed a good half the time. Only try to attack when allies are adacent or when I have sneak attack. Seems to miss a good half the time.
High Elf Wizard, 20 Dex, 19 Int, 13+ otherwise. Can't hit the broad side of a barn. Never took mage armor, waited for level up at city to get armor. Last magic missile died 2 damage, which is like 4 less than bare minimum on 3d4+3. Only one who actaully seems to hit at all, but cannot actually cast Hunter's Mark no matter how i focus or fiddle.

Both of the soldiers i am escorting have zero spells. Both have action surge, which means they're fighters. Male human and female human. I had some text options, the dwarf lady died. But, bottom line, I have way above standard group. Shouldn't be nearly this hard. Instead it's a TPK no matter how many times I've replayed this. And I have redone this fight a good 20 times now. And that is not hyperbole, I've started keeping tack and as of this writing it's 22 times tried according to my checkmarks.

This passage is just unwinnable. I don't care what you say about terrain or positioning, If every toss I throw is a miss and every one they use is a hit, I'm going to die regardless. And that might not be the truth of the matter, but that is what it feels like. I desperately, desperately want to love and play this game. And the advice offered in these responses is good. Focusing firing is good. But my paladin has no longbow, Beryl is dead. And again, the advice here is good. This is all standard 5e DnD battle tactics.

Again, I am not a stranger to 5e. Or video games. Or 5e video games. I know exactly how it should go and I have been doing what I need to do. Turn 1, rogue cunning action move and then dodge. Two worthless human fighters, cower and dodge. Cleric vainly try sacred flame and fail again for the umpteenth (and I mean that) time. Paladin, shield of faith, self, move forward.

Enemies crit on paladin twice nad he goes down. Hit cleric twice and she goes down. Panic from there, die on next turn. I mean this happens no matter what I do.

[AzureTheGamerKobold]

Personally i think giving them troll regen on top of the spider climb, and high damage is a bit over kill... its a cool spectacle but it's not very fun. The Sorak's feel very overtuned in my book... and i say that as someone who has played DnD since 2nd edition, and still actively DM's for a group. This fight is--- lord i don't know where to start. It just feels very one sided. Like its an ambush... i get it but, also WHY am i fighting mini trolls at level 2? really does feel imbalanced.

Edit:

Oh look he has a +7 profiency bonus to his saving throws...TOTALLY BALANCED

[Arlen]

Originally posted by Ruben:

Okay, that is all great advice. To give a rundown of party.
Half-Elf Paladin: 18 Str, 20 Cha, good scores elsewise. Can't seen to use a javelin for ranged attacks no matterw here I go. Beats otherwise.
Human Cleric, 18 Str, 18 Wis, 14+ otherwise. Has sacred flame, guidance, resistance, me4dicine prof to bring back from dead.
Halfling rogue: 20 Dex, 18 Int, 16 Con, 13+ otherwise. Only seems to have attacvks half the time. Has missed a good half the time. Only try to attack when allies are adacent or when I have sneak attack. Seems to miss a good half the time.
High Elf Wizard, 20 Dex, 19 Int, 13+ otherwise. Can't hit the broad side of a barn. Never took mage armor, waited for level up at city to get armor. Last magic missile died 2 damage, which is like 4 less than bare minimum on 3d4+3. Only one who actaully seems to hit at all, but cannot actually cast Hunter's Mark no matter how i focus or fiddle.

Both of the soldiers i am escorting have zero spells. Both have action surge, which means they're fighters. Male human and female human. I had some text options, the dwarf lady died. But, bottom line, I have way above standard group. Shouldn't be nearly this hard. Instead it's a TPK no matter how many times I've replayed this. And I have redone this fight a good 20 times now. And that is not hyperbole, I've started keeping tack and as of this writing it's 22 times tried according to my checkmarks.

This passage is just unwinnable. I don't care what you say about terrain or positioning, If every toss I throw is a miss and every one they use is a hit, I'm going to die regardless. And that might not be the truth of the matter, but that is what it feels like. I desperately, desperately want to love and play this game. And the advice offered in these responses is good. Focusing firing is good. But my paladin has no longbow, Beryl is dead. And again, the advice here is good. This is all standard 5e DnD battle tactics.

Again, I am not a stranger to 5e. Or video games. Or 5e video games. I know exactly how it should go and I have been doing what I need to do. Turn 1, rogue cunning action move and then dodge. Two worthless human fighters, cower and dodge. Cleric vainly try sacred flame and fail again for the umpteenth (and I mean that) time. Paladin, shield of faith, self, move forward.

Enemies crit on paladin twice nad he goes down. Hit cleric twice and she goes down. Panic from there, die on next turn. I mean this happens no matter what I do.

Not sure on how getting both fighters is possible - One of the two gets killed by the Sorak when you trigger either the scout or Beryl from the choice you make. If you speak to Beryl, Robar gets killed, If you speak to Dariat, Robar gets killed, if you speak to Robar, Lisbeth gets killed. It is not possible to escort both fighters unless you glitched the encounter.

[AzureTheGamerKobold]

dont feel bad if your losing to these things they are clearly overtuned... 5 regen, +10 dex save, 15 or 16 AC for a level 2 party? i mean i'm OP as all hell and i can't even hit these things.

Edit::

Finally beat it mostly sheer luck of not missing, and spamming chill touch... but cost me ALL my spell slots...every last one of them, and my wizard nearly got merc'd near the end. My best advice for this fight is to ensure EVERYONE has ranged attacks, and focus fire one enemy and cross your fingers. Avoid using sacred flame if possible they for what ever reason have a +6 profiency bonus to dex saves... but low wisdom saves (yea and every time i zapped them with charm they rolled a 17 or 18 to save--- its rigged) anyway i stand by what i said, these guys are way to tough for level 2's to be facing.

[wizard1200]

I think that the fight is much easier if you pull them back to the rotating bridge, because you can kill them there with melee attacks and the small area is easier to light up with spells or torches. Light removes their ability to regenerate hit points.

[Zeel Ara]

I feel like I'm playing a different game. I had no idea it was possible to lose that fight. Are you using light sources? The frequent assurances of competence just makes it all the more bizarre. We've been rolling this game with joke teams like 4x rogues since day one, with such ease that it was a common complaint in reviews that there was no harder difficulty. Surely it's possible for a seasoned veteran to figure out.

[Arlen]

Originally posted by AzureTheGamerKobold:

dont feel bad if your losing to these things they are clearly overtuned... 5 regen, +10 dex save, 15 or 16 AC for a level 2 party? i mean i'm OP as all hell and i can't even hit these things.

Edit::

Finally beat it mostly sheer luck of not missing, and spamming chill touch... but cost me ALL my spell slots...every last one of them, and my wizard nearly got merc'd near the end. My best advice for this fight is to ensure EVERYONE has ranged attacks, and focus fire one enemy and cross your fingers. Avoid using sacred flame if possible they for what ever reason have a +6 profiency bonus to dex saves... but low wisdom saves (yea and every time i zapped them with charm they rolled a 17 or 18 to save--- its rigged) anyway i stand by what i said, these guys are way to tough for level 2's to be facing.

The only time i lost the battle is when one of the escorts died through poor RNG - the battle at the camp fire, and the rotating bridge is quite easy, especially if you have a balanced party and cheesed their stats by rolling instead of standard array. I rarely say "git gud" but in this instance, it applies. If you find these encounters difficult, you will never get past the Soraks in the Library. You basically have a party of 6 to help you through this, there really is no excuse.

Anyway, worry not, as there will be a "I read the text and heard the story so I win" mode when it fully releases.

[Cartesian Duelist]

Here's the most important rule you need to play this game: TURN ON THE LIGHTS
Even if your entire party has darkvision: TURN ON THE LIGHTS
Even if you the player can see everything on the screen clearly: TURN ON THE LIGHTS

There is no fight in this game that cannot be made 1000% easier if you TURN ON THE LIGHTS. Once I learned this rule, it became a different game. Sparkle may be the only cantrip my wizard casts anymore. If you don't want a wizard, take a high elf and give them Sparkle as your ancestry spell.

[psychotron666]

I don't know what your problem is, I've done that part 3 times with different parties and not so much as had anyone go down. Just attack them til they're dead?

[darknight]

same here really, std party just good tactics, no need for anything special, i use i guy to draw them in and pick them off np

[Cyrens Maps]

Weird, for me this was the exact opposite. I didn't have any problems at all. I've played through the whole campaign as it stands now and not once has a character died. Sure some of them have become unconscious but nothing that can't be fixed quite easily. I play with darkvision only characters though. Rogue, Cleric, Wizard and Fighter. Murders everyone. Haven't turned on lights ever.