The Blackpits/Gwydian Rice battle is so stupid I want to set the developers' studio on fire

[Focksbot]

I'm playing the game on Switch, not PC, but I assume the versions are the same.

I've persevered with this game long enough to get used to most of its quirks, and I've set the difficulty as low as possible because I'm really not interested in playing through the same battle dozens of times in order to discover the optimum tactic.

I've also reloaded old saves quite a few times after entering areas that are obviously too difficult for my characters (without any prior warning) and becoming trapped there. This is pretty stupid game design, but I figured I would grit my teeth and try to accept it.

But this battle was designed by an idiot. It's so obnoxious, I can only attribute its existence to one of the development team actively wanting to ruin the game to spite his co-workers.

For one thing, pitting you against dozens of enemies in a turn-based game - one which pauses for quite a few seconds before deciding every NPC's move - is insane. I've just sat through about two hours of this one battle, and for most of that time I was waiting for the endless oil and fire demons to decide where to leap and wriggle to next.

There's no hint before you arrive that it's going to be like this - you think you're going to be up against four or five magisters. Springing extra enemies on you in the middle of a fight isn't a bad idea, but dragging it out with several waves of boring slug things arriving all over the map is just a joke.

Then you have Gwydian Rice rampantly committing suicide, whatever lengths you go to to save him. I teleported him as far away as I could, repeatedly, and he just straight ran back into the necrofire to die. I put all of my team between him and the attackers, but enemies just run right past my front line.

How the hell - in a game that's being touted as realistic, with deep strategy - is it impossible to take the simple step of blocking an enemy's route? For goodness' sake - that's the most rudimentary thing to do in a rescue/escort mission.

Oh - and of course, the game makes it impossible to avoid every surface in the camp being set on fire, so that the entire battlefield is simultaneously killing your team and healing enemies every time anyone moves.

The whole thing is cheap, stupid, absurd, immersion-breaking and infuriating, to the point where I wonder if I should just give up. I wanted to play through a story and have a few interesting battles on the way, but it seems like some element of the dev team was intent on making sure this game chased away anyone who doesn't love repeatedly working through long, drawn-out wargames.

[lpnlizard27]

I managed this fight the first time on explorer. I basically stayed on the elevated platform where the guy was about to be hanged and just rained down death with my pyromancer and any ranged skills available. I also was lucky and had my melee character set up with a bow and ranger skills so i swapped her weapons mid combat.

Granted by the end of the fight the entire screen was nothing but fire but it took no where near an hour to do this fight. I think i was around lvl 12 when i attempted this. If you are struggling that much with a mission i can only suggest to come back to it later after a level or two.

Also at one point i had to cast cryogenic stasis on Gwydian to heal him and prevent him from running through lakes of flame.

[squib]

Here's how I beat it. First, Gwydian is an idiot. After the first round of fighting, right before the slugs jump onto the top platform, teleport his ass into the small tent up by the cave entrance. Then teleport a caster in front of the opening to keep that effer in there. Fly, retreat or teleport the rest over there too behind the barriers. Then just battle the slugs that come after you setting lots of totems, summoning ♥♥♥♥, setting things on fire, raining on them and electrocuting, etc...let the slugs kill the other enemy npcs and if they get to close do some selective teleporting. At some point late, when its safe you can let that idiot out of the tent, but watch that dude, he'll Leroy Jenkins you.

[MULTIPASS]

I agree they went overboard with that encounter. Gwyndian is an idiot who deserves to die, you can just leave him there. Run away from the fight until you are no longer in combat and let the blobs and magisters kill each other, then approach and clean up whoever is left.

[bunny de fluff]

You think this fight is ridiculous, wait till you meet a demon that can possess your team mate one by one every time you killed its last host until they are all dead.

[BenSt88]

Originally posted by bunny de fluff:

You think this fight is ridiculous, wait till you meet a demon that can possess your team mate one by one every time you killed its last host until they are all dead.

You're probably being a little facetious, but just in case, so as not to scare the OP away from continuing the game...
In one of 3 crypts on the Nameless Isle, you'll meet said demon in a dwarf. This fight is truly annoying, so here's some tips. Have your archer shoot the possessed dwarf, w/out killing him, and still chained, until he stays prone on the ground. Then break the chains, and the dwarf will join you for the fight. When one of your PCs inevitably gets possessed--you pretty much get 1 hit on the demon and then that happens--try to get them down to about 10% of their total hp; and then the demon will flee that body and you can attack again. If you're lucky, you've got a powerful geomancer waiting to pounce when it 1st appears, and annihilate it w/ Pyroclastic Eruption before it possesses anyone. Or anyone else after the 1st time.

[lpnlizard27]

Originally posted by BenSt88:

snip

Or, just have everyone leave the room and kill him with a summon. Summons can't be possessed, and at this point at least 3 of my characters had a summon ability.

[bunny de fluff]

Originally posted by lpnlizard27:

Originally posted by BenSt88:

snip

Or, just have everyone leave the room and kill him with a summon. Summons can't be possessed, and at this point at least 3 of my characters had a summon ability.

It will possess the owner of the summoned.

Originally posted by BenSt88:

Originally posted by bunny de fluff:

You think this fight is ridiculous, wait till you meet a demon that can possess your team mate one by one every time you killed its last host until they are all dead.

You're probably being a little facetious, but just in case, so as not to scare the OP away from continuing the game...
In one of 3 crypts on the Nameless Isle, you'll meet said demon in a dwarf. This fight is truly annoying, so here's some tips. Have your archer shoot the possessed dwarf, w/out killing him, and still chained, until he stays prone on the ground. Then break the chains, and the dwarf will join you for the fight. When one of your PCs inevitably gets possessed--you pretty much get 1 hit on the demon and then that happens--try to get them down to about 10% of their total hp; and then the demon will flee that body and you can attack again. If you're lucky, you've got a powerful geomancer waiting to pounce when it 1st appears, and annihilate it w/ Pyroclastic Eruption before it possesses anyone. Or anyone else after the 1st time.

Here is the BETTER tip from frextralife that I wish I knew before fighting that demon:

The dwarf's chain must not be broken for the whole time. You need someone with "Living on the Edge" spell. Cast the spell on the dwarf , whack him till 1 hp, and then heal him back. And then Cast the spell on him to prevent him dying again, and whack him again. Repeat this untill the demon is dead inside the dwarf, then you break the chain and see the demon corpse with the dwarf still alive.

[lpnlizard27]

Originally posted by bunny de fluff:

It will possess the owner of the summoned.

Only if your too close, like i said be out of the room at least by the statue. None of my party got possessed after he died the first time, and the encounter ended with the dwarf alive.

[Say]

Anyone else interested to see how the OP handles the Lizard consulate in arx? xD

[bunny de fluff]

Originally posted by lpnlizard27:

Originally posted by bunny de fluff:

It will possess the owner of the summoned.

Only if your too close, like i said be out of the room at least by the statue. None of my party got possessed after he died the first time, and the encounter ended with the dwarf alive.

If you do not let the demon possess your guys, then it will go back to that freaking dwarf, and you cannot revive that dwarf if he died so you have to be near to keep healing him if you want to save him (which is the hardest way to deal with this quest), the whole thing is bad.

[Greb]

This was the first fight in the game me and my friend encountered something remotely challenging and fun. Took us by surprise, and forced us to build a little prison in the tent near the Eternal tomb and teleport that prisoner guy into it, to keep him safe.

Then the rest of the fight was pure fun and chaos.

Wait until you meet Mor the Trenchmouthed, lol

[120 BPM]

you suck honestly

[BenSt88]

I tip my hat to better strategies than I figured out. But that's a strength of the game; so many different ways to get past a challenge.

[Midnight]

This encouters really illustrates strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to combat.

The quick burn strategy (kill quickly before you're killed) will suffer here.

The control and sustain strategy will have much easier time (plenty of healing, utility and CC to keep those blobs away from you and to keep Gwydian alive).

DOS2 will absolutely punish you for thinking inside the box and I agree it is a fair bit gamey and immersion breaking in this way but that's the kind of style the game has, it's not really wrong.

[Martial.Lore]

Originally posted by Winter Phoenix:

Anyone else interested to see how the OP handles the Lizard consulate in arx? xD

I've got to say that this one caused me to go a bit spare on my honor mode game due to enemies teleporting a couple of times to fires that should have been out of their movement range.