The Beginning of this game is frustrating

[hoot hoot]

TL;DR my whining: what's the most effective/fastest way to get through the first several levels without wanting to rip my hair out? To a point where your characters can hit things, not die after a couple hits, and actually succeed saving throws?

Okay, I'm not saying this game isn't solid once you get rolling, but I've tried to get into it multiple times and I always walk away frustrated. More so than with similar games like Pillars of Eternity or D:OS2.

My ranged characters couldn't hit the ass end of an elephant if it sat on their faces..

My melee characters unfortunately appear to be completely blind..

And while magic is no doubt quite the skill to have in this fictional world, it seems actually hitting anything with your magic attacks is akin to winning $2 on a scratch-off in that you did win, congrats, but you basically won nothing because mages do ♥♥♥♥ all for damage at low levels.

Summoning is kind of fun, but less so when the summons hit like and are about as durable as a wet noodle.

God help you if you get into a fight with an enemy who can cast fear. Especially AoE fear. You can remove fear once and then your characters can be feared again anyway so that's fun.

So, after again running into a random powerful enemy who's hanging out in the starting areas and my lvl 3 party gets one-shot into the ground, I'm a little confused about when the game gets enjoyable.

[InEffect]

Sleep+coup de grace everything. Done.

[hoot hoot]

Originally posted by InEffect:

Sleep+coup de grace everything. Done.

Well, after reading what that means, that does sound more effective than throwing snowballs.

[Breca]

• Beginning characters suck: DnD is notorious for this. Classes will start coming into their own at around 3rd level.
  
• Ranged can't hit: If your target is adjacent to one of your characters, you will suffer a -4 to hit. You'll need Precise Shot Feat to negate this. Or focus your ranged characters on non-engaged targets.
  
• Melee can't hit: Early on, Str is your friend (or Dex + Finesse). Avoid Power Attacking. Look for Masterwork weapons. Flank your foes for attack bonuses. Catching your foes flat-footed in the initial round gives you more bonuses, plus automatic sneak attack. Don't just line up and start smacking. Control crowds and then gang up. Use every advantage you can.
  
• Spells can't hit: First, you start with very few spells, so use them judiciously when they can be decisive. "Ranged touch" spells rely on your caster's combat hit, which tends to be sub-par. Magic missile and area spells are more reliable damagers. But Sleep, Cause Fear, Command, Entangle can be even more effective than direct damage, because they can swing the tide of battle by disabling key enemies at key moments. Also, right click on enemy portraits to get a read on their Saving Throw bonuses and any immunities/resistances they may have. If they have low Will saves, throw a spell that requires a Will save. If they have low Fortitude Save, throw a spell that requires a Fortitude save.
  
• Summoning: Summoning seems like it would be awesome, because it's a spell that can both deal damage and soak attacks, but it ends up being very situational in practice, simply because it usually takes too long before the summon comes to bear decisively. Summoning is a full round action, meaning you can't cast it if you win your surprise (half) round. So you cast it in your first full round. Unless you're deliberately maintaining distance, enemies are already targeting your characters and largely ignoring your late-arrival summon. And if targeted, its flat-footed and goes down quickly. Maybe that's all you wanted, in which case the sacrifice becomes a form of crowd control, but it can be tricky to get your intended enemy to target your summon reliably. Offensively, your summon won't actually start moving and attacking until the turn after it appears, at which point, the tide of battle has probably already swung in your direction anyway, and the summon is no longer a decisive contribution when you need it most. All that said, I like to keep a summon spell in reserve for that occasional battle where they can contribute, but those opportunities tend to present themselves more in Acts 2+.
  
• Dealing with Fear: There are several battles in Act 1, and some beyond, where enemies are using fear, and this can really throw chaos in your lines. In the beginning of an adventuring area, cast Remove fear on your party as a buff (+4 saves vs. Fear). This is a nice, long-lasting spell (10 min per level) that you can cast on the whole party and forget about. It doesn't make you immune to fear, but that +4 goes a long way toward maintaining combat cohesion and staying in the fight.

[NamelessOne]

Give Amiri a different weapon and turn off power attack. Don't expect your tower shield character to contribute anything but her AC unless you spec her to be useful. Ranged sucks without the correct feats, and it can be overwhelmingly powerful with them. Casters are OP, even early. But not for direct damage. CC and buffs is their primary role. Clerics aren't heal bots, healing in combat is a desperation tactic. You are better off casting buffs and protection spells. More offense+protection= less resources spent on healing hp and ability scores.

There are lots of trap options in the PF/DnD3.5 ruleset. Don't pretend that you can go blind into it and be automatically successful like idiot proof pillars or divinity games.

[Breca]

Originally posted by NamelessOne:

Give Amiri a different weapon and turn off power attack. Don't expect your tower shield character to contribute anything but her AC unless you spec her to be useful. Ranged sucks without the correct feats, and it can be overwhelmingly powerful with them. Casters are OP, even early. But not for direct damage. CC and buffs is their primary role. Clerics aren't heal bots, healing in combat is a desperation tactic. You are better off casting buffs and protection spells. More offense+protection= less resources spent on healing hp and ability scores.

There are lots of trap options in the PF/DnD3.5 ruleset. Don't pretend that you can go blind into it and be automatically successful like idiot proof pillars or divinity games.

100%
What's great about buffs: they're not negated by saving throws and can contribute through many battles. Look for spells that last to be core adventuring buffs. 10 min/level should be enough to last an entire adventuring area. Even 1 min/level starts becoming very reliable as you advance levels.

Don't underestimate the power of movement to get your characters into position where they are needed and attack in the same turn. Longstrider is a very steady boon, and Expeditious Retreat (+30 Move) offers tremendous tactical advantage, especially by Levels 5+, when it can stay up longer, and you have more of them to cast.

[mbradtke]

learning curve is very important in games, if everything is too too easy and simple, u'll be bored very soon

[springyb]

Take off Valerie's towershield and Amiri's Ginormous Sword. I think the biggest trap of the game is that both of your possible starting martial companions default equipment has -2 attack penalties on them.

[Dixon Sider]

Learn to love sleep (then forget about it after the Stag Lord) and grease. Grease is something you should be using for the rest of the game. Always try attacking an enemies lowest save if possible. Things like undead with low will saves will suck for the most part, but there are always some weakness there for exploitation.

[MMJ]

To be honest, most of the companions have pretty terrible builds.

For exemple, Valerie is a fighter, but with only 14 Str and a tower shield, so she is going to be useless at low level. You can mitigate this by swaping her towing shield for a "normal" shield. She loose 1 AC, yes, but regain +2 to attack. Usually, i level her as a fighter up until level 5 (to gain the power who let you use a tower shield without malus), then i go full Slayer with her.

I usually buy a ton of alchemist fire/acid vials at low level and give them to the ranged characters : it let them attack on the touch AC (so much easier to hit) and it does almost the same damage on average (with the added benefit of catching the ennemy on fire with the alchemist fire).

As for magic, learn to target the weak saves roll of your ennemies. Bandits usually have a terrible Will, so hit them with sleep, fear, color spray, ...

Honestly, the 1st chapter of the game is always the hardest for me : low level, low on gold, and not many consumables item to use.

[bullse]

Originally posted by MMJ:

To be honest, most of the companions have pretty terrible builds.

Respec mod ftw!

[Frostfeather]

Originally posted by InEffect:

Sleep+coup de grace everything. Done.

Except for the fact that many/most enemies that are actually a threat in the early game are immune to Sleep.

For op: use Hurricane Bow on your casters. If they don't have Precise Shot, target enemies not in melee or not yet in melee. If you don't want to invest in Precise Shot in the long run, take it anyway for the early game and respec later.

And stack buffs/debuffs as much as you can. Have Remove Fear up. Use Grease on enemies in melee. Enlarge Person increases the damage your characters do with weapons.

If all else fails, play more in turn based in the early game, as it makes the game much easier. Or, you know, turn the difficulty down... that's what it's there for.

[.//slayer]

Except for the fact that many/most enemies that are actually a threat in the early game are immune to Sleep.

In my experience, the most dangerous are groups of bandits, and sleep works splendidly against them.

[Dixon Sider]

What is incredible about the bandits is there are a ton of level 2 bandits all the way up to the Stag Lord. That means you can attempt to sleep two bandits at one time. Sleep two bandits before a fight starts, and even on unfair they will be a cake walk.

[Furry Wrecking Crew]

Here's what I did:
1)Enter new area
2)Scan a few opponents to get their level
3)If they are within 3 levels of your party, clear out area, avoiding any high-level enemies mixed in, make note of strong enemies to come back later (like Viscount Smoulderburn)
4)If they are more than 3 levels higher than you, leave, make note of area and enemy level

After doing this I slowly got through 3 or 4 areas to get to level 4 or 5, and had a list of about 10 places that I had to come back to later. The issue is there are very few places around your level at the beginning, and you have to find those areas by trial and error. I wish I could tell you what those easier areas are (Sycamore Tree is OK for Level 3 chars I remember) but I only took note of the ones to avoid.

[Furry Wrecking Crew]

Originally posted by Dixon Sider:

Learn to love sleep (then forget about it after the Stag Lord) and grease. Grease is something you should be using for the rest of the game. Always try attacking an enemies lowest save if possible. Things like undead with low will saves will suck for the most part, but there are always some weakness there for exploitation.

I'll second this. Grease is a godsend in the early levels, even keeps some bosses on the ground. And yeah, check the enemy's lowest save and target accordingly.