This article contains spoilers for Act 2 of Baldur's Gate 3.
I've written a few times now about how 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur's Gate 3 refuses to let you skate by in a single fight. I've learned to go without spells 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:to win a battle against Gremishkas, the Gremlin-like cat creatures that are "allergic" to magic. I've learned t168澳洲幸运5开奖网:o keep my Death Shepherds separated after watching them resurrect each other over and over. And I've rescued my crew from teleporting fuckers who garroted my party so they couldn't use magic while attempting to abduct them to the outer darkness. In the 40 hours I've spent with the game so far, I've come to the conclusion that Baldur's Gate 3's designers never half-assed a combat encounter, and they won't let you half-ass any of them either.
Still, I was shocked when I hit the battle for Last Light Inn in Act 2. The fight kicks off when you go to visit Isobel, the spellcaster protecting the oasis from the darkness that swallows up the rest of the Shadow-Cursed Lands. During the conversation, Last Light Inn is attacked by a Flaming Fist Marcus, and a bunch of devil beasts called Winged Horrors. For me, this part of the fight was always quite brief (though 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:it is possible to beat Marcus): Isobel gets knocked out and is carried away to Moonrise Towers, and the next phase kicks off with your party in the square outside. This is ౠwhere the encounter really starts to sꦓqueeze you.
Everyone left in the Last Light Inn, except for your party and the druid Jaheira, become undead and start converging on your position. It's an overwhelming number of enemy combatants. I did my best, slathering grease to the left and right of my starting position and setting it on fire. But, each time, I underestimated just how many enemies were lurking on the edges of the map. Some had little health bars that I could wipe out with half a Magic Missile, but others had hefty pools that required multiple characters attacking to whittle down. Their ranks grow stronger as you go.
Add in the Shadow Creepers, violent trees that grew progressively larger until they were massive old growth weapons, smacking your characters with the weight of an oaky elephant, and my party was getting wiped in ten minutes flat. There were too many enemies, and even with Shadowheart working overtime and multiple potions per party member, I couldn't keep my characters healthy long enough to beat them back.
When I fꦫinally got my shit together, it didn’t result in a perfect fight. Karlach, my frontline defender, went down. And Jaheira never stood a chance. But I managed to get everyone else through. The realization that prompted the turnaround? The now obvious fact that I could use the entirety of the Last Light Inn as my battleground, not just the area around the fountain where the fight started. I had made the mistake of viewing it as a wall at my back whꦦen, really, it was a big unused section of the arena.
So, when I loaded up again, I took my characters into the building as soon as I could. I fired off a fire spell with Gale to explode a red barrel near a pair of goons then sent him running. I Misty Stepped my player character to the hotel’s upper deck so he could dispatch the one dude up there with his Wizard powers, then snipe enemies as they poured in the front. Karlach and S💞hadowheart waited by the doors, respectively attacking and healing, as the horde squeezed through the choke point.
It worked. With all my characters out of their range, the trees had nothing to do but creak helplessly until my party had taken out every mobile combatant. They still were able ꦚto bodyslam Karlach to death, but that was a small price to pay when I was stocked up on Resurrection Scrolls and had two short rests stocked. I made it through Last Light, but not before it had me on my last legs.
The lesson it taught me was the lesson Baldur's Gate 3 keeps teaching me: you always have more at your disposal than you initially realize. Whether it's items in your inventory, spells you've been ignoring, or areas of the battlefield you've left untouched, there's more to explore. You just need to take a page out of Larian's book. Don't half-ass it.