Act 1: Cleaning Up
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- Here is our previous list of what's left to do, so lets get through it! Remember you can still warp to mountain pass and back to get full healed if you need between fights. I'll mention which ones need level 3 spells so you can long rest.
- Goblin camp fight
- Owl bear
- Ethel
- Nere
- Grym
- Warp to the blighted village and head west to the goblin camp. There is probably the first fight near the checkpoint that's only a handful of goblins and some wolves, so that shouldn't be an issue.
- Requires level 3 spell for ShadowheartAfter dealing with the checkpoint, head into the main camp, but don't cross the bridge yet. Strategy:
- We are going to abuse darkness for this fight. The goblins are everywhere and many have bows, we don't want to be gunned down in the street while we wonder where our lives went wrong.
- Sneak across the bridge and when you get in range of the gateway area, have someone cast darkness (either Lae'zel cast her spell, or have MC use a scroll)
- Have Shadowheart cast spirit guardians.
- Put Astarion and Shadowheart IN the darkness, and keep them there.
- Start the fight by attacking someone (keep the person concentrating on darkness way back)
- The goblins can't see you in the cloud of darkness so they will all charge right up to it and in.
- Pick them off from a distance with MC/Lae'zel (whoever isn't concentrating)
- When they get close they will run into spirit guardians and Astarions fists.
- Don't get over eager and run out, if they break your darkness concentration, this becomes way more tedious
- Basically stand in the darkness, when it's your turn, you can pop out and attack, but always end your turn in the darkness
- There's probably a few left in crushers area by the waypoint, just go kill them (heal first if you need to)
- Owlbear Go to the owlbear cave east of the blighted village. This should be a straightforward, fairly easy fight. Astarion and MC can kill them pretty much without help or buffs, just make sure you're healed. HM mode has 2 owlbears Grab the owlbear egg, sells for like 300 gold
- I long rested here, but then head to the blighted village and go south towards Ethel. You can try to kill her before she runs off, it's pretty difficult in HM. Twinned haste MC and Astarion, you can use quickened spell to get 2 casts in round 1 with Lae'zel as well, and try to kill her in the first round or 2, otherwise you'll have to chase her down to her den. You can try to get the hag's hair from her. I think you beat her until her health is less than 10, then let her have a turn and she'll offer the hair in exchange for her life. I don't usually do this, since I'm not a min-maxer and don't like to try to plan how to get less than 10, but you can. The fight down in the den is basically the same, just with dopplegangers. You can tell which is real by the clothes. The real Ethel wears red, fake ones wear blue. It's easier to see if you inspect them.
- Nere should be fairly easy now. When you blow up the rocks and talk to him, there will be a conversation point to ask the dwarves to come in (that's your cue Brithvar). Do this and then choose to side with them. This will have half the dwarves join your side and make this a lot easier. Use spirit guardians and twin haste like usual, it's a big fight still. Try to target the mind master guys first as they try to control your characters. Whatever you do, DO NOT stand anywhere near the lava. These guys always try to push you in and usually succeed. Stay well clear of it, or one or more of your characters will be insta-killed. His legendary action seems to be some kind of reflect. When his visages go down he stops reflecting, but then gets it back the next turn. Not really sure how to deal with it other than to just take it lol. I was able to kill most of the dwarves in the first round and only have him to deal with though, so it was doable. Gave the boots of disintigrating to MC since Astarion gets some monk boots later. Talk to the gnomes, then head to myconid colony and turn in Nere's head + talk to Thulla.
- Grym is kind of tough and we can wait a bit since you can still warp back even in act 2. So for now, head to Trielta Crags and make sure to have level 3 spells for Shadowheart and Lae'zel.
- We're going to fight some undead that are blocking the path we want to take to act 2. Head NW from the waypoint. We're gonna treat this like a boss fight so get close as you can sneaking, go into turn based mode, cast twin haste and spirit guardians, then start the fight. The 2 big guys need to die in the same round otherwise they just keep resurecting each other. If you kill the little ones first, they'll just keep resurecting them as well. So I would focus the big ones down with Astarion and MC at least. Shadowheart and Lae'zel should help, but they can also AOE the little ones so that the big guys are distracted and wasting their turns resurecting them. Use fireball and sunbeam, try to get the big guys in them as well. Once the big guys are down, the rest should be easy. This is the last fight in act 1, so use everything you have to get through it. Waste all your spell slots, quickened spells, bardic inspiration, etc. The Death Shephards and the cloud guy are extremely annoying, so do what you have to do.
- I got to level 7 somewhere around here. From here on, Shadowheart should always be in Wild Shape - Starry Form: Dragon. This makes it so her concentration rolls can't be below a 10.
- IF you are level 7, lets head to Grym. IF you are NOT level 7 yet, follow the path to the SW to the exit we are taking to act 2! We'll be back for Grym soon, just want to get some upgrades and a level up or 2. You can still take out Grym anytime before Nightsong, so you can come back at level 7/8 depending how safe you want to play it. I prefer not to go before 7 at least though.
- Grym is pretty straightforward, you just need to be strong enough to take a few hits. Strategy:
- Put Astarion near the tunnel where Grym comes out.
- Put Shadowheart on the wheel that brings in lava.
- Put MC back away from both towards the edge so that he is in range of haste, but far enough back to avoid Quake
- Have Lae'zel cast twin haste, then head towards the switch that slams the middle thing so she's safe from Grym
- Every turn Astarion should flurry of blows: topple, then use all his main attacks
- If Grym loses lava (so then he can't be hit), have Shadowheart turn the wheel again.
- MC should use slashing flourish ranged to kill all the fire imps
- Lae'zel can use magic missile/ray of frost to help MC
- Shadowheart can toss some heals on Astarion to keep him up
- Just use everything you have, don't save spell slots. This is one of those fights that's just rough