maybe it's not actually that big a deal but:
because i saw a trader among the enemies, i googled later to see if i'd missed an option for dialogue (turns out i had, but approaching from the upper floor causes hostility on sight with no warning, whereas the lower floor allows dialogue, which is stupid.)
but anyway, while googling about that, i ran into a bunch of reddit threads saying it was an impossibly hard fight & they had to retry it repeatedly, and i beat it first try on Tactician without even preparing for a fight, so i'm feeling ๐
admittedly i am also a bit sad, because i really want more fights at least this hard or harder, even on Tactician i'm finding most too easy :/
but: here's a battle summary copied from twitter
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approached from above & 1st turn of 1st round, Yurgir hit me w/ handbombs, exploding immediately. they caught my Lvl 8 Warlock Tav, Beserker Barb/Battlemaster Fighter Karlach, & Shadowheart in the blast. tav & karlach dropped to 0 and went down. Shadowheart had Toughness feat, ~20 HP left. astarion was farther back. immediately cast See Invis & drank Invis potion, then just hid around corner. shadowheart cast Mass Healing Word @ lvl 4 w/ Periapt of Wound Closure amulet + Boots of Aid and Comfort meant 11 heal + 3 tmp HP to all, so Tav & Karlach up immediately. shadowheart also drank Greater Healing. since i was above, merregons had a long way to run & couldnt hit my Adamantine armored shadowheart for more than 1-2 dmg w/ bows.
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next round, more Yurgir handbombs, Tav down again, but karlach stayed up (and drank Elixir of Colossus) & i'd had shadowheart run out of LoS last round. astarion stepped forward, sneak attack, stepped back out of LoS & fire resistance elixired. Karlach used superior healing & started throwing smokepowder bombs i'd been saving in order to thin the merregons. shadowheart Mass Healing Worded again then Dimension Doored her & tav out of of LoS so they could stay up. Tav used Greater Healing potion.
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then on: i was fighting from safety with decent HP, and all the merregons & yurgir needed to close to hurt me more. Yurgir did toss more handbombs @ just Karlach but they didnt explode immediately, so Karlach had time to leave. astarion did more sneak attack -> leave LoS. Karlach tossed grease on the only path up to the 2nd floor, tripped many of merregons still alive & tossed axes for kills then left LoS. Tav Cloud of Daggered the grease to kill more merregons. Shadowheart cast Guardian of Faith & Spiritual Weapon on 2nd floor entrance. Guardian of Faith & Spiritual weapon tanked like 60 damage and Guardian of Faith hit displacer beast. i just kept tossing spells & throwables & sneak attacks then leaving LoS. the ticking mines exploded took out the displacer beast. most mobs now clear. the smokepowder bombs had already damaged Yurgir & Yurgir had been visible for 1 turn so astarion hit a crit sneak attack using Luck of the Far Realms, leaving Yurgir nearly dead. next turn, Yurgir is invisible again so i tossed an AoE in that area...kill!
encounter cleared :)
Shadowheart toughness + healing build + summong is crucial, Karlach throwing crucial, hit 'em and leave LoS while summons tank!
