Baldur’s Gate 3 combat is a complicated affair with a lot of moving parts, but sometimes the encounter will have a unique feature to make things even more interesting.
Throughout the Three-Act structure of Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ll run into everything from massive fights with just a single boss, to massive swarms of goblins who will completely outnumber you.
Normally in fights like these, NPC allies are a welcome addition to the team. Can you imagine trying to assault Moonrise Towers without Jaheira demolishing half of the enemies instantly?
However, not every friendly NPC in these situations is going to be an aid. In fact, in some situations, they can actually make the fight harder, especially when they’re someone you need to protect. Looking at you, Isobel.
One of the worst examples of this happens in Act 3, down at the Steel Watch Foundry, where you’re tasked with rescuing some particularly helpless Gondians.
Baldur’s Gate 3 worst encounter involves incompetent NPCs
In a post on the Baldur’s Gate 3 subreddit, one player bemoaned the AI of the Gondians being forced to work in the Steel Watch Foundry, which you’ll need to infiltrate if you want to take down Gortash towards the end of the game.
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They said: “Absolutely unmitigated dumbf*ckery of the Gondians in the lower-level fight at the forge is the single most infuriating combat experience in the game minus the poltergeist fight before they fixed it.”
Several other players agreed that the encounter was one of the most frustrating in the game, with another saying: “I worked really hard to keep them alive, and they waited until the last minute with the auto-destruct sequences to run right into the blasts. I just had to shrug my shoulders at that point.”
It’s not the first time players have noted some of the stranger NPC reactions to danger. Their tendency to walk into obvious death traps has also been a sticking point for some players.
For more news and updates on Baldur’s Gate 3, check out the mod that lets you create a party with the Fellowship of the Ring.