Here there be spoilers to a minor side quest and a small part of one of the main quests. Ye have been warned, arrr.
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Anywho... I'm stuck on Leyra and her evil spawns. Aloth is my only mage, Durance is my priest. I have the paladin, Eder, and the dwarf ranger with her white fox. My main is also a Paladin, and we're rolling through pretty easily with Aloth being my main mechanics user. However, I got to this side quest and I get repeatedly murdered without ever being able to take down a single enemy. I've used summons and targeted spells, but the enemy teleports in, lays down a massive damage AOE, then rips the life out of Aloth without me being able to get my tanks to him. I've tried traps and special attacks, but they keep killing me with prejudice. On easy. My party is level 5 across the board. Do I need to be significantly higher level? Or do I need to really think differently? I chose easy from the beginning because I didn't want to worry much about combat this game. But this is ridiculously overpowered. Any tips?

second post to make this a question and properly reward the correct answer.

Heritage Hill, that is spirits and vessels, the shadows and shades are vulnerable to fire (Aloth has good spells in lvl 1 - 3).
Other option is to enchant your tank's weapons with the Spirit slay and maybe vessel (But better in weapons that deals crush).

Thanks for this. I was finally able to manage it focusing physical attacks on Leyra and magical attacks on the Justiciars.

I can't remember if the dialogue in this one starts when you get close, or when you walk up to her and start conversation.

On the occasions where the convo and eventual battle initiate just by getting close, for the tough battles, I usually die on the first try. After I know the deal on a reload, I sneak each party member to an advantageous position for their abilities, then once all are in place, send my tank forward to start it off.

This particular encounter I put a mage on either side of the tomb in the center of the room, a melee rogue close to one and a melee paladin close to the other, and my ranged attacker near one or the other (all slightly behind the mages).

As soon as battle starts, my tank high tails it backwards, drawing them into my trap. Then my mages start casting fan of flames to severely weaken the enemy rush, and send in all melee fighters to finish them off. I always focus all attacks from everyone after that on any enemy spellcasters first, mages or priests, whichever I found to be the biggest threat the first time I fought them.


I do this when I find packs of ogres and ogre druids too - I sneak everyone to a point where the druids are in front of the regular ogres and take them out first, as they are hell on your party if you don't get them first.

I'm near the end, and the only fight in the whole game that I tried a LOT of times but just could not win and gave up on was the lighthouse quest (I eventually found the peaceful way to resolve that). I never did the endless paths though .... I hear that is a very tough fight.

You need fighters.They have endurance regen and with the right skills they get some health regen and they can keep more enemies on them. Tank builds are a must. And i mean serious tanks. I usually have at least two fighter tanks in my party, which makes things better. Use the unique weapons (you should have quite a few by now, if you explored properly). Also, light armor for certain classes help a lot as they can do a lot of dps. Always focus on priests and mages first (or anything with spells/range attacks), Keep the enemy fighters on your tanks.

The lighthouse was relatively easy for my party, though i prefered to solve things peacefully (tried the both ways, succeded in both, saved the peaceful option).

P.S.: there is a unique sword with quite the bonus against the ghosts, phantoms, banshees and other spirits. Arm your fighter with that before attacking those enemies. Upgrade the quality to max when you have reached the right level

^ Yeah, I have 1 tank, and I think that's enough - so long as every level you focus ONLY on defensive talents and abilities. The ones that increase the amount of enemies they engage is great, keeps the attacks away from your weaker npc's. Although I'm sure 2 tanks would make things easier.

I'm amazed hearing that you beat the battle at the lighthouse. My party is pretty strong, but good god I think MAYBE I was able to kill one enemy only before total party death. And I tried many different tactics. At that point however I used my 2 mages offensively only, and hadn't experimented with any "crowd control" spells (now I know a lot better ways to use my mages) - - - - - - - -- - -- - - - - - - - - - - many melee characters get big damage bonuses to downed enemies (rogues, abilities at level ups, some unique weapons) and mages are very good at putting enemies in bad ways ;)

Also, I never messed with the "confusion" spell until I was up against a bunch of ogres and ogre druids in a cave, and got frustrated after the 4th total party death and decided to experiment with other spells ...... wow. Just as a tip to anyone who may not know, if you place the spell to affect only HALF of the enemy party, instead of all of them, they will start fighting each other. If you hit them all with it, they will just walk around until either the spell wears off or you attack them, which puts you right back where you would be had you not even casted it - which makes it pointless (unless you are using it to escape).

Also, a lot of people seem to think mages (wizards, sorry) are weak in this game, and that you must have good melee fighters and at least one tank to be successful in combat. I disagree. I am certain I could make a party of 6 mages and defeat the game, endless paths and all. Not that it would be easy, but it can be done. And I imagine pretty damn fun too.