You seem to have figured this out yourself already, but I would suggest temporarily switching to Easy difficulty whenever you get stuck on a battle. I wasn't sure if this was possible during a playthrough, but I checked, and it seems you can change the difficulty level at any time. ( At least outside of combat. )

At this point I'm actually curious why the game is giving you so much trouble, as I just finished those arena fights myself recently, and completed them all on the first try. I do think it's a fairly challenging game, and sometimes it can feel a bit unfair ( like the RNG is sometimes giving the AI an advantage ), but so far I didn't get stuck on any fights. I just occasionally start a fight over, if I feel like I've made a really dumb mistake.

How do you spend your experience points? Do you focus too much on attribute points? I'd say early on it's more effective to focus on your main attack skills & spells, so you deal more damage and reduce the risk of missed attacks. I find it also helps if you teach all of your magic users some healing spells, so you don't have to rely on potions all the time.

Maybe you could also optimize the equipment of your characters. Most heavy armor and weapons comes with some negative side effects, especially for magic users.

Oh, one more important general tip: Try to always keep multiple save games, so you can go back to an older save if you feel like you've screwed up. That way you won't have to start over from the beginning. I always do this for longer games, mostly to be prepared in case some kind of bug or hardware malfunction messes up my current save.

Thanks for the information.

Yeah, I'm certain part of my issue is simply not knowing what to build up first and being generally unfamiliar with The Dark Eye system... but the first act being so "easy" lulled me into a false sense of security -- the skill spec issues suddenly hit hard and fast with act 2.

Coming off Divinity OS and King's Bounty I hadn't expected to have an issue... but I'm slow sometimes. ;)

That's why I usually prefer when games allow you to reset your skill points, but many "old-school" RPGs come without that kind of safety net.

Did you manage to make some more progress in Blackguards 1? I'm in the third chapter now and I like it much better, since it is less linear. I think you'd enjoy it more too, for the same reason. If you're stuck on a fight, you can simply go elsewhere and gain some more levels and loot.

As I've been playing some more, I also noticed another aspect of the game which is rather annoying: You have zero control over your unit placement at the start of each battle. This wouldn't be a big deal, except the devs frequently place your characters in rather frustrating and stupid setups, such as your squishy magic user starting right next to heavy damage dealers. Often you simply cannot avoid taking damage or being knocked down at the start of a fight. I think unit placement can be a rather fun and tactical aspect of this type of game, so it's a shame the devs didn't make it a part of the gameplay. Come to think of it, does Blackguards 2 allow you to place your own units? Been a while since I played it.

Anyway, remember that it is not only about the build. Often if a mission fails it is because of the tactical plan that you followed. Try to do something different if what you have tried seems to fail, instead of relying on better luck with the dice (or brute force). Blackguards is great in making the player rethink the strategy and becoming a better player as a result.

Especially important in Blackguards is making the most of scenario features. Such as points to heal, devices that might hurt the enemy, choke points or choice of weapons/spells (such as, for example, using fire against a wood golem instead of just swords and lances: it makes a nearly impossible fight into a very manageable one).

I forgot: spells for directly harming the enemy are definitely not the best use that you could make of magic in Blackguards (or The Dark Eye). But you probably know that already.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I tend to play most games very tactically, but what I found with Blackguards is exemplified by the 2nd arena battle:

It set two of my team members -- a magic user and a ranged attacker -- against a magic user and a melee attacker. Problem was their melee character could heal by potion (my team had no potions) and I couldn't do enough damage. Period. I played through this scenario 20 times and could kill one or the other, but then would die almost instantly at the hands of the other character.

I haven't had issue with any of the large monsters -- even the golems -- because I tend to play ranged and tactically with plenty of buffs and de-buffs.

Overall I'm just not certain where the problem lies -- build or otherwise. Where in a game like Dark Souls I can often understand where my problem lies and act accordingly, Blackguards seems quite opaque as to where the deficiencies lie.

As I read your tips and those of others here, I understand them... and have in fact tried to utilize them in-game (many understood prior to having read them) to limited success. As I stated, I'm simply uncertain at this point in the game where my problems lie. A part of me wants to restart the game, but as I get closer to the end and run out of steam -- and without a solid theory as to where my problems lie (in order to fix those issues) -- a 3rd restart is improbable.

Thanks for your time and thoughts. I do appreciate them... just can't seem to understand exactly how the developers want me to play this game.

You are most welcome. It is a pleasure to get back to this game, at least in memory.

Right now I do not remember that particular fight but, playing it strictly by ear, if they have a magic user (healer as well?) and a ranged attacker, and potions, what can you do to counter that?

a) Having a better magic user and a better ranged attacker, and having some way of healing yourself (healing spells?).

b) What if, instead of attacking in a way that your opponent feels completely comfortable with, you go and rush the ranged attacker and the magic user, hand-to-hand? Does your ranged fighter have any skill in close combat? Is there any cover that you can use while you approach? Your magic user can buff the fighter enough for him to draw blood?

Note that this is strictly play-by-ear, without remembering that particular scenario and without knowing much about your party, but as an approach, it might work when dealing with apparently unsolvable situations. This means rethinking the strategy completely and thinking about what assumptions might be wrong, when something does not seem to work and it should.

It might help to treat the game like a graphic adventure when you get stuck: leave it and get back to it another day. Some scenarios have a heavier puzzle component to them.

That said, there a ways in which you can have it very hard even before starting. The game allows for mistakes in getting equipment and developing the characters. It pays to be conservative with both money and development points. Saving after each scenario might be almost mandatory, in case you eventually feel that you made a big mistake...

IIRC the arena battle requires you to form pairs from your party for each fight, no? And once one pair is used, you need to use other characters for the next fight. But you don't really know what's up ahead. I can see how that could make one of these fights quite difficult. So yeah, loading an earlier save and rethinking the strategy might help there.

Idk, I didn't have too much trouble with this game. I only played through it once, no restarts, no guides, no prior familiarity with the rules. There were a few frustrating fights but overall I thought it was pretty good and just reasonably challenging. Towards the end though it started to feel more and more like I'm playing the same tactics over and over again, meaning I didn't have to use my head much.. at that point the fights started to get quite boring.