I'm stuck on the very beginning of chapter 1. Group Style does absolutely no damage to the monsters, it keeps telling me they parried it. Potions don't help, aard allows me to take one of them out but thats about it. FYI i Have Full Combat Rebalance installed. So any suggestions? Thank you in advance. I keep dying.

That's one of TW1's major flaws, IMO: long cutscenes that end with G being dumped unceremoniously into the middle of nasty combat situations.

I haven't used FCR, but in normal TW1, there's definitely one combat style that works better than the others for fighting those dogs. I think it's the normal one, not Group style.

If group style isn't working for you, use fast style instead. But I've never used FCR, so I don't know if that changes things.

http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Barghest suggests trying a heavy club if you can find one, although the same caveat applies that FCR may have changed goodness knows what.

Your all basically saying that FCR might have fucked everything thing up haha. I'll try the suggestions, thanks guys.

This battle is a common complaint with the FCR mod. I'd use FlashMod instead.

One thing you'll need to keep in mind is that with FCR, most of the game's combat mechanics are changed. So even people that may know The Witcher well won't be much help with battles unless they're also experts in the mod. Same goes for info you find on Wiki, forums, or the game manual. I would read the new FCR manual that Flash made really thoroughly and see if there are any clues.

As others have pointed out, it is FCR. This is a tremendously difficult battle in FCR, and it causes more than a few players to give up and revert to the vanilla game. You probably should not even attempt it unless you have already played the game on Hard, set up the game with FCR on Easy, and are willing to re-learn most of the combat.

In FCR, you get the "Parry" indication when your attacks are too weak to do any damage. If I've understood the FCR manual correctly (numbers are for FCR Easy level, which is harder than vanilla Hard and all you should attempt the first time out):

The base damage for the Witcher's Steel Sword is 13, but steel has a -10 penalty against monsters = 3.
The damage threshold for Barghests is 5. So base damage alone will not hurt Barghests at all.
The damage bonus for Fast Steel level 1 is +1, so 3 + 1 = 4 is still less than 5, and you still won't do damage.
Even worse, the damage penalty for Group Steel level 1 is -6. So you can't even hit the arse end of a ghoul with it.

Not even Strong Steel will help you enough. Strong Steel level 1 is +2, and Crushing Blow I is +2 for a total of +4.
3 + 4 = 7, which is greater than 5, so you can do about 2 damage per blow to a 53-point Barghest. Lots of luck surviving long enough to kill them all.

The most successful FCR players use Aard and kiting for this quest. There is a ramp across the courtyard from the scene of the attack. The Barghests cannot ascend it all together, so if you take a defensive position on the ramp, you can knock them down and finish them off one at a time.

You can do ok here with FCR. You do need to have put some of your early skill points into sword fighting, (strong) or other damage boosting skills.

You also should have a whetstone from the prologue which could be applied immediately. The peasant militia will distract the Barghests a little while they last...

Try to avoid standing still in the middle of the pack. Hitting a few times if you are 1 on 1, otherwise dodge if they are on you flanks. (Double tap arrow keys, or double click on ground)

Aard can knockback, but at this stage may not stun... (definitely not if you have added swordsmanship skills).
Worth using it in the absence of alternatives, but you need to hit and kill.
Concentrate on killing one, rather than wounding all.

You get some damage bonuses with bronze skill points in strong sword, and for Intelligence (monster lore) skills, in addition to the silver and gold bonuses (higher tiers in sword styles, Strength bonuses (and with max str/dex Adrenaline).

Most of these are not available this early, but you should certainly take tiers in strong sword, and strength.

I just started playing this game, 71 hours total, I replayed most of chapter 1 twice because I messed up somewhere, but with the Beast Boss, you need to leave at least 2 regular hounds alive or the Beast will regenerate. Use group steel to take most but not all of the dogs then Fast steel on the Beast and upgrade your Aard sign, to the max where it states stun effect. Before you leave the cave add the Specter oil to your blade, take One(1) Swallow and as soon as you are in the circle of fire with the beast dodge ASAP and quickly drink Blizzard. And just hit the beast with the Aard sign and keep moving, if need be just run around till your powers regenerate and hit the beast again, while taking a swing with the sword. I went through that a few times till I upgraded my Aard sign, to stun. And In just two hits with Aard sign I got a popup telling me that I stunned the beast and to just left click. Sure enough it was dead. But then I had to deal wit the crazy people but that was much easier.

Small comment on this. The fight takes place at midnight. If you leave the cave at 06:00 for example, the time to the fight will be 18 hours, so most potions will have worn off by then. Meditate until nearly midnight (23:##), then use the consumables, and then talk to start the event.

The things I hate about those fights are 1) they come with little warning at the end of long cutscenes, 2) the cutscenes show Geralt drawing his sword, but when the cutscenes end he hasn't drawn his sword yet, and 3) when the cutscenes end the game fades in from black, during which time the monsters can move and attack you but you can't react because you can't see anything yet.

I never looked at the time, and yes you are correct, but for some reason it did work for me. Maybe the game hiccupped or something.

Barghests are pretty weak. Those dog are Barghests. You have to attack them either with fast style (cat medallion), or group style (gryphon medallion). You CAN hit them with group style, provided they are near each other, and no less than 3. Sometimes, even strong style can hit them (but it can usually miss). Plus, the soldiers who guard the gates rush to fight there, too. What's wrong with them? Nothing special. Their boss is a bit hard, yes, but they? Pretty easy.