I mean, the game is amazing, has amazing dialogues, atmosphere and all that, but damn… the combat is surely a downer. Feels like theres no “real” tactic to the game other than just keep on (mindlessly) trying until the battle is won. And yes, I’ve done all quests, sidequests, with a “non-meme” party on the balanced difficulty and I’m -still- having lots of “please don’t use (x) skill or else my whole run is done for” moments.
Are you immediately running into battles or are you taking the time to examine the environment and enemies before initiating battles? Obviously it’s not always possible, but I usually spend a few minutes to plan some things before starting a fight.
I look at the environment to see if there are any items I can use to my advantage (barrels, chasms, etc.) or any optimal places to position my people (e.g., up high and out of sight for my rogue).
I also examine the enemies before hand to look at their strengths and weaknesses, and I change out my prepared spells accordingly.
In a game with dice rolls, it’s inevitable that some things will come down to luck. But I do think there’s still a lot of “tactical” planning to be had both during the battles but even before the fight starts as well.