Question is in the title, my main problem (on core where chars not just hit death door or fall unconscious) is that bosses run past my whole melee group and target the casters. For example my caster is an ecclesitheurge so no armor and he went from 100% to dead in one round by Marhevok and his throwing axes.

I have idea how you prevent that with "positioning" my Cleric was at the very back and there were 3 characters directly between her and the boss, he just went by them, even got hit by an Attack of Opportunity and kiled the Cleric.

Yeah I get it, I would do the same as a player, but I don't see the point in unavoidable instant death here. I mean, I just use Toybox and revive them when I've won the fight... but somehow this feels pretty weird.

Did you try Turn Based Mode?
If not, then try it.

invisibility, mirror image, displacement on your casters, leave them further behind until all the ennemies are engaged (if possible), cast some crowd control spells such as web, grease, slow, entangle, spiked stones, pits... most ennemies don't have strong saves in all 3 saves, just target their lower save if possible. Some crowd control spells works partially even with a successful save.

In this particular fight, you can cast some spells before the dialogue that leads to the fight.

Ideally, you want to kill them faster. Otherwise, control them somehow. You'll probably need to check and see what they're immune to and what their low saves are so you know what to use.

And your casters should all have some kind of plan for survivability anyway. Buffs from an Alchemist, temporary hp, potions, personal defensive spells, invisibility (when it works), mythic abilites, etc... they don't need all of them. But they need something.

Originally posted by darkholyPL:

Did you try Turn Based Mode?
If not, then try it.

Yeah, TB makes the game easier, especially with casters who can be much more successful with AoE spells than the devs intended. But the main thing you need to do with casters is to use the pre-buffs available to you. Some players find that tedious, but it's necessary if you want your casters to be durable.

last stand and win in two rounds

Originally posted by Rudel:

For example my caster is an ecclesitheurge so no armor and he went from 100% to dead in one round by Marhevok and his throwing axes.

Yeah, well Marhevok is a boss and at the time you probably get to him he's a particularly nasty one - augmented by his bloody dragon whi h has a gazillion AC. He does exactly what you say - did it to me too, also on Core, first attempt.

Like most boss battles you need a specific plan to counter his trick of totally ignoring any melee you've got round him and cutting your back line to ribbons with his very powerful throwing axes. he is one of the limited number of enemies in the game that appear specifically programmed to do this. Owlcat may call this setting a "challenge". Others might call it bloody annoying.

The solution in this case for me was the observation that throwing axes have limited range - less range than either my casters or my archers. Therefore the obvious answer was to lock him down and then adjust my back line position so they were out of his range.

I did this with Phantasmal Web (I was probably lucky to get him with this first attempt, might need to save scum that opening shot) and then apply large numbers of summons, skellies and the like, to surround him and keep him occupied, continually replenishing them. This kept him occupied while I dealt with the annoying dragon. And of course carefully kept my back line out of his range (switched off Point Blank Shot etc). He was still tough but once I could pitch everybody in against him he didn't last long.

But, yeah, Marhevok is a piece of work, I would say one of the two or possibly three hardest battles I had in Act 3 ( I did him at L10, maybe L11 I can't remember exactly). There is no shame in having a spot of bother with him IMHO.

Originally posted by darkholyPL:

Did you try Turn Based Mode?
If not, then try it.

TB just makes the game about two levels of difficulty easier. I would say just reducing the difficulty and staying with RTwP the game plays much better. Has the same effect.

I have very large tanking pets in front of them that completely block everythings movement. Triceratops alone will completely block certain corridors, when its paired with a mastodon or boar, then whatever is trying to get to the casters will be stuck in even many open spaces.

If you have several casters, this is great. This is less useful if you have many melee characters as they are also hindered. Tank pets should be a bulwark if living or undead if going lich. You also have to get used to casting summoning spells behind or to the side of your opponents.

I cheesed him on demon mythic path, set my main character on fighting defensively and demon charged him on repeat, it worked :D but it was 2vs2 duel though

For example my caster is an ecclesitheurge so no armor and he went from 100% to dead in one round by Marhevok and his throwing axes.

Ranged attacks are natural enemies of casters. Stay behind or even park them on entrance.

I have idea how you prevent that with "positioning" my Cleric was at the very back and there were 3 characters directly between her and the boss, he just went by them, even got hit by an Attack of Opportunity and kiled the Cleric.

Seems your melees are pretty weak because 3 attacks should deal tons of damage and usually AI don't risk it, except dedicated chargers (like minotaurs) or assassins (like babau with dimensional door).

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

Originally posted by darkholyPL:

Did you try Turn Based Mode?
If not, then try it.

TB just makes the game about two levels of difficulty easier. I would say just reducing the difficulty and staying with RTwP the game plays much better. Has the same effect.

I disagree.
Fristly: it's a matter of preference if you like RTwP or TBM better, and I happen to like TBM much better.
Second: some aspects are harder by going TBM, for example you can't interupt anyone... ever, unless they decide to cast in melee and get AoO'd.

Mirror image, displacment and blur on you caster.

Azata - life bonding friendship, stack Cha.

Angel - High AC buffs.

Lich - turn undead to caster companion then cast negative energy eruption under them.

- I don't have mirror image on my Cleric
- I have ONE "undead to caster" as a Lich Lvl 10,, not 6 (1 pet)
- I don't have Phantasmal Web at Lvl 10
- I use all my buffs with Bubble Autobuffs, but I have not enough buffs to pump the whole party so i focus on my melees (Lich, Vivi & Skald + Pet) and they are doing fine
-I already summoned some Skellis but he killed my Cleric in round 3 and he just ignored them all
- it's not like there's only one enemy, I had to also deal with the dragon + 2 demons so focussing on the boss would have just wiped me

My point is that the whole battle went well. I went in well buffed, used all my abilities and pretty much controlled the battle. But then the boss decided to go on a suicide run just to kill a caster and there's nothing you can do if your CC is resisted (which in case of a boss happens like in 90% of the time?).

Thanks @Gregorovitch, your post helped a lot!

Originally posted by darkholyPL:

Did you try Turn Based Mode?
If not, then try it.

get gud bro