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.
I haven’t found it that way. I’m generally D&D has a lot of “save or suck” abilities. Generally this applies to spells where either you make your saving throw and nothing happens, or you fail and something catastrophic happens. It feels very swingy - one turn you’re ahead, the next turn your barbarian is paralyzed and your wizard is blinded.
It also applies to attacks and other abilities, though. Try to stack buffs that give you bonuses to attack roles and saves. Bardic inspiration, guidance, enlarge/reduce, etc. help to minimize the suck for you and maximize the suck for them.
Good luck!