Grymforge is a good example of the "puzzle combat" in this game. (For those with reading comprehension, my complaint is that the combats take too long, not that they are too hard.)
When you enter the area you are told Nere and the gnomes are trapped in a cave-in with poison, you need to save the gnomes but also kill Nere, assuming you are good.
-If you rest, they all die, which makes sense at least. But if you happened to arrive at less than full health/spells, too bad. (Reload)
-You need a barrel bomb to open the cave in. I was lucky and had one already, but if you don't you have to go track one down. You'll probably run into several side fights that will sap your resources, potentially making the final fight unwinnable. (Reload)
-When you blow the bomb, you can easily hit one of the gnomes accidentally, turning them hostile and failing the quest. (Reload)
-When Nere is freed he immediately starts killing the gnomes unless you fight him. This inexplicably turns every dwarf in the area hostile, which is a fight you probably aren't prepared for. (Reload)
-One of the dwarves, who is not a caster, has a magic item that casts Thunder wave, and will attempt to use it to knock your guys into instakill pits or lava. The terrain of the room makes it very difficult to stay safe from this attack. So unless you intuited that this one dwarf was especially dangerous, win initiative, and burn her down, you're likely going to lose one or more guys. (Reload)
-You can try picking off some of the isolated dwarves ahead of time with stealth kills/pushes, but this is going to require some trial and error. (Reload)
-You can convince the elder to turn half the dwarves against Nere, but this requires a specific line of dialogue and a skill check, so if you missed it, too bad. (Reload and restart entire area).
-I tried to find an alternate way to free Nere without clearing the cave-in, but the game doesn't allow you to teleport or fly to the other side, even though it looks like it should. Waste of resources. (Reload)
So, for a single fight, that was about two hours of "gameplay" with at least 6+ reloads just to learn script triggers, gotcha enemies, and unpredictable NPCs, and I barely feel like I've made any progress or had any fun for my gaming time. You're really better off going into this area hard and just killing everyone, but then you won't get to experience the developers' awesome "puzzle".
