Combat and Gameplay Tips
Most of the areas added by Tales of the Sword Coast are riddled with devastating traps and well-positioned, powerful enemies. There are two tweaks to the combat system used by the original game that can have a significant impact on gameplay, and with those changes in mind, this section sets out several general tips on how to be successful in battle:

Speed and Scouting
In the original game, if a character was in the targeted area of effect when a trap was sprung or a spell was cast, that character would be hit even if he or she ran out of the targeted area before the blast visibly hit the character. No longer. Now a character can escape damage by managing to visibly flee the targeted area of effect. As soon as a trap is sprung or an area-of-effect spell is cast at your characters, hit the pause button and plan your escape. Use a thief equipped with boots of speed or under the influence of a haste spell or oil of speed to scout ahead of your party, looking for traps (especially in Durlag's Tower). Even if a trap is triggered, you should be able to get your character out of range before taking any damage from fireball or lightning traps (some traps, such as ones that trigger magic missiles or closing walls, can't be outrun). It's always a good idea to use protection from fire, lightning and magic spells or potions on your scouting character.

Haste in Combat
Haste was always an extremely effective combat spell, and in Tales of the Sword Coast it is almost an essential one. Several of the new enemies you'll face both are highly resistant to magic and deadly in melee combat, but by hasting your party your characters will be able to get several extra ranged attacks in before closing to close combat - or you can just choose to avoid melee combat altogether by using your speed advantage to flee approaching enemies. Your opponents are also now far more likely to cast deadly area-of-effect spells, such as cloudkill, stinking cloud and fireball, and hasted characters are far more likely to be able to dodge those spells.

Missile Weapons are Still King
Although the animation speed of missile weapons has been accelerated, they actually don't fire any more rapidly and are "only" as powerful as they were in the original game, which is pretty deadly. As indicated above, many of the new enemies are magically resistant, but a party equipped with arrows +2 (which are relatively common) can take any opponent down quickly, especially if the party members are hasted. While fire, ice and similar magical effects will be blocked, the additional damage inflicted by arrows +1 or +2, bullets +1 or +2, etc. can't be avoided by magical resistance.

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