Make sure you give Farin the "Taunt" ability under "War Cry" or else you're pretty much doomed.
Chapter 7, Part 3 (Siege of Nordinbad): You have to stop two armored trolls from smashing the gate, which takes about twenty seconds of damage once one of the trolls gets there. This means that besides just killing the trolls, you also have to distract them for an extended period of time. For everyone who's just been hanging back and shooting the trolls in the face with arrows this whole time to get by, this is a huge difficulty spike since you have to actually go up and hit them to keep them from running to the gate (while being assaulted by dual-swordsmen no less). There are forums all over the web in which people complain that they simply cannot complete this level because of the sudden increase in difficulty - it's what I call a "difficulty wall" in video games because the game lets you get to a certain point while using a playing style that can't possibly allow you to progress past that point, thereby forcing you to quit, start over, or learn a completely new playing style that may or may not be too difficult for you.
Farin's "taunt" will immediately draw the trolls to him, successfully distracting them from the gate and buying you precious time. But if you haven't been developing the dwarf and don't have Taunt, you could very well be doomed. The only way I got past this level was by pumping Farin up with sophisticated armor and health potions, arming him with a huge two-handed sword, learning how to dodge attacks for the first time (not really a needed skill up to this point), equipping "Taunt," and then trying about 15 times (which is nothing compared to those forum posters).
So if you are a casual gamer and you think you might hit the difficulty wall, be warned.
P.S. The very next battle after that is just as hard, because you face a single boss and his two swordsmen who can kill you in 2-3 seconds on Normal difficulty. My advice for him is to run laps around the arena using Andriel and the sprint button. If you run in a few circles around the arena you should get enough distance behind you to quickly revive one of your companions and then turn around and shoot the boss for the 4-5 seconds your companion lasts before the boss kills him and you start running again. It's a complicated process but it's the only way I found to defeat him without learning how to dodge all of his attacks and those of his two invincible lackeys. It also works with the Agandaur boss battle (singleplayer for all of this).
Chapter 7, Part 3 (Siege of Nordinbad): You have to stop two armored trolls from smashing the gate, which takes about twenty seconds of damage once one of the trolls gets there. This means that besides just killing the trolls, you also have to distract them for an extended period of time. For everyone who's just been hanging back and shooting the trolls in the face with arrows this whole time to get by, this is a huge difficulty spike since you have to actually go up and hit them to keep them from running to the gate (while being assaulted by dual-swordsmen no less). There are forums all over the web in which people complain that they simply cannot complete this level because of the sudden increase in difficulty - it's what I call a "difficulty wall" in video games because the game lets you get to a certain point while using a playing style that can't possibly allow you to progress past that point, thereby forcing you to quit, start over, or learn a completely new playing style that may or may not be too difficult for you.
Farin's "taunt" will immediately draw the trolls to him, successfully distracting them from the gate and buying you precious time. But if you haven't been developing the dwarf and don't have Taunt, you could very well be doomed. The only way I got past this level was by pumping Farin up with sophisticated armor and health potions, arming him with a huge two-handed sword, learning how to dodge attacks for the first time (not really a needed skill up to this point), equipping "Taunt," and then trying about 15 times (which is nothing compared to those forum posters).
So if you are a casual gamer and you think you might hit the difficulty wall, be warned.
P.S. The very next battle after that is just as hard, because you face a single boss and his two swordsmen who can kill you in 2-3 seconds on Normal difficulty. My advice for him is to run laps around the arena using Andriel and the sprint button. If you run in a few circles around the arena you should get enough distance behind you to quickly revive one of your companions and then turn around and shoot the boss for the 4-5 seconds your companion lasts before the boss kills him and you start running again. It's a complicated process but it's the only way I found to defeat him without learning how to dodge all of his attacks and those of his two invincible lackeys. It also works with the Agandaur boss battle (singleplayer for all of this).