In my later games I started using traps (big style), on the shriek bridge pile a load of traps behind you just before you get to the middle and then you'll only have to fight the ones that come at you from the other side. 

My personal 'unfair moment' was when I was battling the gatekeeper and his pals in the ruins and for some reason all of the werewolves and shadow wolves from the side alcoves also decided to join in (i think there's about 15 of them in total including the gatekeeper's gang), this has happened to me only once but I was very lucky to survive.

The funny thing is it never happened to me before either until after I read your post. I had Shale, however, and had the stoneheart mode switched on. He didn't do much damage of course, but stone roar, bellow, taunt and regenerating burst seemed to work wonders on werewolves and shadowwolves. Between him doing that and PC mage using sleep and waking nightmare, they were either too busy being stunned or trying to attack Shale. And the two melee rogues, Zevran and Lel, had a field day. Apart from Shale drinking quite a lot of health potions, there were no casualties. No one got overwhelmed.

The only resistance is physical and mental, but i do agree that overwhelm cannot be resisted is laziness. At least in KotOR there are 3 save check, and if saved will result with different effect

It's not laziness it's called L2P.

like a lot of you ogre grab and overwhelm seem unfair to me, but what really bugs me is my rogue detecting a trap then promptly stepping in the thing after they've told me they see a trap. with their high cunning, how can they be so stupid???

GeneralXIV wrote:The ogre demon in the fade who kept knocking me down... over and over and over and over again

Every Ogre seems to love that move. It's... infuriating, to say the least.

Heimerdinger wrote:A lot of the things mentioned here offer enough room for counter-play, so I wouldn't really call them "unfair". Ogre Grab and Overwhelm can be cancelled with hard CC, knockdown can be 100% resisted with Indomitable or upgraded Shield Wall, high priority targets like mages can be nuked with combos. Large mobs? Positioning and crowd control, this game has a lot of CC. Tough fight ahead? You can cast AOEs across walls and the AI will just come rushing into your ambush of cone of colds, shatter combos and what not.

Also my opinion. After a few experiences with any "unfair" enemy skills / attacks it`s relatively easy to find some effective counter-measures. Like the rescue of the refugee chanter task. That darkspawn emissary made me resolute to save all refugees, and I did found several ways do do it on nightmare. Or the roasting of idiotic allies at the Redclife siege. Easy, never find those barrels again, so no task about flamables is ever mentioned.

What I found unfair when playing DAO and DA2: the cutscenes before most boss fights, ruining any tactical thinking / advantage. To be fair, it`s the same since BG1 and IWD.
These cutscenes are really stupid. Let`s think about just one of them, that with Jarvia. So, you have an experienced quartet of warriors destroying a bandit hideout. You are using surprise when entering every room, but then you suddenly go crazy and imbecile and just open that door to say hi. With a trio of seasoned fighters beside you, all becoming idiots in a flash. No way. The same about the famous ambush when rescuing Anora.
BW should have done at least a few different cutscenes versions for each such encounter, depending on your choices: sending a decoy ahead, entering in stealth mode, using traps...
I understand BW`s constrains concerning game size and resources. But by doing a few more cutscenes parts (you don`t have to remake them entirely, just the first part for each) it would have been a big immersion difference.

Scattershot can be resisted if you put a Misdirection Hex on the archer before he uses it.

Shapeshifters also have immunity to Overwhelm and other monster special attacks in their shifted form, with the additional advantage of being able to use Overwhelm on enemy foes.

You'll feel differently about Overwhelm when you victimize someone like Loghain using it.

Unfair for me-the AI getting first lick in with no option to defend, like when Wynne first uses her unique heal power, forget the name.

Mike3207 wrote:Scattershot can be resisted if you put a Misdirection Hex on the archer before he uses it.

Shapeshifters also have immunity to Overwhelm and other monster special attacks in their shifted form, with the additional advantage of being able to use Overwhelm on enemy foes.

You'll feel differently about Overwhelm when you victimize someone like Loghain using it.

Unfair for me-the AI getting first lick in with no option to defend, like when Wynne first uses her unique heal power, forget the name.

This is why one of my mages always learns all hexes as fast as possible. I remember trying once to use Morrigan as a shapeshifter. Is that good? It`s improved by the Arcane Warrior talents? If yes, I would consider to play Morrigan as such. I wanted for some time to try the Dalish Mage mod, but got into trouble with DAOUE last year when I made a clean install after updating to Win10. Then I played Pillars of Eternity. Now I want to finally do it. I plan an AW/SH Dalish Mage, and to use Morrigan as the second mage.

The episode you have bought up (Wynne and the Darkspawn Emisary`s ambush) is the worst kind of cutscene BS: not only you are denied of any tactical option, but not even allowed to do a thing. Double BS. I never understood why a RPG needs such moments. Especially this one, since it wasn`t even a dialogue reason.

Solaris68B wrote:

Mike3207 wrote:Scattershot can be resisted if you put a Misdirection Hex on the archer before he uses it.

Shapeshifters also have immunity to Overwhelm and other monster special attacks in their shifted form, with the additional advantage of being able to use Overwhelm on enemy foes.

You'll feel differently about Overwhelm when you victimize someone like Loghain using it.

Unfair for me-the AI getting first lick in with no option to defend, like when Wynne first uses her unique heal power, forget the name.

This is why one of my mages always learns all hexes as fast as possible. I remember trying once to use Morrigan as a shapeshifter. Is that good? It`s improved by the Arcane Warrior talents? If yes, I would consider to play Morrigan as such. I wanted for some time to try the Dalish Mage mod, but got into trouble with DAOUE last year when I made a clean install after updating to Win10. Then I played Pillars of Eternity. Now I want to finally do it. I plan an AW/SH Dalish Mage, and to use Morrigan as the second mage.

The episode you have bought up (Wynne and the Darkspawn Emisary`s ambush) is the worst kind of cutscene BS: not only you are denied of any tactical option, but not even allowed to do a thing. Double BS. I never understood why a RPG needs such moments. Especially this one, since it wasn`t even a dialogue reason.

Morrigan is not as good as the PC shapeshifter, just because less ability points with magic means she'll be less powerful. Magic powers up mental resistance, physical resistance, poison spit, swarm form and hp for the shifted forms. Strength increases the power of the physical attacks, also the base damage of the Overhelm attacks. Sadly, Overwhelm can't take advantage of critical damage and doubling attack damage just like the normal attacks do with melee weapons.

Shapeshifters can take advantage of the attack boost you get for picking up the Arcane Warrior spec-I think-also the ability to equip any armor or weapon in shifted form that all Arcane warriors get. Not the talents-the talents only work with Combat magic on, it's a sustain, and you can't use any other sustains with shifting because in a sense, the forms are all sustains. They're just permanent ones until you decide to shift back or run out of mana.