Ashlane

I also had this happen to my mercs pre-patch.

How randomized is loot? I ask because I found some monk specific gloves that increase your damage based on how many wounds you have. I'm well into act 3 though and that's the first time I've at least taken notice of that type of item/mechanic being in the game.

Can you open the console? If so you can just teleport your party to another area.

Playing on hard with a great sword using gib machine of a melee cypher. I just entered Dryford at level 7, so far the only fight I've had to retreat from was a certain boss in Searing Falls.

I had the same issue on a 32bit OS, I got around it by forcing the game to run in openGL mode just for that town. I thought I would have the same issue loading the main cities too, but so far I've completed almost? all of Defiance Bay and all the surrounding areas, and haven't had another crash.

I'm also running on a 32bit OS, I finally got Gilded Vale to load by forcing the game to run in openGL mode (less memory usage), not sure if that will continue to work, but so far so good.