I noticed that when I arrived to their camp with benevolent 2 the guard says they heard about me, but no matter my answer the other guard forces a fight. When I reach their commander, mostly by sneaking but probably killing at least 10 more guards, there's no option to negotiate and he always attacks me. I know this quest is supposed to be a high-level combat challenge, but is there no way to avoid some of the combat through dialogue?

Nope. It's always fighting as far as I know. Maybe there is a way with a ton of RES, but I don't think so.

Disregard this, wrong encounter.

Edited August 14, 20178 yr by scythesong

You can also run through the area with a lot of movement speed bonuses. You will have to lead the following Bannermen into the Alguls and Deathguards and while they fight you can run to the entrance of the tower and wait till encounter stops, then enter. Maybe you also have to use summons to stop followers. However, I only did this solo and I think it's nearly impossible with a whole party if you don't want to give everybody Fast Runner and use a party wide Zealous Charge or potion of Fleet Feet. And even then it will be a chore. But solo it' OK. Boots of Speed and a potion of Fleet Feet stack. Even if you get hobbled or blinded by a ranged attack you still will be fast enough. Just don't get engaged.

Edited August 14, 20178 yr by Boeroer

I tried running through there to get the Alguls and Deathguards do the fighting for me. I cleared the entire map, except for one lone Bannerman and the last group before the Algul section. I kept one Bannerman alive since I need to be in combat to drink a potion of fleet feet. Once I drunk the potion, ran up to the last Bannermen, had the conversation and tried to run past them.

 

Unfortunately, the Bannerman block the entrance so I could not make in past. Died pretty quickly and retried by drawing them away. Managed to clear the way through and then run to the Alguls. Perhaps I ran too fast, but the Bannerman go back to their default location by the time the Alguls engage me. So I ran back and tried to get them to engage each other. Unfortunately, everyone targeted me, I got caught and died again.

 

Thereafter, I used the same tactics and got a Deathguard involved as well. Running around in circles just had everyone still targeting me. Perhaps if some AOE managed to hit the Alguls from the Bannermen, they would have started attacking each other. In my case, it did not happen and they seemed quite happy to ignore each other to focus on me. When the potion of speed wore off, I was still pretty fast due to the boots of speed, but I ended up running out of room and dying.

 

I gave up after trying this a couple more times. If anyone wishes to try this, you should also wear something that protects against stuck as I had one or two runs end prematurely due to being stuck by a Bannerman spell.

 

While I wish I could get this to work, I guess I will just have to slaughter everything in my way...

Edited August 21, 20178 yr by grausch