Yeah, I had 1-2 battles in Part One and another one in Part Two where I just ran a console, turned on DebugMode and killed them with a command. I don't know if it has some terrible balance issues or I am just a noob (I play with the premade character by Valine).
These weren't optional battles. There was no other way to bypass them except combat.
In the strategy guide is this tip:
When facing numerous hostiles with good attacking abilities (like Dhorn in the Bear Pit or Drow parties in Part 2) it is more important to raise a chance to avoid multiple attacks
I spent an hour trying to fight a drow party until it finally occurred to me and I gave a shield to Rizzen and he tanked them so well that I was able to win the fight.