Several times, I have meticulously set up around a mini boss. For example, the fire elemental in act one or the toll collector in act two. After spending all this time prepping, I cast a spell such as banishment, or confusion, on the mini boss which triggers a little cutscene and initiative is rolled for combat.

As soon as the cutscene is over and combat begins, the spell I cast on the mini boss is immediately dispelled, like it never happened. It's very frustrating to go through all that set up and the foe literally has a form of plot armor, lol.

Is there a way around this besides starting combat and going through the cutscene before casting the control spell? Anyone else dealing with this?