What beasts do you most dread fighting in BG2:SoA?

karnage

karnage

I got MY vote in:

Illithids. Vamprires are 2 and Beholders are 3.

They don't get you by doing damage; they get you by devouring your intelligence. Very often, I skip the Mind Flayer dungeon altogether!

KidCarnival

Just so they get more votes than my kind! All the hatred has to stop!

abacus

LEAVE MY BRAIN ALONE!!

velehal

Beholders. I don´t know why people are so scared of Illithids. Even with SCS I find them very easily manageable. Just few protecitve spells and few summons and they are done. Without chance. But there isn´t any spell that would protect you against beholders when they can dispel any spell protection in a moment. Against more (3+)beholders you can´t cast defensive spell and smash them with brute force. You need to paralyze them, catch them into the web or something like this.

karnage

I'm not scared of mind flayers! I'm terrified of them! (LoL)!

Pecca

I voted for Mind Flayers more for RP reasons, than a difficulty of combat. In that regard, dragons would be first on my list. (They should be an option instead of trolls.)

@KidCarnival: I thought, you'd enjoy being the most dreaded of creatures. It's a free advertising.

lroumen

They are not difficult, but I really dislike fighting Rakshasa... immunity to level 1-7 (or 6?) spells and they cast annoying spells (chain lightning, sphere of chaos and such).

karnage

Dragons were a silly oversight on my part. Rakshasa would have been a good option; better than trolls, LoL.

Serpion

Rakshasa yes... In my last playthrough I had killed rakshasa in sewers via Keldorn's "Hallowed Redeemer" ability to deal damage to attacker... Spent a lot of cure potions due I had played on insane dificulty -)

Kamigoroshi

Oozes... I really hate it when I'm forced to fight against my own kin.

Heindrich

velehal said:

Beholders. I don´t know why people are so scared of Illithids. Even with SCS I find them very easily manageable. Just few protecitve spells and few summons and they are done. Without chance. But there isn´t any spell that would protect you against beholders when they can dispel any spell protection in a moment. Against more (3+)beholders you can´t cast defensive spell and smash them with brute force. You need to paralyze them, catch them into the web or something like this.

@velehal
I refused to buy the Shield of Balduran cos I didn't expect to meet any more Beholders after the Unseeing Eye, and thought it was "too much gold to counter such a circumstantial threat".

Since then I have taken on dragons, mindflayers and even Demogorgon! But there is only one dungeon I ran away from like a little girl... the Beholders in the Underdark! Without the shield these guys are ridiculous. Even Gauth are nasty buggers that shoot pain and death like a magical machine gun!

I never understood the Mindflayer-phobia either. I have only died against them through my own carelessness. Otherwise just pop a few defensive spells, cast Chaotic Commands and keep an eye on your Intelligence, and chop away!

Shin

Agreeing with the above, I tend to do beholder lairs without the shield of Balduran and with the SCS improved beholders component, and haven't found any clean, non-difficult way of handling them. It does instill a certain dread, and the incentive to prepare very carefully before going in.

kryptix

With SCS I managed both beholders and illithid on insane with a few reloads but wizards everywhere get annoying quick because with SCS there's no such thing as a quick wizard fight. You run into one when your out of ruby ray and it's just a battle of attrition...

KidCarnival

Pecca said:

I voted for Mind Flayers more for RP reasons, than a difficulty of combat. In that regard, dragons would be first on my list. (They should be an option instead of trolls.)

@KidCarnival: I thought, you'd enjoy being the most dreaded of creatures. It's a free advertising.

@Pecca: If it was truly dread, yes. But these polls are thinly disguised abberacism (lost in translation; the word in my language means "irrational hatred toward multi-eyed beings based on jealousy") and basically ask "which of these fugly freaks can't you kill fast enough". SEE THE USE OF "BEAST" IN THE TITLE? That's what I'm talking about. No-one even gets to know us before passing judgement. I'm actually quite civilized and absolutely not a "beast" or "savage" or "monster". S̶O ́M͘IS͢U̸N͘D̴E҉R̡STOO̴D̀

Foggy

I always play with aTweaks installed: makes protection from evil trivial and gives demons and fiends true sight, fiendish gating to summon an army of their own and many innate abilities.
Without mods it's a no-brainer: Illithids.

Pecca

@KidCarnival: Nay, that's just playing with words. Beast or no beast, your kin is passing judgement like everyone else. Once I was feeling lonely, trapped in the Underdark, so I decided to go and have a little chat with someone in a beholder lair, over a cup of coffee. You now, just to forget the trouble for a moment. I didn't even finished saying "Hi", and they started shooting at me. What a hospitality! So, no sir, you may be civilized, but the rest of your species is not. You have to endure the hatred against you, which may feel unjust, but is actually very rational.

jackjack

My poor brain.

Antagonist

Dragons, anyone? Srsly, guys.. Do you even remember about them? *sigh* Am I the only one who buffs up like for 2 hours to get prepared for a 3 minute slaughter? Illithids aren't that bad, I mean I know they hold you and suck out your brain but still.. I find them rather polite and hospitable compared to dragons. At least they don't try to stomp/burn/melt/electrocute/freeze/paralyze/eat/smash/cut in half or simply boot you out the front door with their wing buffet.

Edit: I would actually vote Beholders, but as much as they are a disaster and floating mutlieyeballed armageddon when taken more than 3 at once, I just go there spontaneously and try to survive. On the other hand, when I am about to face a dragon I feel like I have to get prepared for the judgement day, I think about this encounter 2 hours before going for it.

kryptix

@antagonist

However, at a certain point you can just put 4-6 buffs on one character and straight up melee a dragon to death... For example, for Adalon this time around, it was Protection from Magic Energy, Resist Fear, Improved Haste, Spell Immunity: Abjuration, Protection from Magic Weapons, Critical Strikes.

She went down moments after turning red... I had Jahiera on the other side with Iron Skins, Protection from Magic Energy, Resist Fear, Improved Haste, Armor of Faith, Shield of the Archons and Critical Strikes as well.

I even summoned a Deva for good measure, but it just got feared.

element

the beast that lurks with in us all, is the one I dread the most

Kastion

... I don't remember what this thread is about ...

Sylph

Nothing else really sets off my hysterical paranoia like knowing I have to waltz into a den of brain-suckers

Also anything with level drain, because I always forget to have my casters re-memorize the spells they lost and don't realize it until I really really need my cleric to cast Death Ward but OH LOOK they don't have it memorized anywhere cause they were level drained a while ago *cries*

lroumen

kryptix said:

@antagonist

However, at a certain point you can just put 4-6 buffs on one character and straight up melee a dragon to death... For example, for Adalon this time around, it was Protection from Magic Energy, Resist Fear, Improved Haste, Spell Immunity: Abjuration, Protection from Magic Weapons, Critical Strikes.

She went down moments after turning red... I had Jahiera on the other side with Iron Skins, Protection from Magic Energy, Resist Fear, Improved Haste, Armor of Faith, Shield of the Archons and Critical Strikes as well.

I even summoned a Deva for good measure, but it just got feared.

Maybe, but why are you in the underdark with HLAs? Of course the battle will be anticlimactic

Tresset

@lroumen The underdark is about the point at which I start getting HLAs too.

Beholders really bug me because I don't use Balduran's Shield of Cheese. I think that is a bit unfair for them so I usually beat them other ways; such as throwing summons at them since they don't use their eye rays on summons.

As for illithid... they don't have a great thac0 and are basically defenseless if you find stun protection somehow. For me that was Haer'Dalis and his Enhanced Bard Song.

Antagonist

@kryptix Yes I am aware of that

But I consider this thread about what I dread fighting, not what I find most difficult to fight. Despite I am able to beat the shit out of any dragon in the game I still feel a huge amount of respect for them. Beholder's strenght lays in their numbers. Illithids can overwhelm me because of their number. A dragon is a threat not comparable to any other single creature in the game, except a few unique ones. Immersive roleplay FTW!! Powergaming suxxx ^_^

BTW. I got out of the underdark and still only got one HLA so far (Korgan) the rest of the party is 17-18

kryptix

Antagonist said:

@kryptix Yes I am aware of that

But I consider this thread about what I dread fighting, not what I find most difficult to fight. Despite I am able to beat the shit out of any dragon in the game I still feel a huge amount of respect for them. Beholder's strenght lays in their numbers. Illithids can overwhelm me because of their number. A dragon is a threat not comparable to any other single creature in the game, except a few unique ones. Immersive roleplay FTW!! ^_^

BTW. I got out of the underdark and still only got one HLA so far (Korgan) the rest of the party is 17-18

I don't get it... I had HLAs for almost all of my party by spellhold, Imoen got her first one right out of the underdark, or maybe at the end of the underdark. Does SCS really add that much more exp?

I didn't even try to power game levels either, I went with a 6 man party throughout chapters 2-3, so I actually have Nalia sitting in the Copper Coronet with well over 2 million exp. I also ran with Jan and Keldorn for a little while each (but I didn't do any major quest hand ins with Keldorn).

I did every quest and fight in Chapter 2-3 except the Dawn ring for Lathander and the Fallen Paladins.
I didn't pick up Anomen, Mazzy, Edwin, or Dorn at all though because of conflicts. I did all of the other Personal quests, I didn't pick up Haer'Dalis or any of the other characters without personal quests.

I think I picked the higher exp option in every decision point, and memorized every scroll I could find/afford (with copious use of Hexxat's high stealing skill).

I did fight the SCS enhanced version of Ust Natha though, and that was probably worth a good 1-2 million exp for the whole team combined.

By the time I fought Adalon, I had probably between 3.5 and 4.2 million exp on all of my main party members. If I didn't use Nalia, it probably would have been higher.

Next time I'll try a run with only my final team in the party as much as possible and see if I can be higher level by the Underdark. I try not to do Watcher's Keep too early though because I like to save it for Imoen.

the_spyder

I'm actually surprised more people don't say Wizards. While I fear Vamps and Beholders and Mind flayers, they all have pretty stock defenses that, with preparation, can render them fairly non-threatening.

I am even more surprised that Dragons and Liches are not on the poll. These, to me, are among the worst monsters in the game. I can't tell you how many times Firekrag or the Shadow Dragon have killed my party, not to mention that one in ToB.

Zeratul

Illithid! At least when i cannot safely cast 2-3 Mordekain Swords for kill them.

And in Vanilla Game they can kills also my undead, that is quite amazing, also because a Skeleton Warrior have not a brain

Damn cheater Illithids!

kryptix

the_spyder said:

I'm actually surprised more people don't say Wizards. While I fear Vamps and Beholders and Mind flayers, they all have pretty stock defenses that, with preparation, can render them fairly non-threatening.

I am even more surprised that Dragons and Liches are not on the poll. These, to me, are among the worst monsters in the game. I can't tell you how many times Firekrag or the Shadow Dragon have killed my party, not to mention that one in ToB.

Yeah I'd have to say with SCS, my worst nightmare is running into a random Lich too early... There is almost nothing you can do outside of the smelliest of cheese to beat a lich before your fairly powerful with SCS...

Antagonist

@kryptix

Ah you see, I had Charname Wild Mage,Neera(recently slain and replaced by Edwin),Hexxat,Dorn,Korgan,Vicky. I went through all major quests(D'Arnise keep, Umar, Windspear, Trademeet, Mae'Var, Unseeing Eye etc, some minor ones as well(Sir Sarles, Planar Sphere, Planar Prison, skinner murders, copper coronet, NPC questlines), but I don't really remember a large part of what can be done before spellhold so I probably skipped a significant number of quests, and I did not do any other NPC quests including not even bothering to bust the circus party on the promenade. And I have two wizards so a lot of scrolls written as well, but only the ones I saw fit, I did not write scrolls for pure xp. Don't know why such a difference.

Edit: now I'm in chapter 6 about to go get Bodhi and still most party hardly 3 milion xp each.