Most Powerful Foe

CoM_Solaufein

In regards to the SoA part of the game who is more powerful, Kangaxx the demi-lich or the dragons?

Tolben

Well Kangaxx is mostly a one trick pony, meaning that the fight is super hard if you don't know what he can do, but after the first time it becomes insanely easy without mods. The dragons on the other hand are more tactical, and for the most part you can't fully protect your whole party from all of their abilities. I would personally say that the dragons are much more of a challenge than Kangaxx, without mods, of course.

deltago

The dragons.

One scroll is all you need to kill Kangaxx. The dragons you need to put a little more thought and effort into it.

CoM_Solaufein

I always considered Kangaxx to be the biggest pain with his Timestop and Imprisonment spells. Not to mention his buff spells.

JuliusBorisov

Noober obviosly. He would bore them all to death in a few minutes.

Fandraxx

All the paladins that pop out of nowhere if you go windspear hills at lv 13 like i did and forget to do the quest.........

CoM_Solaufein

Okay. Looks like the death of the black and red dragons will trigger my Encounter Y quest.

Gotural

In the vanilla game, Kangaxx doesn't use Time Stop, only his Trap the Soul ability. So a simple level 5 spell will counter the whole encounter.

Mathsorcerer

Dragons are more powerful, in my opinion. Demi-lich...meh--haste + Melf's Minute Meteors makes short work of them, especially when backed by Spell Immunity, Improved Invisibility, and Non-Detection (well, once I fixed it to give protection from divination attacks like it is supposed to, that is).

marrowj

well the first time i played bg2 at relese, Kangaxx most certainly cast time stop

ryuken87

CoM_Solaufein said:

Okay. Looks like the death of the black and red dragons will trigger my Encounter Y quest.

Are you making a mod for the game of something? Because if you are then positioning a quest after the black dragon is a *horrible* idea. One of the things mods do badly in general is interupt the flow of the game and over-impose themselves. Doing that right before the end of SoA would be a bad idea.

@marrowj His Lich form will open with Timestop. His Demilich form only uses Imprisonment (and his Wail of the Banshee equivalent/pathetic bite attack?)

CoM_Solaufein

Fighting those dragons means you are ready to meet my two adversaries. They are more powerful than a mere dragon

ryuken87

I think you missed my point, it has nothing to do with the challenge. If you put your quest after the black dragon then you completely break the immersion of the game. The story is reaching it's crescendo, you've fought through Irenicus's army, you're saving the Elven City, you've just vanquished the black dragon and as you prepare for (what you think will be) the final encounter in which you get revenge on your nemesis and restore your immortal soul......you have to fight two random dudes you never heard of. Seriously, don't do it or your mod will be shit before you've written it.

CoM_Solaufein

I'm speaking of the shade lord dragon

Archaos

Draconis. Both difficult and entertaining fight instead of getting "Imprisonment"-spammed.

meagloth

Kangaxx is a pushover once you know what to do. Spell immunity + Rasaad = a dead lich.

deltago

Am I the only one who breaks out the Protection from Undead scroll against Kangaxx?

Nimran

The shadow dragon was the biggest pain for me. Draconis and Firkraag weren't quite so frustrating, though all of the dragons required many reloads.

marrowj

@Ryuken87 AA yes ofc

Glidderdust

First time I faced Kangaxx he killed me and I had no idea how to deal with him (and liches in general). So I simply reloaded and bought a protection from magic scroll and a +4 weapon. I was using protection from undead for the other liches.

The dragons were more challenging to me. Had to figure out the right combination of party members and spells. Watching Firkraag go down the first time was great.

FleshIsADesignFlaw

We have all played the game many times and even read up on tactics etc, so of course we know you need Immunity: Abjuration or beserk, a +4 weapon or a lvl 9 spell. But think back the first time you played the game. Lichs were tough and once you finally beat Kangaxx the Lich, you're faced with the demi-lich who instantly stats imprisoning you and your party. If you don't research his abilities, it would take a very long time to discover how to beat him.

Twisted Rune is the most difficult encounter if you run into the room as opposed to picking them off one by one.

Vitor

Well... I fight fair.
I try to fight like it would be if it was table-top.

So, nothing was more brutal until now than Firkraag. Hell, I got so many Dragonslayer's magic items in his lair, that I thought I would kick his ass. "Yeah, I was immune to fear, had fire resistance. There was no way no Dragon would resist to my new Dragonslayer Longsword!" - I was Lv. 9, I guess.

Well, you can imagine how it ended. This freaking beast just pawned me with so much style, that I had to go away. Someday I'll return there and kill him, but it's not going to be soon.

Gallowglass

Dragons, meh ... against dragons, I usually find that the just-charge-right-in-and-kill-it method works. Sometimes I don't even bother to pre-buff, just charge and hack. However, I often leave dragons until I return from Spellhold, by which time I've got a few levels under my belt, a heap of good kit, and better saving throws. The dragon who sometimes calls for a little more preparation is Firkraag, if I'm facing him before going to Spellhold, because at that stage he can be quite tough.

Killing Kangaxx the Demi-lich is easy enough when you know how (as described by previous posters), but the problem can be that he sometimes starts targetting your other party members unexpectedly, the guys you've got standing at the back who aren't tooled up with Immunity etc. Keeping them out of his sight can be tricky in the confined space available, so it can take some micro-management.

I find the Twisted Rune a significantly tougher fight than either of the above, that always requires some careful preparation.

And of course, you can do Watcher's Keep in SoA if you choose (although I usually leave it until ToB), in which case there's Demogorgon to consider. He's not difficult if you use enough cheesy tactics, but in my last run I made a point of reminding myself what it's like to tackle him head on, in simple toe-to-toe melee, and it was fun ... and it wasn't as difficult as I remembered it being (although I did this in early ToB, so I had a pretty high-level party, not in SoA).

JLee

Honestly for me the most difficult battles, as defined by the number of times I die, are the Den of Seven Vales upper floor and the fight for CF (that damn backstabber!). I usually attempt these right away and I reload there more than anywhere else.

To answer the OP and to phrase it a little differently, if I was playing no-reload and had to fight one of them, I would prefer Kangaxx to the Shadow Dragon or Firkraag. He is easier to counter and leaves less to chance, imo.

Tolben

Vitor said:

Well... I fight fair.
I try to fight like it would be if it was table-top.

So, nothing was more brutal until now than Firkraag. Hell, I got so many Dragonslayer's magic items in his lair, that I thought I would kick his ass. "Yeah, I was immune to fear, had fire resistance. There was no way no Dragon would resist to my new Dragonslayer Longsword!" - I was Lv. 9, I guess.

Well, you can imagine how it ended. This freaking beast just pawned me with so much style, that I had to go away. Someday I'll return there and kill him, but it's not going to be soon.

The same happened to me, except it was with that Halberd that does bonus damage to dragons. When I got it I thought to myself "wow! bonus damage to Dragons I can insta beat them now". How wrong I was.

WebShaman

I would take the Dragons. I haven't yet fought the Silver Dragon yet (played mostly good characters) - how does she stack up in the Dragon catagory?

Tolben

Adalon and the two Silver Dragons from Dorn's quest are pretty tough. The breath weapon that Silver Dragons have does a ton of cold damage, and if it does enough it can freeze and shatter your characters. Aside from that, the fight with Adalon is a pretty standard Dragon fight. She casts stoneskin and some protection spells, your dispell them and whack her to death.

The two Silver Dragons from Dorn's quest are much tougher since you have to fight them as a pair. The fight against them is probably one of the toughest in infinity engine games.

ifupauline

It is more difficult to deal with dragon than Kangaxx, but if ever you don't have a way to deal with imprisonment, it would be impossible to kill a demi lich. Now if a Dragon isn't immune to imprisonment, One round is all Kangaxx needs to get rid of it.