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Toughest battles in entire BG Saga?

Just read through an old thread on this forum about hardest battles in the entire bg saga. I tried to revive it but there was no option to reply.

So, which battles for you between all the BG games were the hardest? Either with mods or without mods?

In no particular order:

Twisted rune with scs installed. The first time I tried this, I just simply could not beat it. I don't think I was high enough level or understood some of the tactics I needed.

Sarevok with scs. I only did this once, and I had to resort to serious serious cheese. I still have a hard time believing people who did this battle legitimately. I had to isolate all of the mages and kill them 1 by 1. And then I had to hit sarevok with 20 fireballs from outside the screen before attacking him and he still almost wrecked my entire party. I almost think my install was like bugged which made this INSANELY hard.

Aec'Letac - This was a really fun and really challenging battle.

The statues on the first floor of watchers keep with scs. I always have a really hard time with this unless I come back with a really high level.

Chosen of Cyric encounter with rogue rebalancing mod. I believe I spent more time on this battle than any other in my bg career. This was really really fun and really hard.

I am still finishing my first ToB run. I have Ascension + SCS installed. I am about to finish up Abizigal's Lair and then Sendai's cove and then the final battle. I hear some of these are tough, looking forward to it!
Grond0StummvonBordwehr[Deleted User]JuliusBorisovgorgonzolaAerakar
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Comments

  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Two come to mind for me.
    1. Kahrk, BG1. This guy is BRUTAL for how early you can stumble in to him. I think of him as the hardest fight in the series for this reason alone. Demo, Demilich, any given dragon may be harder on paper, but for the times its possible to run into them, you have FAR more options for doing so than any given fight in BG1.
    2. Aec'letec. He's not all that tough stat-wise. One or two good fighters can take him down pretty quickly. But I alwayas have a heck of a time with his deathgaze. 90% of the time, I lose at elast one party member after the fight to this stupid thing.
    [Deleted User]JuliusBorisovAerakarkensai
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    The Iron Throne top floor battle with SCS is the only battle in the entire trilogy that consistently leaves me with utter seething rage.

    Aec’Letec is extremely unfun but also kind of a joke of a battle for me now.
    JuliusBorisov
  • SkitiaSkitia Member Posts: 1,054
    edited June 2019
    I got Aec'lectec done on a second try recently. One party member remained affected though at the end somehow so they had to die and get raised. I would find the Doom Knight before him consistently harder personally, always taking more re-tries even on earlier play throughs.

    For me it would be the dragon battles, especially Firkraag. I *always* have to take multiple saves for each one. Only the ones in chapter 7 do I usually find more luck in.

    I have no idea what SCS is, by the way. Does someone care to elaborate?
    JuliusBorisov
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @Skitia SCS is short for "Sword Coast Strategems", its a (very popular) difficulty mod. Usually by making the enemy ai smarter and giving them more level appropriate tools at their disposal.
    JuliusBorisovsemiticgoddess
  • dunbardunbar Member Posts: 1,603
    edited June 2019
    When I first played with SCS I decided that it actually stands for "Suddenly Can't Survive".

    P.S. For me the toughest battle by far is always Draconis.
    StummvonBordwehrGrond0JuliusBorisovBalrog99
  • xizorxizor Member Posts: 89
    SCS Ascension final fight by far. I still can't beat it.
    Girewan
  • IseweinIsewein Member Posts: 521
    Angering the Drow in Ust Natha is mental, but oh so satisfying and finally a great occasion for summoning demons.
    tbone1
  • HarpagornisHarpagornis Member Posts: 1,658
    Good old Belhifet is by far the single biggest challenge – at least when speaking from the perspective of a pure solo player including LoB & no-reload. The success of any run will depend to a big degree on how you can deal with Belhifet – or not. After that final battle against Melissan (with Ascension) comes to mind... :D
    JuliusBorisovStummvonBordwehr
  • MyragMyrag Member Posts: 328
    Amelyssan with Ascension and SCS on LOB by decent margin if you don't use trap/skulltrap spamming or harm.

    Other than few obvious fights I'd rate Demon room on 3rd watchers keep on LOB/SCS pretty high. You enter it get attacked by bunch of demons without any buffs because of no magic zone just before it. And if you are unlucky you still have wild magic debuff lingering on you for a bit druing first round.
    JuliusBorisov
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    There's a lot of comments on modded fights here. But doesn't that kinda subvert the discussion? ANY FIGHT can be the hardest if its modded.
    sarevok57
  • Mantis37Mantis37 Member Posts: 1,173
    Tarnesh & the wolf out of Candlekeep.

    In BG2 Rayic Gethras was the first mage I ran into who PfMW + Finger of Deathed me, forcing a re-evaluation of how to play the game. Still kills his share of no-reloaders.
    StummvonBordwehrThacoBellJuliusBorisovgorgonzola
  • tedmann12tedmann12 Member Posts: 128
    Myrag wrote: »
    Amelyssan with Ascension and SCS on LOB by decent margin if you don't use trap/skulltrap spamming or harm.

    Other than few obvious fights I'd rate Demon room on 3rd watchers keep on LOB/SCS pretty high. You enter it get attacked by bunch of demons without any buffs because of no magic zone just before it. And if you are unlucky you still have wild magic debuff lingering on you for a bit druing first round.

    Agreed about the Demon rooms with SCS. The one room with the Glabrezus and the millions of fire salamanders I just couldn't do on this most recent run an I had to run past it.

    I haven't fought Amelyssan yet. I just finished Abizigal with ascension and scs and just got to Sendai's enclave. Abizigal was certainly no joke. Definitely one of the more challenging battles I've had to do. Once I finally realized his lightning attack was perma killing my characters and I got the proper immunities, along with 4 simulacrums, planetar, greater elemental, and tons of mordekainens swords, he went down easy.
  • tedmann12tedmann12 Member Posts: 128
    Mantis37 wrote: »
    Tarnesh & the wolf out of Candlekeep.

    In BG2 Rayic Gethras was the first mage I ran into who PfMW + Finger of Deathed me, forcing a re-evaluation of how to play the game. Still kills his share of no-reloaders.

    Lol as a kid I used to struggle so hard with Rayic Gethras. I remember my "solution" was to get a bunch of those potions of fire breath, the ones that shoot out that scorching ray, and I surrounded him with all my characters before talking to him and unleashing fiery breath, toasting him. I never had any idea how to get rid of PfMW
    Ardul
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,822
    I had trouble with Rayic Gethras the first time. These days? I always bring nonmagical backup weapons along for my characters. Don't provoke him into a fight right away, surround him, then start the fight and bash away with nonmagical weapons. You should be able to take down his stoneskin and start seriously hurting him before he can cast any offensive spells.

    I haven't done it yet, but Flame Blade (Cleric 2, Druid 2) should be particularly nice for this; it's considered a nonmagical weapon, but it does elemental damage so it interrupts spells through Stoneskin.

    Some more fights that have gotten me:
    - The first room of the planar prison. It's a full party against you, you're likely down a party member after Haer'Dalis' abduction, and one of them is a mage who can hit you with a Finger of Death while protected by PfMW. If you're not prepared, they'll destroy you.
    - Head north immediately upon entering the underdark? Surprise - three mind flayers. Your front line is stunned, and now their brains will be eaten. Illithids can be trumped with the right preparation, but if they surprise you, they're brutal.
  • KhyronKhyron Member Posts: 626
    My hardest battle is always trying to -not- kill Noober and Neeber, when doing a Good run.. I swear even my paladins have him an inch from beheaded..
    iosfrustrationElysianEchoes
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    Khyron wrote: »
    My hardest battle is always trying to -not- kill Noober and Neeber, when doing a Good run.. I swear even my paladins have him an inch from beheaded..

    That 15 XP isn't to be sniffed at ...
    sarevok57iosfrustration
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    jmerry wrote: »
    - Head north immediately upon entering the underdark? Surprise - three mind flayers. Your front line is stunned, and now their brains will be eaten. Illithids can be trumped with the right preparation, but if they surprise you, they're brutal.

    In fairness, if you are dumb enough to wander around the Underdark like a tourist, you have that one coming. ;)
    tbone1
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    For BG1, it would have to be the chess level in Durlag's tower. At least until I got fed up and started spamming the board with fireballs, which made it a very easy encounter. I thought you actually had to move your characters as chess pieces...

    For BG2, I'd say the Twisted Rune battle, but I encountered that fight in chapter 3. After that, Draconis was a bear to get past - worse than his daddy. Bhaltazar was also problematic until I realized that all of his attacks were melee attacks.
    ThacoBell[Deleted User]iosfrustration
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 5,975
    i play the bg ee games with no mods, except for the NI tweaks i do like; getting rid of all that "extra save file garbage" that beamdog forces down my throat ugh

    but other than that, completely clean game, and i always play on insane difficulty, and for the most part i play very lazily, and i barely if ever use cheese - to win a fight that is -

    so with that being said, through out the whole BG series ( not including SoD because i've only played that game like 1.6 times ) on insane difficulty, every single fight is winnable without cheese tactics except for the abizigal fight

    i loathe this fight so much, because cheese is the only way to win, first abizigal cant miss dealing 78 damage a hit for 10 APR, so you cheese that up by having your mage type character use PFMW right in front of him and have the rest of your characters pelt him with weaponry

    then when he turns into dragon form he will use a remove magic that works without fail, and blast you with his electric breath weapon ( which for some reason has infinite range? ) and deals around 200 or so damage

    so to by pass this crap, once he turns into dragon form and blows all your other characters away, ( my mage always ) will go up to the dragon by itself to soak up that remove magic and luckily the cloak of mirrors makes you immune to breath weapons, and now the rest of my team doesnt have all of their buffs dispelled and the fight can continue on as "normal"

    actually now that i think of it, i think mellisan does the same thing on round 3 with her, where she will cast time stop and just attack whoever the closest person is to her until they're dead, gotta love it when she chooses my top guy and just unfairly kills me during a timestop with no way of stopping her, good times, but other than that unfair time stop, she's not too bad

    in fact, 99/100 my play throughs stop at abizigal's enclave because i just dont have the patience for the cheese fights that are required to continue on
    SirBaldur
  • MaurvirMaurvir Member Posts: 1,090
    I didn't think Abazigal was that tough myself. I found Draconis to be far worse due to the tiny area in which you had to fight.

    I suppose I did use a few cheese tactics, though. I sent my thief around the edge of the room to clear the FoW just enough to clear out the salamanders by luring them back to the entrance one by one. That tactic I don't consider cheese by itself - I always scout large rooms that way. The cheese was using the FoW to keep the main fight from starting until I had cleared the helpers. Once I felt like I had all of them, I started spinning up summons and sent my thief back to clear the area where he was standing. The party took out human form with ranged weapons while he wasted his spells on the small horde of elementals and skeleton warriors in front of him.

    Dragon form went down about as fast, thanks to liberal helpings of lower resistance and flame arrows, magic missile, and any other ranged attack the mages could come up with. I had one mage keep a constant supply of summons to absorb the breath attacks.

    All in all, that whole fight took about 10 minutes with fairly minimal damage. Compared to the plastering I got from his kid, I was actually a little disappointed.

    I don't include the Mellisan battle, because I was tired of ToB by that point. I wanted to "finish the story", so I put it in story mode for that. A part of me wants to feel bad for bowing out at the end, but I really wasn't having much fun by the time the party got there.
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    Mantis37 wrote: »
    Tarnesh & the wolf out of Candlekeep.

    In BG2 Rayic Gethras was the first mage I ran into who PfMW + Finger of Deathed me, forcing a re-evaluation of how to play the game. Still kills his share of no-reloaders.

    I keep Death Ward pretty much permanently cast on my main character in BG2.
    gorgonzola
  • AasimAasim Member Posts: 591
    In vanilla game, hands down Draconis.

    SCS; Ascension finale, especially if you're roleplaying and have Imoen on your team + Sarevok (played so he betrays you) and don't adopt neither Balthazar nor Bodhi.

    In other mods - Improved Battles had on apsurdly difficult battle - Lord Roenall.

    One Chinese mod (can't remember the name, but it had a little girl in it and a custom kit + joinable NPC) puts a mini-dragon in the cave just south of Beregost. That thing is insane.

    And Improved Anvil's finale vs Rakshasa Prince, which probably tops them all.
    StummvonBordwehr
  • ArtonaArtona Member Posts: 1,077
    In SCS it's improved assassins in Ulgoth's Beard. I can take SCSarevok without cheese, or Ascension-SCS Amelyssane, but not those guys.
  • tedmann12tedmann12 Member Posts: 128
    Aasim wrote: »
    In vanilla game, hands down Draconis.

    SCS; Ascension finale, especially if you're roleplaying and have Imoen on your team + Sarevok (played so he betrays you) and don't adopt neither Balthazar nor Bodhi.

    I'm stuck here right now. I didn't get Balthazar or Bodhi (didn't know you could get Bodhi). I have Imoen who turns hostile. Luckily my Sarevok is loyal to me. But I can't even get past the Irenicus + Bodhi part of the battle. So fricken hard...
  • AasimAasim Member Posts: 591
    tedmann12 wrote: »
    Aasim wrote: »
    In vanilla game, hands down Draconis.

    SCS; Ascension finale, especially if you're roleplaying and have Imoen on your team + Sarevok (played so he betrays you) and don't adopt neither Balthazar nor Bodhi.

    I'm stuck here right now. I didn't get Balthazar or Bodhi (didn't know you could get Bodhi). I have Imoen who turns hostile. Luckily my Sarevok is loyal to me. But I can't even get past the Irenicus + Bodhi part of the battle. So fricken hard...

    That's the spirit! Kill 'em all! Are u a Bhaalspawn or a chicken? :) Bodhi can join if you're evil or your reputation is very low- don't know the specifics. She's kinda crap compared to Balthazar in this battle.
    Mind you, it's a difficult fight - especially the beggining of it. My suggestion - kill Bodhi asap. If you have vorpal weapons (Ravager comes to mind), Solars are vulnerable to those.
  • gorgonzolagorgonzola Member Posts: 3,864
    the battle with ilyich and the final soa battle with tactics mod and the last of the 3 battles of soulafiein mod and the last with bodhi using the same mod and with sola in the party.

    i never did try it, but i suppose that the hardest battle in the whole saga is the scs + ascension final battle with a solo druid, as afaik is maybe the only still unsolved problem of the game.
  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    I dunno about everyone else, but two Silver dragons Dorn introduced me to rofl-stomped me a ton of times before I just lamed the encounter and won. Hardest fight I know of, and I accidentally triggered round 2 with Szass with a weak party! Had to raise 3 characters iirc.
    sarevok57
  • tedmann12tedmann12 Member Posts: 128
    Got Bodhi on my squad. But... Idk I just cant do this. I feel like I need to build a party from scratch just for this battle. I've summoned up a plantear, greater elemental (who only lasts like 4 rounds by the time the dialoge and cut scenes are over) and a million mordekainen's swords.

    These fricken Mariliths and Solars are just brutal. I've tried timestop + harm but they all got magic resistance. I got two scrolls of imprisonment I could use (but I think the solars immune).

    My party is not super conducive for it:
    CHARNAME - Skald (with rogue rebalancing)
    Imoen - Sucks because I just lose her for the early battle (which I can't beat)
    Sarevok
    Mazzy (EEKeepered into Archer) - virtually useless in this battle
    Aerie
    Jaheira
  • AasimAasim Member Posts: 591
    tedmann12 wrote: »
    Imoen - Sucks because I just lose her for the early battle (which I can't beat)

    It's worse than that. Once she gets a hold of herself, she leaves you permanently. Iirc, there's no way to keep her in party.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Aasim wrote: »
    tedmann12 wrote: »
    Imoen - Sucks because I just lose her for the early battle (which I can't beat)

    It's worse than that. Once she gets a hold of herself, she leaves you permanently. Iirc, there's no way to keep her in party.

    No, not true. She will attempt to rejoin after she recovers.

    @tedmann12

    You're party's just fine. You're just attempting one of the hardest mod fights, with an additional difficulty mod on top of it. Its doable, but its a huge curve. Worst case, don't feel bad about lowering the difficulty. Ascension + SCS is essenitialy one difficulty level higher than everything else before it.
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