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Favorite Battles

What do you all find to be the most fun or memorable fights in the Infinity Engine games?
BlackravenGoturalwoowoovoodoobooinyoureyes

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  • JarrakulJarrakul Member Posts: 2,029
    Most fun or memorable? Hm. I love the pre-HOF version of the Yxunomei fight. It was a desperate scramble to try and keep the few people who could hurt her alive. Fantastic. I also love the second battle with Irenicus. That was a hard fight, back in the day, and even now he's got tricks up his sleeve that no other mage in the series can match. Firkraag of course deserves a mention, as do most of the BG2 dragons. Serevok is also awesome. I remember the first time I fought him, just trying to kill him with arrows before I ran out of summoned creatures and he came for me.
    BlackravenGotural
  • Lord_TansheronLord_Tansheron Member Posts: 4,211
    My favorite fight is actually from a mod: the Eclipse party from the Solaufein mod. I love challenging battles, and while the difficulty in this particular encounter involves a lot of cheese on the part of the AI, I found it a very satisfying puzzle to tackle.

    I also enjoy the Tactics/SCS-style fight against Irenicus in hell. A multiple-phase encounter with many tricky enemies is very fun to do, and somewhat underused in the vanilla game.

    As for unmodded fights, it's got to be the final battle, obviously. It's the only truly complex, long fight in the game after all ;)
    Blackraven
  • SpaceSpace Member Posts: 71
    My favourite battle is Sarevok with ToSC and the fifth level of the Iron Throne complex.

    Improved Yaga Shura with ascension also deserves mention as does the two silver dragons in Dorn's bloody path quest.
  • ItstucktwiceItstucktwice Member Posts: 182
    I always nostalgia hard for the showdown in the harper compound. To me it is such an epic rising conflict. Like you basically know going in it is some sort of trap, and then you walk in to see a whole group of Harpers at the ready. The conversation starts out "cordial" and the tension builds and builds until it boils over.

    Not to mention it is attached to one of the better characters/storylines in the game (in my humble opinion.)
    BelgarathMTHMortiannaDJKajurulolien
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    For BG2, I'd say the Guarded Compound with Sion and the group. Facing a more diverse group of enemies makes the combat more interesting. Same goes for the other enemy adventurers in BG2.

    But overall, I'd find the most fun battles of the IE games to be in IWD2: the battle for Shaengarne Bridge and the outside of the Horde Fortress, with all the drums and stuff. Shaengarne is very tense because you want to win the fight early before the bridge is destroyed, but it takes time to wade through all the enemies. The music is also terribly epic. The Horde Fortress is also very epic in scale, and the need to take down the drums early adds some complexity to the fight.

    Also, both occur when you're level 5 or 6, when the gameplay starts to get interesting.
    BlackravenMortianna
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    Blackraven
  • MhamzaMhamza Member Posts: 228
    edited March 2015
    BG1final battle. Being a fan of karmic deaths, for my last playthrough as a sorcerer, I decided to take on Sarevok's gang as well rather than just luring him alone toward my party using boots of speed. Long story short, Tazok got blown up (Arrows of Detonation) by Kivan, Shar-Teel killed Angelo, but not before chunking Semaj, and Sarevok, after being worn down by Minsc, Imoen and Yeslick, fell to the always reliable magic missile cast by my sorcerer.

    Of course Minsc, Imoen and Yeslick had less than half hp and Shar-Teel was near death by the end but hey, I guess you can't have everything.
    Blackravenlolien
  • toolargtoolarg Member Posts: 179
    The assault on the bridge in IWD2. It's massive on scale and it gives me a sense of urgency, you gotta deal with the situation before the ogres bring down the bridge.
    semiticgoddessMortianna
  • TuthTuth Member Posts: 233
    Way too many to describe them, especially in BG1, since I enjoy most of the battles there. Generally, I prefer fighting against non-monster enemies that at least talk to you before the fight. So, most of the assassin groups e.g. the amazons after Nashkel mines, Drasus and his mercenaries before Cloakwood mine, Zhalimar and Sarevok's acolytes at the 5th floor of the Iron Throne etc.

    The other battles that I enjoy apart from those, are against characters with interesting backstory. Some of these include: Icharyd in Ulcaster ruins, Doomsayer at the archeological site, Kahrk under Firewine bridge etc.

    I think that TotSC did an amazing job of adding some amazing battles, my favourites are: Karoug on the Shipwreck and Demonknight (with shattered mirror). Tricky but really enjoyable, and those characters are really fascinating to me.

    Overall I like fighting with enemies that I like, not that annoy me, or are simply boring and silent ,with the exception of several monsters like ankhegs and basilisks - these guys are quite scary.

    Honorable mention goes to fight against Trias in PS:T, especially the twist if you have Vhailor in your party, that shocked me quite a bit.
    JuliusBorisovMortiannabooinyoureyeslolien
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,508
    Bg1: nimbul vs my almost dead party
    Bg2: faldorn vs my druid in an epic 1v1
    JuliusBorisovlolien
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,714
    The most memorable fights in the Infinity Engine games are the boss fights I've encountered the very first time.

    How can I forget the Twisted Rune for the first time and my party with characters of 12-13 levels swept aside in the first 2 rounds of it?

    How can I forget Kangaxx for the first time and his Imprisonments for the whole party?

    How can I forget Firkraag for the first time and his wing buffets which scattered all my party to different parts of his cave?

    How can I forget the Ulgoth's Beard Finale for the first time when the demon made ghouls from 3 of my party member?
    Mortiannalolien
  • MortiannaMortianna Member Posts: 1,356
    Without any metagaming or prior knowledge:

    BG: Degrodel and his guardians
    ToTSC: Aec'Letec and his cultists
    BG2: Planar Prison, Twisted Rune
    ToB: Demogorgon, Yaga Shura, and (EE) Dorn's Lunia quest
    IWD: Maiden Ilmadia and the Fire Giants
    IWD2: The Drider lair in the Underdark
    JuliusBorisovlolien
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    Perhaps Isair & Madae at the end of IWD2, I remember that being very tough (although I haven't played IWD2 for a long time). Maybe Icasaracht when I first met her at the end of vIWD:HoW, that was very tough too ... it seemed very easy in IWDee, but I'm not sure whether the difficulty has actually been nerfed or whether I'm simply a much more experienced player than way-back-when with much more meta-game knowledge of what I'll be facing.

    But no, on balance I think I've got to choose the final battle of BG2:ToB, for the sheer satisfaction of having thereby completed the vast BG epic from start to finish.

    Of course, with Adventure Y forthcoming, it now looks like that'll all be undone, because it won't be "completed ... from start to finish" until I take a new character through the saga with Adventure Y in addition to everything my previous protagonists have done!
  • GrumGrum Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,100
    1. The final seal in watcher's keep. It is so damned hard! The only way that I manage to beat it is to trap the living hell out of the place to take down the succubus and hurt the demoness. Then breach the demoness, kill her quickly, and move on to the beholder.

    Even with that, I still get my arse handed to me most of the time. In my last playthrough, I was left with just my fighter/thief against the archer, cleric and kensai. I had to kite them for what felt like forever, using all of my potions of speed in the process. It really felt like a truly epic fight.

    2. The Twisted Rune in the Bridge District. A liche, vampire, high level wizard and beholder! It's not as tough as the final seal battle, but it's still something up there. It's also quite fun when the mage summons a demon and you run like hell, leaving the mage to fight his own 'ally.'
    JuliusBorisovlolien
  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    One of my favorite battles is against Tolgerias, the cowled mage in Lavok's Sphere. Both he and his assistant cast different spells, and are protected by powerful defensive spells while casting offensive spells and summonings. It's a pretty tough battle because it requires tactics and persistence.
    JuliusBorisov
  • booinyoureyesbooinyoureyes Member Posts: 6,164
    I really like the fight against Gromnir.

    Its the first time you really get to try out some cool HLAs, so that was awesome. One of my favorite memories of the game is the first time one of his wizards used Time Stop. I totally FREAKED OUT. Actually, I freaked out twice, once with a "ahhhhhh what is happening, save me!!!!!" freak-out, then followed that with a "woaaaahhhh, can my characters do that????" freak-out. It was exhilarating.

    It was a very balanced party he had going too, with a cleric, two wizards, two random meat shields and of course Gromnir himself. You also have a pretty decked out party, so it feels like you and your "posse" against his gang of bad guys. A regular turf-battle.

    Imagine West Side Story, but with flails and fireballs.

    Speaking of flails... I love flails, they are my favorite weapon, so Gromnir definitely gets cool points. Mix that with his GREAT voice acting and the fact that he is a half-orc fighter, has his own castle and has a name that sounds like the title of a power metal album, you get a pretty rad dude in Gromnir. There is a reason he gets his very own portrait despite not being one of The Five. He's a total badass.

    I love the crazy paranoia that goes into the whole Highlander-Bhaalspawn plotline in Saradush, and that all culminates in this battle. When you should be standing together, one guy freaks out and overreacts. Its like the guy in a horror movie who decides to panic and not follow the groups plan and then everything goes wrong. That is poor Gromnir, and that wicked witch Melissan is the femme fatale that drove him over the edge. Probably my favorite Baldur's Gate fight.
    GrumJuliusBorisovAbi_Dalzimlolien
  • booinyoureyesbooinyoureyes Member Posts: 6,164
    The other battle that comes close is definitely Yxunomei. I kinda like when there is a boss who has multiple minions with a good mix of spell casters, archers and melee warriors. It mixes the panic of crowd control with the epic showdown against a major baddy that is hard to kill. No one instills fear like a massive topless she-devil with six arms and a ssssnake body. It was the first fight I ever had in any Infinity Engine game that really felt like it was a life-or-death affair. Adrenaline was pumping, let me tell you.
    GrumJuliusBorisovDJKajuru
  • GrumGrum Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 2,100

    The other battle that comes close is definitely Yxunomei. I kinda like when there is a boss who has multiple minions with a good mix of spell casters, archers and melee warriors. It mixes the panic of crowd control with the epic showdown against a major baddy that is hard to kill. No one instills fear like a massive topless she-devil with six arms and a ssssnake body. It was the first fight I ever had in any Infinity Engine game that really felt like it was a life-or-death affair. Adrenaline was pumping, let me tell you.


    Especially when those mages appear behind you...
    booinyoureyes
  • booinyoureyesbooinyoureyes Member Posts: 6,164
    Tuth said:

    Generally, I prefer fighting against non-monster enemies that at least talk to you before the fight. So, most of the assassin groups e.g. the amazons after Nashkel mines, Drasus and his mercenaries before Cloakwood mine, Zhalimar and Sarevok's acolytes at the 5th floor of the Iron Throne etc.

    Haha, @Tuth and I have similar taste. I, too, prefer facing a group or non-monsters since the conflict actually has some cool backstory as opposed to "this thing is an evil lich, lets kill it".

    I also prefer fighting a group of characters, rather than a massive monster. Dragons are fun (liches less so for me) especially ones like Firkraag who have a cool backstory and actually interact with your party, but for some reason it feels more epic to fight a HORDE of enemies, even if they are weaker. It just feels more heroic and "up against a wall" when you are outnumbered and there is a frantic battlefield, as opposed to ganging up on some massive beast.

    This is actually why I like some random battles such as the fight against the guards in the barracks of Saradush. There are like 12 of them, they are all pretty powerful (like, not as strong as any of your party members but still a threat) plus you have a reason to dislike them for terrorizing the populace. It feels like a real conflict that would arise in the den of paranoia that is Saradush. Even though the dialogue is simple (like "hey, you, get out of here") it still feels like a meaningful fight between people with believable goals and personalities rather than slaying a vile beast that has no personality at all.
    Tuthlolien
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