Hardest fight in the game... (Heavy Spoilers)
CARV3R
Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 23
I'm currently on my first LoB difficulty play through, and have cleared up to Suldanesselar, and have cleared Watchers Keep (WK). I understand WK should be considered ToB material but the devs made it accessible in SoA, so I always clear as much as I can until there's an obvious gear or skill check. I hit the Maze level when my 6 person party just started to get HLAs, and I consider Tahazzar's (antimagic) room to be the hardest fight in the game (SoA at least). Underdark Elder Orb was annoying, Kangaax, Saladrex (dragon) and the demilich were very tricky, Demogoron was cake.
What are your tactics for Tahazzar's room (other than potions, wands and spell contingencies)?
What do you all consider to be your hardest battle (ToB included)?
What are your tactics for Tahazzar's room (other than potions, wands and spell contingencies)?
What do you all consider to be your hardest battle (ToB included)?
Post edited by CARV3R on
0
Comments
For example, a solo mage would not have any trouble, once high-level enough, to deal with Twisted Rune without baiting them one by one, while a full party who did the same amount of quest but thus has less XP per character would struggle.
One battle I really struggle with everytime (stil have not passed it with LoB) is the one in the clearing during Neera's quest.
CHARENAME: Archer (Range)
Crom Faeyr/Shield Wiz Slayer
Carsomyr Paladin
Xbow Thief (Range)
Mage (Edwin)
Dragon Disciple Sorc
I found the underdark beholders a challenge. Had the atweaks enhanced beholders installed, with the SCSII AI scripts. My way of beating them was a bit cheesy, but the whole group got involved. My blade would use invisibility radius to keep everyone hidden, and the cleric would gate in skeleton warriors and baalors behind imoen who would ADHW packs of 5-6 beholders. she weakened groupds to injured and badly injured, and my hasted invisible group would flank them and finish them off. A lot of my people needed to be raised from the dead. If the beholders aren't wiped or almost wiped in the first few seconds, then they'll probably win.
Firkraag, and black dragon were both very tough too. Needed a few high level skeleton warriors, charges from the rod of resurrection and lots, and lots of potions of healing. The dragons could kill in just 2-3 hits. The mages couldn't get a break from removing defenses.
Twisted rune was the other tough fight. Like all tough fights, skeleton warriors were involved, attacking the twisted rune fighter in sight of the lich. The rest of my group focused on taking out the cleric and vampire as fast as possible. With that done, my mages used sequencers to make the beholder vulnerable. My paladin has carsomyr and 70% MR, so both mages were fairly easily dealt with. In the end my cleric needed to be freed from imprisonment, and three others were dead or disabled.
I'm sure the twisted rune fight could have gone a lot better for me, but as I told you I'm lazy.
With the mods I use I would say the "Russians" in the first dungeon of SoA, the shattered one (final battle of SoA), the acid kensai, the red badge, the Eclipse battle. Tor Gal and the temple ruins can also be very hard at low levels. Also the final battle with Bodhi is crazy difficult if you have Soulafein in the party.
For Tahazzar's room dropping anyone but a mage, of the 2 you have, giving to him stoneskin, mirror immages, blurr, improved invisibility, spell immunity abiuration and divination, tenser and the best str enhancer item + SoTM and to yourself invisibility potions is a very easy, and cheap, tactic. Cheap but not cheesy as the invisibility effect is intended, is not an exploit or abuse.
Is also possible without abusing the SoTM invisibility, but I suppose not in LOB, tthe mage's protections and buffs would not last enough long.
Remain hidden while he kills everything with physical damage. Some resistance against fear and possible disabilng effects is also needed.
Using the best potions and ALL the items that have summons and other x day effects is also useful. there is a staff that give a no save domination that works on almost anything a couple of bosses excluded.
Less cheap but cheesy imo, as using a rod that is supposed to be used to rise dead people as a way of having a fast complete healing is an exploit, is cheese, is not what the rod was created for.
And yes, I would like to hear stories about which encounters personally (mods included) frustrated everyone.
I begun to play at the beginning of the millennium, with no internet connection, so relying only on what I could discover from my gaming. No clue that a certain enchantment of weapons was needed, I realized that good weapons could not hit him, but I was convinced that only +5 could, so in my pre ToB version, only 2 weapons. And I never realized that also MMM are weapons with high enchantment, I regarded them as spells, and he is immune to the spells that pre ToB make available. I missed also the fact that some rare scrolls and a spell make you safe.
Every run I did try, after obtaining the pally sword and assembling the hammer, with no success. Manu, many reloads.
Until I managed to put 2 summons between him and hasted Keldorn and Anomen and kill him before he had time to imprison the only 2 chars able to hit him.
AND I DISCOVERED THE RING!!!!!!!
Nowadays thinking of that make me smile, but it was my personal quest at that time, and it took me months to complete it.
Knowledge is power, and I did not had it.
But I told that I was wrongly convinced that only +5 weapons was useful against him, my presumption was based on seeing that the good weapons, like CF katana and FoA, could not hit him. I had available also a staff, a spear, 2 halberds and a short bow that hit as +4, what was lacking was the knowledge, not the weapons.
And at least in not EE, I still have to find it in EE, no in game clue that it hits as +4, the in game description states only that upgrading it give the immunity to level drain, set the damage against undeads as 2d6+4 instead the 1d6+2 of the not upgraded, but never tells of a better enchantment.
In not EE is only possible to know that it hits demiliches trying something that the manual and in game description let know (wrongly) that don't work against them.
One of the really satisfying things about BG2, as a long-time AD&D player at the time, was the shear quantity of classic D&D (pre-forgotten realms) lore invested in the game. MoD was just one example, along with the wand of wonder, the deck of many things, the holy avenger, the robes of the magi (and Vecna!), ioun stones, characters building their own keep on reaching 'named' levels, staff of power, bag of holding, machine of Lum the Mad, silver sword of the githyanki, etc. These all predate the forgotten realms, never mind Baldur's Gate. I really only missed the portable hole, and the 10" pole.
Also in EE things are not much better, afaik there is no table of enemies and their immunities and still hidden effects in the descriptions.
As far as late game fights in SoA I'll have to go with that party of adventurers that ambushes you in the under dark, they always give me trouble.
Haven't finished ToB in years but I seem to remember the Ravager being really hard as well as one of the groups that spawns from Demogorgon's seals. If you don't buff up like a madman beforehand you're gonna have a bad time.
Took me months and many characters untill I finally got to the bandit camp. For the first few "playthroughs" I didn't even know the game had a main story, I was just exploring away, dying to Ankhegs and occasionally claiming victories over kobolds and skeletons. Davaeorn took me another few months, especially since I never realized his buddies were traps.
So eventually I made it to Sarevok, and since I had mostly just run around and avoided most fights I was about level 4 and still mostly used the "right-click everything" strategy... oh, and ToTSC was out now, so there was traps all over the place... yeah, that fight took me way longer than any other ever did.
Eclipse Party gets and honorable mention, as the most difficult modded fight I've fought, especially since I never used Solaufein for it. Party-wide time stops are pretty good. Had so much fun with it I eventually figured out how to cheese them with a solo sorc, SotM and 13 spells, which I to this day consider my biggest feat of the game.
Found a veryyy old save game, where My PC was a paladin with 7 dex smh.
The first game... Hmm... Funnily enough I think it would have to be the dwarven guardians in Durlag's tower, you know the ones that are guarding the son's tomb? They caused me a heck of a lot of aggro on my first playthrough, to the point that I had to trek all the way back to the friendly arm inn and take a load of potions from Joia's house (which I used as a storage locker for my adventuring loot).
TOB... On my first ever playthrough, I found Sendai absolutely brutal, but again I enjoy that fight. I just hate Kangaxx...
Baldurs Gate aside, the only other fight I consistently don't enjoy is the end boss in Icewind Dale. Two words: Rage Quit.
For most other battles (including dragons, Demogorgon, the Five, etc.), I find that a few buffs, maybe a summon or two, and then just charge head-on, will usually work fine. With a few (e.g. Kangaxx, of course), special tactics are needed, but it's quite easy once you know how. With the Final Guardians, however, I often find it a comparatively tough fight even after careful preparation.
The end fight of ToB can be rough too.
Sarevok without insta summon wands for the first time was a mess lol. As a kid I just swarmed him with adds but now its limited to 6.