Hardest Battle

frogus · Post by **frogus** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 12:04 pm

inspired by that post about the planar sphere, I thought I'd ask you all which figth in the game you thought was the toughest.
I am also interested because I thought that the Final Battle was a big anticlimax.
so...did anyone have a really good tough fight on Irenicus?
personally, the three really memorable fights for me were:
1)The adventurers in the sewers under the Temple District:
these ones were so hard because I faught them at a low level, and god knows how many times 'Mack the Hatchet' (or whatever he was called) soundly demolished my party. It was sweet I can tell you to go back in Chapter 6 on level 19 or so and eviscerate him and his followers in an unnescesarily cruel, slow and humiliating manner.

2)The Shade Dragon. He's solid. (fighting Firkragg I discovered that my Invoker PC can off Dragons with one Chromatic Orb.)

surely THE hardest fight of all was the
3)Thrall mages, Salamanders and Wyvern in the Planar Prison...those thralls were killers. Absolute bloody mental-case cold-blooded slaughter-mongers. I have never beaten that battle with less than three fatalities.

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 12:08 pm

I take it you don't have ToB.....

Silvanerian · Post by **Silvanerian** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 12:14 pm

Truly perceptive of you Morlock, as this is the SoA forum...

Onyx · Post by **Onyx** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 12:15 pm

I had a hard time with the adventurers in the sewers under the Temple Distric for the same reason, 'cause of my low level also.
It is a good fight. Better than the ones with Irenicus. But the one in the Planner prison, that was very hard the first time around. Can't remember the first time how many fatalities i had , but the wand of resurection was used one too many times.
Those where my 2 hard fights.

Onyx · Post by **Onyx** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 12:16 pm

Originally posted by Morlock
I take it you don't have ToB.....

I think frogus is talking about SoA only.

Vivien · Post by **Vivien** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 12:22 pm

SOA only...

1) I tend to have troubles with Dragons. Now of course I plan ahead, but when I first tried...all my party dead very easily... The first time I killed Firkraag I took a screen shot of his body with my lone survivor standing above

2) Vampires. I used to have horrible troubles with Vampires at lower levels...especially when they would randomly load on the streets, no time to buff. No time to hide the weak party members.

Franke · Post by **Franke** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 12:38 pm

Of course it all depends on levels, but fights I really enjoy that comes to mind is:

1. The slavers in the Temple District. (I do this early in the game since you can equip an entire party with the loot)

2. The party at the second floor of the Den of the Seven Whales in Waukeen's Promanade. (I always do this fight just after getting Aerie, tough at such a low level).

3. The party you meet in the North Forest after the Underdark.

4. Any fights including beholders, the worst one is getting the beholder eye in the underdark.

5. Twisted Rune in the Bridge District, very hard without cheese (read: traps) but the loot is worth it, or is it?

6. The party you meet in Desolars Inn in the Bridge District, very nice battle early on in the game, nice loot.

7. The party you meet in the Underdark when you're on your way to rescue Phaere.

8. Getting Qilue's brain in Ust'Natha

9. Clearing the House of Jae'llat in Ust'Natha

10. All dragons and liches, not to mention Kangaxx

11. The Master of Thralls and his Air Elementals in the Astral Prison, he's much tougher than the Warden in my opinion.

12. The party in the sewers, just as frogus said, very nice and tough battle in the early stages of the game.

13. Bhodi, but mostly since I want Imoen to get the kill, after all it's her soul this fight is mostly about.

14. Both of the harper encounters that always end in violence.

15. Irenicus, both in the Asylum and in Hell.

Ok I could go on and on and on about nice battles, but as I said it's all about who you have in your party (if you have one) and which level you are at.

Alson · Post by **Alson** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 12:47 pm

i don't know if they're the hardest battles, but the battles with various parties. the sewers party is an AMAZING fight at low levels, so does the thralls party at the prison, the party in the underdark, Drizzt party, and many others.
Party fights are the best because they're tough (many targets) and fun (so many tactics available

).

Onyx · Post by **Onyx** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 12:59 pm

@ Franke. Yes, "Getting Qilue's brain in Ust'Natha", that is a very good fight, whith all those spellcaster around.

Leonardo · Post by **Leonardo** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 1:00 pm

Mindflayers gave me a lot of problem the first time I ran into them.
At insane level, I think the most difficult fight is one that involves enemies capable of backstabbing. Since all damage is doubled in insane, a good thief stabbing you will multiply his damage by 10! It means instant death for anyone in my party except Korgan. If only Edwin could learn True Sight, I have to make with Glitterdust to avoid backstabbers...

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 1:02 pm

Originally posted by Silvanerian
Truly perceptive of you Morlock, as this is the SoA forum...

Is that sarcasm I detect?

(Its called SPAM)

Timekeeper · Post by **Timekeeper** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 1:02 pm

The toughest fight in my first runthrough of SoA (always had it on Core Rules) was a draw between the vamps in Windspear and the lower floors of the Sphere. The vamps kept draining my characters, needless to say it was nasty. Anomen couldn't Restore because he was drained, and Minsc was down to lvl 2. So bugged out to a temple, and went back in.

With the Sphere, Anomen, Jahiera and Minsc were offed during the battle with Tolgerias, leaving my main (invoker), Yoshi and Valygar. This was before I realized there was no time limit on getting the heart into the core. Went through the ice room with the 3 invisible, inserted the heart. The golems show up, spot me and begin attacking. I run away, only running into the fire room - where they all begin attacking.

Needless to say, those were rookie mistakes.

Franke · Post by **Franke** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 1:12 pm

Ooooops.. I forgot a good one

16. The drow party by the Iron-globe-prison-thingie in the Underdark, always a tough one for me.

bob333 · Post by **bob333** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 1:19 pm

For me ... Shade dragon. I'm still recovering from the shock of having my entire party eaten in less than a minute

Rune stone room - i fought there when low level chap2

guarded compound temple area

Kaetania · Post by **Kaetania** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 1:46 pm

Most difficult, or most discouraging?

For me, the toughest battle was... all of the mindflayers in the secret area off of the sewers when I tried it in Ch.2. I am in Ch. 6 now, and I am going to go back and show them who's boss. I have tried the Bodhi fight (at the end of 6) before deciding to go back and finish some quests before I have to move on, and the vampires were much easier to beat than they were the last time I went into her lair (Ch.3), but when I got to the battle with her in it, I just couldn't kill her. I had put the holy water in the upper and lower blood pools, I had killed everything else in the room, and all of my party members (and the paladin, the shadow thief and Drizzt) were standing there attacking her but she would not die. I attacked her for 5 minutes in realtime without pausing, and she didn't die.... that's a couple thousand damage (Keldorn has Carsomyr), and still no death, so I gave up. Weird, huh? I'm still not sure how I'm going to get past that when the time comes, is this normal? Any suggestions?

Franke · Post by **Franke** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 1:55 pm

Re: Most difficult, or most discouraging?

Originally posted by Kaetania
For me, the toughest battle was... all of the mindflayers in the secret area off of the sewers when I tried it in Ch.2. I am in Ch. 6 now, and I am going to go back and show them who's boss. I have tried the Bodhi fight (at the end of 6) before deciding to go back and finish some quests before I have to move on, and the vampires were much easier to beat than they were the last time I went into her lair (Ch.3), but when I got to the battle with her in it, I just couldn't kill her. I had put the holy water in the upper and lower blood pools, I had killed everything else in the room, and all of my party members (and the paladin, the shadow thief and Drizzt) were standing there attacking her but she would not die. I attacked her for 5 minutes in realtime without pausing, and she didn't die.... that's a couple thousand damage (Keldorn has Carsomyr), and still no death, so I gave up. Weird, huh? I'm still not sure how I'm going to get past that when the time comes, is this normal? Any suggestions?

Happens to me all the time with trolls, they keep standing up at "Near Death" and won't go down unless I stop hitting them for a couple of seconds, they will continue hitting you a couple of times, then go down and you can finish them with acid/fire. I think it's the same with Bodhi since she sais something like "Noo.. this life is mine... all mine..." just before you can finish her off. Try initiating dialouge with drizzt, the paladin guy and the thief when Bodhi is "near death" and they'll stop hitting her for a while, then she'll probably say her line and then you can finish her.

Onyx · Post by **Onyx** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 2:01 pm

Could it be that everybody's hardest battle(s) depends on their party and style of play. Usually every time i go through BGII my party is fighter orientated, but this time i'm only going through the game with a party of 3: me(cleric/mage), Aerie & Imoen.
So i don't know if i will find the same battle hard or easy.
Any thoughts?

bob333 · Post by **bob333** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 2:51 pm

Of course ...it depends on your style and strategy employed during the fight. For instance sending in your entire team to face vampires isn't the best strategy in dealing with these level drainers. You have to adapt to each fight noting the weaknesses of both your enemy and also that of your team.

Delita · Post by **Delita** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 3:04 pm

Mindflayers are damn nasty but summoning crap loads of stuff and using them as shields work damn well against them.

The Demon Knights in Koa Tua Dungeon was the hardest one for me. I could only use two of my guys to fight them because of their level drain (One used Mace of Disrupt and other used Amulet of Power) The Demon knights tore away at my summons and whacked my Cavalier to death.

Kangaxx was a HUGE bugger with his damn Imprisonment but spell immunity saved the day.

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Tue Mar 05, 2002 4:09 pm

With ToB installed I'd say the party down in WK lvl 5 is the hardest (the one including the huntress and friends).

Without ToB, well it depends on the level you have when you do the individual quests but I remember having real problems with the greater wolfweres in Windspear Hills once, as well as with the mind flayer area in UD. Funny thing is, in other (earlier) games I didn't have those problems, probably because I did those quests later on.

Another point is that there are true silver bullets for fighting several monsters (eg undead, beholders) but for some there are none (eg greater wolfweres, that one mostly boils down to heavy damage delivery). Of course, there's always a strategy that will work, at least in the long run.