Toughest Battles from SOA and TOB

EMINEM · Post by **EMINEM** » Wed Jul 18, 2001 3:09 pm

... defeated Draconis single-handedly the first time with a Level 24/Level 20 Fighter/Mage equipped with 2 Time Stops, one True Seeing, and 6 protection from magical weapons spells. Cast Time Stop, activate Greater Whirlwind, attack until Time Stop expires. Draconis will revert to dragon form. Cast second Time Stop, combine Critical Hit and Greater Whirlwind, reduce him death or Near Death. Protection from Magical Weapons completely annuls his melee attacks. There's nothing more pleasing than seeing a menu of "Weapon Ineffectives" roll down the screen.

... and for the record, the best class is unquestionably the Fighter/Mage.

spork · Post by **spork** » Wed Jul 18, 2001 7:33 pm

Yes, Dragons in ToB are much tougher due to better AI. Thank you Bioware. I remember we were wondering how we are going to be challenged if our party is level 40 and even their toothbrushes are +5. Well, making the monsters less stupid goes a long way!

But having just finished ToB, I still think there is nothing as tough as Twisted Rune in Chapter 2 of SoA. There I pretty much had to have protection from magic.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » Wed Jul 18, 2001 8:24 pm

Isn't it wild

how this game is so rich that it allows so many different people to develop so many different playing styles, class/NPC/weapon preferences, tactics, etc, etc? So many tired old, boring games had only one way to win... but not this one!

I can't believe that no one has mentioned the fight with Irenicus at the Tree of Life as being one of the toughest (if not THE toughest) in SoA???

Maybe I just got unlucky with the dice-rolls and/or randomness in his AI, but he just kept hammering away with time stops, bucket loads of absolute immunity (etc) contingencies, A-Ds horrid wilting, ice storms, etc, etc. It eventually took me TWO time stop scrolls, a dozen breach (etc) spells, true sight, a bunch of tough pets and EVERYBODY hammering away at the dude non-stop to finally drop him.

Like I said, we all think/play differently so I guess my brain does better against some of the opponents others listed (which I was lucky enough to find pretty easy) and not so good against others.

Balduran · Post by **Balduran** » Wed Jul 18, 2001 9:10 pm

Well, I agree with many of you that Draconis was sorta' hard but i never had a problem, ever, with the difficulty of BG or BG:II (with expansions). Yes, I did have the game difficulty on AD&D rules. I don't know, mabey it was ust how I played things but the BG series has always seemed extremely easy to me. Don't get me wrong. The Baldur's Gate series is the best series of games I've ever played. Mabey I should re-try the game with that new patch that was recetly released that make certain fight, like demigorgon harder-that fight was dissipointly easy. Hopefully NeverWinter Nights will pose more of a threat. Well that's my two cents. Thanks for letting me boast. I'm sure there will be a few people insulting me for this post. PS: Philip, I don't what you were doing wrong but that fight, with Irinicus at the Tree of Life, was laughable for me. All I did was move all my men far away from Irinicus then had my P.C. sit there, with cloak of reflection (found in the Underwater city, leting Irinicus do whatever he wanted 'till his protections wore of - then bam! Easy as pie.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » Wed Jul 18, 2001 9:26 pm

Ahh, the old cloak of reflection trick.

Too cheesy for me sorry, but each to their own, I guess.

Also, it doesn't help you much against area-affect spells such as A-Ds horrid wilting, ice storm, etc (which he obviously chose not to bother throwing at you), so I guess I just got unlucky when the old-random-number-generator kicked in and decided what spells young Jon should throw at me...

Kicked his butt in the end, though so no biggie!

ReignsOfPower · Post by **ReignsOfPower** » Thu Jul 19, 2001 1:33 am

The hardest battle for me was the one in Watchers keep right before fighting the Demogorgon.

I believe there were about 8 guys attacking me...a Tanari and some other guys....extremely hard...still beat in on first shot tho

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Thu Jul 19, 2001 8:53 am

im soloing an assassin and just finnished the planar prison - now that was hard - he was level 15.

i used 6 potions of invisibility, 4 haste, 5 extra healing, ring of air control, ring of invisibillity, ring of regeneration, horn valhalla, genie bottle, short sword with mirror image, short sword with free action and haste, lots of arrows, got the boots of speed there, and nine traps (had to sleep twice although i thought it was cheesy). died 4 times.

it was a real bastard - especially the eight umber hulks - They are so hard for a solo assassin.

[ 07-19-2001: Message edited by: Tom ]

mikeheitz · Post by **mikeheitz** » Thu Jul 19, 2001 10:50 am

Oddly enough, I didn't have too many problems with any of the encounters with Irenicus. And I REALLY suck at these games sometimes!!!(see my posts about taking 10 tries to tak out Draconis if you don't believe me!!!) I just entered Watcher's Keep. I think I am kinda tempting fate by not having a thief in my party, other than Imoen. I'm sure there's gonna be some icky traps there, as I already found on and just strolled right over it like an idiot!

Nick_Dude · Post by **Nick_Dude** » Thu Jul 19, 2001 11:40 am

@Gaxx_Firkraag: No, you are not the only one that found the Fire Giant temple hard. That temple was probably the hardest area of the game for me. (except Mellisan ofcourse)

cgardenh · Post by **cgardenh** » Thu Jul 19, 2001 12:28 pm

mike_heitz there a thief buffing amulet somewhere, forget where this let Imoen get the job done. It gives her about +20 which is good enough to get most of the traps

mikeheitz · Post by **mikeheitz** » Thu Jul 19, 2001 12:31 pm

I had Jan for a while, but I wanted to get Edwin for his superior mage skills. I just need to bulk up on thief boosting items for Imoen now since I gave all her rings and mage boosting things to Edwin. But, I am almost done with ToB, so I'll save all my good strategies for the next game through.

koz-ivan · Post by **koz-ivan** » Thu Jul 19, 2001 1:16 pm

the fight always gives me trouble is the harpers that track you down after the imprison thing.

they have a knack for catching me off guard, in a populated area, and w/ a poor selection of spells.

just last night they attacked (ambushed) my party in the courtyard to nalia's keep (my own stronghold to add insult to injury).

now i'm expecting a safe little journey back to town when all of a sudden, wham.

most of them are on a path behind me & up the stairs, drilling my party w/ spells + arrows. one is in the couryard and hittng me from another direction. my party get's bottlenecked at the stairs and death is raining all around, i only lost minsc but my whole party got chewed.

other times they have hit me in walkeens promenade where the coweled wizards get involved (and not in a good way) or peasants get caught in crossfire and i'll lose about 15 rep points.

every time they give me a serious run for my money, and i wouldn't have it any other way.

prateek · Post by **prateek** » Thu Jul 19, 2001 8:15 pm

these:

for some reason, well, so far at least (not finished tob) i found SOA battles to be tougher

the demon in that underdark town (the one w halflings and stuff)

the assualt on the master illithid brain

Twisted rune

PLanar sphere was kinda tough....esp with that demon outside

Firkagg (i was like lvl 12 at the time)

ALL the irenicus's

I thought the master wraith who posed as gorion (all them mists came searing toward me) thank god for turn undead

rapier · Post by **rapier** » Thu Jul 19, 2001 8:40 pm

Originally posted by cgardenh:
<STRONG>mike_heitz there a thief buffing amulet somewhere, forget where this let Imoen get the job done. It gives her about +20 which is good enough to get most of the traps</STRONG>

The fire giant temple/forge in the Marching Mountains, left of where you find Nyalee's heart, there is Imix, the Fire Elemental prince, he has it and the Ravager +4...

Vehemence · Post by **Vehemence** » Thu Jul 19, 2001 11:32 pm

One word... Spike Trap... um... sorry, two words

Spike Traps will devastate most enemies! Draconis was bugging the hell out of me to no end until I regrouped, set some spike traps lured the bugger back and BOOOOOM! Watch your step there you overconfident bafoon!

MUAAA HA HA HA HA AH!

Abazigal fell the same way. Damn overconfidence must be a trait for dragons. LMAO! Did something like 300+ damage before he realised what was going on.

SPIKE TRAP, SPIKE TRAP, SPIKE TRAP, RA RA RA!!!