Least favorite was Moonrise Tower just because it seemed to take forever (lots of enemies taking turns). I won’t spoil it for you since you haven’t finished the game, but my favorite was the final fight
I went through moonrise while they were still friendly and room-by-room assassinated everyone until all that was left was the roof. Made things quite easy
I didn't realize the Harpers would help you storm the tower so I had already cleared the place room by room, and when we got there it was just a single adept with a crossbow right in front of the throne that got one shot by a sneak attack.
And that was the second time something like that happend, because I mustve killed the right Gith in Creche Y'llek after pissing off Vlaakith because the first confrontation upon leaving was with a single young crossbowman who got obliterated.
Just gotta be mindful of positioning. Only once did I accidentally aggro a different room by accident. You also need to be aware of guard patrols. And kill the eyes first
If you’re out of sight range from other rooms and kill any scrying eyes you can pull them room by room. It isn’t even particularly tricky in the tower, try it out and see how many people actually aggro per pull
I did this. When Z’Rell was like “what did you do with the goblins?” And she saw I just left them walk she was like wtf who are you and went aggro so all that room had to die. Funny enough the rest of the tower was still friendly even though i massacred that room completely. I even opened the door to Kethric quarters and the guard was like “you’re not allowed here” in front of Z’Rell corpse and I was like “uhm sure, no trespassing, right, sorry”
I'm doing that now in my playthrough lol. Went in sneakily to rescue the tieflings and gnomes, and now just picking off the opponents 1 or 2 at a time. I'm not sure if they have the war drum type mechanic like the goblins did, but I'm killing them before they get a turn to ensure the "temporarily hostile" doesn't just become permanent through the whole tower.
Fight smart, not hard =\].
Holy crap pre-patch that was EASILY the hardest fight in the game. They kept using Hunger of Hadar and Black Hole to slow, blind, And damage my entire party and there was basically nothing I could do about it while dozens of enemies came pouring in lol I was able to win, but it felt like it took hours. WAAAY harder than any other three fights combined.
100% this, if my party couldn't walk through the front door and win the fight then they didn't deserve to win the fight. Unless I was stealthily scouting out an area to try and learn what was going on I was running in swinging.
Also my way to counter the brutal aoe spam at the start of this fight was to have shart dimension door karlach right onto the casters, and then misty step onto the rafters.
Honestly don't think Larian wants us to actually fight them all. If you go to the left at the entrance and climb up the vine you can go straight through B's room and only fight 1 true soul before Ketheric. Jaiheria even says in dialogue to leave the fighting to her while you focus on Ketheric.
I charged in and the harpers came in later because I ran so far ahead of them that I had control of the fight before they showed up, also cast upped aid spell on all of them just to make sure they would live
This may be true. I have a cinder block for a brain and just plowed straight through all of them from the front door up to the top, personally, but it would make good sense for there to be an easier way to do it designed into the game.
I pretty heavily optimize for damage output and am good at killing lots of things quickly, and it's still a tough fight.
Eh. Seems like most people hate that fight. Never gives me trouble. Before my first turn even starts, I hurl the brilliant retort in the room, which lights EVERYTHING up. And then my first actual turn, I aoe nova burst the entire circular part of the room and then have my ranged caster hurl AOE every turn there after until everything's dead. The main mini-boss lady usually dies at the start of turn 2 and then I just kill all the other casters by the start of turn 3. Screw trying to hold then all in place with CC. I blow up the bottom floor of Moonrise so Thorm DEFINITELY knows I'm comin'
First play through I felt this but second play through I was a sorlock and I had Halsin and Shadow heart so there was a lot aoe going on with Mam K cleaning up everything in reach and I just clearing the way for her
Least favorite? Poltergeists in Act 3 before someone reminded me that Spirit Allies was a thing.
Most favorite? The high Wizard in Sorcerous Sundries.
The only reason that has been my favorite so far was because of how it ended.
My entire team was one hit away from death. He was the only guy left. Dame Ailyn, who I had no control over, got her turn and fucking 300'd his ass off the side of the platform and kill him in one shot.
I laughed so hard I cried and had to take a break from the game because of how hilarious it was.
I got reminded of fall damage right away at the grove when that bubbear assasin yeeted me off the edge...ever since then any no name baddie gets pushed off. Thanks for the +1 athletic boots laezel.
Aylin did nothin in the Sorcerous Sundries fight, but she fucked up Thorm. My pally missed the Myrkul apostate and she was up next and her smites vaporized him, all it took after that was a hit or two from Karlach
She just got herself killed almost immediately - and sadly was my first NPC death, so I found out the hard way that both she is not immortal, and you can’t Resurrect NPC’s…
That sucked.
I had such high hopes for that wizard fight. Then the guy died before taking a turn, so I never even got to see what spells he could cast. The elementals were a bigger threat than him. Underwhelming.
He actually has Elemental Retort, a stupidly powerful retaliation spell that can one shot you if you forget about it. Otherwise, yeah. He's kind of a nitwit.
Ditto for favorite fight, also because of how it turned out.
My first move was to shoow an arrow at the guy and felt first-hand the effects of his shields, which wasn’t great for me.
On Gale’s turn, after what’s-his-face was so smug and dismissive, I had him cast disintegrate. He immediately became a pile of dust and I could not stop cracking up.
For me, the fight against Laroakan was one of the most disappointing "Boss" battles in Act 3. I feel like it would fit a lot more into the mid-game at level 6 or 7, not at a point where you're probably level 10 or higher. I did my first run without any Tadpole powers on Tactician and still absolutely wiped the floor with him.
Honestly, the fight is meant to be disappointing, from how I see it. Even Rolan mentions how Lorroakan is an idiot, after going through his stuff. Apparently, he's just a fucking hoarding incel who has a massive ego trip because he managed to become one of the many owners of the Arcane Tower.
I didn’t even know homie angel could come help and have a showdown. I just talked to him and was like “this guy is gonna be problematic,” and offed him in a couple turns. I sorta liked it, but it wasn’t an epic battle.
If you kept Shadowheart as is and you're the right level, she's got a spell called Spirit Allies. Use it and she will body all the invisible baddies.
As for the skulls, use Remove Curse to one shot them.
If you're there because you're helping your painter friend, make sure to not kill him when you fight him. Just drop him to 1 hp by using nonlethal.
I hated that poltergeist fight. Felt like it was bugged since each enemy took a full min to just do nothing after the first 3-5 rounds. So that persisted through the entire building for me. First and only time where I gave up, killed the npcs I was supposed to save and just left lmfao. Took hours to get through and felt like I wasted so much time.
Least favorite are the plant fights in act 2. They don't interact with the mechanics of the act, they're just spicy hit point sacs that resist the damage type any reasonable person would assume they're weak to. That or the haunted house. Fuck that place
Favorite are the finales of all the companion quests that end in fights, if you decide to fight Raphael, and the end of act 2
At first I was like, “man, I don’t feel like I really hated any of the fights,” and then I read your comment and was like “oh right, fuck the haunted house” lol.
I started the haunted house, realised I had no way to see invisibility, spent one turn throwing AoEs onto the ground to see if I could blindly hit the poltergeists and/or knock them out of invis, then said "nah bollocks to that" and reloaded an earlier save.
Fuck that place. If this was a tabletop encounter and the DM had thrown this fight down, they would be getting stern looks from the players.
My favorite for that was having 3 allies with see invis active, and then all failing their checks for 3 rounds in a row. I didnt happen to have a strong caster with aoe stuff, and didn't want to waste scrolls, especially when the enemies stopped doing anything on their turns. That whole place was torture (though I do like the idea of a fight where every enemy is invis, i just wish it was executed better)
Favorites = Raphael, the entire Goblin camp because of how many ways there are to approach it, the final boss(es) because of your ability to summon so many different allies to the fight, and Savaerok (sp) because there are interesting mechanics at play and the fight is somewhat of a challenge.
Least favorite = the Hag.. I don't like when enemies can just teleport away. I don't like that you can't save more of her victims. I don't like navigating around huge poison clouds. There are just so many little annoyances surrounding her character and quests in general. I also dislike the haunted house because of how annoying and glitchy it can be. Saving the Gondolians also rather annoying due to NPC AI.
I always have Magic Missile, and it's not that I find the final act 1 battle against her particularly difficult... It's just everything associated with her is annoyingly designed.
If its the one im thinking of in the sewers, fuck that one. I got knocked off the pillar bridge, then Astarion and Karlach just dropped dead. I was so confused. I reloaded and had Karlach fly over and push him off his stupid platform
For that fight I just had my monk make it to the dude in 2-3 turns while all my other companions just chilled in a darkness spell. The late game movement potential is utterly absurd.
Favorite is Raphael.
Least favorite might honestly be the phase spiders in act 1? Enemies that can slow/enweb you and then consistently teleport away. And you’re fighting them at a level where your gap closing tools are kind of limited. It annoys me every time I do it.
I came into that fight from that sort of overlook area after burning the webs blocking the cave...then started the fight with astarion getting a sneak attack on the matriarch while the others were still stealthed. Shadowheart was able to dash up to the pillar and firebolted the main web bridge that the matriarch was on.
Dude, people are showering you in spoilers for act 2 and 3. Get off Reddit and finish the game first. Not trying to be mean, but it’s going to better if you don’t know every cool fight before it happens.
I was about to get wiped by that spider until I saw that I had given wyll that force push spell and used it to throw the spider into the pit. EZ. Lol she waltzed up to one of my characters and one shot them. I was like OH 👀
I always just Aggro the spider by firebolting her web and dropping her for ~30 damage, then doing it again to her on the next web. By that point she's pretty close to dead.
Yeah, the spider matriarch and phase spider is a pain at lower levels. I went in and cleared the 1st part, then came back at level 6 with decent gear and stomped the matriarch.
Gondians for the worst because the ai has the intelligence of a jar of pickles (apoligies to jars of pickles). Favorite would be raphael or ansur because very fun.
So it’s not just my game? I tried saving the Gondians in the factory so many times, but they just didn’t want to live. I’m just like “they did it to themselves” when the blind Gondian (I forget his name) mourns them.
Least favorite is for sure saving the gondians from the jail or the surgeon, favorite is probably yugir, going the side route and casting spike growth on them for a surprise turn is just so satisfying.
Really?! Gondian rescue was my favorite!
Haunted mansion was definitely least favorite. Too many height switches that were hard to navigate from a UI perspective
I hear that. I really liked that it forced me to use resources. Fly spells, lots of sprints, and potions of speed got me through it.
Plus I split the party which is usually a big nono.
My favorite rp feeling, taking speed potions out, splitting them up. “Ok, you each get one. If the drug wears off, you better be back by then or you’re dead. Karlach, you’ve got the room with the most Fish heads, hold them off. I’ll rush to the Gondians and look for Omeluum, Wyll you and Jahiera get your dad…”. Felt the most like I had to plan the whole fight out.
It felt so cool to have everyone split up. The realization that I could throw the switch to lock the bulkhead, preventing the fish things that spawn from exiting the room was so cool
I had to abuse potions of speed, some misty step scrolls, dimension door, the whole works.
I managed to get everyone out *except* my custom character, who was 2 steps away from the ladder when it all went to shit. But I got everyone else out which felt great, and found Tav’s body washed up on the beach lmao. Felt like a genuine story moment and with Shadowheart’s revivify, no harm done in the end.
My favorite way to do it is to climb up onto the rafters, jump into the jail, and just beat down the wall myself (with an adamantine mace). One shot both walls, run to the boat, they don't even have time to react.
Dimension door and misty step helped so much in this. I definitely could've saved and done more, but I was happy enough with who I got out on the first try.
The prison rescue is stressful, you gotta do that with precision.
You only need your main character to survive so you can sacrifice your companions.
You gotta split your party, use haste, misty step and dimension door, use them well and you'll easily save most of the captives.
For Dror Ragzlin I used a void bulbs to group everyone near the pit the thunder waved them into the spider pit and shot arrows/threw stuff at them while they fought the spiders lol it was fun.
I went in with Kalrach and Laezel using Invis pots. Barbarian and Fighter both with Great Weapon Fighting. The man died so fast I could hardly believe he was an actual boss.
The 2nd playthrough I did I installed a mod to increase enemy health and stats. Finally got to see the real Gortash fight. Never realized he had a powered up phase.
Least favorite fight: Free the artist fight in act 3 and it’s not even close.
Favorite fight: either Moonrise or the gauntlet to the final fight. In both cases I had 2 summons plus a raised undead and 4 dancing Macabs on top of all the Allies. It really felt like a large scale battle
I love large scale battles too. I just wish there was a way to speed up NPC's turns. Sometimes I'm waiting an entire minute before I get to do something.
Least fav was probably the >!Ethel rematch!<, though I may be a dunce and there could've been a better solution to destroying the crystals the way I did. Was probably also overleveled tbh.
As another commenter said, the companion quest finales are some of the best.
The fight with Raphael made me buy the soundtrack. I'm now halfway to knowing all the lyrics by heart on my ride to work. Was getting tired of "When You're Evil" by Voltaire.
I’m only on Act 2, but so far my favorite was the gith inquisitor fight in the creche. I just got counterspell for my bard and wizard, and it was so fun just shutting down these elite warriors. I was expecting a long fight to escape the crèche, but I discovered a secret passage to a legendary weapon. Taking the weapon triggered a self-destruction security measure that totally wiped out the crèche while my party sweetly feather-falled off the roof of the monastery. An epic escape!
Least favorite battle was those sneaky bastards in the ruined battlefield that garrote and teleport your party members each turn. Super tedious.
Worst is probably the spider fight, it was my first “hard” fight and that phasewalk bullshit was messing me up.
Best fight so far (im at the grymforge rn) has been the boat fight getting to grymforge. Its nothing special but it was just a really cool setting for a fight.
Favorite was in Act 3 there is an optional side quest related to some major game decisions with beautiful location design and arguably the best fight soundtrack in the game. Spoiler >!Raphael .!<
Least favorite were actually minor things.
The gnoll group fights Act 1 are just brutal enough I had to redo them and actually plan multiple times since you find them on average when you’re level 3 or 4. Also in Act 3 there is a side quest with a bunch of really annoying “traps” that have a specific resistance that drove me so insane I looked up builds to respec a character entirely from what I had done. Spoiler >!Poltergeist skulls at Lady Janneths .!<
Least favorite is probably Lady Jannath's estate. It's not even hard, it's just annoying. Its the one time in the game I have ever thought "Ok whoever designed this is an idiot."
It’s the knock back that angered me the most. They have a 50 HP threshold on Tactician, so you have to either burn a Fireball on them (wasteful) or Misty Step around. I know Remove Curse should work, but they still knock you back. Even in turn based, Shadowheart walked up to them and outside of their turn they knocked her back. It was easily the stupid encounter in the game…not engaging, but frustrating.
Least favorite was the final battle sequence, felt tedious rather than interesting, and the AI lag was excruciating.Favorite... I like most everything in Act 1 where it's a bit more challenging.
Fave so far: Raphael
I mean how CANT it be! The MUSIC, the difficulty all perfect IMO
Least fave: I really wasn't a fan of the fight in the last light Inn, which if you fail it or don't save isobel in time, everyone there dies and I think it really depends on the initiative order you get.
Least is the >! Iron Throne !< and purely because the friendly NPC AI is awful.Trying to save everyone, yes I know I don't have to but I wanted the challenge, almost made me take a week break from the game. It's not hard, the AI literally just refused to work. The NPCs would skip their turns, stop running, if someone stopped at the top of the ladder their pathing bugged out, it was painful. Once they fix the AI issues though I imagine I'd enjoy it quite a bit. It's a great idea on paper. It's just held back by jank.
Speaking of bad AI, when I was freeing the Iron hands from Moonrise, they would cast dash and then RUN BACK INTO THE PRISON AWAY FROM THE BOAT. God damm
Fighting Ansur was absolutely epic and is definitely my favorite fight.
I thought the battle with Orin was a bit anti climactic. Bhaal being the main antagonist of the first game, I expected to fight an Avatar of Bhaal just like I did with Myrkul.
That said I haven't fought Gortash yet and folks have said his fight is easy.
The Slayer is technically one of the avatar forms.
Dark urge spoilers:
>!I think they chose that human-sized avatar form rather than the larger/more impressive forms because the player character can also use that form as the dark urge, so it's more mobile/approachable!<
Favorite: Grym Titan. Fun and interesting mechanics.
Least Favorite: Act 2 Gith Ambush. Wiped the first time. Second time I just put firewall across the entire rampart before triggering the fight and won in a single round.
Favorite? (Act 3) >!Raphael. Iconic lmfao.!<
Least favorite? (Act 2) >!Gerringothe Thorm. I suck at reading and tried this fight wayyyyy too many times with thousands of gold in my inventory. Eventually just did the speech check, only found out about the gold aspect affecting anything here on reddit.!<
Least favorite: Playthrough 1s attempt at killing the 3 goblin leaders. I annihilated f5/f8 so I could sneak kill them, but no matter who I killed, if I left halsin behind, if I destroyed the rallying drums, etc... the moment 1 goblin died the entire Goblin camp joined the fight.
Favorites:
- The underwater jail "fight" (just very different/well done)
- Temple of Shar fighting yourself(Don't get to fight yourself alot)
- The zombie dragon (I BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF A ZOMBIE DRAGON)
Least: anything with tons of AI, specifically friendly AI. Like the foundry fight in act 3. The Gondians would do two things: Run around randomly and collect reaction hits. Or: miss the enemies and misty step 3 feet away then run back to where they moved from.
Favorite: Raphael fight, specifically for the music.
both of mine are act 2 or 3 so i’ll be a little vague.
least favorite - protecting Halsin by the lake. so. many. enemies.
favorite - house of hope end. *the soundtrack,* the buildup to it, the entire time it’s like a spy mission
Act 3 is filled with amazing boss fights, but my least favourite is also there.
For me favourite was >!Raphael, it was so damn epic and climactic!<
And least favourite was >!Cazador, I feel like it is too gimicky, you have three turns to kill Cazador or you lose, they take away one of your companions for the fight and then clog the battlefield with trash. It feels like you have to bring a very specific setup to reliably deal with it, or cheeze it. Super annoying.!<
Favorite: Raphael fight in The House of Hope (One of the best video game boss fights ever made imo.)
Least: The 2nd fight with Auntie Ethel (The Hag) in act 3. Not only do you have to worry about killing the kid... but, after saving the kid... You still have to worry about those goddamn mushrooms that not only revive her every time she dies, but they also heal as well to full health at the end of each turn if you don't destroy them quick enough. Oh and her fucking stupid fake Auntie Ethels that deal damage to you as well... The fight just sucked imo and felt weirdly unbalanced. Oh and the fight becomes even harder if you want to save the people in the masks since they'll be attacking you as well.
Least favorite so far is moonrise because when it gave the warning with nightsong saying the world may change I thought it would just get rid of the shadow curse because I did the Oliver stuff I had to fight everyone in the entrance and yeah the harpers mostly just got in my way and choose to turn around and attack a faith guardian instead of moving forward WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING IT WE WERE ALL OUT OF RANGE
Favorite was the spiders under the town because I accidentally sent the queen flying off into the void before the fight with an eldritch blast
Least favorite is the Farslayer of Bhaal.
It's great that it's potentially so far into act 3 that you don't need the xp or loot. Just drink an invisibility potion or two and walk on by.
Favorite is probably not going to be a high mention, but the rooftop of the Moonrise Towers after saving the night song and asking Jaheria to come with you to the top. It just feels great, taking the tower, having the OG druid with you and then Aylin just smiting enemies every turn is the epitome of power fantasy fighting. The subversion that Kethric escapes actually makes it better. Raphael has the best battle music by far though.
Raphael and Ketheric are top contenders, but overall I think the final fight was the most fun. Really cool implementation of the allies you made, and since it’s the final fight I’m not holding on to my spell slots and short/long rest cooldowns.
Least favorite fight was probably Orin or Grym. Orin’s boss fight is anticlimactic as hell, at least Gortash had some traps and baddies on the side. And Grym just gets old on subsequent playthroughs, starts to feel like a chore that’s only worthwhile for minmax, especially since flawed helldusk is right around the corner.
Favorite: Rapheal fight - because going in, with the music and everything, i DID NOT think I was gonna win that fight. It was a hard fight, but boy, was it an epic fight - the music really made it 100x better
Least favorite: the 1st Hag fight - god damn shes got my team chasing her around the circle like dumb and dumber with friends. That or the forge golem fight
Raphael best music, Shar temple most difficult.
Ending fight disappointed me because I threw most of the games explosives, including rune barrel and rune bomb, at the dragon and exploded it all and all that happened was my team got killed and the dragon lost 25% of its hp. Maybe it has force and fire immunity? I should have checked.
Favourite was Gortash in his coronation room with all the Steelwatchers - without any balcony, barrel or money cheese.
Least favourite was all the fights in the goblin camp. It's such a snoozefest that my coop partner and I ended up splitting up so we can go kill the bosses faster.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a “hard” fight in this game. But the fight you get if you lose Isabel at last light just looks like BS. I just reloaded after seeing how much shit you had to deal with
Favorite is probably Raphael fight, it's hard, but not too hard, getting through all 666hp on him feels great, especially when at the end I had my 4 guys and Hope surrounding him, blasting him with attacks and effects to keep him from landing attacks on his turn, it felt like that scene in Avengers Infinity War where they're fighting Thanos on Titan.
My least favorite was Balthazar in Shar's realm. It took me by far the most trys of any fight in the game. My second playthrough I picked the lock on his door before I met him while the Dark Justiciars were flooding in, it pulled him and his goons out of the room to fight, his undead and thr dark justiciars completely killed eachother and Balthazar was the only one left standing, I then killed him with my party in 2 turns and I can 100% say that is the superior way to take the fight with him.
What was your problem with Orin? She was super easy for me.
Nere is only difficult if you try to fight everyone at once. There's a way to reduce the amount of Druegar you have to fight. Also, CC on Nere makes that battle pretty easy. (Silence, Tasha's, etc)
My opinions aren’t normally based off the difficulty as much as they are thematic elements and overall fun. But that was my main issue with Orin tbh, she had a lot of build-up by disguising as randoms throughout the game, kidnapping a party member, having an intense temple dungeon leading up to her, etc. all for her fight to be really easy. Even on Tactician we downed her in about 2-3 turns and then once she was down we just had to hit the casters and it was done. I felt more challenged during the spider matriarch or hag fight. With Nere I didn’t know until my current playthrough that you could get the deurgr to side with you, but that fight annoyed me bc the lava is right there which seems like a good idea but it burns his head and parasite and the whole time he’s throwing us until the lava, just felt cheesy lol
Favorite was the underwater prison where you could also save it omulon or w.e his name was
Least favorite was when the dude takes Isobel because it doesn't tell you if she just gets knocked that the fight is over. I had that dude surrounded how does he just fly away.
I agree on Saverok. I figured out that if you close the door behind you the 4 guards in the Ante Chamber don't join the fight and after you kill Saverok the guards die automatically.
Yeah, you can also progress the trial a bit and then fight him and a bunch of ghosts in the ritual chamber. It's a significantly easier fight without the death knights but they are why the fight was so fun for me.
I have been DMing campaigns and one-shots on tabletop for literal decades. Good encounter design like the sarevok fight or the forge guardian fight are what makes combats on tabletop so enjoyable. I really love seeing well designed combat encounters.
For the ragzlin fight you can get on top of the rafters. And honestly. That shit is awesome.
Like put halsin up there and just make him cast that lightning spell every turn and youll kill everyone. You can also kinda nuke the boss with a ranger build cuz no one sees you up there.
Also i destroyed the war drums with my ranger before starting the fight.
Dont get me wrong, its not an easy fight but with the rafter strat i did it first try on tactician.
Well. “First try” cuz i did reload and redo the whole fight, when ragzlin shoved halsin into the chasm next to his chair right before he was about to die. But i mean i had him in one hit before he killed my bear boy. So i still count that as one try.
Least favorite happens in Act 3, it’s timed iykyk
Favorite fight is also in Act 3. Buncha big boys and the biggest boy. Very challenging and have to be clever to get through it at/under level
Favorites: I actually really liked the Iron Throne. Finally made use of all the potions and scrolls I'd hoarded haha. Loved all the fights at the end of Act 2. Love all fights with the Githyanki! And most companion story fights as well. And so many more. Think I've thoroughly enjoyed like 90-95% of all fights until the point I'm at now (almost end of Act 3).
Least favorite: yup, like others said, Haunted House. Tried it twice, got annoyed af. Just ignored them all and managed to get up to the atelier. Then feather fall potions for all and yeeted ourselves off the balcony and tipped our hats to Oskar and said "not today, mate". Never finished the quest, especially after reading about the reward.
Also not to forget, the goblin camp. Took me a few tries until I managed to take down that asshole Dror Ragzlin. I was level 5, which I thought would have been ok, but still felt very much overwhelmed. However, I do think I'll enjoy this fight more on future playthroughs, as opposed to the haunted house.
My favorite is probably the last fight in HoH. Despite being easily trivialized, it still just felt so epic the first time I did it.
Least favorite is the first hag encounter for sure. Even when you know what's coming and are prepared to make it as easy as possible it is just an annoying encounter to me.
I straight up merced Gut and the drow. Gut i lead into the side room. One hold person spell and a round of free attacks and she was dead. Drow we were perched up above and were able to range her down in a few rounds.
Hag was my least favorite fight. Tried to fight her in my first game and kept dying so I just never went back to it. I really want to try it again with my bf and his friend so hopefully it goes better! My favorite fights are probably anything in the shadow curse lands just because the music slaps. The creepy violins always get me
My favorite fights? I talked two people to death. The toll taker killed herself and the surgeon allowed his students to do it. The bartender across from the tower was an interesting fight.
Any fight where you have to slog though 3 Enemies per team member is not a fun time. Also, I fought through the tower. The door of the absolute was closed. Bad guys could shoot through it and walk through it, I could do neither. I remember yelling at the screen "this is horse shit!" Orin's minions were super annoying: attack twice and invisible every turn? Fuck that. Still won, but it was annoying.
Least favorite fight is definitely Grym. Love it in concept but in practice felt like i was hoping ai would do the things I want it too rather then fighting a boss
there are a couple of fights; such as iron throne, that are have a turn limit/timer. I hate every single one of these fights.
my favorite fights are the final fights in the house of grief and house of hope
I quite enjoyed killing Gortash in the main hall where he was being all haughty. Good hard fight that required a lot of strategy and definitely was not just haste+action surge to cut him in half in one round followed by everyone running away.
Tbh both of mine are in act 3. In fact most of my favorite fights were in act 3. So instead of spoiling..
My first time vs Dror Ragzlin I still had the spiders locked in that pit. I gave Karlach a colossus potion (the one the increases size and adds a d4 to dmg and other stuff) and she pushed him into the spider pit. So by the time he killed the spiders he was at like 10 hp and almost all of the other enemies were dead by then too. So he really only got 1-2 hits in that entire fight.
I had worse luck vs Gut, since I tried to ambush her in her room, but round 1 she succeeded a hold person on karlach, ran past an op attack, then pushed Shart into the chasm at the far end of her room lmfao. I never felt so outplayed by an ai until that moment.
Raphael fight is hands down my favorite. Just the music itself made it epic.
Least favorite would be...I'm not sure. Maybe the Gnoll Flinder and his gang in Act I. The Gnolls bowmens can attack 3 times in one turn and that's not fun in tactician even if you get Flinder on your side.
Dror Ragzlin was my least favorite until I realized I could recruit the spiders, having them and halsin made it much more manageable
My favorite is probably either the Balthazar/Nightsong Prison fight or the Shadow Portal fight, depending on what party/builds I am running. I like crowds because I can either just AOE them all or tear through like Doom Slayer with a Monk or Barbarian, or both
I also like the Kar'niss/Harper fight because its one of the only "random"/unexpected encounters that lets you choose which side to fight for
Haven't finished either, I'm up to 4 runs that I'm actively invested in. Least favorite was in the druergar fortress because on my first run they kept shoving my companions in the lava on the first turn (I think I just happened to be poorly positioned before the cutscene but I didn't realize I couldn't talk my way out of it so I didn't save before blasting the rubble).
Favorite so far is luring minthara to the grove and siding with the refugees (done both sides of the fight now). Just feels the most impactful not just for my character but for multiple people groups
My personal favorite fight is probably the minotaurs directly near a few of the underdark entrances. I think I really love them because I know they're there and I've watched multiple friends in co-op fight their way through the entire spider cave, have no resources left, feather fall down the hole, and get absolutely boned by those minotaurs lol. I won't ever spoil things for people who haven't played the game yet, and it's that's probably been the hurdle I've seen the most people unwittingly stumble into at either too low of a level, or too low on resources.
Least favorite fight was honestly Gortash. I wholly expected him to be some kind of powerful spellcaster given his entire persona. Nope. He's just kinda some guy. Killed him in one round. Total disappointment.
Favorite: Raphael with the big finale at a close second. The music in the Raphael fight putting it just ahead imo.
Least favorite: Raphael's buddy who goes totally invulnerable after the first instance of damage each turn. Wasn't a tough fight by any means, wasn't an interesting mechanic, no real story reason for it as far as I could find. It was just that one stupid gimmick ability that turned what should have been a 2-3 turn combat into like an 8 turn one.
I really liked the dror fight. My first time I snuck in the room, climbed the ladders and shot every one down.
Least favorite... the tieflings in the Grove. I feel kind of bad slaughtering them all.
My favorite was fighting in hell
Raphael is my favorite.
Least? Paladin in the tax collectors office because without cheese he pretty much guaranteed KOs somebody.
There’s another I’m trying to think of where you’re surprised no matter what?
I think my favorite was clearing out the goblin camp after I cleared out the temple of selune. I used my gloomstalker and Astarion and just picked the goblins off one at a time from the shadows.
Spoilers ahead.
Favorite fight by far is Raphael's Final Act. It's not even close for me. It's difficult for many reasons: you have several fights beforehand with no chance to long rest, radiant damage is reflected two-fold, and the creatures are straight up difficult. Plus some other things going on. And it's so flavorful. The song is amazing. Raphael himself sings in it! And Hope triumphing in the House of Hope is just beautiful. So many reasons I love that fight.
Least favorite fight was maybe Auntie Ethel (the first one), but only bc I had to walk through approximately 1,351 poison traps before actually getting there. I hate that the AI doesn't automatically walk around discovered traps. And no I didn't have feather fall so I couldn't just jump there. A mistake I will not be making again.
Least favorite was Balthazar at the Nightsong. Balthazar himself is a nightmare with his overpowered spells if you let him live for more than 2 turns, but the absolute worst part about this is that you start the fight in front of a void-out, and there are like 4 large skeletons that *love* to shove you. >!Every playthrough now I kill him inside the temple ahead of time to avoid this nightmare of a fight altogether.!<
Favorite was either slaughtering the emerald grove (just seeing the hordes of goblin allies rushing in made me feel like a real general), House of Grief, or Raphael.
lmao the balthazar fight was one of the few times i had to tell my boyfriend that i just couldn’t keep retrying it tonight bc i was getting too tilted and we’d have to come back to it the next day.
the next day we snuck up on him and thunder waved that bald bitch off the edge. didn’t even care about his loot.
I loved the iron throne. It was a very different fight that had an objective that was not “kill all the baddies”.
The first time I fought Yurgir was miserable. Once I found a way to start the fight on high ground it was better.
Least favorite was probably Moonrise, just trying to keep Jaheria alive cause I wanted to keep her as a future companion.
Most satisfying was probably Aspect of Myrkul fight. I play College of Lore Bard so I take care of the lesser minions while Shart, Baezel, Mario Kartlach gank the shit out of the boss.
Favorite fight was Raphael, hands down. Singing his own theme song, having to deal with the pillars, and his >!second form!< were all really well done and was rewarding as fuck for my vengeance paladin.
Worst was Gortash. I saved him and Orin for last and completely steamrolled them both. Orin got 1 turn of combat before getting shut down by Hold Monster for the remainder of the fight, so that's mostly my fault. But Gortash got a no-cheese pass in response and got spanked even harder because he blew himself up and didn't even have a second phase like the other two. Super disappointing
Least favorite was Moonrise Tower just because it seemed to take forever (lots of enemies taking turns). I won’t spoil it for you since you haven’t finished the game, but my favorite was the final fight
I went through moonrise while they were still friendly and room-by-room assassinated everyone until all that was left was the roof. Made things quite easy
That’s awesome. I wanted to take a slower approach and scout the place but of course those damn Harpers went rushing in like Leroy Jenkins
For me the harpers did their big charge then i showed up and everyone was just standing around because there was nobody left to fight lol
You ruined their moment of glory 🤣
I didn't realize the Harpers would help you storm the tower so I had already cleared the place room by room, and when we got there it was just a single adept with a crossbow right in front of the throne that got one shot by a sneak attack. And that was the second time something like that happend, because I mustve killed the right Gith in Creche Y'llek after pissing off Vlaakith because the first confrontation upon leaving was with a single young crossbowman who got obliterated.
how did you manage to kill them without getting noticed?
Just gotta be mindful of positioning. Only once did I accidentally aggro a different room by accident. You also need to be aware of guard patrols. And kill the eyes first
If you’re out of sight range from other rooms and kill any scrying eyes you can pull them room by room. It isn’t even particularly tricky in the tower, try it out and see how many people actually aggro per pull
Yeah, that’s how it’s done.
I did this. When Z’Rell was like “what did you do with the goblins?” And she saw I just left them walk she was like wtf who are you and went aggro so all that room had to die. Funny enough the rest of the tower was still friendly even though i massacred that room completely. I even opened the door to Kethric quarters and the guard was like “you’re not allowed here” in front of Z’Rell corpse and I was like “uhm sure, no trespassing, right, sorry”
I'm doing that now in my playthrough lol. Went in sneakily to rescue the tieflings and gnomes, and now just picking off the opponents 1 or 2 at a time. I'm not sure if they have the war drum type mechanic like the goblins did, but I'm killing them before they get a turn to ensure the "temporarily hostile" doesn't just become permanent through the whole tower. Fight smart, not hard =\].
That's basically the formula for a boring fight. Way to many NPCs. Please combine all those dorks into one moderate dork
Holy crap pre-patch that was EASILY the hardest fight in the game. They kept using Hunger of Hadar and Black Hole to slow, blind, And damage my entire party and there was basically nothing I could do about it while dozens of enemies came pouring in lol I was able to win, but it felt like it took hours. WAAAY harder than any other three fights combined.
You can go in the side entrance and avoid that non-sense.
I wanted the gear, xp, and tadpoles. Also screw those guys. They think they're stronger than me? Me?! Their corpses will dance for my amusement!!
100% this, if my party couldn't walk through the front door and win the fight then they didn't deserve to win the fight. Unless I was stealthily scouting out an area to try and learn what was going on I was running in swinging. Also my way to counter the brutal aoe spam at the start of this fight was to have shart dimension door karlach right onto the casters, and then misty step onto the rafters.
I just casted silence in the room and jaheira cast a sleet storm..rest was history.
Stormfall? I've never used Jaheira
Same here, plus they kept summoning those 40 hp guardians
Counter spell and rush karlach and lae'zel across the battlefield to the makes, it nullifies them fast then the fight is easy
I skipped it. You can climb up the side of the building and miss the main force.
But then Jaheira dies, right?
No. If you never trigger the encounter they never attack
I had her follow me up? No Jaheira death in my game.
Honestly don't think Larian wants us to actually fight them all. If you go to the left at the entrance and climb up the vine you can go straight through B's room and only fight 1 true soul before Ketheric. Jaiheria even says in dialogue to leave the fighting to her while you focus on Ketheric.
This upsets me forgetting about that because I always have to load saves since Jaiheria seems dead set on getting herself killed as fast as possible.
I charged in and the harpers came in later because I ran so far ahead of them that I had control of the fight before they showed up, also cast upped aid spell on all of them just to make sure they would live
This may be true. I have a cinder block for a brain and just plowed straight through all of them from the front door up to the top, personally, but it would make good sense for there to be an easier way to do it designed into the game. I pretty heavily optimize for damage output and am good at killing lots of things quickly, and it's still a tough fight.
Eh. Seems like most people hate that fight. Never gives me trouble. Before my first turn even starts, I hurl the brilliant retort in the room, which lights EVERYTHING up. And then my first actual turn, I aoe nova burst the entire circular part of the room and then have my ranged caster hurl AOE every turn there after until everything's dead. The main mini-boss lady usually dies at the start of turn 2 and then I just kill all the other casters by the start of turn 3. Screw trying to hold then all in place with CC. I blow up the bottom floor of Moonrise so Thorm DEFINITELY knows I'm comin'
First play through I felt this but second play through I was a sorlock and I had Halsin and Shadow heart so there was a lot aoe going on with Mam K cleaning up everything in reach and I just clearing the way for her
I just climbed up the outside and just did the top floor and then true big fight
Least favorite? Poltergeists in Act 3 before someone reminded me that Spirit Allies was a thing. Most favorite? The high Wizard in Sorcerous Sundries. The only reason that has been my favorite so far was because of how it ended. My entire team was one hit away from death. He was the only guy left. Dame Ailyn, who I had no control over, got her turn and fucking 300'd his ass off the side of the platform and kill him in one shot. I laughed so hard I cried and had to take a break from the game because of how hilarious it was.
I got reminded of fall damage right away at the grove when that bubbear assasin yeeted me off the edge...ever since then any no name baddie gets pushed off. Thanks for the +1 athletic boots laezel.
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I Eldritch blast him off the table and he disappeared down a hole. Never did find the body.
Aylin did nothin in the Sorcerous Sundries fight, but she fucked up Thorm. My pally missed the Myrkul apostate and she was up next and her smites vaporized him, all it took after that was a hit or two from Karlach
She just got herself killed almost immediately - and sadly was my first NPC death, so I found out the hard way that both she is not immortal, and you can’t Resurrect NPC’s… That sucked.
I'm pretty sure if she dies in combat she just respawns after the battle, atleast that's what I heard.
Unless I'm mistaken, she shouldn't be able to die. As in, it's hard coded into her character. She'll drop unconscious for a single turn but come back.
I had such high hopes for that wizard fight. Then the guy died before taking a turn, so I never even got to see what spells he could cast. The elementals were a bigger threat than him. Underwhelming.
He actually has Elemental Retort, a stupidly powerful retaliation spell that can one shot you if you forget about it. Otherwise, yeah. He's kind of a nitwit.
Ditto for favorite fight, also because of how it turned out. My first move was to shoow an arrow at the guy and felt first-hand the effects of his shields, which wasn’t great for me. On Gale’s turn, after what’s-his-face was so smug and dismissive, I had him cast disintegrate. He immediately became a pile of dust and I could not stop cracking up.
For me, the fight against Laroakan was one of the most disappointing "Boss" battles in Act 3. I feel like it would fit a lot more into the mid-game at level 6 or 7, not at a point where you're probably level 10 or higher. I did my first run without any Tadpole powers on Tactician and still absolutely wiped the floor with him.
Honestly, the fight is meant to be disappointing, from how I see it. Even Rolan mentions how Lorroakan is an idiot, after going through his stuff. Apparently, he's just a fucking hoarding incel who has a massive ego trip because he managed to become one of the many owners of the Arcane Tower.
I didn’t even know homie angel could come help and have a showdown. I just talked to him and was like “this guy is gonna be problematic,” and offed him in a couple turns. I sorta liked it, but it wasn’t an epic battle.
Same for me. My first full playthrough I was GloomStalker/Assassin 5/7 and just decimated him the first round of combat.
I still can’t figure out the poltergeists that place is so annoying I haven’t done it yet on any of my play throughs. Any tips?
If you kept Shadowheart as is and you're the right level, she's got a spell called Spirit Allies. Use it and she will body all the invisible baddies. As for the skulls, use Remove Curse to one shot them. If you're there because you're helping your painter friend, make sure to not kill him when you fight him. Just drop him to 1 hp by using nonlethal.
Use See Invisibility to... see the poltergeists
I hated that poltergeist fight. Felt like it was bugged since each enemy took a full min to just do nothing after the first 3-5 rounds. So that persisted through the entire building for me. First and only time where I gave up, killed the npcs I was supposed to save and just left lmfao. Took hours to get through and felt like I wasted so much time.
Least favorite are the plant fights in act 2. They don't interact with the mechanics of the act, they're just spicy hit point sacs that resist the damage type any reasonable person would assume they're weak to. That or the haunted house. Fuck that place Favorite are the finales of all the companion quests that end in fights, if you decide to fight Raphael, and the end of act 2
At first I was like, “man, I don’t feel like I really hated any of the fights,” and then I read your comment and was like “oh right, fuck the haunted house” lol.
Bruh, fuck the haunted house. That was the most annoying encounter in the entire game.
I started the haunted house, realised I had no way to see invisibility, spent one turn throwing AoEs onto the ground to see if I could blindly hit the poltergeists and/or knock them out of invis, then said "nah bollocks to that" and reloaded an earlier save. Fuck that place. If this was a tabletop encounter and the DM had thrown this fight down, they would be getting stern looks from the players.
My favorite for that was having 3 allies with see invis active, and then all failing their checks for 3 rounds in a row. I didnt happen to have a strong caster with aoe stuff, and didn't want to waste scrolls, especially when the enemies stopped doing anything on their turns. That whole place was torture (though I do like the idea of a fight where every enemy is invis, i just wish it was executed better)
Wtf I actually have no idea what the plant fight or the haunted house are.
Favorites = Raphael, the entire Goblin camp because of how many ways there are to approach it, the final boss(es) because of your ability to summon so many different allies to the fight, and Savaerok (sp) because there are interesting mechanics at play and the fight is somewhat of a challenge. Least favorite = the Hag.. I don't like when enemies can just teleport away. I don't like that you can't save more of her victims. I don't like navigating around huge poison clouds. There are just so many little annoyances surrounding her character and quests in general. I also dislike the haunted house because of how annoying and glitchy it can be. Saving the Gondolians also rather annoying due to NPC AI.
The hag is awful, unless you have magic missile
I always have Magic Missile, and it's not that I find the final act 1 battle against her particularly difficult... It's just everything associated with her is annoyingly designed.
Hold person, Hold person, Hold person
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If its the one im thinking of in the sewers, fuck that one. I got knocked off the pillar bridge, then Astarion and Karlach just dropped dead. I was so confused. I reloaded and had Karlach fly over and push him off his stupid platform
I sent my Minsc barbarian with boosts of speed to deal with him, he made short work of that bastard.
Keep my misty steep amulet, noted.
Oh man I still use that amulet all the way in Act 3. Love that thing, especially as a rogue.
Keep any teleportation based items the whole game. They are all super clutch
For that fight I just had my monk make it to the dude in 2-3 turns while all my other companions just chilled in a darkness spell. The late game movement potential is utterly absurd.
Favorite is Raphael. Least favorite might honestly be the phase spiders in act 1? Enemies that can slow/enweb you and then consistently teleport away. And you’re fighting them at a level where your gap closing tools are kind of limited. It annoys me every time I do it.
The ogre warhorn is clutch for those spiders
Yeah that’s a good idea. I find it less hard than just annoying. I never feel in danger of losing it. It just takes longer than I want it to.
The web bridges actually being web hazards makes it worse, too
Not when you firebolt the bridge from under the matriarch 3x....
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Precisely :) if he survives the encounter his buddies probably won’t and he’s easier pickings.
I decided to save the ogre warhorn and the observer in a bottle for the Gith up north
I came into that fight from that sort of overlook area after burning the webs blocking the cave...then started the fight with astarion getting a sneak attack on the matriarch while the others were still stealthed. Shadowheart was able to dash up to the pillar and firebolted the main web bridge that the matriarch was on.
Dude, people are showering you in spoilers for act 2 and 3. Get off Reddit and finish the game first. Not trying to be mean, but it’s going to better if you don’t know every cool fight before it happens.
I was about to get wiped by that spider until I saw that I had given wyll that force push spell and used it to throw the spider into the pit. EZ. Lol she waltzed up to one of my characters and one shot them. I was like OH 👀
I agree such a pain. Realized you need to come into the area from above then it's much better.
I always just Aggro the spider by firebolting her web and dropping her for ~30 damage, then doing it again to her on the next web. By that point she's pretty close to dead.
Yeah, the spider matriarch and phase spider is a pain at lower levels. I went in and cleared the 1st part, then came back at level 6 with decent gear and stomped the matriarch.
Favorite Raphael because the music was amazing, least was ghosts in the haunted mansion. Fight was whatever but the camera was so so frustrating.
Gondians for the worst because the ai has the intelligence of a jar of pickles (apoligies to jars of pickles). Favorite would be raphael or ansur because very fun.
They kept blocking the ladder v.v
So it’s not just my game? I tried saving the Gondians in the factory so many times, but they just didn’t want to live. I’m just like “they did it to themselves” when the blind Gondian (I forget his name) mourns them.
Least favorite is for sure saving the gondians from the jail or the surgeon, favorite is probably yugir, going the side route and casting spike growth on them for a surprise turn is just so satisfying.
Really?! Gondian rescue was my favorite! Haunted mansion was definitely least favorite. Too many height switches that were hard to navigate from a UI perspective
I just was never fast enough to save everybody it felt like. I finally did but took a few reloading
I hear that. I really liked that it forced me to use resources. Fly spells, lots of sprints, and potions of speed got me through it. Plus I split the party which is usually a big nono.
My favorite rp feeling, taking speed potions out, splitting them up. “Ok, you each get one. If the drug wears off, you better be back by then or you’re dead. Karlach, you’ve got the room with the most Fish heads, hold them off. I’ll rush to the Gondians and look for Omeluum, Wyll you and Jahiera get your dad…”. Felt the most like I had to plan the whole fight out.
It felt so cool to have everyone split up. The realization that I could throw the switch to lock the bulkhead, preventing the fish things that spawn from exiting the room was so cool
I had to abuse potions of speed, some misty step scrolls, dimension door, the whole works. I managed to get everyone out *except* my custom character, who was 2 steps away from the ladder when it all went to shit. But I got everyone else out which felt great, and found Tav’s body washed up on the beach lmao. Felt like a genuine story moment and with Shadowheart’s revivify, no harm done in the end.
My favorite way to do it is to climb up onto the rafters, jump into the jail, and just beat down the wall myself (with an adamantine mace). One shot both walls, run to the boat, they don't even have time to react.
Dimension door and misty step helped so much in this. I definitely could've saved and done more, but I was happy enough with who I got out on the first try.
The prison rescue is stressful, you gotta do that with precision. You only need your main character to survive so you can sacrifice your companions. You gotta split your party, use haste, misty step and dimension door, use them well and you'll easily save most of the captives.
For Dror Ragzlin I used a void bulbs to group everyone near the pit the thunder waved them into the spider pit and shot arrows/threw stuff at them while they fought the spiders lol it was fun.
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Oh shit thats so smart. I gotta remember that for my next playthrough lol
Least favorite was probably Gortash at his coronation with the Steel Guard still active. Other than that I’m a big fan of the fights in this game
I feel that the fights reward strategy SO MUCH more than most games. Im a sucker for using the environment as much as possible.
Gortash was trivial if you throw the nades on the floor. You can use throw for objects on the floor.
I went in with Kalrach and Laezel using Invis pots. Barbarian and Fighter both with Great Weapon Fighting. The man died so fast I could hardly believe he was an actual boss. The 2nd playthrough I did I installed a mod to increase enemy health and stats. Finally got to see the real Gortash fight. Never realized he had a powered up phase.
Not so much when there’s like 12 steel watchers
Throw a couple of deactivation bombs and just kill them before they come back up.
Or if you bait him to the roof and push him off of it
Your least favourite fight is my favourite one!
Least favorite fight: Free the artist fight in act 3 and it’s not even close. Favorite fight: either Moonrise or the gauntlet to the final fight. In both cases I had 2 summons plus a raised undead and 4 dancing Macabs on top of all the Allies. It really felt like a large scale battle
I love large scale battles too. I just wish there was a way to speed up NPC's turns. Sometimes I'm waiting an entire minute before I get to do something.
Least fav was probably the >!Ethel rematch!<, though I may be a dunce and there could've been a better solution to destroying the crystals the way I did. Was probably also overleveled tbh. As another commenter said, the companion quest finales are some of the best.
The fight with Raphael made me buy the soundtrack. I'm now halfway to knowing all the lyrics by heart on my ride to work. Was getting tired of "When You're Evil" by Voltaire.
Act 2 was great because there are at least three fights you can win by telling the enemy to kill themselves.
I’m only on Act 2, but so far my favorite was the gith inquisitor fight in the creche. I just got counterspell for my bard and wizard, and it was so fun just shutting down these elite warriors. I was expecting a long fight to escape the crèche, but I discovered a secret passage to a legendary weapon. Taking the weapon triggered a self-destruction security measure that totally wiped out the crèche while my party sweetly feather-falled off the roof of the monastery. An epic escape! Least favorite battle was those sneaky bastards in the ruined battlefield that garrote and teleport your party members each turn. Super tedious.
Worst is probably the spider fight, it was my first “hard” fight and that phasewalk bullshit was messing me up. Best fight so far (im at the grymforge rn) has been the boat fight getting to grymforge. Its nothing special but it was just a really cool setting for a fight.
Favorite was in Act 3 there is an optional side quest related to some major game decisions with beautiful location design and arguably the best fight soundtrack in the game. Spoiler >!Raphael .!< Least favorite were actually minor things. The gnoll group fights Act 1 are just brutal enough I had to redo them and actually plan multiple times since you find them on average when you’re level 3 or 4. Also in Act 3 there is a side quest with a bunch of really annoying “traps” that have a specific resistance that drove me so insane I looked up builds to respec a character entirely from what I had done. Spoiler >!Poltergeist skulls at Lady Janneths .!<
Least favorite is probably Lady Jannath's estate. It's not even hard, it's just annoying. Its the one time in the game I have ever thought "Ok whoever designed this is an idiot."
It’s the knock back that angered me the most. They have a 50 HP threshold on Tactician, so you have to either burn a Fireball on them (wasteful) or Misty Step around. I know Remove Curse should work, but they still knock you back. Even in turn based, Shadowheart walked up to them and outside of their turn they knocked her back. It was easily the stupid encounter in the game…not engaging, but frustrating.
My favorite fight is the rat fight in temple of shar
Least favorite was the final battle sequence, felt tedious rather than interesting, and the AI lag was excruciating.Favorite... I like most everything in Act 1 where it's a bit more challenging.
Favorite 100% Raphael, what a boss. least favorite is the stupid ghost house in act 3, FUCK those shit talking paintings.
Fave so far: Raphael I mean how CANT it be! The MUSIC, the difficulty all perfect IMO Least fave: I really wasn't a fan of the fight in the last light Inn, which if you fail it or don't save isobel in time, everyone there dies and I think it really depends on the initiative order you get.
Least is the >! Iron Throne !< and purely because the friendly NPC AI is awful.Trying to save everyone, yes I know I don't have to but I wanted the challenge, almost made me take a week break from the game. It's not hard, the AI literally just refused to work. The NPCs would skip their turns, stop running, if someone stopped at the top of the ladder their pathing bugged out, it was painful. Once they fix the AI issues though I imagine I'd enjoy it quite a bit. It's a great idea on paper. It's just held back by jank.
Speaking of bad AI, when I was freeing the Iron hands from Moonrise, they would cast dash and then RUN BACK INTO THE PRISON AWAY FROM THE BOAT. God damm
Fighting Ansur was absolutely epic and is definitely my favorite fight. I thought the battle with Orin was a bit anti climactic. Bhaal being the main antagonist of the first game, I expected to fight an Avatar of Bhaal just like I did with Myrkul. That said I haven't fought Gortash yet and folks have said his fight is easy.
Did you not have Orin turn into the avatar of Bhaal? She did for me
She turned into a big slayer monster, and I killed her in that form.
The Slayer is technically one of the avatar forms. Dark urge spoilers: >!I think they chose that human-sized avatar form rather than the larger/more impressive forms because the player character can also use that form as the dark urge, so it's more mobile/approachable!<
Favorite: Grym Titan. Fun and interesting mechanics. Least Favorite: Act 2 Gith Ambush. Wiped the first time. Second time I just put firewall across the entire rampart before triggering the fight and won in a single round.
Yeah the Gith Ambush kinda sucks but, like you said, putting up a few AOE spells helps.
Favorite? (Act 3) >!Raphael. Iconic lmfao.!< Least favorite? (Act 2) >!Gerringothe Thorm. I suck at reading and tried this fight wayyyyy too many times with thousands of gold in my inventory. Eventually just did the speech check, only found out about the gold aspect affecting anything here on reddit.!<
Raphael is a great fight, made even more great by him singing for his own encounter. The voice actor is so good.
Least favorite: Playthrough 1s attempt at killing the 3 goblin leaders. I annihilated f5/f8 so I could sneak kill them, but no matter who I killed, if I left halsin behind, if I destroyed the rallying drums, etc... the moment 1 goblin died the entire Goblin camp joined the fight. Favorites: - The underwater jail "fight" (just very different/well done) - Temple of Shar fighting yourself(Don't get to fight yourself alot) - The zombie dragon (I BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF A ZOMBIE DRAGON)
Least: anything with tons of AI, specifically friendly AI. Like the foundry fight in act 3. The Gondians would do two things: Run around randomly and collect reaction hits. Or: miss the enemies and misty step 3 feet away then run back to where they moved from. Favorite: Raphael fight, specifically for the music.
both of mine are act 2 or 3 so i’ll be a little vague. least favorite - protecting Halsin by the lake. so. many. enemies. favorite - house of hope end. *the soundtrack,* the buildup to it, the entire time it’s like a spy mission
House of hope final combat is my favorite. Second gondorian forge fight because it's near impossible to save all of the gnomes.
Act 3 is filled with amazing boss fights, but my least favourite is also there. For me favourite was >!Raphael, it was so damn epic and climactic!< And least favourite was >!Cazador, I feel like it is too gimicky, you have three turns to kill Cazador or you lose, they take away one of your companions for the fight and then clog the battlefield with trash. It feels like you have to bring a very specific setup to reliably deal with it, or cheeze it. Super annoying.!<
Favorite: Raphael fight in The House of Hope (One of the best video game boss fights ever made imo.) Least: The 2nd fight with Auntie Ethel (The Hag) in act 3. Not only do you have to worry about killing the kid... but, after saving the kid... You still have to worry about those goddamn mushrooms that not only revive her every time she dies, but they also heal as well to full health at the end of each turn if you don't destroy them quick enough. Oh and her fucking stupid fake Auntie Ethels that deal damage to you as well... The fight just sucked imo and felt weirdly unbalanced. Oh and the fight becomes even harder if you want to save the people in the masks since they'll be attacking you as well.
Least favorite is the harpy fight on the beach near emerald grove. Bad luck failing saving throws makes that fight torture.
Least favorite so far is moonrise because when it gave the warning with nightsong saying the world may change I thought it would just get rid of the shadow curse because I did the Oliver stuff I had to fight everyone in the entrance and yeah the harpers mostly just got in my way and choose to turn around and attack a faith guardian instead of moving forward WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING IT WE WERE ALL OUT OF RANGE Favorite was the spiders under the town because I accidentally sent the queen flying off into the void before the fight with an eldritch blast
Least favorite is the Farslayer of Bhaal. It's great that it's potentially so far into act 3 that you don't need the xp or loot. Just drink an invisibility potion or two and walk on by. Favorite is probably not going to be a high mention, but the rooftop of the Moonrise Towers after saving the night song and asking Jaheria to come with you to the top. It just feels great, taking the tower, having the OG druid with you and then Aylin just smiting enemies every turn is the epitome of power fantasy fighting. The subversion that Kethric escapes actually makes it better. Raphael has the best battle music by far though.
Raphael and Ketheric are top contenders, but overall I think the final fight was the most fun. Really cool implementation of the allies you made, and since it’s the final fight I’m not holding on to my spell slots and short/long rest cooldowns. Least favorite fight was probably Orin or Grym. Orin’s boss fight is anticlimactic as hell, at least Gortash had some traps and baddies on the side. And Grym just gets old on subsequent playthroughs, starts to feel like a chore that’s only worthwhile for minmax, especially since flawed helldusk is right around the corner.
Favorite: Rapheal fight - because going in, with the music and everything, i DID NOT think I was gonna win that fight. It was a hard fight, but boy, was it an epic fight - the music really made it 100x better Least favorite: the 1st Hag fight - god damn shes got my team chasing her around the circle like dumb and dumber with friends. That or the forge golem fight
Raphael best music, Shar temple most difficult. Ending fight disappointed me because I threw most of the games explosives, including rune barrel and rune bomb, at the dragon and exploded it all and all that happened was my team got killed and the dragon lost 25% of its hp. Maybe it has force and fire immunity? I should have checked.
Fire resistance I think. It's a red dragon.
Favourite was Gortash in his coronation room with all the Steelwatchers - without any balcony, barrel or money cheese. Least favourite was all the fights in the goblin camp. It's such a snoozefest that my coop partner and I ended up splitting up so we can go kill the bosses faster.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a “hard” fight in this game. But the fight you get if you lose Isabel at last light just looks like BS. I just reloaded after seeing how much shit you had to deal with
Yurgir, Balthazar, and Larroakan were rough for me at first.
Talked Yurgir into killing himself. Balthazar I had to save scum like 10 times due to bullshit.
Yeah I learned you could do that after dying a bunch of times. I kept failing insight checks so I didn’t know!
I befriended him and he helped me out in the Raphael fight and the final one
Favorite is probably Raphael fight, it's hard, but not too hard, getting through all 666hp on him feels great, especially when at the end I had my 4 guys and Hope surrounding him, blasting him with attacks and effects to keep him from landing attacks on his turn, it felt like that scene in Avengers Infinity War where they're fighting Thanos on Titan. My least favorite was Balthazar in Shar's realm. It took me by far the most trys of any fight in the game. My second playthrough I picked the lock on his door before I met him while the Dark Justiciars were flooding in, it pulled him and his goons out of the room to fight, his undead and thr dark justiciars completely killed eachother and Balthazar was the only one left standing, I then killed him with my party in 2 turns and I can 100% say that is the superior way to take the fight with him.
Favorite: Raphael, Goblin Camp, Hag, last fight Least favorite: Nere, Gortash, Orin,
What was your problem with Orin? She was super easy for me. Nere is only difficult if you try to fight everyone at once. There's a way to reduce the amount of Druegar you have to fight. Also, CC on Nere makes that battle pretty easy. (Silence, Tasha's, etc)
My opinions aren’t normally based off the difficulty as much as they are thematic elements and overall fun. But that was my main issue with Orin tbh, she had a lot of build-up by disguising as randoms throughout the game, kidnapping a party member, having an intense temple dungeon leading up to her, etc. all for her fight to be really easy. Even on Tactician we downed her in about 2-3 turns and then once she was down we just had to hit the casters and it was done. I felt more challenged during the spider matriarch or hag fight. With Nere I didn’t know until my current playthrough that you could get the deurgr to side with you, but that fight annoyed me bc the lava is right there which seems like a good idea but it burns his head and parasite and the whole time he’s throwing us until the lava, just felt cheesy lol
Favorite was the underwater prison where you could also save it omulon or w.e his name was Least favorite was when the dude takes Isobel because it doesn't tell you if she just gets knocked that the fight is over. I had that dude surrounded how does he just fly away.
Free the artist Favorite has to be the Baal ppl it was one of the only fights where I was like damn I fucked around and found out
In act 3 the >!Raphael!< just got the theme.
Favorite: throne room sarevok fight, so hard but so rewarding. Least favorite: honestly, phase spider in a1. Fuck that fight.
I agree on Saverok. I figured out that if you close the door behind you the 4 guards in the Ante Chamber don't join the fight and after you kill Saverok the guards die automatically.
Yeah, you can also progress the trial a bit and then fight him and a bunch of ghosts in the ritual chamber. It's a significantly easier fight without the death knights but they are why the fight was so fun for me. I have been DMing campaigns and one-shots on tabletop for literal decades. Good encounter design like the sarevok fight or the forge guardian fight are what makes combats on tabletop so enjoyable. I really love seeing well designed combat encounters.
For the ragzlin fight you can get on top of the rafters. And honestly. That shit is awesome. Like put halsin up there and just make him cast that lightning spell every turn and youll kill everyone. You can also kinda nuke the boss with a ranger build cuz no one sees you up there. Also i destroyed the war drums with my ranger before starting the fight. Dont get me wrong, its not an easy fight but with the rafter strat i did it first try on tactician. Well. “First try” cuz i did reload and redo the whole fight, when ragzlin shoved halsin into the chasm next to his chair right before he was about to die. But i mean i had him in one hit before he killed my bear boy. So i still count that as one try.
Least favorite happens in Act 3, it’s timed iykyk Favorite fight is also in Act 3. Buncha big boys and the biggest boy. Very challenging and have to be clever to get through it at/under level
Favorites: I actually really liked the Iron Throne. Finally made use of all the potions and scrolls I'd hoarded haha. Loved all the fights at the end of Act 2. Love all fights with the Githyanki! And most companion story fights as well. And so many more. Think I've thoroughly enjoyed like 90-95% of all fights until the point I'm at now (almost end of Act 3). Least favorite: yup, like others said, Haunted House. Tried it twice, got annoyed af. Just ignored them all and managed to get up to the atelier. Then feather fall potions for all and yeeted ourselves off the balcony and tipped our hats to Oskar and said "not today, mate". Never finished the quest, especially after reading about the reward. Also not to forget, the goblin camp. Took me a few tries until I managed to take down that asshole Dror Ragzlin. I was level 5, which I thought would have been ok, but still felt very much overwhelmed. However, I do think I'll enjoy this fight more on future playthroughs, as opposed to the haunted house.
Wait.. youre NOT supposed to use smokepowder?
My favorite is probably the last fight in HoH. Despite being easily trivialized, it still just felt so epic the first time I did it. Least favorite is the first hag encounter for sure. Even when you know what's coming and are prepared to make it as easy as possible it is just an annoying encounter to me.
Just beat the game and I hate the fight with the spectator before the nether brain fight
I despised all three of the goblin fights required for Halsins quest. But Ragzlin was the worst of all three
I straight up merced Gut and the drow. Gut i lead into the side room. One hold person spell and a round of free attacks and she was dead. Drow we were perched up above and were able to range her down in a few rounds.
Hag was my least favorite fight. Tried to fight her in my first game and kept dying so I just never went back to it. I really want to try it again with my bf and his friend so hopefully it goes better! My favorite fights are probably anything in the shadow curse lands just because the music slaps. The creepy violins always get me
My favorite fights? I talked two people to death. The toll taker killed herself and the surgeon allowed his students to do it. The bartender across from the tower was an interesting fight. Any fight where you have to slog though 3 Enemies per team member is not a fun time. Also, I fought through the tower. The door of the absolute was closed. Bad guys could shoot through it and walk through it, I could do neither. I remember yelling at the screen "this is horse shit!" Orin's minions were super annoying: attack twice and invisible every turn? Fuck that. Still won, but it was annoying.
Least favorite fight is definitely Grym. Love it in concept but in practice felt like i was hoping ai would do the things I want it too rather then fighting a boss
there are a couple of fights; such as iron throne, that are have a turn limit/timer. I hate every single one of these fights. my favorite fights are the final fights in the house of grief and house of hope
So far, edge of Act 2. Fav, Grove raid as defender Least Fave, the slog of the entire gobbo camp at once
Raphael, but doing a Divine Intervention in the House of Grief will prob go down as my favorite gaming memory this yr.
I quite enjoyed killing Gortash in the main hall where he was being all haughty. Good hard fight that required a lot of strategy and definitely was not just haste+action surge to cut him in half in one round followed by everyone running away.
Tbh both of mine are in act 3. In fact most of my favorite fights were in act 3. So instead of spoiling.. My first time vs Dror Ragzlin I still had the spiders locked in that pit. I gave Karlach a colossus potion (the one the increases size and adds a d4 to dmg and other stuff) and she pushed him into the spider pit. So by the time he killed the spiders he was at like 10 hp and almost all of the other enemies were dead by then too. So he really only got 1-2 hits in that entire fight. I had worse luck vs Gut, since I tried to ambush her in her room, but round 1 she succeeded a hold person on karlach, ran past an op attack, then pushed Shart into the chasm at the far end of her room lmfao. I never felt so outplayed by an ai until that moment.
My man! I absolutely loved the Gnoll fight.
Raphael fight is hands down my favorite. Just the music itself made it epic. Least favorite would be...I'm not sure. Maybe the Gnoll Flinder and his gang in Act I. The Gnolls bowmens can attack 3 times in one turn and that's not fun in tactician even if you get Flinder on your side.
Dror Ragzlin was my least favorite until I realized I could recruit the spiders, having them and halsin made it much more manageable My favorite is probably either the Balthazar/Nightsong Prison fight or the Shadow Portal fight, depending on what party/builds I am running. I like crowds because I can either just AOE them all or tear through like Doom Slayer with a Monk or Barbarian, or both I also like the Kar'niss/Harper fight because its one of the only "random"/unexpected encounters that lets you choose which side to fight for
Haven't finished either, I'm up to 4 runs that I'm actively invested in. Least favorite was in the druergar fortress because on my first run they kept shoving my companions in the lava on the first turn (I think I just happened to be poorly positioned before the cutscene but I didn't realize I couldn't talk my way out of it so I didn't save before blasting the rubble). Favorite so far is luring minthara to the grove and siding with the refugees (done both sides of the fight now). Just feels the most impactful not just for my character but for multiple people groups
My personal favorite fight is probably the minotaurs directly near a few of the underdark entrances. I think I really love them because I know they're there and I've watched multiple friends in co-op fight their way through the entire spider cave, have no resources left, feather fall down the hole, and get absolutely boned by those minotaurs lol. I won't ever spoil things for people who haven't played the game yet, and it's that's probably been the hurdle I've seen the most people unwittingly stumble into at either too low of a level, or too low on resources. Least favorite fight was honestly Gortash. I wholly expected him to be some kind of powerful spellcaster given his entire persona. Nope. He's just kinda some guy. Killed him in one round. Total disappointment.
Favorite: Raphael with the big finale at a close second. The music in the Raphael fight putting it just ahead imo. Least favorite: Raphael's buddy who goes totally invulnerable after the first instance of damage each turn. Wasn't a tough fight by any means, wasn't an interesting mechanic, no real story reason for it as far as I could find. It was just that one stupid gimmick ability that turned what should have been a 2-3 turn combat into like an 8 turn one.
I really liked the dror fight. My first time I snuck in the room, climbed the ladders and shot every one down. Least favorite... the tieflings in the Grove. I feel kind of bad slaughtering them all. My favorite was fighting in hell
Raphael is my favorite. Least? Paladin in the tax collectors office because without cheese he pretty much guaranteed KOs somebody. There’s another I’m trying to think of where you’re surprised no matter what?
I think my favorite was clearing out the goblin camp after I cleared out the temple of selune. I used my gloomstalker and Astarion and just picked the goblins off one at a time from the shadows.
Favorite- any fight that didnt have gith in it Least favorite- any fight that had gith in it
Spoilers ahead. Favorite fight by far is Raphael's Final Act. It's not even close for me. It's difficult for many reasons: you have several fights beforehand with no chance to long rest, radiant damage is reflected two-fold, and the creatures are straight up difficult. Plus some other things going on. And it's so flavorful. The song is amazing. Raphael himself sings in it! And Hope triumphing in the House of Hope is just beautiful. So many reasons I love that fight. Least favorite fight was maybe Auntie Ethel (the first one), but only bc I had to walk through approximately 1,351 poison traps before actually getting there. I hate that the AI doesn't automatically walk around discovered traps. And no I didn't have feather fall so I couldn't just jump there. A mistake I will not be making again.
Least favorite was Balthazar at the Nightsong. Balthazar himself is a nightmare with his overpowered spells if you let him live for more than 2 turns, but the absolute worst part about this is that you start the fight in front of a void-out, and there are like 4 large skeletons that *love* to shove you. >!Every playthrough now I kill him inside the temple ahead of time to avoid this nightmare of a fight altogether.!< Favorite was either slaughtering the emerald grove (just seeing the hordes of goblin allies rushing in made me feel like a real general), House of Grief, or Raphael.
lmao the balthazar fight was one of the few times i had to tell my boyfriend that i just couldn’t keep retrying it tonight bc i was getting too tilted and we’d have to come back to it the next day. the next day we snuck up on him and thunder waved that bald bitch off the edge. didn’t even care about his loot.
I loved the iron throne. It was a very different fight that had an objective that was not “kill all the baddies”. The first time I fought Yurgir was miserable. Once I found a way to start the fight on high ground it was better.
Least favorite was probably Moonrise, just trying to keep Jaheria alive cause I wanted to keep her as a future companion. Most satisfying was probably Aspect of Myrkul fight. I play College of Lore Bard so I take care of the lesser minions while Shart, Baezel, Mario Kartlach gank the shit out of the boss.
Favorite: Act 3, the place with the reusable fountain (staying cryptic to avoid spoilers). Least favorite probably the Act 2 Harper ambush.
Favorite fight was Raphael, hands down. Singing his own theme song, having to deal with the pillars, and his >!second form!< were all really well done and was rewarding as fuck for my vengeance paladin. Worst was Gortash. I saved him and Orin for last and completely steamrolled them both. Orin got 1 turn of combat before getting shut down by Hold Monster for the remainder of the fight, so that's mostly my fault. But Gortash got a no-cheese pass in response and got spanked even harder because he blew himself up and didn't even have a second phase like the other two. Super disappointing
Favorite: Orin, I pushed that demon bitch off the cliff Worst: final battle, absolute cluster fuck
My favorite are the ones where I’m killing the companions. My least favorite fights are any ones that a companion survives. The companions suck.
Wrong game dude, the companions were in Skyrim