What do you think is the hardest AD&D or D&D video game fight?

[der_kluge]

I recall the fight with Demogorgon in BGII being moderately difficult.
I don't even recall the fight with the demi-lich. Must not have left much of an impression.

The toughest fight in Pool of Radiance is when you tried to attack the storekeepers, and every townguardsman would show up. Those fights are designed to be impossible.

I think the toughest fight I can recall is the last battle in Pools of Darkness. Room full of "greater bits of Moander", iron golems, and wyrm dragons, IIRC. Impossibly hard. I couldn't even beat it. And I'd even modified my characters to have 25s (2nd edition) in every ability score. Though, to be fair, I think the game scales based on how powerful your characters are. *shrug* Impossible fight, regardless.


There was also a battle in Balder's Gate II where you fight a room full of Mind Flayers and an umber hulk. There were maybe two or three similar battles, and all of them were ridiculously hard. You had to hit them fast and hard, otherwise, *someone* was going to die in a single round from their drain sucking ability - usually Minsc.


The BBEG and the pre-BBEG in NWN were easy. I had a cleric with improved crit battle axe. The two dragons were easy. I just *harm*ed them.

I recall fighting the BBEG and taking her out in round with with a Death spell - she rolled a 1 on her save. I played it again just to have some challenge.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

Well, he definitely is a toughie, but it just shows that you have to be able to buff on the run, as it were.

I couldn't. Every time (no exaggeration) either my buffers were confused/dominated or they got killed by my confused/dominated tanks before they could get any spells off after the Dispel Magic went off.

Every... single... time...

(or at least every single time after I started paying attention to who I had control of after all this happened up until I killed them myself which allowed me to win the fight)

I try and and pull "survivers" back after the Dispel goes off they got killed by the others.
I try and have some hang back until after the Dispel goes off and they either got killed by the dragon or they got killed by the other party members before I got spell effects to go off(apparently being dominated increased their speed because my tanks never moved that quickly when I had control of them).
I think what I had to do was wait until I had multiple tanks survive the onslaught of spell effects, have them kill my own magic users and then my massive cheating allowed me to take out the dragon after my magic using characters were all dead (my spells didn't seem to be that effective when I used them on enemies).

On a completely different fight...

There are two words that still strike fear into my entire gaming group:

Kobald Commandos

 

[Jhaelen]

There is an extra Dungeon after the main story in Pools of Darkness.

Yup, that dungeon gets my vote, too. It's chock-full of very nasty fights involving dozens of drow vampires or beholders or what-have-you.
You always had to do several fights in a row before getting to one of the safe spots where resting was possible.

Then again, it cannot really have been THAT hard, since I managed to finish it

 

[Kem]

Yup, that dungeon gets my vote, too. It's chock-full of very nasty fights involving dozens of drow vampires or beholders or what-have-you.
You always had to do several fights in a row before getting to one of the safe spots where resting was possible.

Then again, it cannot really have been THAT hard, since I managed to finish it

My Dad Couldn't, his party all through the Gold Box Games had no Rogue.

He had to import my rogue to finish it.

 

[Nepenthe]

I couldn't. Every time (no exaggeration) either my buffers were confused/dominated or they got killed by my confused/dominated tanks before they could get any spells off after the Dispel Magic went off.

Guess some of us were taught to invest into mental protection gear before reaching that part of the game!

... and the worst part about kobold commandos is their exp value.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

The optional dungeon in Pools of Darkness obviously takes the crown.

Of battles I've actually *beaten*, the three-part final battle of PoD is king.

The first battle is with bits of moander that turn you to stone appx. 50% of the time on a successful hit, bane minions that have permanent fire shield as well as powerful lightning bolts, and some other chumps (I don't recall the other types in this fight; the bits and minions were the worst). But at least you start in a good position.

The second battle is actually comparatively easy: an entire field of beholders (12-20), some of which are undead, some of which are upgraded. It's really, really scary that this passes for 'easy,' but it helps that you start the battle in melee.

The FINAL battle is much like the first, except the monsters are joined by Gothmenes, a balor with class levels and a vorpal sword. And instead of starting in one corner from which you can safely fireball the field, you start SURROUNDED.

Mind you, there's no chance to heal or recover spells in between these battles.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

The harpy in D&D - Shadow over Mystara makes the cut for me. Together with a friend (I'd play the elf and he'd play the cleric) I could easily finish the game with a single credit once we defeated her.

Cheers,

 

[Tal Rasha]

... Unless I am reading you right, and you did Demogorgon BEFORE you fought Irenicus?! I've only even tried to beat him as pretty much the last thing before Melissan in ToB.

Yep, I think quite a bit of leveling went on between the Demogorgon fight and Irenicus. I didn't know I could go back there, and I do so enjoy playing "hey, let's poke the ancient hugely powerful thing with a stick" .

I haven't played the Ascension mod. I found Melissan challenging enough, but I do admit I'd really like to try the 30 Solars approach. Did you guys not have problems with your frame rates while doing that?

My vote for the single hardest fight is in the BG2 expansion against the wizard that turns into a dragon half-way through the fight. After your party severly beats up this wizard he changes into (his natural form if I remember a correctly) a dragon and then all heck breaks loose. At that point a massive Dispel Magic goes off (destroying all buff spell prep work) and is followed by dragon fear affects and is finished with a buffet of confusion, hold person/monster, charm and domination spells.

Heh. There were two things you could do: set a lot of traps around him before starting to fight him, and stay out of range (read: fog of war covering dragon) and just hurl fireballs at him. But wasn't this fight part of the original game?

 

[Joshua Randall]

NWN's default enemy AI is rather... lacking. But if you find one of the fan-built AI upgrades, it makes several of the fights somewhat more challenging.

From NWN1 core campaign,
* The random balor + succubus (? I think) in Neverwinter when it's a warzone towards the end of the game. The fight is not terribly difficult, but as a melee'r, it can suck when the balor blows up while you're standing next to him.
* That evil cleric guy who's the foil in the first chapter. First of the many you-can't-kill-him-until-you-take-out-the-henchmen-making-him-invulnerable fights.
* Morag's freakin' blade barriers are a serious detriment to non-casters. You've basically got to outlast the spell duration, at that point.

Shadows of Undrentide... in the kobold area, there's that one super-kobold with the icy weapons and his many archer goons. That can be a tough fight if you don't prepare properly for it.

Otherwise I can't think of anything too tough in SoU.

Hordes of the Underdark has some great fights. There's the demilich on the Isle of the Maker... freakin' SR makes that one kind of a crapshoot. That's also the dracolich that you have to fight multiple times (if you don't know the secret, obviously). I rather like that fight and have a permanent save game right before it.

The Valsharess fight is a good one; I died a couple of times before beating her.

Finally, it's not D&D, but KotoR 1 has a great final boss fight vs. Malak. Again, there is a trick that makes it easier, but it's a lot more fun to beat him down the hard way. And if you're man enough, try doing it WITHOUT using auto-pause or the spacebar.

 

[Mycanid]

Hmm ... I think the toughest fight I ever had in these games (not that I have played a LOT of them, mind you) was actually the fight with the demilich in Hordes of the Underdark. I agree with Joshua Randall on this one. Although if you were not prepared and did not get the password, those mithral golems just outside his lair could do a world of hurt to you as well. :\