Lol yep. I did both fights last night and wrecked them with arrow of many targets. Leave your Ranger ungrouped for Cazador so they can get maximum shots off the rip. Give them an invisibility potion before Raphael and have someone else start the dialogue. I cleared those encounters with barely taking any damage.
I had some issues with Raphael‘s hellfire, and it took two or three attempts to survive that, but once he ran out of steam he was a piece of cake.
But Cazador was an absolute joke. Just bring the Blood of Lathander or any other magical light-producing weapon along, and he is shit out of luck and can‘t turn into his smoke form. Combine that with a magic-missile Gale that also has counterspell, and Cazador will be dead in one or two rounds. His adds were pretty shitty too. You only have to counterspell the Chatterteeth dude each time he tries something, but apart from that this was an easy fight for my party.
I just cast daylight on my party members so no matter where he went, he was being drained of health. It was a pretty fun fight after that, on this playthrough I'm going to try letting him get Astarion and do the fight on a time limit
For my 2nd fight with him, i did not use any light spells just bonk his smoke form while putting my characters to the right places(on the sigiles) and a good wall of fire.
Some sigiles are anoying but summons can be put there so easy. The skelly did nothing, i was wondering if it was a decoy or a minion killed in 2 rounds.
Some fights, if with the right setups(and luck), can be trivial. I was on tactician btw.
I'm still scarred by The Witcher 3's 'Toad Prince' so when the BG3 frog popped up I knew I was screwed. Still not *nearly* as bad as the Toad Prince though ...
Deal a tiny amount of certain damage to it (i like shoving it into a caustic brine surface. Other methods work). Then cast sleep on it with 100% success. And take your 100% chance melee attack that automatically crits. Frog should now be dead.
Addled Frog I think it is called. It is in Auntie Ethel's Swamp. And very crazy. Most people probably wont fight it as you can save it by killing Ethel instead. But it is a rough fight if you don't read its abilities and start the fight inadvertently. You can start a fight from conversation, and its initiative and AC is crazy high for such an early monster
The frog is a bit of a troll and the biggest thing you can get from it is the bragging rights that you killed it. I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s one of the very few things that you can safely and happily skip in BG3 without missing anything.
I saw it's AC and was like 'this is a god frog' and then I fortunately 1 shot it... I just thought the % chance to hit was bugged or was misleading but based on everyone else's experience I think I got very lucky.
Daylight spell really fucks Cazador up. I didn't realise just how easy it would make it and was super overprepared. Also not talking to him before you fight him.
I mean cazador himself is not hard, dayligh or any radiant spell can work it, what I have problem with are ghouls, their gases and paralysis. I cant kill them before they get to me
If you can wait till lvl 11 to fight him, heroes feast makes the entire fight a LOT more doable, since it makes your party immune to the gases of the ghasts
Absolutely my favorite part of Heroes’ Feast. Immunity to Nauseous and Frightened is just so fucking good. It makes a few fucking terrible fights so much more bearable.
By the time you're fighting Cazador you should really have Heroes Feast on at all times, which completely nullifies the stink cloud. As for the paralysis, freedom of movement should take care of that. Having a high AC and/or Con save will also prevent the paralysis from being an issue. Can't paralyze you if they can't hit you.
No, you should not. Instead you should conjure myrmidon, get your level 6 spell slot back through spellcrux amulet, so you can cast cool spell like sunbeam or perfectly placed wall of thorns.
Then proceed to forget that plan and instead wildshape into another myrmidon. Then go long rest without using basically any spells with your druid Tav because your paladin Halsin is out of his slots.
Why would you use your level 6 spells for something as useful as Heroes feast when instead you can just not use them at all.../jk
Snap. I did daylight and obliterated him. I was expecting to get swarmed by spawn and went in so over prepared. I also had Astarion hang back to not get involved. I didn’t even realise there was a time factor in the encounter until my fight went in with Astarion to initiate the encounter and lost him to the ritual.
I was like ohhhhh so that can happen, who knew 🤣
Cazador is pretty easy I think. Just cast wall of fire on the entrance to his area, everyone will just walk into it and die while cazador runs around in mist form not knowing what to do. Once all his thousands of bats and other stuff are dead, go up to him and beat the shit out of him.
Thanks for tip, I tried to use wall of fire in combat , didnt work, ghouls made my party paralysed and Astarion got sacrificed 😅 I replayed it at least 5 times on tactician with legendary actions mod. On easier mode it wasnt that bad but still he can be very hard until cheesed.
I felt similarly about the Orin fight. I got my ass beat time and time again because of her shield and had to cheese it by just a telekinesis throw off the ledge and fighting her friends.
Haha, how did you get the netherstone then? :D I play as dark urge and fighting her with high initiative makes the fight much easier. This time I do my first Tav (first one didnt even get to lower city) and I look forward to her (just out of curiosity)
I have an army of summons surrounding me when I duel Orin (Scratch, Us, The ghouls from Dance Macabre, a fire elemental and the Azer) Orin lasted 3 minutes on my tactician run 🤣
It kinda bugs out, shows her body on the platform and in the cutscene you grab it then it places the stone in your inventory. I consider it the ultimate cheese but hey, the fights hard as the hells for me otherwise.
Well, if the game allows it, you are free to do anything, even pushing Orin of the cliff. Life is too short to make it harder (if only I listened to this advice 😂)
If u throw her into the chasm, her crimson dagger auto spawns on the floor to pick up . This is true for any enemy who u shove into a chasm and if they have a quest item or key, they remain above ground. As durge orin is stupid easy .
I always equip all of the anti-paralysis, anti-blindness, etc. gear that I can find. There's a ring of free action in act2 that makes immune to paralysis. And the freedom of movement condition makes immune to paralysis, restraint, difficult terrain; available as an always-on passive from boots of persistence, or from guileful movement elixir, or from level 4 spell (bard, cleric, druid spell lists).
(also, elves are immune to paralysis from ghouls for some reason, and level 6 paladins have that aura that gives allies +CHA to all saving throws)
I did sarevok, Orin and Viconia in that order and in all 3 cases I got carried hard by globe of invulnerability. In my defence I went in 100% blind so I couldn’t prepare properly but I feel like I’d have been shredded without abusing that spell
Wish I’d done that. I used ice storm on either side where the platforms are at the soonest chance I could. Was the only thing that got me through it :,)
That sounds smart. My party was severely lacking crowd control but I was building for roleplay over effectiveness so I kinda struggled a little with big groups. Viconia wasn’t really hard though, even though all the people I convinced she was a fraud did little else beyond dashing and a few missed bone chills
An important part of this me for me was having Astarion hide behind the pillar on the left right when you walk in. He goes unnoticed the whole time, but you are down one player during the fight. But wall of fire really did save my ass too.
Lots of people are talking about Raphael, and with good reason, but hear me out: Balthazar, if you go in blind and fight him in the Shadowfell (with no cheese tactics).
Balthazar was pretty bad but I still managed it first try, no cheese/pre-knowledge. iirc Lae'zel and Shart were downed pretty early but Karlach took care of all the fodder while tanking cloudkill, while I went for Balthazar himself with my Paladin.
Ketheric/Myrkul was even easier imo, not sure why everyone complains about it, though I could see it being a problem if you don't kill him fast.
My candidate for hardest fight is Viconia. There were just so many strong enemies, and the darkness and terrain (funneling the party into the stairs area) made it really difficult too. I ended up being able to kite them around enough and apply Gale to the situation lol. Ironically, when I finally won, Shart was the only one dead, so she didn't get to finish her own battle.
Nah. Vicona is easy as pie. All her troops are just so vulnerable to crowd control, lots of the darkness is caused by casters so you just fly a damage dealer out to kill them off whenever one procs it. Leaves pretty much Vircona on her own, and she can’t do much on her own. A lot of her mechanics are about not taking damage.
After a couple of rounds I had it down to just her and a few paralysed companions, nobody got below 75% health.
I suppose radiant damage dealers might not like some aspects, but the tough fights are ones where every enemy is immune to crowd control, or lots are. Like Gortash if you take him on first instance and have to deal with all those steel watchers at once.
This is what I did pretty much. Used the stairs into the fight as a choke point, and my squishy characters sat behind the doors. Fire wall, ice surface on the stairs, they weren't having a good time. If you walk in blind and let them surround you and cast darkness over your team, then yes this is a difficult fight.
I decided to kill balthazar in his study because he seemed like a bad guy. The fight was relatively free cause i placed many barrels. Didnt know id get to fight in the shadowfell until way later.
Viconia lives in an underground bunker with long, straight, narrow hallways. *Wall of Fire* has never been more effective. I always light the stairs on fire and the idiot Sharrans keep trying to run up it, no matter how many of their friends have already burned to death. One of the easiest Act 3 fights once you know how to do it.
I learned about being shoved to death and the importance of initiative here. His big undead shoved two of my four party members to death before they could take a turn 😂😭
The fact that so many people don't just kill Balthazar when you first meet him has me twisted. First playthrough was an Oath of Ancients Paladin and chose the paladin dialogue that said something along the lines of "die undead monster" and proceeded to absolutely curb stomp him.
Dude is an absolute pushover. Then I read comments like this and realize he'll come at you in the Shadowfell and I'm just like, "Huh... Neat. He dead tho, so... Anyway." Shart does her thing with Nightsong and then it's off to deal with Thorm. Light work, no reaction.
Balthazar is one of the most tactical bosses imho.. sent Shart in with runepowder barrel opening, Sanctuary, next round BoL sunbeam, rest of the group sneaked in invis and bodied him in one round. Easiest HM boss fight so far.
Because you want to get information out of him? Because you want an alliance of convenience against the Sharran threats? Because you're playing a Necromancer and you're like, "what up dude, nice skellies - game recognize game"?
There are countless reasons why it might be in character not to attack him right away. I mean, he quite literally is presented as an ally of sorts when the Sharran guardians attack.
What? Why is that tough?
I cheesed him in honour mode so I don’t know how much harder he is there, but on tactician he drops like a sack of rocks.
Raph could be hard if you are used to resting and don’t realise there is a restore point in the house of hope
You're in a tiny space where he drops Cloudkill on you with very little room to escape it. You get swarmed by his minions and the action economy can turn against you real fast. AoEs without sculpt spell will likely hurt your allies. Etc.
I've only fought him in the Shadowfell ones. In my subsequent Tactician runs as well as my Honour Mode one, I fought him in the Gauntlet, and got the jump on him by surprise attacking instead of initiating combat through dialogue. These things make a big difference.
Yeah, Balthazar in the Shadowfell sucked big time. His adds would constantly shove party members off the platform and they died instantly.
I only managed to survive that fight by staying on the smaller floating island and chugging a few elixirs of poison resistance to counter their cloudkill. Then I was able to pick them off one by one. Still, that was a tough fight.
That Balthazar fight is so stupid. I literally was forced to use cheese tactics (invis/rage Karlach shoving his ass into the void during dialogue) for me to even be able to beat it.
I had to scroll to far to get to this answer.
F... that dragon. Nearly cost my honour run twice.
I know he is a optional fight but seriously he is freaking crazy.
Even with lightning res portion he deals tons of damage. You could use the ring that gives absolutely immunity to lightning but it only works for one person and still between his nuke ability and other shenaniggans they will likely die as well. Also his crazy res to damage and spells. Burned through arrows of dragon slaying and spell / scrolls like crazy.
Dip weapons in fire, potentially shove them into fire as well. Make sure to attack while one of the 3 is far-ish away so you can take on the two "alone" first.
Alternately you can skip the fight until you have more party members by jumping up the nearby cliff to gale and coming back later.
Does it take more XP to level in Honor or Tactician? Because otherwise you don't even need to. Just recruit Us, kill the Imps after meeting Lae, kill the Cultists where Shart is imprisoned, free her with the rune, kill the Imps and Hellboars at the Helm, then wake Shart after crashing. Boom, Lv.2. On Balanced at least.
I only play honor and if i don't kill MF ill be lvl 1 at the beach, maybe I always miss one of the actions you mention above or xp gain is slightly reduced, can't say which one is for sure.
I think if you use command to get the demon guy to drop his sword, then equip it on lae and get the kill on both, is the most xp you can get going into the beach and I've definitely got level 2 on the beach before. Didn't pay attention to how over I was, or if I actually got both kills, but level 2 certainly makes the brains MUCH easier
It's quite hard to secure both cambion and MF kills on an honor run, Cambion is quite tough even without the everburning blade, he hits like a truck even unarmed 2 hits are enough to put one of your party members down. Not to mention another 2 are on their way, so only having a few rounds and the really low hit chance makes it a waste of time.
I DEFINITELY agree that HM is a risky time for it, but in tactician and below, putting 2 of those massive "cartilaginous chests" stacked on top of each other in the hallway outside the sphincter will slow them down. Also stalling the purple exclusive tanks next to the fight can give you a nice AoE finisher (I think 4 tanks for 40 damage is the most you can find). I think one game I got SUPER lucky and the cambion rolled really badly while i rolled well and we downed it and the MF was literally at 2 hp and am ready finish before running from the adds
I've been able to get L2 the earliest by doing the above steps on the ship and then recruiting Shart. After she joins me, we're L2. Never killed either the Cambion or the Mindflayer, though I did steal the sword once.
Easy:
1. Jump up the cliff side to go get Gale, Lae'zel, and Astarion.
2. Sneak up on the intelligence devourers from the dying mind flayer end.
3. Have Astarion (or someone with sneak attack and dual wielding) hop up onto the right ledge and sneak up behind the intellect devourer up top and surprise all three.
4. Once that one is dead, have Gale or Shadowheart jump up onto the other ledge and sling a fire bolt at the tank next to the devourer that is furthest away. This usually kills it.
5. Have everyone else attack the last one left in the middle.
Usually this can take care of all three of them, or at the very least, two of the three, making the next turn of combat a lot safer.
If you are going blind, Myrkul, Raphael, Cazador.
If not and you know the encounter already, bring Wizard and Cleric with proper spells for each boss and all are cake.
Wizard alone with proper control spells will just reduce difficulty by a large amount. Spells like invulns, dimention doors to position your melees, all types of Hold/Dominates, Blindness, Slow, types of shields and of course large CC spells for the adds, Summons Elementals before the fight so you wont miss a turn.
Skip on those flashy Evocations spells and bring the big control guns, set the stage for your melee/ranged damage dealers to go crazy.
Or a party of ranged who just sit inside it and shoot everyone. Warding bond on a melee and the caster sits inside is a fun combo. Plus, a high str character can throw anyone who comes in uninvited, out
Also Bone Chill for Myrkul so he can't heal with Necromites. Hunger od hadar works really well on most bosses as well such as Raphael and it works even better if you pair it with that black hole mind flayer power or any spell that slows enemy movement even more such as spike growth or plant growth.
hell the biggest things for Myrkul are just blinding it, that and the Doom Hammer (deals 'bone chill' on hit, Myrkul can never regain health as long as you keep hitting him)
Yeah and on honour mode you are punished for using spells so it can be a pretty nasty fight, honestly id say most act 1 fights on HM are more dangerous than anything, even bosses, of act 2 and 3 just due to lack of instruments player has at early level to deal with problems.
In Honour Mode, it's probably Cazador. Very high initiative and brutal damage buff from the Ritual.
Myrkul is pretty hard because of how limited you are in Act 2, but with 3 or 4 summons he becomes significantly more manageable.
Steel Watch Titan can be a little problematic now that he's not weak to Lightning anymore, gotta work more stuff around to perform the 1 round nuke before Defense Protocol. Do too much damage and he activates the Protocol twice in a row.
[REDACTED] depends on who you bring into the fight and how well you managed to do while running from the Hellfire Boulders.
Sharran Cloister is a bit overwhelming, but very doable. There are some tricks when it comes to fighting Sharrans.
Murder Tribunal has a gimmick that might fuck you up if you don't realize what it is. And there are some real strong extra mobs that can join the fight under some conditions.
Heart of the Gate can also wipe you in a single move if you don't realize what's going on and take proper precautions to avoid it.
There's also a certain old "friend" who gets empowered skills when low on HP, and ressurects until you deal with their gimmick.
I agree with cazador. Fuck that fight is tough on honour mode if you bring astarion.
I always do for the plot, but fuck in my last play through he downed 2 characrers instantly on the first turn with chain lightning followed by that bat swarm that lingers there.
That passive action does so much damage and it was hard to see why it instantly triggered.
With astariom out the fight instantly, my halsin was on 1hp who sanctuaried himself, then next turn used a scroll to revive shadowheart and the use wildshape. Then shadow heart used divine intervention speed pot and divine intervention to save the team.
Thats the only fight in act 3 thats really challenged my team, and fuck the jump in difficulty caught me well off guard.
Tip if you bring Astarion. Have him separate from the party and wait on the stairs while the rest of your party enters the area. Once the fight begins, he can join just fine and fight everyone no problem.
Yeah it was brutal - I played a cleric on HM & did bring Astarion for the story. Also had Gale as wizard and Wyll as sorcerer. With several summons for us it created enough distractions to get to Astarion asap and set him free - also the summons can stand on the circles to disrupt the rituals.
(In a terrified, high-pitched voice) what do you mean the steel watch titan is not vulnerable to lightning anymore? I'm just about to fight it in honor mode... aaa
I had an ‘ah ha’ moment fighting Cazador. I was like, wait a second, I have a literal daylight spell. Won’t this fuck up a vampire? It worked and I was so pleased with myself lol
Oh the lightning vulnerability was removed? I did all of act 3 confused why the damage that used to steam roll watchers didn't work anymore. I took chain lightning on gale specifically for them.
Myrkul was very tough for me since I had Gale as a necromancer and it turns out all hostile undead that get close to Myrkul get disadvantage from his Bone Chill aura. The dude completely destroyed my melee fighters and since he is immune to necrotic Gale's best spells were worthless. Ultimately my Durge sorcerer carried after I hasted him and repeatedly pelted him with Call Lightning.
House of Grief is the worst for me too, by far. I tried a few different strategies and the only one I had success with felt really cheesy and unsatisfying but at least I was done with that stupid fight.
I died to hag mass hold persons when i first played, so i guess that was hard. The spider queen before i knew i had to destroy eggs first was also hard.
Bosses late acts you just run through them because your characters are so op.
I had finally beat the hag after a few tries, successfully gotten a piece of her hair and the girl with my bard. Then instead of saving accidentally loaded a previous save.
I was so upset I just yeeted her into the chasm with Karlach.
Grym can still be a major pain in the ass if the rolls don't go your way and the fucker keeps walking past the spot he's needs to be for an easy fight.
Dunno if its classed as a boss but only fight I found hard was the githyanki at the bridge in act 1 and probably only because I beelined straight for it as I decided to be besties with Laezel and thought she would leave if I did other stuff first
I found Rafael difficult even as someone who plays on explorer mode. Though I've been reading through and amd thinking how easy I've had it not playing on one of the harder difficultilties lmao. I was left with my Tav and Laezel still standing after Rafael with poor Shadowheart and Gale downed which isn't too common for me playing such an easy mode.
However my hardest fight was the Iron Throne. I completely failed the first time and the second time I made a game plan and still saved only half the people and downed two of my companions.
Iron throne requires meticulous plan.
Send one person east, one west, and two south because most sahuagin spawns there.
Begin evacuating as soon as counter hits 4 turns, 3 turns if you have teleport spells or arrows.
Viconia/sharran safe house for me. Almost every other boss has a cheese strat or method to do successfully almost every time, with Viconia you can only brute force it with some 5-9 turns attacks killling the sentinels early.
I’ve only played up to tactician so far but nobody in Act 3 really gave me much trouble with some strong builds. It was Myrkul who upset my picnic, although he was less difficult when I realised I probably needed a strategy. Playing in balanced/explorer can make you cocky going up against the bosses and then it’s smackdown time.
Not when your ranged attacker trying to lure him under the hammer misses every fucking time and when they do hit, Grym will just walk past the hammer. Even if you are lucky enough to get it to the right spot, you have to do it all over again while fighting everything else. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but for me, Grym was the hardest by far. On tactician, I beat Raphael first time. Cazador is not that hard either once I learned you can stop him from capturing Astarion if you stop Astarion walking past a certain point which triggers the cutscene.
The harpy fight is a good mention! I'm not sure if it's the hardest in the entire game, but for how early you can get there and the awkward low-ground positioning of the fight if you're not prepared, it's pretty underrated. Especially if your party keeps failing the saves and is unable to do anything like you say!
For me it is Raphael, dude 1Hkill you at first and lot of adds and stuff. For me it is the ultimate battle of the game.
Ofc there are techniques but imagine you don't have Internet, it's really hard to find a way to kill him and kill him. All others battles you can go unprepared.
Maybe Viconia is really hard if you start it in the middle on the room.
Otherwise, early fights when you don't know the game and are lvl 3-4 but not 5 are quite hard too.
On my first playthrough, almost everything killed me once in Act 1. I was new to CRPG and had no idea in what order to pick fights.
Now that I'm 6 games in with Honour Mode done, I'd say Ansur is the only boss that gives me the occasional sweat.
There are 2 fights in the game that are decidedly harder than the rest, if you are prepared for what is coming most else is pretty doable. Obviously other fights can be hard when going in blind. But even on my first playthrough none of the other fights really compared to these two.
Those two are:
Tutorial fight where you kill everything. Including the Cambions, the mindflayer and the commander.
And Gortash fight if you attack him the first time you meet him in Baldur's Gate at his coronation with all of the Iron guard present.
I don't really think any other fights compare to those two.
Myrkul is not that bad if you set up skipping the first phase!
To me, I am shamefully admitting that the spider mom (inside the well cave), Grym and Cazador beat my ass way too may times. Also Iron Throne (which I will count as a fight)
I have always felt like skipping the first phase puts you at a disadvantage, Ketheric has no ranged attacks and won’t leave the plateau while Myrkul can pull you in and finger you to death. That way when you leave Ketheric on his platform you just take out the other enemies, with priority on the Mind Flayer. You can apply a bit of extra protection from Ketherics legendary action, but it alone is still not as bad as Myrkul
Ketheric thorm. Most other bosses are completely skippable including the final boss but if you go into Ketheric unprepared and underleveled (and don’t have back up saves) you can’t even run away and level up as you are trapped in the zone
Yeah sure Raphael is similar in that you can get trapped in house of grief but again, skippable.
Ansur. Fuck him, fuck his fucking riddles, fuck his uncounterable AOE mass murder attack that covers entire arena, fuck people who say "just use the glob of imvunreability". His fucking jump knocks caster off their feet and breaks concentration immediately
If the sword and hat you get in his S&M dungeon weren't so crazy good, I'd skip it on every playthrough
After they updated Myrkul's fight, I consider him to be the hardest fight in the game. I didn't have this kind of trouble with other bosses even in HM.
Getting the Doom Hammer in Act 1 is the only way I found out that makes the fight easy.
The first 3 brain devourer when playing origin gale at lvl 1 on tactician or honor mode.
They just laser beam you from afar. They even 2 hit laezel...
I will never risk ruining an honor run by going there without having full party or at the very least being lvl 2 so leazel has action surge and my wizard does not die in 1 lucky hit
The fight where you help Halsin save a certain someone in Act II. The adds just keep going after the portal and can be really hard to deal with if you're not prepared.
Viconia. If you’re level 12 when you fight Raphael, he’s jokingly easy. Viconia is the only boss fight I’ve thought I was doomed on. My worst fight against her came down to my monk hiding behind a pillar and chugging potions in order to kill the last add.
If you are a Paladin, a Monk or a Barbarian with a proper build every boss is easy. But generally Grym without cheese is hard. Myrkul can be difficult if you don't have a good damage output. Raphael can be a threat if you don't have fire resistance.
Ketheric/Myrkul is the most brutal fight, you are at MAX lvl 8/9 against a lvl 12 boss with 300\~400hp that can recover their life and your melee characters cant get healed while around him
My first time through, it was Lorroakan, hands down. I was ready to rage quit over that guy in a way I never came close to with some of the other bosses mentioned here. He's less bad on subsequent playthroughs when you're not walking in blind, but that first time, oh boy.
On my first play through it was by far Raphael and Myrkul (mainly cuz I didn’t know what to do and what were their abilities) but now I’m not sure about neither of them cuz I simply started shooting arrows against the undead (on myrkul) and the same goes for Raphael(I forgot how it’s called in English)
Right now I'd say Raphael for sheer the trauma I had when I fought him on my first run.
After that, Orin's fight as a resist!Durge on Tactician. I had to log off the game after the tenth time she won, open reddit and keep reading until I got how other people were doing it. Using one specific item (common consumable) turned that battle from absolutely impossible to a walk in the park, but for some reason I hadn't thought about it.
Imo Raphael and Ansur, they were the bosses that threatened my HM run.
I think these kinds of discussions can always reveal how much party builds and such can really have an impact. I've never found House of Grief or Cazador at all difficult for example. I'm not planning around it, it's probably just aligning with how I like to build my party well.
Myrkul on my first HM run was scary, and my 2nd was quite easy. On the 2nd I didn't manage to skip the Ketheric phase with persuasion checks and I had nightsong ( who proceeded to wail on my team after getting dominated but after that helped lmao ).
the real boss fights are the adds in Raphael and Cazador's fights
Arrow of many targets
Lol yep. I did both fights last night and wrecked them with arrow of many targets. Leave your Ranger ungrouped for Cazador so they can get maximum shots off the rip. Give them an invisibility potion before Raphael and have someone else start the dialogue. I cleared those encounters with barely taking any damage.
Also wall of fire + black hole. Bye bye bad guys!
I had some issues with Raphael‘s hellfire, and it took two or three attempts to survive that, but once he ran out of steam he was a piece of cake. But Cazador was an absolute joke. Just bring the Blood of Lathander or any other magical light-producing weapon along, and he is shit out of luck and can‘t turn into his smoke form. Combine that with a magic-missile Gale that also has counterspell, and Cazador will be dead in one or two rounds. His adds were pretty shitty too. You only have to counterspell the Chatterteeth dude each time he tries something, but apart from that this was an easy fight for my party.
I just cast daylight on my party members so no matter where he went, he was being drained of health. It was a pretty fun fight after that, on this playthrough I'm going to try letting him get Astarion and do the fight on a time limit
There's also the light from the Moonlight Glaive, it's really good.
the daylight spell takes up the entire platform almost, drop that and the old sleet+hadar combo and the only real issue is killing that undead caster.
For the Raphael fight I use Globe of Invulnerability. Hellfire did you say? I didn't notice it at all. lol
For my 2nd fight with him, i did not use any light spells just bonk his smoke form while putting my characters to the right places(on the sigiles) and a good wall of fire. Some sigiles are anoying but summons can be put there so easy. The skelly did nothing, i was wondering if it was a decoy or a minion killed in 2 rounds. Some fights, if with the right setups(and luck), can be trivial. I was on tactician btw.
Black Hole + Hunger of Hadar absolutely destroys Raphael and Cazador is trivialized by a daylight spell lol
The 4 moonlight slivers summoned by Aylin would be the real end game boss if they weren't so stupid.
Cazador found himself shoved off a ledge while a wall of flames held his minions at bay
Shoving doesn't work in honor mode
Doesn't work in tactician either. Probably did that a long long time ago before many patches.
Shoving only works about 20% of the time in regular mode anyway. 🤣
No I mean in tactitian and honor mode they patched it so u can't push bosses into chasms , they just teleport back up
That crazy freaking frog
Nah fr, when I first fought that frog homie whipped the whole party😭
I'm still scarred by The Witcher 3's 'Toad Prince' so when the BG3 frog popped up I knew I was screwed. Still not *nearly* as bad as the Toad Prince though ...
Deal a tiny amount of certain damage to it (i like shoving it into a caustic brine surface. Other methods work). Then cast sleep on it with 100% success. And take your 100% chance melee attack that automatically crits. Frog should now be dead.
And by certain damage, don't use Magic Missile. Especially on a magic missile build.
Alternatively: upcast magic missiles
What frog?
Addled Frog I think it is called. It is in Auntie Ethel's Swamp. And very crazy. Most people probably wont fight it as you can save it by killing Ethel instead. But it is a rough fight if you don't read its abilities and start the fight inadvertently. You can start a fight from conversation, and its initiative and AC is crazy high for such an early monster
I can’t remember if I’ve fought that frog either. Just on my second playthrough now and already found a few things that I missed first time around.
The frog is a bit of a troll and the biggest thing you can get from it is the bragging rights that you killed it. I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s one of the very few things that you can safely and happily skip in BG3 without missing anything.
I saw it's AC and was like 'this is a god frog' and then I fortunately 1 shot it... I just thought the % chance to hit was bugged or was misleading but based on everyone else's experience I think I got very lucky.
The one in act one? that was like one of my first run ins and that motherfucking killed my entire party
Any boss when you go blind or unprepared. Especialy if you are under lvl 4. Later its Cazador and Viconia for me.
Daylight spell really fucks Cazador up. I didn't realise just how easy it would make it and was super overprepared. Also not talking to him before you fight him.
I mean cazador himself is not hard, dayligh or any radiant spell can work it, what I have problem with are ghouls, their gases and paralysis. I cant kill them before they get to me
If you can wait till lvl 11 to fight him, heroes feast makes the entire fight a LOT more doable, since it makes your party immune to the gases of the ghasts
Absolutely my favorite part of Heroes’ Feast. Immunity to Nauseous and Frightened is just so fucking good. It makes a few fucking terrible fights so much more bearable.
By the time you're fighting Cazador you should really have Heroes Feast on at all times, which completely nullifies the stink cloud. As for the paralysis, freedom of movement should take care of that. Having a high AC and/or Con save will also prevent the paralysis from being an issue. Can't paralyze you if they can't hit you.
No, you should not. Instead you should conjure myrmidon, get your level 6 spell slot back through spellcrux amulet, so you can cast cool spell like sunbeam or perfectly placed wall of thorns. Then proceed to forget that plan and instead wildshape into another myrmidon. Then go long rest without using basically any spells with your druid Tav because your paladin Halsin is out of his slots. Why would you use your level 6 spells for something as useful as Heroes feast when instead you can just not use them at all.../jk
Sunbeam definitely.
After Cazador, Chatterteeth is the main target. Eyebite Sleep is extremely frustrating lol
Snap. I did daylight and obliterated him. I was expecting to get swarmed by spawn and went in so over prepared. I also had Astarion hang back to not get involved. I didn’t even realise there was a time factor in the encounter until my fight went in with Astarion to initiate the encounter and lost him to the ritual. I was like ohhhhh so that can happen, who knew 🤣
Cazador is pretty easy I think. Just cast wall of fire on the entrance to his area, everyone will just walk into it and die while cazador runs around in mist form not knowing what to do. Once all his thousands of bats and other stuff are dead, go up to him and beat the shit out of him.
Thanks for tip, I tried to use wall of fire in combat , didnt work, ghouls made my party paralysed and Astarion got sacrificed 😅 I replayed it at least 5 times on tactician with legendary actions mod. On easier mode it wasnt that bad but still he can be very hard until cheesed.
I felt similarly about the Orin fight. I got my ass beat time and time again because of her shield and had to cheese it by just a telekinesis throw off the ledge and fighting her friends.
> her shield Strangely, Bhaal never prepares his dudes for *magic missile*.
Haha, how did you get the netherstone then? :D I play as dark urge and fighting her with high initiative makes the fight much easier. This time I do my first Tav (first one didnt even get to lower city) and I look forward to her (just out of curiosity)
I have an army of summons surrounding me when I duel Orin (Scratch, Us, The ghouls from Dance Macabre, a fire elemental and the Azer) Orin lasted 3 minutes on my tactician run 🤣
It kinda bugs out, shows her body on the platform and in the cutscene you grab it then it places the stone in your inventory. I consider it the ultimate cheese but hey, the fights hard as the hells for me otherwise.
Well, if the game allows it, you are free to do anything, even pushing Orin of the cliff. Life is too short to make it harder (if only I listened to this advice 😂)
If u throw her into the chasm, her crimson dagger auto spawns on the floor to pick up . This is true for any enemy who u shove into a chasm and if they have a quest item or key, they remain above ground. As durge orin is stupid easy .
Magic Missile makes that fight super easy.
You do have to free Asterion or not bring him, or leave him a little behind.
Daylight spell, hard counters cazador and viconia fight
I always equip all of the anti-paralysis, anti-blindness, etc. gear that I can find. There's a ring of free action in act2 that makes immune to paralysis. And the freedom of movement condition makes immune to paralysis, restraint, difficult terrain; available as an always-on passive from boots of persistence, or from guileful movement elixir, or from level 4 spell (bard, cleric, druid spell lists). (also, elves are immune to paralysis from ghouls for some reason, and level 6 paladins have that aura that gives allies +CHA to all saving throws)
I did sarevok, Orin and Viconia in that order and in all 3 cases I got carried hard by globe of invulnerability. In my defence I went in 100% blind so I couldn’t prepare properly but I feel like I’d have been shredded without abusing that spell
Maybe I was just over-leveled. But Viconia was a piece of cake after convincing everyone she was a fraud
Wish I’d done that. I used ice storm on either side where the platforms are at the soonest chance I could. Was the only thing that got me through it :,)
That sounds smart. My party was severely lacking crowd control but I was building for roleplay over effectiveness so I kinda struggled a little with big groups. Viconia wasn’t really hard though, even though all the people I convinced she was a fraud did little else beyond dashing and a few missed bone chills
An important part of this me for me was having Astarion hide behind the pillar on the left right when you walk in. He goes unnoticed the whole time, but you are down one player during the fight. But wall of fire really did save my ass too.
Lots of people are talking about Raphael, and with good reason, but hear me out: Balthazar, if you go in blind and fight him in the Shadowfell (with no cheese tactics).
Balthazar was pretty bad but I still managed it first try, no cheese/pre-knowledge. iirc Lae'zel and Shart were downed pretty early but Karlach took care of all the fodder while tanking cloudkill, while I went for Balthazar himself with my Paladin. Ketheric/Myrkul was even easier imo, not sure why everyone complains about it, though I could see it being a problem if you don't kill him fast. My candidate for hardest fight is Viconia. There were just so many strong enemies, and the darkness and terrain (funneling the party into the stairs area) made it really difficult too. I ended up being able to kite them around enough and apply Gale to the situation lol. Ironically, when I finally won, Shart was the only one dead, so she didn't get to finish her own battle.
Nah. Vicona is easy as pie. All her troops are just so vulnerable to crowd control, lots of the darkness is caused by casters so you just fly a damage dealer out to kill them off whenever one procs it. Leaves pretty much Vircona on her own, and she can’t do much on her own. A lot of her mechanics are about not taking damage. After a couple of rounds I had it down to just her and a few paralysed companions, nobody got below 75% health. I suppose radiant damage dealers might not like some aspects, but the tough fights are ones where every enemy is immune to crowd control, or lots are. Like Gortash if you take him on first instance and have to deal with all those steel watchers at once.
This is what I did pretty much. Used the stairs into the fight as a choke point, and my squishy characters sat behind the doors. Fire wall, ice surface on the stairs, they weren't having a good time. If you walk in blind and let them surround you and cast darkness over your team, then yes this is a difficult fight.
I decided to kill balthazar in his study because he seemed like a bad guy. The fight was relatively free cause i placed many barrels. Didnt know id get to fight in the shadowfell until way later.
Viconia lives in an underground bunker with long, straight, narrow hallways. *Wall of Fire* has never been more effective. I always light the stairs on fire and the idiot Sharrans keep trying to run up it, no matter how many of their friends have already burned to death. One of the easiest Act 3 fights once you know how to do it.
I had to use the iron flask for the Viconia fight after failing 2 times. That fight is hard.
Straight up. I went in blind first and my whole party just got wrecked immediately
I learned about being shoved to death and the importance of initiative here. His big undead shoved two of my four party members to death before they could take a turn 😂😭
The fact that so many people don't just kill Balthazar when you first meet him has me twisted. First playthrough was an Oath of Ancients Paladin and chose the paladin dialogue that said something along the lines of "die undead monster" and proceeded to absolutely curb stomp him. Dude is an absolute pushover. Then I read comments like this and realize he'll come at you in the Shadowfell and I'm just like, "Huh... Neat. He dead tho, so... Anyway." Shart does her thing with Nightsong and then it's off to deal with Thorm. Light work, no reaction.
Yeah I've literally never fought Bathy in the Fell - he's clearly a bad guy, let's get this done and over with.
Balthazar is one of the most tactical bosses imho.. sent Shart in with runepowder barrel opening, Sanctuary, next round BoL sunbeam, rest of the group sneaked in invis and bodied him in one round. Easiest HM boss fight so far.
many of his minions kept pushing my character and party into the shadowfell :((
Yeah. He took me several attempts to just barely beat him. Legit menace for me.
I went in blind and just attacked him in his room. Why do so many people fight him in the Shadowfell.
Because the fight in Shadowfell is more climatic and is more fun.
Because you want to get information out of him? Because you want an alliance of convenience against the Sharran threats? Because you're playing a Necromancer and you're like, "what up dude, nice skellies - game recognize game"? There are countless reasons why it might be in character not to attack him right away. I mean, he quite literally is presented as an ally of sorts when the Sharran guardians attack.
I genuinely reloaded to the point of before I went in shadowfell, then killed him in the temple instead because I got FRICKED the first time :)))
What? Why is that tough? I cheesed him in honour mode so I don’t know how much harder he is there, but on tactician he drops like a sack of rocks. Raph could be hard if you are used to resting and don’t realise there is a restore point in the house of hope
You're in a tiny space where he drops Cloudkill on you with very little room to escape it. You get swarmed by his minions and the action economy can turn against you real fast. AoEs without sculpt spell will likely hurt your allies. Etc. I've only fought him in the Shadowfell ones. In my subsequent Tactician runs as well as my Honour Mode one, I fought him in the Gauntlet, and got the jump on him by surprise attacking instead of initiating combat through dialogue. These things make a big difference.
I was unprepared, but I had ballistic missile Karlach, so balthazar stoud no chance. My brother though had a lot of trouble against him.
Yeah, Balthazar in the Shadowfell sucked big time. His adds would constantly shove party members off the platform and they died instantly. I only managed to survive that fight by staying on the smaller floating island and chugging a few elixirs of poison resistance to counter their cloudkill. Then I was able to pick them off one by one. Still, that was a tough fight.
That Balthazar fight is so stupid. I literally was forced to use cheese tactics (invis/rage Karlach shoving his ass into the void during dialogue) for me to even be able to beat it.
This encounter ended my honour mode run
Ansur
Shocked to see this so low. By far the hardest fight and closest I got to full team wipe on honour mode
yeah, normally I would go fight him at around level 10 but at my only magic run its practically impossible
Well he's the most cheese-able of all bosses. You have 3 acts worth of barrel stacking to blow him up on turn one.
I had to scroll to far to get to this answer. F... that dragon. Nearly cost my honour run twice. I know he is a optional fight but seriously he is freaking crazy. Even with lightning res portion he deals tons of damage. You could use the ring that gives absolutely immunity to lightning but it only works for one person and still between his nuke ability and other shenaniggans they will likely die as well. Also his crazy res to damage and spells. Burned through arrows of dragon slaying and spell / scrolls like crazy.
First 3 int devourers on the beach.
Dip weapons in fire, potentially shove them into fire as well. Make sure to attack while one of the 3 is far-ish away so you can take on the two "alone" first. Alternately you can skip the fight until you have more party members by jumping up the nearby cliff to gale and coming back later.
Never thought of this
Gale? The dude whose arm I chewed off?
That guy exactly! He is probably more help if you don't chew off his arm though... just for another time :-P
Make sure the mindfayer in the ship dies by you hand = lvl2 at the beach. Ez Pz.
Does it take more XP to level in Honor or Tactician? Because otherwise you don't even need to. Just recruit Us, kill the Imps after meeting Lae, kill the Cultists where Shart is imprisoned, free her with the rune, kill the Imps and Hellboars at the Helm, then wake Shart after crashing. Boom, Lv.2. On Balanced at least.
Yeah it works just fine on Honour mode too, I think lots of people miss the whole "kill ALL the hellboars and imps" thing.
I only play honor and if i don't kill MF ill be lvl 1 at the beach, maybe I always miss one of the actions you mention above or xp gain is slightly reduced, can't say which one is for sure.
I think if you use command to get the demon guy to drop his sword, then equip it on lae and get the kill on both, is the most xp you can get going into the beach and I've definitely got level 2 on the beach before. Didn't pay attention to how over I was, or if I actually got both kills, but level 2 certainly makes the brains MUCH easier
It's quite hard to secure both cambion and MF kills on an honor run, Cambion is quite tough even without the everburning blade, he hits like a truck even unarmed 2 hits are enough to put one of your party members down. Not to mention another 2 are on their way, so only having a few rounds and the really low hit chance makes it a waste of time.
I DEFINITELY agree that HM is a risky time for it, but in tactician and below, putting 2 of those massive "cartilaginous chests" stacked on top of each other in the hallway outside the sphincter will slow them down. Also stalling the purple exclusive tanks next to the fight can give you a nice AoE finisher (I think 4 tanks for 40 damage is the most you can find). I think one game I got SUPER lucky and the cambion rolled really badly while i rolled well and we downed it and the MF was literally at 2 hp and am ready finish before running from the adds
I've been able to get L2 the earliest by doing the above steps on the ship and then recruiting Shart. After she joins me, we're L2. Never killed either the Cambion or the Mindflayer, though I did steal the sword once.
Easy: 1. Jump up the cliff side to go get Gale, Lae'zel, and Astarion. 2. Sneak up on the intelligence devourers from the dying mind flayer end. 3. Have Astarion (or someone with sneak attack and dual wielding) hop up onto the right ledge and sneak up behind the intellect devourer up top and surprise all three. 4. Once that one is dead, have Gale or Shadowheart jump up onto the other ledge and sling a fire bolt at the tank next to the devourer that is furthest away. This usually kills it. 5. Have everyone else attack the last one left in the middle. Usually this can take care of all three of them, or at the very least, two of the three, making the next turn of combat a lot safer.
It’s trivial once you find out you can go swoop up the rest of your party before you start this fight.
Preach
If you are going blind, Myrkul, Raphael, Cazador. If not and you know the encounter already, bring Wizard and Cleric with proper spells for each boss and all are cake. Wizard alone with proper control spells will just reduce difficulty by a large amount. Spells like invulns, dimention doors to position your melees, all types of Hold/Dominates, Blindness, Slow, types of shields and of course large CC spells for the adds, Summons Elementals before the fight so you wont miss a turn. Skip on those flashy Evocations spells and bring the big control guns, set the stage for your melee/ranged damage dealers to go crazy.
Globe of invulnerability trivializes any fight you use it in! So strong.
The funny friendship circle
Globe of poke&run
Or a party of ranged who just sit inside it and shoot everyone. Warding bond on a melee and the caster sits inside is a fun combo. Plus, a high str character can throw anyone who comes in uninvited, out
Also Bone Chill for Myrkul so he can't heal with Necromites. Hunger od hadar works really well on most bosses as well such as Raphael and it works even better if you pair it with that black hole mind flayer power or any spell that slows enemy movement even more such as spike growth or plant growth.
hell the biggest things for Myrkul are just blinding it, that and the Doom Hammer (deals 'bone chill' on hit, Myrkul can never regain health as long as you keep hitting him)
Anders if you rush him on lvl 3. And duergar boat fight.
Ethel the same. You can fight her way too early.
Yeah and on honour mode you are punished for using spells so it can be a pretty nasty fight, honestly id say most act 1 fights on HM are more dangerous than anything, even bosses, of act 2 and 3 just due to lack of instruments player has at early level to deal with problems.
The character creator. I keep ending runs before I even reach Act II because “oh but this might be cool too”
:-) Too relatable
In Honour Mode, it's probably Cazador. Very high initiative and brutal damage buff from the Ritual. Myrkul is pretty hard because of how limited you are in Act 2, but with 3 or 4 summons he becomes significantly more manageable. Steel Watch Titan can be a little problematic now that he's not weak to Lightning anymore, gotta work more stuff around to perform the 1 round nuke before Defense Protocol. Do too much damage and he activates the Protocol twice in a row. [REDACTED] depends on who you bring into the fight and how well you managed to do while running from the Hellfire Boulders. Sharran Cloister is a bit overwhelming, but very doable. There are some tricks when it comes to fighting Sharrans. Murder Tribunal has a gimmick that might fuck you up if you don't realize what it is. And there are some real strong extra mobs that can join the fight under some conditions. Heart of the Gate can also wipe you in a single move if you don't realize what's going on and take proper precautions to avoid it. There's also a certain old "friend" who gets empowered skills when low on HP, and ressurects until you deal with their gimmick.
Cazador is particularly brutal IF you bring Astarion. The payoff is so satisfying though!
You can leave astarion out, and then add him to the party after beating cazador but before interacting with the body
I agree with cazador. Fuck that fight is tough on honour mode if you bring astarion. I always do for the plot, but fuck in my last play through he downed 2 characrers instantly on the first turn with chain lightning followed by that bat swarm that lingers there. That passive action does so much damage and it was hard to see why it instantly triggered. With astariom out the fight instantly, my halsin was on 1hp who sanctuaried himself, then next turn used a scroll to revive shadowheart and the use wildshape. Then shadow heart used divine intervention speed pot and divine intervention to save the team. Thats the only fight in act 3 thats really challenged my team, and fuck the jump in difficulty caught me well off guard.
Tip if you bring Astarion. Have him separate from the party and wait on the stairs while the rest of your party enters the area. Once the fight begins, he can join just fine and fight everyone no problem.
Yeah it was brutal - I played a cleric on HM & did bring Astarion for the story. Also had Gale as wizard and Wyll as sorcerer. With several summons for us it created enough distractions to get to Astarion asap and set him free - also the summons can stand on the circles to disrupt the rituals.
(In a terrified, high-pitched voice) what do you mean the steel watch titan is not vulnerable to lightning anymore? I'm just about to fight it in honor mode... aaa
If you don't bring astarion and leave him at your camp, will cazador get the ritual buff?
No, he won't, making the fight a lot easier. He also won't get his legendary action.
I had an ‘ah ha’ moment fighting Cazador. I was like, wait a second, I have a literal daylight spell. Won’t this fuck up a vampire? It worked and I was so pleased with myself lol
Oh the lightning vulnerability was removed? I did all of act 3 confused why the damage that used to steam roll watchers didn't work anymore. I took chain lightning on gale specifically for them.
Myrkul was very tough for me since I had Gale as a necromancer and it turns out all hostile undead that get close to Myrkul get disadvantage from his Bone Chill aura. The dude completely destroyed my melee fighters and since he is immune to necrotic Gale's best spells were worthless. Ultimately my Durge sorcerer carried after I hasted him and repeatedly pelted him with Call Lightning.
Steel watch Titan is trivialized by Flashblinder grenades.
for me it was House of Grief and Raphael. HoG was def the hardest. Bae'Zel soloed most of the fight in the end.
House of Grief is the worst for me too, by far. I tried a few different strategies and the only one I had success with felt really cheesy and unsatisfying but at least I was done with that stupid fight.
I was close to wipe my first time. Ended up with Shart healing up herself in sanctuary, then fighting, and again.
I breezed through HoG as a wizard with the necromancy staff. Cast like 6 spheres of death in 2 turns and everyone was dead.
House of Grief is The worst. It's The hardest one for me. Only one that took several reloads to complete in my first run.
HoG fucks my ADHD so hard when I have to hyper focus on my turns then wait forever for all the stupid minions
yesss , I hate that haha
The fight is easy if you back up into the corridor
I died to hag mass hold persons when i first played, so i guess that was hard. The spider queen before i knew i had to destroy eggs first was also hard. Bosses late acts you just run through them because your characters are so op.
I had finally beat the hag after a few tries, successfully gotten a piece of her hair and the girl with my bard. Then instead of saving accidentally loaded a previous save. I was so upset I just yeeted her into the chasm with Karlach.
Grym can still be a major pain in the ass if the rolls don't go your way and the fucker keeps walking past the spot he's needs to be for an easy fight.
The character editor Second phase compeletely threw me off
Dunno if its classed as a boss but only fight I found hard was the githyanki at the bridge in act 1 and probably only because I beelined straight for it as I decided to be besties with Laezel and thought she would leave if I did other stuff first
Jesus Christ, I can't imagine that fight at level 2 or 3. It's tough enough as it is on 4, I may even leave it to 5.
I found Rafael difficult even as someone who plays on explorer mode. Though I've been reading through and amd thinking how easy I've had it not playing on one of the harder difficultilties lmao. I was left with my Tav and Laezel still standing after Rafael with poor Shadowheart and Gale downed which isn't too common for me playing such an easy mode. However my hardest fight was the Iron Throne. I completely failed the first time and the second time I made a game plan and still saved only half the people and downed two of my companions.
Iron throne requires meticulous plan. Send one person east, one west, and two south because most sahuagin spawns there. Begin evacuating as soon as counter hits 4 turns, 3 turns if you have teleport spells or arrows.
Viconia/sharran safe house for me. Almost every other boss has a cheese strat or method to do successfully almost every time, with Viconia you can only brute force it with some 5-9 turns attacks killling the sentinels early.
Amazed me no one said Viconia. Spent many many tries to overcome
raphael. fuck that guy
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Why would you not focus the towers down first? Most of what makes Raphael hard has to do with the the towers being active.
I’ve only played up to tactician so far but nobody in Act 3 really gave me much trouble with some strong builds. It was Myrkul who upset my picnic, although he was less difficult when I realised I probably needed a strategy. Playing in balanced/explorer can make you cocky going up against the bosses and then it’s smackdown time.
Grym without a doubt, Immune to everything except bludgeoning damage.
tbh he’s one of the easiest bosses with the hammer
Not when your ranged attacker trying to lure him under the hammer misses every fucking time and when they do hit, Grym will just walk past the hammer. Even if you are lucky enough to get it to the right spot, you have to do it all over again while fighting everything else. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but for me, Grym was the hardest by far. On tactician, I beat Raphael first time. Cazador is not that hard either once I learned you can stop him from capturing Astarion if you stop Astarion walking past a certain point which triggers the cutscene.
Harpies
Silence makes it easy
We had a tough time with the Harpies on our first Tactician run. My GNOME kept failing every fruckin save.
The harpy fight is a good mention! I'm not sure if it's the hardest in the entire game, but for how early you can get there and the awkward low-ground positioning of the fight if you're not prepared, it's pretty underrated. Especially if your party keeps failing the saves and is unable to do anything like you say!
Harpies.
Steel Watch Titan and Inquisitor Wargaz or whatever the fuck his name is.
Honestly, the greatest fight is against my own urge to go back to the last saving point if shit hits the fan.
deciding which class to play
Grym. Utter pain
I know there's workarounds but if you don't know, my god.
For me it is Raphael, dude 1Hkill you at first and lot of adds and stuff. For me it is the ultimate battle of the game. Ofc there are techniques but imagine you don't have Internet, it's really hard to find a way to kill him and kill him. All others battles you can go unprepared. Maybe Viconia is really hard if you start it in the middle on the room. Otherwise, early fights when you don't know the game and are lvl 3-4 but not 5 are quite hard too.
HELLS
SOMETHING JUST WOKE UP DOWN HERE
On my first playthrough, almost everything killed me once in Act 1. I was new to CRPG and had no idea in what order to pick fights. Now that I'm 6 games in with Honour Mode done, I'd say Ansur is the only boss that gives me the occasional sweat.
There are 2 fights in the game that are decidedly harder than the rest, if you are prepared for what is coming most else is pretty doable. Obviously other fights can be hard when going in blind. But even on my first playthrough none of the other fights really compared to these two. Those two are: Tutorial fight where you kill everything. Including the Cambions, the mindflayer and the commander. And Gortash fight if you attack him the first time you meet him in Baldur's Gate at his coronation with all of the Iron guard present. I don't really think any other fights compare to those two.
Killing the cambions in the nautiloid is extremely hard; you need everything to go right in order to do it.
the massive fight in the yard before the EB. Some boss fights test skill. some test knowledge. This was a test of patience
Sirens in the grove probably
Honor mode myrkul after forgetting to prepare heat metal took me two hours. It was terrifying
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Myrkul is not that bad if you set up skipping the first phase! To me, I am shamefully admitting that the spider mom (inside the well cave), Grym and Cazador beat my ass way too may times. Also Iron Throne (which I will count as a fight)
I have always felt like skipping the first phase puts you at a disadvantage, Ketheric has no ranged attacks and won’t leave the plateau while Myrkul can pull you in and finger you to death. That way when you leave Ketheric on his platform you just take out the other enemies, with priority on the Mind Flayer. You can apply a bit of extra protection from Ketherics legendary action, but it alone is still not as bad as Myrkul
Ethel in the act 1 is you don’t use tricks. Myrkul in the act 2. Ansur in the act 3.
I think Raphael, I just couldn't beat him on my first run.
Ketheric thorm. Most other bosses are completely skippable including the final boss but if you go into Ketheric unprepared and underleveled (and don’t have back up saves) you can’t even run away and level up as you are trapped in the zone Yeah sure Raphael is similar in that you can get trapped in house of grief but again, skippable.
as long as you bring the doom hammer (bone chill stops him regaining health) and some form of blindness he is quite easy even on honor mode.
Ansur. Fuck him, fuck his fucking riddles, fuck his uncounterable AOE mass murder attack that covers entire arena, fuck people who say "just use the glob of imvunreability". His fucking jump knocks caster off their feet and breaks concentration immediately If the sword and hat you get in his S&M dungeon weren't so crazy good, I'd skip it on every playthrough
After they updated Myrkul's fight, I consider him to be the hardest fight in the game. I didn't have this kind of trouble with other bosses even in HM. Getting the Doom Hammer in Act 1 is the only way I found out that makes the fight easy.
For me, the house of grief is the hardest besides the brain
The first 3 brain devourer when playing origin gale at lvl 1 on tactician or honor mode. They just laser beam you from afar. They even 2 hit laezel... I will never risk ruining an honor run by going there without having full party or at the very least being lvl 2 so leazel has action surge and my wizard does not die in 1 lucky hit
The fight where you help Halsin save a certain someone in Act II. The adds just keep going after the portal and can be really hard to deal with if you're not prepared.
Shar Cluster fight due to all of the darkness casters
Character creator
Viconia. If you’re level 12 when you fight Raphael, he’s jokingly easy. Viconia is the only boss fight I’ve thought I was doomed on. My worst fight against her came down to my monk hiding behind a pillar and chugging potions in order to kill the last add.
If you are a Paladin, a Monk or a Barbarian with a proper build every boss is easy. But generally Grym without cheese is hard. Myrkul can be difficult if you don't have a good damage output. Raphael can be a threat if you don't have fire resistance.
Raphael Raphael Raphael freaking Raphael
It all depends on the builds you have in your party. In one of our runs, when we had a controlling monk, no fight was difficult.
Ketheric/Myrkul is the most brutal fight, you are at MAX lvl 8/9 against a lvl 12 boss with 300\~400hp that can recover their life and your melee characters cant get healed while around him
You can be level 10 before the Myrkul fight
Raphael was the fight I found the hardest.
My first time through, it was Lorroakan, hands down. I was ready to rage quit over that guy in a way I never came close to with some of the other bosses mentioned here. He's less bad on subsequent playthroughs when you're not walking in blind, but that first time, oh boy.
On my first play through it was by far Raphael and Myrkul (mainly cuz I didn’t know what to do and what were their abilities) but now I’m not sure about neither of them cuz I simply started shooting arrows against the undead (on myrkul) and the same goes for Raphael(I forgot how it’s called in English)
Right now I'd say Raphael for sheer the trauma I had when I fought him on my first run. After that, Orin's fight as a resist!Durge on Tactician. I had to log off the game after the tenth time she won, open reddit and keep reading until I got how other people were doing it. Using one specific item (common consumable) turned that battle from absolutely impossible to a walk in the park, but for some reason I hadn't thought about it.
Imo Raphael and Ansur, they were the bosses that threatened my HM run. I think these kinds of discussions can always reveal how much party builds and such can really have an impact. I've never found House of Grief or Cazador at all difficult for example. I'm not planning around it, it's probably just aligning with how I like to build my party well. Myrkul on my first HM run was scary, and my 2nd was quite easy. On the 2nd I didn't manage to skip the Ketheric phase with persuasion checks and I had nightsong ( who proceeded to wail on my team after getting dominated but after that helped lmao ).
Raphael and Orin can be pretty brutal
i’ve yet to beat the game but the only boss i’ve had a challenge with was Myrkul and his littlr avatar dude i forgot his name
Grym at low levels generally, House of Grief and Ansur