O.K. a lot of you probably find them all very easy but I found that the Umar hills quest was very hard the first time round even before I met the Shadow Dragon. I found that Trademeat and the Druid grove put up a chalenge and that was in chapter 6. However I found D'Arnise Hold and Firkrags lair to be easy, but I have heard that a few people have found them quite dificult.

[ August 28, 2003, 21:25: Message edited by: Blackthorne TA ]

Poll Information
This poll contains 2 question(s). 52 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: what subquest do you find the most chalanging? (52 votes.)

what subquest do you find the most chalanging? (Choose 1)
* De'Arnise Hold - 4% (2)
* Windspear Hills - 65% (34)
* Trademeet - 4% (2)
* Umar Hills - 27% (14)

Which subquest did you find the least chalenging? (Choose 1)
* De'Arnise Hold - 42% (22)
* Windspear Hills - 4% (2)
* Trademeet - 44% (23)
* Umar Hills - 10% (5)

Why is there so few choices? I'm under the impressions that there are 8 major quests for Chapter 2, the 8 Stronghold quests...

I choosed Trademeat as the hardest. WHY?!. I so hate trolls :mad: and theres a lot of them at the druid grove. Although the Unseeing Eye quest is by far the most challenging subquest, but since it wasn't listed :rolleyes:

*agrees with Elvenblade*

why is unseeing eye the hardest? I have never had any trouble with that.

I personally had some trouble with the planear prison the first time around, the halfing at the beginning kept killing me :-D

What about Sir Sarles? That alloy is heavy! :lol:

But seriously, not that any of them are too difficult, but I picked Windspear Hills. De’Arnise Hold has no difficult areas (to me, anyway). The Temple Ruins only has the Shadow Dragon, and for some reason, I always have to be careful against the Druids in the middle of the Druid Grove. But Winspear Hills has 3 battles that are at least somewhat challenging (Samia + gang, DigDag + gang, and Firkraag).

But Stu has, for some reason, limited the quests to those outside the City :hmm: (not that those are any more difficult than the ones listed).

Edit: Whoo Hoo! New gem! :cool:

Does Kangaxx count?
I lost almosst my entire parrty to Imprisonment and haad to go find a mage and a Freedom spell.
Took ages to get them.
De'Arnise Hold was probably the easiest by far for me.

I'd say either the underdark Illithid cavern where you need to obtain the blood of the Elderbrain, or then the Illithid remote base in the sewers. Those things are damn annoying. Anything else I can counter when I just prepare well enough, but those magic-resistant bastards are the only ones that I can't say wether I could survive against without loading or not. The mind-shields work however they please, and their melee attacks still involve the mind-drain ability. Since most summons are completely useless against them, there's always the risk of getting your characters stunned and/or killed. Mages are safe being on the back, but without a pile of lower resistance spells they're not of much use. Namely, the problem is that while I could go through those caverns with the abuse of the rest exploit, there's no way I could survive the places without it. When the mages run out of spells, and fighters out of buffs, the Illithids will overwhelm.

@Foradasthar - I find that summoning undead works wonders, as the uber-skeletons you get at 15th level (I think), are essentially magic resistant and have no brain to drain. Images casting death spell over and over again are another tactic, but it all depends on what level your party is when doing this.

Am I the only one who finds the de'Arnise Keep difficult. I really hate Torgal, and the umberhulks...

Hmm, for me, the hardest, out of the four listed, was the Umar Hills, because of that stupid Shadow Dragon and its blasted acid breath! Do you know how much Protection from Acid spell scrolls cost? A lot! And I absolutely refused to spend that much money on that stupid dragon. Hence, as such, I kept getting level drained and then killed with one hit. Stupid dragon. I finally killed him after umpteen times though. *laughs evilly as I sport shiny new shadow dragon armor*

It's been a while since I played this game. I didn't vote though, as I can't really remember which of the four is most and least challenging. But I remember most number of deaths I have suffered was with the secret society of the Twisted Rune. However, I'm not sure if we can consider it a subquest.

Most challenging: Windspear hills, I find this one more challenging than Umar Hills, because there are more cool fights.
Samia, the wolfweres with the balanced wolfwere mod, golems (man I hate them), that Tazok guy, the mage (not that he's hard, but still fun) and finally Firkraag, who I found more difficult than the shadow dragon.

Umar Hills was pretty challenging too, but only had 2 big fights. But I found the Shadow Dragon easier than Firkraag and the Shade Lord was a joke.

For least challenging, I voted Trademeet. All you have to do is waltz through some stupid forest with some random encounters (OK, they're not random, but just as easy as most of them). The only challenging bit about this was that I had to fight that ***** (forgot her name) one on one, naked with my sorcerer. I still beat her though and since this was the only challenge, this comes last.

I actually wanted De'Arnise Keep and Trademeet to share their place for easiest quests, but that wasn't possible. The trolls are easy. The umberhulks you don't even have to fight and even if you do: just send in some highly magic resistant fighter and fire a cloudkill after him.

You should have had the most boring subquest as well :) It would definatly be the unseeing eye quest - so much walking around :mad:

The windspear hills is definitely the most challenging of those listed. You have the room filled with undead, golems, greater wolfweres, Tazok and Digdag, Semia and Company, a beholder thrown in for good measure, all those guardians and of course Firkraag.

The Umar Hills has only the Shadow Dragon (difficult) and the Shade Lord (easy). I do not think those shades and greater skeletons come anywhere close to the difficulty of any of the creatures I listed for the Windspear Hills. The only reason I can see that some people feel the Shadow Dragon is harder than Firkraag is that typically, you do the Umar Hills quest before the Windspear Hills, so your characters are of a higher level when they get to the Windspear Hills.

@ Daephon
and the umberhulks Thief + stealth + dog stew = easy

@ Malovae
so much walking around That's exactly why I love Ctrl-J -- to skip over previously-explored areas.

Most challenging? Neeber. ;)

Umar Hills.

Most often this will be my first quests in the game, and then I usually have only a few magical weapons (greater shade wolwes are immune to non-magical, and there are no bonuses). Besides, the skeleton warriors and especially the bone golem are tought opponents to low level characters.

'Course, now that I have solved the game on 'Insane', it's POC. :cool:

The Tanner quest is also quite bad for a low-level character. I really hate those cheatin' thieves that backstab in FRONT of you...

Yeah! I always make sure that Keldorn is by by side when I faced these rune assassins.
Oh! And I find that windspear quest is the hardest, and Umar hill seems to be the most interesting one, with some mini-quests like the chicken and three little boys etc.

Actually, there are items throughout the games that make certain quests a total piece of cake.
*Spoiler*
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Unseeing Eye - Shield of Balduran = Reflects Beholder Rays Beholder lair in the Underdark - See above Illithids - Sword of the Equilizer/brine poton/others = Immune to mind attacks Dragons - Dragon shield/Dragon slayer/Halberd +3: Dragon's Bane/Dragon Helm/ = better resistances/more damage Thieves - Enkidu's Full Plate/Gargoyle's Boots/Preserving Boots = Immune to backstab Powerful Mages/liches/others - Wand of Spell Striking = removes spell protections/lower resistances There are probably more, but that's all I can think of right now. :rolling:

Well. Have to say Unseeing Eye the most and Planar Prison.

Dragons - Dragon shield/Dragon slayer/Halberd +3: Dragon's Bane/Dragon Helm/ = better resistances/more damage
Powerful Mages/liches/others - Wand of Spell Striking = removes spell protections/lower resistances
I agree with the rest, but these things will only make stuff easier. It's not like when you have the dragon stuff, you can just walk up to the dragon and kill it. It's still pretty hard. I remember when I first played the game and faced Firkraag (the dungeon has all kinds of dragon-unfriendly equipment), I think I spent an entire day reloading and getting my ass kicked until I finally managed to beat him.

And the wand of spell striking isn't all that. Most/some liches are immune to level five or lower spells, so breach is out. Pierce magic only dispels one spell protection, so that isn't too much use either. It's not like the wand of spell striking actually casts Spell Strike...

I HATE the twisted rune -- that is a brutal fight for me regardless of what equipment I have. The Unseeing eye is also a royal pain in the bum.

Yeah, Twisted Rune sucks (well, it is actually really cool, but hard :) )! I don't think it goes along the line of big subquests like the hills, trademeet and de'arnise keep.

I seem to kind of suck at fights like these. I always have trouble against parties (well, not always), especially if they're as powerful as the Twisted Rune..

It's not like when you have the dragon stuff, you can just walk up to the dragon and kill it. Well, if you want to just walk up to a dragon a kill it, you can always use the "killsword". :rolleyes: :rolling:

I was just saying that the fight will still be hard. Well, kinda.

The Dragon equipment doesn't help that much. If you're a newbie, the fight will still be very hard and if you're very experienced and can beat the dragon easily, you could just as easily do it with as without the equipment...

Umar Hills, I ran into two liches in the temple of the sun.... ouch.

How did you manage to do that?

I don't recall any liches...

If you're of high enough level, Liches appear in random places where undead usually hang out (such as the Shadow dungeon). I once played a cheater-cheater-pumpkin-eater game with a dual-classed fighter/druid protagonist that I CLUA'd all the way up to like level 25/28, just playing around, and I ran into 3 liches in the Umar Hills. I guess they built that into the game to make the game more challenging for uber characters. Good call, I say. Cheaters never prosper!! ;)

I only included the quests outside of the city because I have found that a lot of people have had very different oppinions concerning them.
If I included Kangaxx, the Twisted Rune and the Underdark lairs they would get all of the votes and the ones which I really would like to know would miss out.

Random Thoughts related to this board.

I haven't beaten Firkraag yet, so that is really hard.

I heard the Kangaxx quest is even more difficult than the Firkraag quest!

The hardest part for me in the Unseeing Eye Quest was the 4 Gauths hanging together in the room close to where the 2nd half of the rod is! After dying a couple times, I figured the best way to beat them is to wait till the next day so my party has their Fireball and Holy Smite spells all reloaded!

I actually killed the Unseeing Eye in 3 shots (Minsc with arrows with his Tugian Bow, my PC with the wand of the 2 rods together, and Anomen getting the gamewinner with his +3 Sling and Fire Bullets he got in the Temple Ruins) but had to wait till the next day to kill them 4 gauths.

[ September 22, 2003, 04:52: Message edited by: Neeraj in Athkatla ]

Personally, I found Umar to be the easiest. It's got rather easy foes, The dragon can be easily avoided, and it's not long to travel to and from. Only minor sub-subquests (Talk to ogres, talk to mayor, talk to ogres again, things like that). The downside to this is that the loot is rather minor, but I like to go after Umar for the Roleplay quality alone; It's one of my favorite 'Natural' places in BG2.

I was right.

I killed Firkraag yesterday, but I'm having the worst time right now trying to kill Kangaxx! :mad:

He kills me each time! the 2nd last time, he got me, but I kept looking at the screen and I saw one of my guys get the death blow on him! But I wasn't alive to rejoice with my guys!

Each time I get his 2nd form to Badly Injured or Near Death, but he does something or other to destroy me!

I will defeat him! I will! :mad: :mad: :mad:

any of those quests can be push-overs.

umar hills is just plain easy.....nothing special needed in my oppinion.....

firkraag can be taken down by casting lower resistance and then finger of death. but it get hard because of everything else (golems, vamps and so on). But a full balanced party (fighter, fighter, fighter, thief, cleric, mage for example) with flail of ages (or melfs minute meteors) bring down the golems, traps take care of vamps and samia, the rest is piece of cake.

de arnise keep is pushover, only need fire or acid to kill the trolls. and the umber hulk can be taken down with the death spell or a fighter with high magick resistance.

trademeet is pushover too, just get some fire or acid damage stuff. (arrows works nicely).

ok, this said, i vote windspear hills for the most difficult mainly because it have alot of hard creatures in it.

the most easy one must be trademeet., those druid is to stupid to see their own shadows and trolls are pushovers. nothing hard with it. though, if you solo........bleh, that counts for every quest :p

Firkraag's Dungeon seems to have the largest variety of creatures. Hobgoblins, Vampiric Mists, Kobolds, Raksasha, Orcs, Golems, Vampires, Shadows, Wraiths, Genies, Wolfweres, Orogs, and a generic Beholder aside from Samia's troop and Firkraag. There's even an Otyguh and a Chef Trollarde'! You need a little bit of diversity to tackle all of it. Umar is strictly undead, unless you count the Shadow Dragon that level drains you. Scrolls can solo you through it without resting if you skip him( Although the Bone Golems aren't truly "undead"). The quickest one for me is Trademeet. No Dragons, just Trolls,Spiders and Treehuggers. The toughest part of the Druid Grove would have to be the Raksasha band. And that battle just doesn't compare to Fikraag or Thaxll'ssillyia....say that three times fast!

I think the Planar Prison is quite difficult. Mainly because I have to do it at the very beginning to get my stronghold, while my party is at low levels. The Greater Wolfwere (or is it a Werewolf?), Golems and the Cambion are quite a challenge for my fighters and spellcasters.