Dissapointingly easy battles.

[Yulaw9460]

We´ve seen so many threads (I guess) about epic dragonbattles, beholders, liches etc. but how about the dissapointingly easy battles? What battles did you have a lot of high expectations for, but turned out to be somewhat of a breeze?

I´ll give an example: Jan Jansen. Arena in Ust Natha Tavern. Summoned Fire Elemental and killed off all mages with Kuo-Toa Bolts without getting a scratch. Rather dissapointing. I had such high expectations about Drow mages and Drow in general, but apparently not everybody can rock the world like Viconia can...

[Goli Ironhead]

Heh, been plenty of those too. But have you checked mods? They can make battles a lot tougher.

[Ironhawk Skylord]

Illasera in the start of ToB. A Bhaalspawn who falls that easy? Wow. Talk of thinning of bloodlines.

Then again you even get time to prepare.

[Goli Ironhead]

Actually, she was part of the Five, the so called most powerful of them all.
Perhaps she ran into an army of vampires on the way and didn't have time to seek a church for aid?

[Toker]

I'm using the tactics mod - there are no easy battles, just difficult ones and almost impossible ones.
I've also got Valen in my party, this means i have to be extra careful because she cannot be bought back to life when she's dead - this makes all the battles even harder.

[Ironhawk Skylord]

Actually, she was part of the Five, the so called most powerful of them all.
Perhaps she ran into an army of vampires on the way and didn't have time to seek a church for aid?

Yes, I know. "Most powerful"

I had more problems with Gromnir than her or Balthazar for the matter.

I take it as proof that one should stick to a couple of beers.

Illasera must have been drinking heavily last night and Balthazar, well, those monks are into water, right?

[SlickRCBD]

I agree that she was a disappointment, but you have to think of it from the game designer's point of view. She needs to be beatable with ANY character you create. Yes, I know you are suppost to import your character from Shadows of Amm, but you do get the option to do otherwise. That bag of holding they give you doesn't always have weapons that match your chosen proficiencies or even the kit you choose. Poor design, on the bag, but it's a valid concern. Still doesn't make sense from a story perspective, it should be a difficult battle where you barely win, regardless of what class you are.

[Proteus_za]

I dont know, from a story point of view it makes sense for Illasera to die easily.

I mean, the player character is supposed to be one of, if not the, most powerful Bhaalspawn. Illasera may be one of the 5, but still the weakest of them.

She was arrogant, she was cocky, she got beaten badly.

*Spoiler*
Given what we know about Melissan, she could have easily tricked Illasera into fighting a battle she had no chance of winning.

*end spoiler*

WOuldnt it be nice if BG2 and ToB were remade, so that ToB were much longer, and had you spending time hunting down the 5 and doing side quests?

[omnigodly]

Illsera was tough the first time I fought her. Of course I had very little idea what I was doing .

The most dissappointing fight I've ever had would have to be the Cult of the Eyeless. I chose instead of doing all the detective work to just kill everything... and I did just that... Killed everything within' 2 minutes including the beholder! Wasn't it supposed to be some kind of god?

[Goli Ironhead]

Well, Omnigodly, Beholder cults are just that, Beholders that decide they're too awesome for Underdark and decide to delve in some self-styled godhood. For the normal populace, it most certainly is godlike in power, but still no more than a Beholder, all in all. But yeah, quite easy still.

[Halasz]

I thought Jon Irenicus was a very easy battle...it was kind of dissappointing. Amellysan on the other hand OMG!

[starfox64]

On my last play through, I fought Irenicus in the Elven City, before you go to Hell. Now, online (and my brother) kept telling me how incredibly difficult the battle was. Well, when I got there... I paused, set up my initial attack, unpaused, 3 characters scored a critical before his defenses went up and the battle was over. Somehow, I was so drained from the battle I still went to Hell (with all characters at full life). Oh well.

[Hethan the Skald]

@ starfox: if you were lucky enough to score THREE critical hits with different characters on the first round, I say you deserve to win that easily.

How was the hell battle, though? That one always gives me a bad time.

To stay on topic: I'm the complete opposite of a tactical mastermind, and that's why I usually don't thing the battles are too easy. Unless I've already played it enough times to memorize what works. Even so, I like to try different approaches to keep it fresh for me.

I never tried Tactics and installed Improved Anvil once, but thought it to be overkill for my tastes. You mean the Copper Coronet Slavers have THAT kind of magical power? Maybe I shouldn't be worrying about Vampires or Cowled Wizards, then. Well... that's just me.

[Aerie's Number One Fan]

The Shadow Dragon in the Temple Ruins. I paused the game and had everyone geared up with weapons and spells, including Nalia having Disintegrate ready. I unpaused, expecting a rollicking good battle, only for Disintegrate to actually work and turn the Shadow Dragon into tiny shadow dragon particles.

[Hethan the Skald]

There's a problem, though: correct me if I'm wrong, but using Disintegrate also destroys any items the target was carrying.

In the case of the Shadow Dragon, you'd lose on some of the best leather armor and STR-enhancing weapons in the game.

[Aerie's Number One Fan]

The weapons and armor I had at the time were doing me fine so I wasn't too fussed about losing out on the armor or Crom Faeyr.

[BlckDeth]

It's probably been said before, but...

Balthazar. Seriously, his AI was ridiculous; all I had to do was run around while my other characters took hacks at him. No clue whether this was a pathfinding issue or a targeting issue, but whatever it was, it was rather disappointing.

[Stu]

The IA shadowdragon. After several 1/2 hour failed attempts at taking down the beast I ended up killing him in about 2 rounds before he could initiate his dialogue. Just about everyone hit and did good damage, including the summons. Very good luck methinks.

[Shaitan]

The false talk strategy?

[starfox64]

That's my favorite "strategy"! Also, Cloudkill; close door.

[Stu]

The false talk strategy?

No - I just managed to get 200 or so damage off in a bit under 2 rounds. I had about 5 fighter types with improved haste doing about 6 hits/round, a mage dishing out MM and Melf Minute meteors and 5 or so summons (including a fire elemental) hastened. My plan was to get the dragon to cast its 1st heal (I think there were 2 in the script) and then go in with Lower resistance, slow etc. To my surprise just about every one of my hits came off and did damage and I managed to kill him about 1/2 a second before he got that heal off.
I think fake talk doesn't work in IA.

[Shaitan]

I think fake talk doesn't work in IA.

I'm pretty sure it's unfixable due to the engine, but it could be, that IA circumvent the false talk cheat somehow, but that's not for me to say as I never used it.

[SimDing0]

Fake talk is unfixable, yes, but you can avoid putting the player in situations where it can be used by removing the opportunity to encounter opponents blue-circled before they initiate dialogue or turn hostile.

[olimikrig]

The battles in BG2 rather suffers from you being too powerfull in my opinion .

[Caradhras]

Well said Olimikrig.

My plan was to get the dragon to cast its 1st heal (I think there were 2 in the script) and then go in with Lower resistance, slow etc.

Sure that's easy but that's using a lot of foreknowledge. When you don't know everything about the game (not only who or what is waiting for you around the corner -which can be explained by scouting the area first- but also what the opponent is going to do first and then throw at you) you can buff and summon with ease.

I remember the first time I saw the Shadow Dragon... I thought man that thing is HUGE...

A no reload, no cheesy buffs and tacks game would be harder without relying on "improved" battles.

But I guess this thread is all about saying how big one's sword actually is.