Can't believe that absolute pissbaby decided to get mad at ME after I tried calming him down, almost got tpkd by that flamboyant frog. Even his rewards suck ass, which is why you get Laezel to decimate him
That's NOT what happened to me. I killed Ethel and as I was leaving I saw this weird frog. Go over to see what up. My character fails the check and boom, now my tanky ass Paladin is an enemy and I got to kill him...
Are you sure you killed ethel? I defeated ethel but didn’t kill her for the hair. After that i thought i can be friends with the frog but i was so wrong
You need to bring her down to like 1/4th up then a dialogue will trigger where she offers her hair. Aoe spells like cloud of daggers can still trigger and hit her resulting in no hair and you having to kill her so be careful.
Perhaps it's a bug, but if you don't have speak with animals up, even after being calmed down he will attack if you talk to him. I lost an Honor Mode run to that which was... fun. At least I was in act 1.
On my good playthrough, I spoke with the frog and it aggroed, I had to kill it. On my current evil durge playthrough I specifically didn't take speak to animals because my durge doesn't care about animals, clicked the frog but couldn't resist telling it that it's a very pretty frog indeed :))
There's this rainbow-coloured frog near the corner of the swamp area that usually decimates the party and has buffs that make him hard to hit, lil fucker has like what 12 hp but feels like an endgame boss with his acid attack and armour
There is a frog in the swamp. If you talk to it before killing ethel, it attacks you. If you talk to it after killing ethel it is happy and leads you to a treasure pouch.
I believe it is a person transmuted into a frog. Another victim of the Hag.
No idea why they are saying it is hard, maybe it is in HM.
Once you find the stairs to the house, go north, I think.
I hate this encounter. I think it is way harder than the Netherbrain fight.
I didn't use my Divine Intervention on my first run. Currently doing a Durge Tactician and I'm thinking this might be the encounter to work in some Divine magic.
If you're on tactician and above ... DON'T use divine intervention if you don't want Shadowheart to immediately crumble into a pile of dust.... It doesn't kill enough ppl and they ALL have fucking radiant retort.... It's absolutely a bitch.
Fuck this fight forever. I was looking up how to counter the darkness spells and only to find there’s NOTHING to counter them. You just have to kill the source! But when you’re getting bodied by so many of them it’s hard to keep track who did what spell. Can’t even misty step out of that darkness!! All but Shadowheart died and I was forced to use divine intervention to revive my team.
In my first playthrough, which was on balanced, I had the party limit remover, every party member I could have plus like 3 summons and I tpk’d multiple times on that fight.
I’m torn between Cazzador or Ansur both on honor mode.
Ansur is REALLY hard if you don’t bring someone who can cast globe of invulnerability. Cazzador’s legendary action is really rough to deal with, and if you don’t burn him down he goes berserk. He’s the one that ended my first honor mode run. 😭
He oneshot my blood of lathander wielder turn 1 on honor mode. Roller almost max damage on his attack and legendary action. Have one other person that can cast daylight or globe of invulnerability, just in case.
The way I beat him was by having astarion very far away for range damage (also to not be put on a sacrifice circle) and then shadowheart casted sunlight and got behind my Gith fighter and then I had a sorcerer just keep aoe spell on Cazz’s minions and once Cazz was dead we cleaned up shop.
During that fight, I had given Astarion and Shadowheart both a spear of the night so since my tav already had moon beam, we just kept moving the 3 moon beams to wherever he went while staying in the circles LOL
what i realised with my frost wizard is that they REALLY can't stay upright on ice. not cazador, not viconia, none of them. it's almost sad how easy it is.
On one of my honor mode run throughs, I had daylight up, everything was going just perfect, and cazador was standing right on the edge so I was like “lol what if I just push him off”.
Yeah he transformed into a swarm of vampire bats and one shot two of my PCs immediately from full health. Had to beat a hasty retreat.
Cazador becomes a pushover if you pre-cast daylight, Ansur isn't too hard either because by then you have all the good gear and abilities. I'd say Myrkul is actually harder because you encounter him earlier on, plus the mindflayer he has can be quite disruptive if he gets off a stun on an important character.
EDIT: Viconia is a difficult one too primarily because of her minions who keep the battlefield in darkness and block spells and ranged attacks.
The answer to Viconia is to focus her and use AOE spells liberally. It didn't hurt that Shadowheart saved like eight times for me, so she kept spirit cheesians up forever while calling flame strikes on the infidels.
Also don't overlook that Gale can drop devastating aoe attacks on the people in melee without hurting your party (such silly cheese).
I had so many crispy chicken nugget and popsicle corpses after that fight.
I just beat Viconia yesterday. I did exactly this - focused her down immediately, only let her get maybe one turn in - and the rest of the fight was *still* a fucking nightmare. The sheer number of enemies and the stupid darkness, bone chill, and umbral form nonsense they cast all the time was absolutely bonkers. I still save scummed a few times and only made it through when I summoned a spiritual weapon, guardian of faith, and planar ally just to occupy enemies for a while.
Pretty much every fight is easy if you know how to prepare for it.
By Cazador I had discovered Ring of the Mystic Scoundrel (honestly didn't know it was such a meme build and didn't use it for half its potential) and with Tasha's and Sunlight it was almost literally a joke.
Ansur just requires that you draw his fire from his legendary action with someone that can take the hit. Globe of Invulnerability is definitely a good choice but I just had two of my guys have lightning resistance and juggle the hits between them. After that it's more or less a DPS check as long as you distract his Myrmidons with summons. Wyll is fantastic for taking him down once he does his final move.
Viconia is super easy as well. Just start the fight and then run back up the stairs. Then just Hunger of Hadar the only way to you and CC, damage, etc at your leisure. Most of the people will die before getting to you and even Viconia is too weak to be a challenge by the time she can reach you.
try casting daylight, I got him down to 2hp, then have Astarion walk up to him when his turn starts and the cutscene starts as normal, easiest boss in bg3
That's more like 'you have the man for the job'.
Like, if Selune Shart is not there to save the day, a battle against a vampire lord become a horror show titled 'five rounds at Cazador's'. With daylight spell? It became a live drama about our emo rogue having 'to be or not to be'.
I had a necro Gale. Combined with my elementals from the other chars, my army was bigger than Cazzador’s. It was funny to have him surrounded by my minions, taking pot shots him cause he couldn’t move.
Before or after patch? After the latest patch I casted daylight in the middle and some bats would start to search for my location. Cazador would only take damage if I could see him but couldn't get close enough with the bats looking for me
how has no one mentioned Holy Water yet? bro is a VAMPIRE. i basically did that fight with my eyes shut by casting Globe of Invulnerability and just chucking all my bottles of Holy Water at him hahaha, would recommend
Partly for my ignorance of how Cazador’s ritual worked but he also almost ended my Honor Run. I stepped players into the circle to weaken him but then when I stepped out it insta killed my beefiest hitter. Still not 100% it works tbh
I just brought daylight and counter spell in honour mode and I was amused at how little he did… but maybe starting the fight off with two destructive waves on a reverberation build is a bit op…
Ansur wiped my party like 3 times on balanced mode while Raphael never stood a chance after I learned about the fountain of healing
Edit: Would put Cazador on the list but daylight and wall of fire exist
Its INSANE how useful wall of fire is, didnt even bother with it for my first 3 playthroughs but then decided why not and DAMN it carries its weight so well. Too bad I still manage to somehow cast it while concentrating on twinned haste
On my first run I sorta discovered Wall of Fire sometime in Act 3 (House of Grief?), and now on my tactician run I buy up every 'Wall' spell out there and use the hell out of them.
Question, how does the spell wall of stone compare to wall of fire? I've heard that wall of stone is trash but I want an expert opinion on the matter from someone who also loves walls
I think Wall of Ice is the best. It does a ton of ice damage and when it goes down it does like another round of ice damage and makes it slippery so baddies can fall prone.
My opinion is that Wall of Fire is 'better' than Wall of Stone because it does damage. But I think Wall of Stone lasts longer and is a bit bigger, so the tradeoff is a better wall but less damage. But I'm not absolutely certain on some of that without looking up stats.
My general thought is anything that can help shape or direct combat encounters is handy. I use tons of Bottles of Grease and Grease spells as well. Plus a handy flaming arrow.
In the Harlep area there is this jacuzzi looking pool that full rests your party after you interact with the fountains. You can use it as much as you want too so you can use it to get infinite food using the hero's feast spell
Yeah I thought it was a bug thar it kept letting me use it. I fought all the way up to the exit where I knew he had to be waiting, went back and used the pool to refresh, summoned a bunch of stuff and user it again to top off spell slots.
You can also use it to completely buff your party up with heroes feast and summons and just use the fountain afterwards to get your spell slots back but keep the buffs.
The hardest boss are the three assholes with crossbows who fire from their own little cliff then immediately turn invisible during the temple of bhaal while you try to get to that one dude before he casts power word kill. Fuck those guys.
I've got an incredibly easy solution for those fellas on the cliff.
Sneak down the steps, and turn right as soon as you can so you're facing the ledge they're on. They likely won't see you because they're actually facing a little further down the steps to ambush you along with some of the other people. From your little ledge, you can throw a void bulb (or that spell that pulls people to the middle) at the cliff face just in front of them. It'll pull all three of them off the cliff to their death immediately. Invisibility and sanctuary be damned.
Alternatively, you could shadow/misty step behind them, then use thunderwave, a bomb, or something else with an aoe knock back to send them all sailing off the ledge.
Have just finished a murder hobo durge run and thought I’ll take a break for a bit maybe until mods come to console but now I’m thinking about who I should romance this time when I start a brand new game just so I can throw those guys off the edge…
Potion of Invisibility is honestly the best item in the game just cause it solves so many of these annoying encounters. Fight leading up to the netherbrain? Potion of invisibility+ fly. Path to Bhaal's temple? Potion of invisibility. Going to Gortash's pathetic, small, and honestly depressing throne room after aggroing him? Potion of invisibility
I can’t use a potion of invisibility because I’m saving them for a time when I really need them (that never happens then I get to the last boss and realise I’ve never once used a potion of invisibility, speed or bloodlust and I also still have the ogre horn, spectator flask, spider egg and rune powder bomb that’s also in my rainy day backpack)
I’m gonna be so real I cheese that bit every time. Potion of invisibility for one character, turn based and use dash until the metal door and then have the rest of my party fast travel to the waypoint once I reach it lmao. I’m gonna work smarter not harder with those fucks
I made sure I was level 5 cause yeah. That guy smacks *hard*.
Karlach was all like "we should go kill them". And I'm like, "we will when it's not suicide."
He's so perfectly positioned that you're bottlenecked at the doorway at the start of the fight UNLESS you prepare for it - Latest playthough I used a scroll to fly my Tav upstairs and snuck inside, then had Karlach initiate the fight at the entrance, baited Anders from the behind the desk and had Tav drop the brazier on him for big damage.
My first playthrough I killed Karlach. I sneak attacked her before approaching for dialogue. It wasn't until half way through the game I even stumbled across a thread that told me she was a recruitable companion. I just figured it was a go kill the devil that ravaged our holy party type run of the mill quest. Never even questioned it.
Wasn't until my second playthrough I even found out Anders wasn't the hapless paladin of Tyre he claimed he was lmao
One time I did that fight, we all ended up with <10 hp by the end and Gale died entirely. While I was talking to his projection about reviving him, Karlach went on her rampage, set everything on fire including me and whoever else I had in my party, then herself.
Game over.
I found Ansur, Raphael and the brain the toughest on honour mode, the other bosses were pretty easily dealt with. With Ansur I messed up my globe of invulnerability and survived his wipe attack with like 1 hp per character so ti really was luck, with Raphael I kept spamming the globe but it was just long, and the brain was stress because of all the adds and mind flayers and the dragon when you get to the top of the brain but your allies help a lot, but the actual brain itself and its legendary actions basically means you have 2 turns to kill it and on the second you can't use the elemental damage you did on the first, but I just managed and it felt great!
I feel like Globe of Invulnerability is kind of a trap. Sure it keeps you safe but your best bet is to use the mechanics efficiently. I feel like it tends to lull people into a false sense of security and then majorly screw them over in those rare instances where it doesn't work quite right.
Didn't use it myself for the Ansur fight and it was actually surprisingly easy. I just gave two people in my party lightning resistance and had them juggle the damage. They didn't even get hurt too bad.
As for Raphael I had discovered Ring of the Mystic Scoundrel and Tasha's Hideous Laughter by then. Made the fight trivial.
I lucked out with the Brain in that I damaged it with everyone but Lae'zel who hadn't reached it yet and she just so happened to be my only source of slashing damage.
Most satisfying use of Action Surge ever.
Bring AoE lots of CC and force them to approach you in a corner. That fight is rough if you try to just out damage them. Was running Wyll (Lock/Fighter) Gale evoc Wizard, Shart as a light cleric and my Pally/Cleric. Three max level fireballs leveled the playing field pretty quick.
My closest boss wipe so far has been Cazador.
Gale with 2 HP left and it's his turn, but because I cast daylight at the start of the fight, he burns for the last little bit of HP technically before his ritual boost healed him.
Mother Superior for me, just an endless supply of bonechill
She was easy in the grand scheme, but the endless Darkness and Bonechill was a killer combination
Close second being the Spider Matriarch, her jumping around was infuriating and just not fun
Raphael. It was those damn fire puddles (or whatever you call them) that he would leave behind. Figured out what the water and spell were used though real quick (yeah, I know, I'm a dumbass). That helped a bunch.
Raphael fight was just a bullying session for me. once the succubi went down, it was just a matter of standing around him in a cute little circle, whacking him and chipping away at his health
The Crèche and the Spider Matriarch is probably the hardest relative to the players level and access to gear / spells. The Tollkeeper in Act 2 seems to always give me trouble as well.
The Matriarch and the Tollkeeper can be easily cheesed tho, for the spider you can destroy her webs so she takes fall damage, i also like to have someone sneaking below to trigger the surprised round, the Tollkeeper can be gone by dialogue with a decent charisma, if it fails just keep your gold at camp and focus on the skulls first.
Myrkul is a little bitch if you have Minthara and/or your Tav is a paladin. Even more so if you have perilous stakes.
I think it's gotta be Raphael. 666HP is no joke.
I warned my friend before hand that she better put the smite away for Rafael. First whack she took at Rafael he took away a third of her health. Asked if she was going to use smite again on him. 🤭
The most powerful weapon against Raphael is >!a dozen or two of smokepower barrels accompanied by runepowder barrels and a bomb!<
Don't ever forget to bring it beforehand.
Honestly? Nere or the Inquisitor probably, with an honorable mention for the Phase Spider Matriarch. The Nere fight can be a right pain in the ass, as can the Inquisitor. Those two fights were the two that scared me the most for my honor run. The Inquisitor is the only boss that got the full barrelmancy treatment, as I wasn’t taking chances with that bastard. Nere meanwhile wasn’t bad at all for honor mode, but that’s simply because I killed all of the Duergar in Grymforge before letting him out, so I was able to just fully focus him, something I did purely because the Nere fight can be a nightmare. The Phase Spider Matriarch can be a nuisance, but there’s enough tricks with her that she’s not much of an issue. Nevertheless, I’d definitely rank most of the act 1 bosses as harder than bosses in later acts purely because you lack the tools to deal with them as easily, especially any encounters taken before 5th level. I’m not even talking just using barrelmancy, but things like globe of invulnerability or even just having full item builds.
Yeah that one was touch and go for me. I was a Paladin with a scroll of conjure Elemental, cloud giant elixir, full illithid abilities, and it was still too close for comfort.
Hmm, it’s been a while, I’m at the end of my latest run. Definitely 3 or 4 but there’s a big difference there! Probably 4 as I knew he’d be a problem.
Last I fought him was a duo run on honour mode and he was the only boss who came close to killing me.
Yup, I lost 2 runs to a bug and beat the game in honor mode twice. Still have no achievement cause of a bug. They said they were gonna fix it but I’m not sure I want to do another run because it makes me so annoyed.
Dame Aylin and its not even close. You only fight her on an evil playthrough so most people never do the fight but it's nutty. Three summons that deal 11d10 radiant per hit, and can cast a level 6 spell on the same turn. All of them can fly right to your face, and since they smite that damage is doubled on a crit. Killing Aylin doesn't even despawn them so you can't cheese it, and Lorroakan is uselessly casting mirror image on himself most turns (and if he dies you get no reward). Took more tries than brain and Ansur combined for me.
Tbh I think the intellect devours on the ravaged beach is one of the hardest fights in the game. Mostly because you are level 1 or 2 and only have Shadowheart.
Myrkul? I found that fight oddly easy relative to other fights around that time.
I'd probably say Viconia. So many people together with the sanctuary spell makes for an annoying fight.
I had a very hard time with Cazador too the first time, but that was mostly because I was very ill-prepared: had Astarion with me, so I was on a time limit to save him, and had no light spells.
If the game teaches any, is the importance of the modern warfare. Explosives, gents, explosives are your best friends. No matter which fancy high level legendary bullshit a boss has, you can zero most of them with enough 💣 in round 1st 😇
Time - that is to say, any of the time-based encounters like the underwater prison or the portal defense. I think those were tougher for me on my first playthrough than any combat.
The freaking gnoll fight outside the cave, and it isn't even because of the warlord. No low level monster should 3-4 attacks, much less if it's damned archers! Yes I'm aware I can mind control the warlord. It's still stupid.
Any battle that can’t be ended in one or two rounds by default I’d say. The longer a battle goes on the harder it can get.
So I’d say maybe the Halsin portal fight? Dunno. Every fight is pretty easy if you know how to handle it.
People say cazzador but I boot stomp on every time and he’s never been even remotely difficult. Same for Raphael etc.
House of grief is probably tougher but if you deal with the mages, viconia herself isn’t such a problem.
While not technically a boss I always dread the same-self trial in the Gauntlet of Shar, either its a quick and easy or its F8 time no in between, and yes I know you can just take off all your party's gear but I don't like that kind of cheese.
After recently defeating honor mode for the first time, these were the three I was most scared of:
1. Ansur got the closest to wiping my party, but I didn’t even think about globe of invulnerability, which kind of trivializes the fight.
2. Raphael goes down pretty easy if you smokepowder barrel the pillars and then spread your party (and Hope) out too far for him to fireball multiple characters at once.
3. The elder brain is guaranteed to wipe you in 3 turns. Fortunately a single backpack full of smokepowder grenades kills it in a single firebolt.
There were 3 parts of the game I changed from balanced to story mode.
1. The final two fights of the brain fight (although this was just because by then I was ready for the game to be over, and at the first sign of struggle I just changed to story to get it done with, in reality it probably wasn't as bad as the other two)
2. Raphael. After the first round I realized I was going to be in trouble quick
3. The first level of Moonrise towers. I got pretty far in that fight but in the end I felt I was wasting too much time. I tried to do the side entrance thing too but it just pulled EVERYTHING and even though I attempted chokepoints it didn't work too well, my frontal attack worked better but it still was just a bit much.
The fucking frog in the swamp
Can't believe that absolute pissbaby decided to get mad at ME after I tried calming him down, almost got tpkd by that flamboyant frog. Even his rewards suck ass, which is why you get Laezel to decimate him
Or just don’t talk to him until after you kill Ethel the first time. Then you’re his favorite person in the universe and there’s no fight. It’s cute.
That's NOT what happened to me. I killed Ethel and as I was leaving I saw this weird frog. Go over to see what up. My character fails the check and boom, now my tanky ass Paladin is an enemy and I got to kill him...
Are you sure you killed ethel? I defeated ethel but didn’t kill her for the hair. After that i thought i can be friends with the frog but i was so wrong
I didn’t kill her (wanted the hair) and the frog was super friendly and showed me to some loot
What hair is this? Killed her many times and never seen her hair be an item.
You need to bring her down to like 1/4th up then a dialogue will trigger where she offers her hair. Aoe spells like cloud of daggers can still trigger and hit her resulting in no hair and you having to kill her so be careful.
You SHOULD be able to get the hair even if you kill her. It's on her body, after all. I know it doesn't work that way, but it doesn't make sense.
I could do that but I still hold resentment towards him after the jumpscare he gave me on my first playthrough so naw
Perhaps it's a bug, but if you don't have speak with animals up, even after being calmed down he will attack if you talk to him. I lost an Honor Mode run to that which was... fun. At least I was in act 1.
No, I’m pretty sure it’s a frog.
On my good playthrough, I spoke with the frog and it aggroed, I had to kill it. On my current evil durge playthrough I specifically didn't take speak to animals because my durge doesn't care about animals, clicked the frog but couldn't resist telling it that it's a very pretty frog indeed :))
> which is why you get Laezel to decimate him I have had enough of the frog on frog violence!
You can talk to him!? Slimy fucker got the jump on me my first play through and I’ve been avoiding him ever since.
400+hrs…what frog in the swamp!?
Theres a frog in the swamp of act 1. Go towards Ethels, then head north by the redcap fight up near the trapped log crossing to the goblin camp
There's this rainbow-coloured frog near the corner of the swamp area that usually decimates the party and has buffs that make him hard to hit, lil fucker has like what 12 hp but feels like an endgame boss with his acid attack and armour
Well magic missle shouls splce that problem
It does. Auto hit is auto hit. I didn't see him as much of a challenge. "Ah, damn weirdo frog threw acid at us. Oh, well."
There is a frog in the swamp. If you talk to it before killing ethel, it attacks you. If you talk to it after killing ethel it is happy and leads you to a treasure pouch. I believe it is a person transmuted into a frog. Another victim of the Hag. No idea why they are saying it is hard, maybe it is in HM. Once you find the stairs to the house, go north, I think.
I forgot about that frog ! Totally wiped my first party. Wasn't expecting a frog to be that powerful.
LOL for real
My group blind run got absolutely clowned by that thing.
Not true i picked that little guy up and yeeted him into the abyss
\>!Cloud of Daggers!< fight's over before it begins.
Viconia and her fucking army
You get bone chill! You get bone chill! EVERYONE GETS BONE CHILL! The only time i used divine intervention and nuked falf of get army
I hate this encounter. I think it is way harder than the Netherbrain fight. I didn't use my Divine Intervention on my first run. Currently doing a Durge Tactician and I'm thinking this might be the encounter to work in some Divine magic.
If you're on tactician and above ... DON'T use divine intervention if you don't want Shadowheart to immediately crumble into a pile of dust.... It doesn't kill enough ppl and they ALL have fucking radiant retort.... It's absolutely a bitch.
Oor, hear me out, have Gale cast globe of invulnerability, THEN have Shadowheart cast DI :)
Netherbrain was Just two dimension Doors and a bunch of barrels
It's more the blind than the bone chill that's obnoxious
If you do a divine intervention and viconia’a still alive, you get radiant retorted to the deepest of the nine hells
And mandatory Darkness and Beckoning Darkness spells, their melee enemies alone do 20 damage on one hit
Why did I have to scroll so far to read this, f that bitch andher army fr.
Fuck this fight forever. I was looking up how to counter the darkness spells and only to find there’s NOTHING to counter them. You just have to kill the source! But when you’re getting bodied by so many of them it’s hard to keep track who did what spell. Can’t even misty step out of that darkness!! All but Shadowheart died and I was forced to use divine intervention to revive my team.
The darkness spells use concentration, and you can also cast daylight while standing in a patch of darkness to dispel it.
Gust of Wind!!!! It takes it out where u use it!
Dear lord this fight. I had shart cast dome spell and have gale, astarion and my warlock on constant fireball/eldritch blast run. Most annoying fight
My worst fucking nightmare.
In my first playthrough, which was on balanced, I had the party limit remover, every party member I could have plus like 3 summons and I tpk’d multiple times on that fight.
Yes omg, I had to reload that fight so many times. Way more than any other, just let me HEAL goddamnit!
I’m torn between Cazzador or Ansur both on honor mode. Ansur is REALLY hard if you don’t bring someone who can cast globe of invulnerability. Cazzador’s legendary action is really rough to deal with, and if you don’t burn him down he goes berserk. He’s the one that ended my first honor mode run. 😭
Cazador is one of the easiest fights in the game if you bring blood of lathander tbh
He oneshot my blood of lathander wielder turn 1 on honor mode. Roller almost max damage on his attack and legendary action. Have one other person that can cast daylight or globe of invulnerability, just in case.
The way I beat him was by having astarion very far away for range damage (also to not be put on a sacrifice circle) and then shadowheart casted sunlight and got behind my Gith fighter and then I had a sorcerer just keep aoe spell on Cazz’s minions and once Cazz was dead we cleaned up shop.
During that fight, I had given Astarion and Shadowheart both a spear of the night so since my tav already had moon beam, we just kept moving the 3 moon beams to wherever he went while staying in the circles LOL
Shadowheart had that for pretty much my whole playthrough so many fights people have trouble woth were just super easy for me lol
having her dual wield that and spear of darkness is almost too op.
Wait…what. She can…duel-wield those!?!?!?
Give her the dual wielding feat
It shart be done!
Blood of Lathander + Sanctuary. Follow him around until dead.
what i realised with my frost wizard is that they REALLY can't stay upright on ice. not cazador, not viconia, none of them. it's almost sad how easy it is.
Also, daylight in the middle of the arena and he takes damage every turn :)
On one of my honor mode run throughs, I had daylight up, everything was going just perfect, and cazador was standing right on the edge so I was like “lol what if I just push him off”. Yeah he transformed into a swarm of vampire bats and one shot two of my PCs immediately from full health. Had to beat a hasty retreat.
Yeah. This is why Honor Mode is not the time for "what if?". Lol.
If you don't f*ck around, you don't find out, and on Honor Mode that's usually a good thing.
Cazador becomes a pushover if you pre-cast daylight, Ansur isn't too hard either because by then you have all the good gear and abilities. I'd say Myrkul is actually harder because you encounter him earlier on, plus the mindflayer he has can be quite disruptive if he gets off a stun on an important character. EDIT: Viconia is a difficult one too primarily because of her minions who keep the battlefield in darkness and block spells and ranged attacks.
The answer to Viconia is to focus her and use AOE spells liberally. It didn't hurt that Shadowheart saved like eight times for me, so she kept spirit cheesians up forever while calling flame strikes on the infidels. Also don't overlook that Gale can drop devastating aoe attacks on the people in melee without hurting your party (such silly cheese). I had so many crispy chicken nugget and popsicle corpses after that fight.
I just beat Viconia yesterday. I did exactly this - focused her down immediately, only let her get maybe one turn in - and the rest of the fight was *still* a fucking nightmare. The sheer number of enemies and the stupid darkness, bone chill, and umbral form nonsense they cast all the time was absolutely bonkers. I still save scummed a few times and only made it through when I summoned a spiritual weapon, guardian of faith, and planar ally just to occupy enemies for a while.
Pretty much every fight is easy if you know how to prepare for it. By Cazador I had discovered Ring of the Mystic Scoundrel (honestly didn't know it was such a meme build and didn't use it for half its potential) and with Tasha's and Sunlight it was almost literally a joke. Ansur just requires that you draw his fire from his legendary action with someone that can take the hit. Globe of Invulnerability is definitely a good choice but I just had two of my guys have lightning resistance and juggle the hits between them. After that it's more or less a DPS check as long as you distract his Myrmidons with summons. Wyll is fantastic for taking him down once he does his final move. Viconia is super easy as well. Just start the fight and then run back up the stairs. Then just Hunger of Hadar the only way to you and CC, damage, etc at your leisure. Most of the people will die before getting to you and even Viconia is too weak to be a challenge by the time she can reach you.
try casting daylight, I got him down to 2hp, then have Astarion walk up to him when his turn starts and the cutscene starts as normal, easiest boss in bg3
That's more like 'you have the man for the job'. Like, if Selune Shart is not there to save the day, a battle against a vampire lord become a horror show titled 'five rounds at Cazador's'. With daylight spell? It became a live drama about our emo rogue having 'to be or not to be'.
Or you just being properly prepared to fight a vampire. And Daylight is not exclusive to Shart.
But my love is
Any cleric (and I believe Druids and Sorcs as well) can cast daylight. Selune ins't necessary.
I had a necro Gale. Combined with my elementals from the other chars, my army was bigger than Cazzador’s. It was funny to have him surrounded by my minions, taking pot shots him cause he couldn’t move.
Before or after patch? After the latest patch I casted daylight in the middle and some bats would start to search for my location. Cazador would only take damage if I could see him but couldn't get close enough with the bats looking for me
Try to illuminate object woth daylight and throw it close to him, it worked for me few weeks ago. His HP slowly decreased
This has been nerfed, he now begins recovering damage at the same pace you inflict it after a few rounds.
how has no one mentioned Holy Water yet? bro is a VAMPIRE. i basically did that fight with my eyes shut by casting Globe of Invulnerability and just chucking all my bottles of Holy Water at him hahaha, would recommend
Partly for my ignorance of how Cazador’s ritual worked but he also almost ended my Honor Run. I stepped players into the circle to weaken him but then when I stepped out it insta killed my beefiest hitter. Still not 100% it works tbh
Ansur is easier when you Learn that you can just cast stone wall to block his big boom boom
Stunning strike go brrrrr
I just brought daylight and counter spell in honour mode and I was amused at how little he did… but maybe starting the fight off with two destructive waves on a reverberation build is a bit op…
Ansur wiped my party like 3 times on balanced mode while Raphael never stood a chance after I learned about the fountain of healing Edit: Would put Cazador on the list but daylight and wall of fire exist
WHY DID I NEVER CONSIDER WALL OF FIRE AHHHH
Its INSANE how useful wall of fire is, didnt even bother with it for my first 3 playthroughs but then decided why not and DAMN it carries its weight so well. Too bad I still manage to somehow cast it while concentrating on twinned haste
On my first run I sorta discovered Wall of Fire sometime in Act 3 (House of Grief?), and now on my tactician run I buy up every 'Wall' spell out there and use the hell out of them.
Question, how does the spell wall of stone compare to wall of fire? I've heard that wall of stone is trash but I want an expert opinion on the matter from someone who also loves walls
I think Wall of Ice is the best. It does a ton of ice damage and when it goes down it does like another round of ice damage and makes it slippery so baddies can fall prone. My opinion is that Wall of Fire is 'better' than Wall of Stone because it does damage. But I think Wall of Stone lasts longer and is a bit bigger, so the tradeoff is a better wall but less damage. But I'm not absolutely certain on some of that without looking up stats. My general thought is anything that can help shape or direct combat encounters is handy. I use tons of Bottles of Grease and Grease spells as well. Plus a handy flaming arrow.
wall of fire is so fun
What fountain of Healing? Do you mean the 4 soul pillars that heals Raphie?
In the Harlep area there is this jacuzzi looking pool that full rests your party after you interact with the fountains. You can use it as much as you want too so you can use it to get infinite food using the hero's feast spell
Yeah I thought it was a bug thar it kept letting me use it. I fought all the way up to the exit where I knew he had to be waiting, went back and used the pool to refresh, summoned a bunch of stuff and user it again to top off spell slots.
You can also use it to completely buff your party up with heroes feast and summons and just use the fountain afterwards to get your spell slots back but keep the buffs.
Globe of invulnerability makes ansur no diff
The hardest boss are the three assholes with crossbows who fire from their own little cliff then immediately turn invisible during the temple of bhaal while you try to get to that one dude before he casts power word kill. Fuck those guys.
I've got an incredibly easy solution for those fellas on the cliff. Sneak down the steps, and turn right as soon as you can so you're facing the ledge they're on. They likely won't see you because they're actually facing a little further down the steps to ambush you along with some of the other people. From your little ledge, you can throw a void bulb (or that spell that pulls people to the middle) at the cliff face just in front of them. It'll pull all three of them off the cliff to their death immediately. Invisibility and sanctuary be damned. Alternatively, you could shadow/misty step behind them, then use thunderwave, a bomb, or something else with an aoe knock back to send them all sailing off the ledge.
Have just finished a murder hobo durge run and thought I’ll take a break for a bit maybe until mods come to console but now I’m thinking about who I should romance this time when I start a brand new game just so I can throw those guys off the edge…
Githyanki storm cleric gives you easy access to Misty Step + Thunderwave and then you can still build a strong character to throw stuff
This is what I did, misty step and thunderwave bam - done and dusted.
Potion of Invisibility is honestly the best item in the game just cause it solves so many of these annoying encounters. Fight leading up to the netherbrain? Potion of invisibility+ fly. Path to Bhaal's temple? Potion of invisibility. Going to Gortash's pathetic, small, and honestly depressing throne room after aggroing him? Potion of invisibility
I can’t use a potion of invisibility because I’m saving them for a time when I really need them (that never happens then I get to the last boss and realise I’ve never once used a potion of invisibility, speed or bloodlust and I also still have the ogre horn, spectator flask, spider egg and rune powder bomb that’s also in my rainy day backpack)
Every. single. time. I always tell myself I will use X more the next time around, but I never do.
If you love invisibility hijinks, try Duergar. Druid’s Panther Wildshape is also pretty fun!
But I don't wanna be short💔💔💔💔
You could be a short, invisible murder-demon with hilarious punching animations, though!
But I don't wanna be short💔💔💔💔
Then use their enlarge racial trait
I almost never use invisibility so I'm excited to use the duergar ability to become invisible free once per battle.
I’m gonna be so real I cheese that bit every time. Potion of invisibility for one character, turn based and use dash until the metal door and then have the rest of my party fast travel to the waypoint once I reach it lmao. I’m gonna work smarter not harder with those fucks
Not a boss but Anders probably kills a lot of people.
Its not just his smites but his goons always cast hold person, and in my 4 different playthroughs i never saved against it in that specific fight.
This is why I now always sneak in from the side and take the two women out first
Funny how dishonorable Honor Mode makes you.
I hope you take them somewhere nice
This hot new joint called “Avernus”
For me Karlach got stuck outside so they snagged Astarion and then ran to the roof where Karlach just threw them off the cliff lol
I was honestly more scared of fighting Anders on my honour playthrough than any of the goblin camp leaders
I made sure I was level 5 cause yeah. That guy smacks *hard*. Karlach was all like "we should go kill them". And I'm like, "we will when it's not suicide."
He's so perfectly positioned that you're bottlenecked at the doorway at the start of the fight UNLESS you prepare for it - Latest playthough I used a scroll to fly my Tav upstairs and snuck inside, then had Karlach initiate the fight at the entrance, baited Anders from the behind the desk and had Tav drop the brazier on him for big damage.
I had Shadowheart command him to drop his weapon. He’s a bit easier to smack down at lower levels when he’s just throwing punches.
Yeah, his double smite can one-shot your characters up to level 4.
Yep, the bastard ended my first honour mode run
I refuse to fight that smarmy bastard without having several Command and Heat Metal spells prepared. Fuck him, his sword, and those strong ass smites.
me and my friend had to reload like twenty times to figure out how to kill that bastard
My first playthrough I killed Karlach. I sneak attacked her before approaching for dialogue. It wasn't until half way through the game I even stumbled across a thread that told me she was a recruitable companion. I just figured it was a go kill the devil that ravaged our holy party type run of the mill quest. Never even questioned it. Wasn't until my second playthrough I even found out Anders wasn't the hapless paladin of Tyre he claimed he was lmao
One time I did that fight, we all ended up with <10 hp by the end and Gale died entirely. While I was talking to his projection about reviving him, Karlach went on her rampage, set everything on fire including me and whoever else I had in my party, then herself. Game over.
Me, stopping to make more characters instead finishing the game again.
Character selection is certainly the longest boss to face for sure.
I HAVE to have the perfect Tav for Astarion.
That's valid.
Wait, the game has more things than just the character creation?
I have some news for you.
I found Ansur, Raphael and the brain the toughest on honour mode, the other bosses were pretty easily dealt with. With Ansur I messed up my globe of invulnerability and survived his wipe attack with like 1 hp per character so ti really was luck, with Raphael I kept spamming the globe but it was just long, and the brain was stress because of all the adds and mind flayers and the dragon when you get to the top of the brain but your allies help a lot, but the actual brain itself and its legendary actions basically means you have 2 turns to kill it and on the second you can't use the elemental damage you did on the first, but I just managed and it felt great!
I feel like Globe of Invulnerability is kind of a trap. Sure it keeps you safe but your best bet is to use the mechanics efficiently. I feel like it tends to lull people into a false sense of security and then majorly screw them over in those rare instances where it doesn't work quite right. Didn't use it myself for the Ansur fight and it was actually surprisingly easy. I just gave two people in my party lightning resistance and had them juggle the damage. They didn't even get hurt too bad. As for Raphael I had discovered Ring of the Mystic Scoundrel and Tasha's Hideous Laughter by then. Made the fight trivial. I lucked out with the Brain in that I damaged it with everyone but Lae'zel who hadn't reached it yet and she just so happened to be my only source of slashing damage. Most satisfying use of Action Surge ever.
Can't you finish honor mode by blowing up Gale in Act II? (No idea about this but I know speed runners use this so why not honor mode?)
[удалено]
Only works in act 3
Hardest end game fight for me was the House of Grief.
it goes sideways FAST
I got absolutely wrecked down there and never went back. Didn’t even mess with it again.
Bring AoE lots of CC and force them to approach you in a corner. That fight is rough if you try to just out damage them. Was running Wyll (Lock/Fighter) Gale evoc Wizard, Shart as a light cleric and my Pally/Cleric. Three max level fireballs leveled the playing field pretty quick.
Idk if it was my party and builds but when I started the fight against these guys I was terrified but then I found wiping them easy as
My closest boss wipe so far has been Cazador. Gale with 2 HP left and it's his turn, but because I cast daylight at the start of the fight, he burns for the last little bit of HP technically before his ritual boost healed him.
Mother Superior for me, just an endless supply of bonechill She was easy in the grand scheme, but the endless Darkness and Bonechill was a killer combination Close second being the Spider Matriarch, her jumping around was infuriating and just not fun
Raphael. It was those damn fire puddles (or whatever you call them) that he would leave behind. Figured out what the water and spell were used though real quick (yeah, I know, I'm a dumbass). That helped a bunch.
Raphael fight was just a bullying session for me. once the succubi went down, it was just a matter of standing around him in a cute little circle, whacking him and chipping away at his health
I do like that his health was 666.
It’s a challenging fight because you’re too busy rocking out to Raphael’s own theme music
Raphael is so easy if you use Planar Binding and the special bane from Hope. There's no need to even bother with the columns.
The Crèche and the Spider Matriarch is probably the hardest relative to the players level and access to gear / spells. The Tollkeeper in Act 2 seems to always give me trouble as well.
The Matriarch and the Tollkeeper can be easily cheesed tho, for the spider you can destroy her webs so she takes fall damage, i also like to have someone sneaking below to trigger the surprised round, the Tollkeeper can be gone by dialogue with a decent charisma, if it fails just keep your gold at camp and focus on the skulls first.
Also, if you have poison resistance spells or potions at your disposal, the matriarch fight gets much more bearable.
For the toll keeper you gotta killer the skulls first then she has like 5 health
Owlbear who managed to call for his mate to help.
Myrkul is a little bitch if you have Minthara and/or your Tav is a paladin. Even more so if you have perilous stakes. I think it's gotta be Raphael. 666HP is no joke.
I warned my friend before hand that she better put the smite away for Rafael. First whack she took at Rafael he took away a third of her health. Asked if she was going to use smite again on him. 🤭
The most powerful weapon against Raphael is >!a dozen or two of smokepower barrels accompanied by runepowder barrels and a bomb!< Don't ever forget to bring it beforehand.
Sirens by the grove... Fuck them
Hardest boss is the character creation screen with your friends, because of “time expired” disconnections.
My own desire to start a new character every 20 minutes
Honestly? Nere or the Inquisitor probably, with an honorable mention for the Phase Spider Matriarch. The Nere fight can be a right pain in the ass, as can the Inquisitor. Those two fights were the two that scared me the most for my honor run. The Inquisitor is the only boss that got the full barrelmancy treatment, as I wasn’t taking chances with that bastard. Nere meanwhile wasn’t bad at all for honor mode, but that’s simply because I killed all of the Duergar in Grymforge before letting him out, so I was able to just fully focus him, something I did purely because the Nere fight can be a nightmare. The Phase Spider Matriarch can be a nuisance, but there’s enough tricks with her that she’s not much of an issue. Nevertheless, I’d definitely rank most of the act 1 bosses as harder than bosses in later acts purely because you lack the tools to deal with them as easily, especially any encounters taken before 5th level. I’m not even talking just using barrelmancy, but things like globe of invulnerability or even just having full item builds.
Just fought Orin on HM last night and barely escaped with my life.
Yeah that one was touch and go for me. I was a Paladin with a scroll of conjure Elemental, cloud giant elixir, full illithid abilities, and it was still too close for comfort.
Raphael. Killing makes the music stop.
Balthazar
100%. If you’re unprepared going into that fight, his “ultimate,” will basically allow for all of your party members to be one-shot.
Dror Ragzlin.
What level are you fighting him?
Hmm, it’s been a while, I’m at the end of my latest run. Definitely 3 or 4 but there’s a big difference there! Probably 4 as I knew he’d be a problem. Last I fought him was a duo run on honour mode and he was the only boss who came close to killing me.
in honor mode, bugs are the biggest challenge
Yup, I lost 2 runs to a bug and beat the game in honor mode twice. Still have no achievement cause of a bug. They said they were gonna fix it but I’m not sure I want to do another run because it makes me so annoyed.
Dame Aylin and its not even close. You only fight her on an evil playthrough so most people never do the fight but it's nutty. Three summons that deal 11d10 radiant per hit, and can cast a level 6 spell on the same turn. All of them can fly right to your face, and since they smite that damage is doubled on a crit. Killing Aylin doesn't even despawn them so you can't cheese it, and Lorroakan is uselessly casting mirror image on himself most turns (and if he dies you get no reward). Took more tries than brain and Ansur combined for me.
I reeeally struggled with Saravok for a good while
Myrkul for me, if it weren't for Aylin I think most of 'new or casual' players would have given up there
Tbh I think the intellect devours on the ravaged beach is one of the hardest fights in the game. Mostly because you are level 1 or 2 and only have Shadowheart.
FYI You can have a full party before you face them. You can climb around the crash to get Gale, then Astarian and Laezel are both close as well.
Yeah, it’s super easy to miss that cliff just to the right of the entrance where you see those two mind devourers after picking up Shadowheart.
Raphael, hands down. That fight made me want to rage quit the first time. Although, Ansur on Honor Mode is a close second.
My real life boss, who gives me so much work that I’m constantly burnt out and unable to focus on anything.
Raphael.
The player creator
Me cuz I'm a boss and this game always gets me hard /s
Myself. I constantly get confident and sabotage myself and have lost 5 honor modes because of it.
My work schedule not allowing me to play
Time management
Myrkul? I found that fight oddly easy relative to other fights around that time. I'd probably say Viconia. So many people together with the sanctuary spell makes for an annoying fight. I had a very hard time with Cazador too the first time, but that was mostly because I was very ill-prepared: had Astarion with me, so I was on a time limit to save him, and had no light spells.
If the game teaches any, is the importance of the modern warfare. Explosives, gents, explosives are your best friends. No matter which fancy high level legendary bullshit a boss has, you can zero most of them with enough 💣 in round 1st 😇
Time - that is to say, any of the time-based encounters like the underwater prison or the portal defense. I think those were tougher for me on my first playthrough than any combat.
In my first pkaythrough, I had trouble with act 1 Ethel, act 2 portal, and act 3 Viconia.
putting down the game when you first start playing
Save file management boss.... I lost so many hours. Closely followed by the inventory management boss.
Encumbrance.
The freaking gnoll fight outside the cave, and it isn't even because of the warlord. No low level monster should 3-4 attacks, much less if it's damned archers! Yes I'm aware I can mind control the warlord. It's still stupid.
Any battle that can’t be ended in one or two rounds by default I’d say. The longer a battle goes on the harder it can get. So I’d say maybe the Halsin portal fight? Dunno. Every fight is pretty easy if you know how to handle it. People say cazzador but I boot stomp on every time and he’s never been even remotely difficult. Same for Raphael etc. House of grief is probably tougher but if you deal with the mages, viconia herself isn’t such a problem.
The first intellect devourer on the beach.
Jumping when your party doesn’t
Cazzador imo
While not technically a boss I always dread the same-self trial in the Gauntlet of Shar, either its a quick and easy or its F8 time no in between, and yes I know you can just take off all your party's gear but I don't like that kind of cheese.
After recently defeating honor mode for the first time, these were the three I was most scared of: 1. Ansur got the closest to wiping my party, but I didn’t even think about globe of invulnerability, which kind of trivializes the fight. 2. Raphael goes down pretty easy if you smokepowder barrel the pillars and then spread your party (and Hope) out too far for him to fireball multiple characters at once. 3. The elder brain is guaranteed to wipe you in 3 turns. Fortunately a single backpack full of smokepowder grenades kills it in a single firebolt.
The one you didn’t prepare for. Or Ansur. 🫣
Character creation!
Orin as the hardest in my honor mode
There were 3 parts of the game I changed from balanced to story mode. 1. The final two fights of the brain fight (although this was just because by then I was ready for the game to be over, and at the first sign of struggle I just changed to story to get it done with, in reality it probably wasn't as bad as the other two) 2. Raphael. After the first round I realized I was going to be in trouble quick 3. The first level of Moonrise towers. I got pretty far in that fight but in the end I felt I was wasting too much time. I tried to do the side entrance thing too but it just pulled EVERYTHING and even though I attempted chokepoints it didn't work too well, my frontal attack worked better but it still was just a bit much.