Your first really tough battle in SoA

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Thought this might be an interesting topic, especially for those whose first IE game was SoA and who were still trying to figure out the rules. What was the first battle that you really had to work on to get it right?

Mine would have been Samia in the King Strohm dungeon. My first charname was a pally (yeah real original I know) so I went there first thing in chapter two. Everything up to the point Samia came back to take the mask seemed doable, but I had to run through that battle a number of times before I finally did it without anyone dying. Even then, it was a totally messy battle, as I still didn't know how to best use my spell casters. It was also a little unrealistic, as my eventual strategy involved taking them out before they could even talk to me (which is something in RP terms I couldn't imagine a pally doing). Though I had suspected Samia was up to something, I had no idea she would be in the next (tightly cramped) room with a full party including mages, clerics, and a battle plan.

The party was Me (pally), Minsc, Jahiera, Aerie, Yoshimo, and Anomen. I hadn't really shopped for spells, and didn't think to rest to tailor the memorized spells to the battle (with Aerie, say, dropping three skull traps in the room before Samia even spawns). As it was, I used a hidden Yoshi as a spotter, and then carefully had Jaheira hit the room with an entangle and Aerie use her only fireball. Anomen might have summoned something useless. Charname had to stay back with a longbow (whenever he tried melee, he got himself killed). I think I then sent the summons and Minsc (*berserk*) into the room, and had everyone else outside the room shooting in missle weapons and spells. At a later point, after half Samia's party was gone, I sent Anomen in to try to take out a troublesome spell caster, but he was promptly entangled, and with Minsc wailing on him. Fortunately he decided to "charge blindly on" towards one of the enemies before he had killed poor Anomen; the whole thing was like a zoo, totally chaotic.

Actually, I think this (and times like it) were some of the most fun parts of playing the game, when you didn't know what you were doing, but were really forced to figure out something new about the game mechanics in order to proceed...

 

I found Tarnor the Hatchetman's mercenaries (the group in the northern temple district sewers) to be a really hard fight for a low level party. Also, my first time playing SoA, the unseeing eye quest was one of the first I did; it was extremely hard, but extremely fun, one of the best gaming experiences I've had.

 

Can't really remember, but it was probably Mencar Pebblecrusher and co. I don't like it when cocky little Dwarves get mouthy so I would definatly have picked a fight. And definatly gotton kicked six ways to Icewind Dale.

 

I found the golems in De'Arnise Keep really tough the first time through. It was the first quest I took on, and the only weapons I could hit them with were the ones I found in their room. I finally gave up and had Aerie cast Sanctuary on herself to get the items. Torgal and friends also killed my party quite a few times.

 

Those Dark Sun halflings in the mage stronghold quest were definately tough for me the first time through. A lot of the challenge came from the fact that I was thinking "How can I be getting killed by a bunch of punk halflings?" and simply didn't use my party to the fullest to kill them. A very deceptively tough battle.

 

I thought I was real hot s*** from soloing BG1 x amount of times. So I cranked the difficulty up to insane and tried soloing the Ogre Mage.

 

I really found the vampire, the generic one you find in the Chateau Irenicus a tough nut, but it didn't kill.

The next vampire, Tanova, proved to be the first real battle I had, just a day after leaving the Slums....

 

Taking out Aran Linvail's servant, what's his name? The one with Full Plate and Katana, maze traps everywhere.. D somthing. I had Anomen, Minsc, Nalia and Valygar and went there straight away - not even level 10 with anyone.

 

Mencar Pebblecrusher and co is for me hands down, because he took me many attempts to actually get a strategy to beat him so i didnt lose any party members (yes i know sort of newbish) but this was when i was first playing (yeh! i can remember back all that way) but not he is soo easy, but you said first battle, and that truly was the first battle

 

I got killed so many times when I first started playing the game that it's hard to remember the hardest fight. I could give you the 100 hardest easily...

But the one I remember giving me the most problems was Tarnor the Hatchetman and his cronies in the sewers under the Temple District. How many times did I run through that fight before I finally got the better of them? Too many!

The first time I just stumbled onto them not even knowing they were there and Minsc and Anomen (who for some reason I thought would make a great front-line fighter ) got chunked in five seconds flat. The second time I had Edwin and Nalia blasting them from a distance with fireballs but they just wouldn't die. The amount of times Tarnor or that other dwarf whacked the PC when I seemed to be getting the upper hand was painful.

I think the first time I got the better of them both Minsc and Nalia had been chunked, Edwin and Viconia were dead and the PC and Yoshimo had half a dozen HPs between them.

Tough fight.

 

One word, vampires... The first time through not being aware of spells such as negative plan protection and restoration. Wiping out Bodhis lair was one long session of backstab/cloak of invisibility... It took me three days in game time to do it since I only used ring of invisibility.

 

I notice a lot of people finding the vampires really tough, but with the right party they weren't so bad. I did, however, find the drow fights very difficult, and kept hitting the quicksave every time I killed one - just in case! The illithids were a bit tough, too.

 

For me, definitely the Illithids. God i hate them. And you always fought them coming out of tiny, narrow corridors, when they were always perfectly positioned in some big ass round room waiting to hurl spells and blast you.
The migraines those battles used to give me before i found out about chaotic commands...

 

personally i find that the worst of the worst baddies are damned elder orbs currently, my solo kensai can take out just about anything else up to this point, including adalon, but he cannot seem to get this stupid elder orbs to die! of course he will probably have trouble with the illithids as well, but im not there yet and focusing on the now.

Also someone said something about unseeing eye quest, first time i did i was level 15 and main character had the amulet of power, everything they threw at him was reflected by it so the beholders didn't stand a chance against me

 

I think you mean the Shield of Balduran or Cloak of Mirroring.

The Amulet of Power gives you Vocalize, NPP and -1 casting time I think.

Not knowing what to expect when I charged into a room full of Umber Hulks in De'Arnise was not fun.

 

btw about that room of umber hulks, i think anyone who uses the food to get to em is a panzy, i never have nor will i ever not meet them head on, even while soloing its fun to bash in their while hasted and strength of one and all other sorts of empowering potions/spells, nothing like that feeling of extasy till they chop you down or you emerge barely alive

 

A sense of ecstacy at being chopped down by umber hulks?

 

The Shadow Dragon in the temple ruins at Umar Hills,was the first dragon I faced in the game with a relatively low level, so, although I was with a melee-based party it was QUITE a hard fight. Previously, I had certain problems with the mad halflings in the planar sphere.

 

My first difficult fight would probably have to be the fight with the Mephit Portals in Irenicus's dungeon. My party (A fighter called Marina (never liked her much), Minsc, Jaheira, and Yoshimo (Imoen got too hurt and disapeared.)) was all very injured, with no healing potions, and no spells. I hadn't realized you could rest in there at the time. I saved, entered the room, and got wiped out about six times. I gave up on SOA for a while, then found the cheat codes on the internet somewhere. I went back to the battle, and proceeded to auto-kill everything. I went through the rest of the game just using auto-kill and auto-heal. It was fun at the time, but after my second go-through I decided it was boring. I gave up on cheats, and now I try not to use them unless they're completely necessary. (As in if I have a bug that I can't fix otherwise.) Sorry if I got a lot off-topic...

 

My first tough battle was against the duegar in Jonny's dungeon. Imoen got injured and panicked and left my party (Me, Jaheria and Minsc). We were hurt and wiped out by those dumb things.