Second playthrough, went to fight Grym in Tactician mode. I remembered bludgeoning damage was the only way to hurt it, so it was myself (a paladin), Karlach, and Lae'zel all equipped with maces and hammers, with Shadowheart providing support.
We basically surrounded it, turned on the lava, and whacked it repeatedly until it died. Sure, the magma mephits were a distraction, and it still did a good amount of damage to all of us, but hitting it with hammers until it stopped moving did the trick pretty quickly.
I once fought him with an unarmed monk that was decent level and had gloves that give advantage against metal things (?). Pretty sure she bitchslapped him to death before he even properly woke up.
Had a similar experience. Tried to use the forge hammer to smash it a few times, only got it once, but then Karlach pulled a "let me solo her" and whacked it to death with Yeenoghu's club until it keeled over. It was incredible to watch.
You can make the fight a lot easier with a Sorcerer who casts haste on your main damage dealer and main controller.
You can also have a member in your be a throwing EK with a hammer and deal massive damage by throwing from on top. Additionally that would be a safety net for HM.
Also you can kill the Mephits before fighting Grym.
Put them all in one bag and throw the bag at him. Since the extra bonus damage from way up high has a height and mass damage it’ll basically be like dropping a nuke.
Sooooooo if you use Druid (owlbear) you just jump on him from the upper level and can one shot him. Very satisfying.
Edit: if anyone wants to use this, make sure you are hiding and also try to get the inner circle on grym.
I was going to comment this exact same thing. The first time I fought him I was totally unprepared and lost my entire party in like 8 rounds. After I reloaded I equipped Lae’zel, Karlach, and Shadowheart with bludgeoning weapons and had my Sorcerer Tav up on the crucible providing support and took him out in like a round and a half, it was wild. That fight actually taught me a lesson about the difference that knowing your enemy and preparation can make. It totally changed how I play.
Similar. Had no idea the fight was coming, but we were accidentally perfectly positioned, and with great team synergy. He barely had time to get a turn.
not a paladin story but I was also pretty surprised by how easy he went down after what I've read on this sub! all it took was destroying the spawns asap. that damned mindflayer gave me more trouble than the Apostle (playing balanced)
I steal the runepowder barrel from the gnome in grymforge to circumvent Myrkuls healing. Let Lae'zel and Tav wail on myrkul and let shart and astarion take out the incubating mobs.
This. Every time Lae'zel disarms him I'm like I can't believe that worked. And you can stun him in balanced mode. Once bae'zel is up on that platform swinging the fight is basically over.
Gortash went down *super* easy. I was expecting a massive brawl, but as soon as I learned you could *pick up the grenades* and throw them, it was over. The adds just went down almost instantly. Summoned shades? BOOM, down they go.
Even Gortash himself was easy. As it turns out, he's *not* immune to being knocked prone, so... Karlach knocked him on his back, and what followed was a massive stompfest, as my entire party surrounded him to bully him and wail on his ass.
I almost killed him in one round (after luring him out of his room on the roof) but then when he had 5 hp left I missed 3 70% chances to hit in a row so he got his 150 bonus hp from his avatar form.
It’s pretty easy to miss. He just gets a little taller and then dies the following turn to everything that burst him down to trigger the transformation to begin with.
You can just throw them tho. Like do the throw action, and instead of using something from the inventory, just click on the bomb on the ground. It worked for me last time, I'm pretty sure, so unless something changed it should work
The hag for sure, I wait until lv5 and even with 2 spellcasters it was a cakewalk. The hard part is obtaining the hair since you can't use spells to buff rolls
“The game glitched.” This sounds like exactly how durge mentality would manifest irl lol. “I did nothing I swear; the portal glitched. it all went dark and now I have a wizard hand” 🤷♀️
If you have the "1. Continue." bug, always try swapping to another companion or even exiting and loading back in, _before_ picking it. This causes the graphics to reload and often times will fix the glitch.
Yeah that strategy doesn't work in honor mode since casting spells makes her summon more duplicates.
I use potion of speed and get as many handcrossbows as I can so people can dual wield them and get 3 ranged attacks each turn.
Since the amount of clones scales with the spell you cast it's better if you can use a cantrip to trigger her legendary reaction before casting magic missile.
Enhance ability has no turn limit. Both the others last for 10 turns. If you cast before the fight, you get to use them.
I also save bliss spores for this check but that’s just my own overkill
OOOOH THANK YOU FOR SAYING THIS- I suceeded the check in my honour mode attempt and got super excited before the game kicked me back into combat. I was super confused but ik I for sure used guidance to get that success. Now I know what NOT to do 😅
I rarely get that dialogue as she goes down to fast but when I do she always picks Karlach to talk to. Best Girl has never failed the intimidation check for me though so I ain’t complaining
Ansur. No idea how I managed it but first time kill with a pretty unbalanced party and first time trying out Globe of Invulnerability. Turns out, good choice.
I only did ansur in my latest playthrough, think I had 2 monks, a fighter and a paladin. Str based tavern brawler open hand monk at lvl 12 is pretty damn good I found out
I agree with OP. I went to fight orin even before killing gortash and immediately locked into duel with her. I turned into slayer and slayed her in two turns.
The Act 2 boss fight against Ketheric Throm I whacked it completely in like 2 or 3 rounds and the „Second Phase“ was as easy i finished it in the first round
I had so many summons that could fly/phase for the siege (make them go over the room and getting the shooters fast makes life a lot easier) and they survive until Ketheric, so they just went around killing all the minions, opening the field for the characters to free Dame Aylin very fast and then gang on the main guy. That was so fast and then phase 2 was solved in 2 or 3 rounds. After getting wrecked so many times in the siege and doing this way it was so easy... In all other runs I just save all the summon scrolls for this fight.
I killed all summons and freed aylin first round only for the mindflayer to successfully dominate person her and make her smite the shit outta astarion.
First playthrough, the hag stood no chance (blinded, silenced, proned, burning). She was just on the ground for 3 turns and couldn't do shit.
Also first playthrough, Gortash. I put my entire group in the corner, used Globe of Invulnerability and stood at the edge so Gortash and his Fists could not enter. Karlach slammed Gortash on the ground repeated, and he was killed by his own contraptions. How ironic.
Ethel in act 1.>!(Silence + Hold Person)!<
Ketheric alone.>!(I was like "Is he supposed to be the main boss of act 2? Am just too good for this game? AM I READY FOR HONOUR MODE?" And then Myrkul happened lol)!<
The reason I was so overwhelmed by freaking Myrkul is that he caught me by surprise; I thought I only had to finish off Ketheric as fast as possible and be done with it. (That's why I thought it was a good idea to misty step two of my characters on the main platform close to Ketheric, and when Myrkul appeared both of them were fucked lol)
I still loved this fight though; and I appreciate it because I was starting to get cocky so I definitely needed someone to check my arrogance lmao
>wall of fire on his ass and watch him burn
next time it's either this or hunger of hadar :D
Oh for sure I agree with you. The first time I killed Ketheric and was like “mmmm that seemed too easy”. Waited a couple seconds and realized “there’s going to be a big ass boss after he dies….. yep”. Then immediately got wrecked. But since then he’s a cake walk
I would say Raphael in tactician mode. Got it first try and it was no issue at all. Also all of the endgame.
I've played the game three and a half times already and I would say the hardest fight is Myrkul, by far. Depends on team comp but I usually struggle.
EDIT: I also found Orin extremely easy in my three runs, even oneshooting her in my Paladin Durge run when using that lil power daddy gives you
I feel bad for the queen of the theatre kids because he’s there with his obviously rehearsed Disney villain song, but the fight ends up with him cc’d the entire time. And that’s only if I haven’t used the gnome nuke on him for the comedy if it
Myrkul is 100% the hardest boss in the game and Ansur is the hardest in act three. Raphael is honestly kind of a joke but I never pass up his fight for obvious reasons
I love how we all have our own struggles in this game. Myrkul was fairly easy for me, but I spent just over an hour on Orin yesterday and still haven’t completed the fight… I got her down to 8hp and she wiped out my last two standing so I went to bed lol.
Surgeon and his babes on honour mode!
I never fought him before, as i always managed to talk him into suicide, but i failed *all* my checks so all his undead chicks were fighting with him. And i thought i was fucked but it helped that my Tav monk was under the hill giant strength potion so that i just picked up corpses before he could resurrect them and well without his babes he was not so scary.
I used Gale to cast Disintegrate on Lorroakan in my second playthrough and he straight up turned into a pile of ash. I had a hard time with that fight in my first playthrough, so I just stared at my screen completely dumbfounded lol
Lol I had the opposite experience to you recently in my Durge run! Sarevok was unexpectedly easy (Gale landed a Hold Monster on him and Astarion & Jaheira crit hit him to death before he even got a turn), whereas Orin bodied me. My Durge is a wild magic sorc/warlock and she saved on the spells I cast, and had my Elemental summon running in fear (I forgot to include it in Heroe’s Feast) and I died! On my second try, I succeeded better and beat her.
Cazador in my victorius honor mode run
Lae'zel stunned him with the special attack of the silver sword and rocked his shit for half his health, then Gale with chain lighting and my OHTV hasted monk finished the job
Halsin portal moment. I still remember finding turn undead when I thought I was about to lose because there were SO MANY and then like half of the enemies just exploded when I did turn undead and there were only a few turns left anyways.
My first playthrough I expected Khaga to put up more of a fight. The support you get from other NPCs helps, and the only gimmick of the fight is wildshaping so it's not too bad. Definitely one of the fights I don't sweat too much
Orin was quite easy my first playthrough. I had two fighters that just hacked at her and ground down her unstoppable buff. My fourth playthrough was shockingly easy against Raphael cause I just counterspelled everything. The first playthrough I barely made it with sphere of invulnerability.
Same! The Sanctuaried adds, the Unstoppable stacks and her multiattacks that can bring any party member down low if she lands them all were always rough for me as Tav, so I was super wary going in for the Durge duel.
Then my Pally!Durge smited her to 1 HP in one turn.
Damn. Good call on the gloomstalker...
My fight was Ethel in the second playthrough. I doused the cage in water first, then proceeded to smack her into oblivion. After winning the fight, she randomly started up a convo with Karlach. Lucky for me, Karlach is *really* good at scaring people, so I managed to snag Ethel's filthy scalp and convince her to fuck off. Ended up saving everyone, including the Hag. Go figure.
Raphael in regular difficulty! I’d heard that his fight was really hard, but I killed him pretty easily on my first playthrough. Didn’t need to take out any of the pillars, either. Level 12 Battle-Master Lae’zel just kept stunning Raphael so he couldn’t take any moves, while Gloomstalker Astarion did a decent amount of damage on his cambions, Durge Sorcerer was doing crowd control, and Evocation Wizard Gale was casting lighting everywhere w/ that handy spell-sculpting thing.
Sarevok, and not even because of something I did. He casted sanctuary on himself in like the first round and then just...stood there. I dealt with his minions and still had like 8 rounds of sanctuary to go so I just overlayed wall of fire and hunger of hadar over him and waited him out. In the end 80% of the fight was skipping turns, watching him stand there and take damage with no reaction, and than Karlach finishing him off in one turn once the sanctuary expired. I remember literally saying 'Is that all..?' out loud.
House of grief. People on here hyped it up but the enemies barely fought back. I use a lot of summons, so maybe I just had an easier time dealing with the adds idk.
It took me and my partner a while to crack on our first attempt but hiding at the top of the stairs with a wall of blades, spikes, spinning daggers and darkness is basically easy mode
This is only on balanced so take with a pinch of salt, but the final boss in the steel watcher factory ended up being extremely easy for me in my last campaign.
I had turned Gale into a tempest cleric/sorcerer multi with a focus on lightning spells. I'd been pretty disappointed with his performance throughout the campaign though and I'd kind of written it off as a poorly executed build on my part (not helped by my Tav soaking up a bunch of spellcaster gear he might have gotten use from).
But steel watchers are all weak to lightning so I brought him along. Helpfully two of the regular watchers lined up perfectly with the boss, and I was able to fire off two lightning bolts, one using destructive wrath to maximise damage, and absolutely obliterate them. After that the fight really didn't take very long to conclude.
Given in the past I've really struggled with this fight I was pleasantly surprised how simple it all felt.
For me it's Orin as well. I was using my Monk of Open Hand. She basically missed a lot and the scare didn't really affect me much. Added a bit of Stunning Strikes, she's dead and my Monk only had taken some small damages.
Ngl, raphael, on my first honor mode run. I was taking everything so careful in that run that I buffed my party to absolute hell by abusing the long rest spa that I had so many summons, every summon had every buff I could apply, and I also stocked the entrance hall with every smoke powder barrel in the game topped with 3 rune powder barrels.
Raphael was also dead from the barrels on turn 1. I stunning striked him for 2 rounds in a row cause for some reason he doesn't have legendary resistances, and then I just ganged up on him with the squad and killed him. Thanks to the globes of invulnability, I took 0 damage in the entire fight. I felt so hallow afterward I just went on a boss rush to see how many bosses I could kill in a row with the setup.
The answer was the house of grief, cazador, gortash, the foundry, and gortash because I ran out of minions and short rests.
The First hag fight ( sister kidnapp)
When you Attack her with illnes spells giving her stats Like poisend, frighted , weakness, glowing, you can easily make out the illusions. Also Just let someone with Water Magic stand out of the fight with grp Splitting, and then just spellcast water on the trap after the hag tries to burn it, then just Join and yoink her
Grym for me, I read up he's weak to bludgeoning so I came in prepared with bludgeoning weapons and ended up taking him down in 2 turns without even hitting the hammer.
Youtube was making him out to be this impossible boss at the time so it was really underwhelming. I also did the fight before going to the creche so I wasn't even max leveled for Act 1.
Gortash.
I reached him after Orin, who had taken me the best part of an evening to beat. I then spent a stupid amount of time trying to find his location, having totally missed the staircase or passage. It was fairly late at night when I finally got to him. I was getting tired and I had work the next day. So I figured instead of carrying on for that last half hour I would call it a night and tackle him the next day.
Defeated him first attempt in no time at all.
Funny enough, my first Ketheric/Myrkyl in first playthrough in balanced mode. My paladin and Aylin both crit their smite attacks and did a massive amount of damage
Cazador. I heard about the ritual shit so I left Astarion at the very top of the stairs, snuck down, got right behind him, and boom *Divine Smite*. Critted him almost out of existence. Monk finished him and put him in his coffin.
The cursed acid imp. I was just wandering around solo with my sneak thief, failed a con roll when I jumped on a random ship, and got surprised by the guy when I exited a box of shinies.
Checked his stats: reflects all damage received 3-fold as acid. I was so maxed out on damage, I could have killed myself with the action+bonus action attack.
Realized I needed to avoid damaging him at all, so I just pushed him away.
Fucker flew right over the railing and into the ocean, combat over.
high hall courtyard fight, i thought it would so hard but i did it without using any allies on tactician (but the final fight in brain was really difficult so i summoned every ally there)
Also, netherbrain on my first HM run. Granted I was running a pretty busted party but still I expected it to last until at least the end of the round. Orpheus went in the portal and triggered the reaction, everyone else was close to the portal since I did the runepowder meme and booked it to that crown. Paladin tav had two guaranteed crits on standby, SSB astarion had aberration arrows, monk karlach went wack wack wack, and light cleric shart had all the drs gear and finished it with a lv6 scorching ray.
Never using any of the "meta" classes again holy moly what a snoozer
I overprepared so much for Raphael both on Balanced and Tactician because people said it was a tough fight but I just ended up mopping the floor with him.
Honestly it's almost every fight for me by now. I re-specced my Tav to a Paladin/Bard and he demolishes every encounter. I plan on making a playthrough with every party member having levels in Paladin, because it's just so damn powerful. Just smack the biggest baddy into oblivion in the first round and clean of the battlefield with a few AOE spells.
Was on explorer as it was my first playthrough, so that definitely helped with this one too, but never played a game like it before so made it a little easier on my lack of skills, but honestly? The Nether Brain.
I was playing a Paladin, using Bernard's glaive I think, had the buff that gave me -5 to attack rolls but +10 to damage. Even with the -5 I very rarely had less than a 95% chance to hit because of other buffs.
Sent Gale through the portal first, sent off a chain lightning or call lightning, can't remember which, then sent my paladin in, had the click heel boots so made it all the way down into melee, two attacks, then a third because of a buff, divine smite, and it literally took those four attacks to fuck it up.
Fully sat there in shock for a few minutes like... 'was that it?'
Not necessarily underwhelming though, I loved it so much because I'm not a strategic player in the slightest, but I clearly did something right to give enough buffs to totally wreck it.
Kinda Gortash?
I rate the 3 fights as Myrkul, then Orin (but only bc I didn't realize I could harm the ppl with aoe attacks and they were responsible for the stacks of no harm), then Gortash. Like okayy sure he was maybe a bit difficult but nothing bad or anything, easily deduced that the shields can be broken by attacking the modules in the back. Besides I didn't even realize or know if he has a transformed form, like Ketheric as Myrkul, Orin as the slayer and Gortash?? He just stayed a puny human lmao.
The final fight against netherbrain smh... Saved all my scrolls and potions etc from the whole journey. Turns out gale can just go kaboom and save the day, finished the game today. Very happy but a little anticlimactic for me lol
Protecting Halsin and the portal. Kept hearing about how it was hell for everyone on here. So I gave karlach every explosive barrel I had, gave lae'zel every AOE arrows I had, and me and Gale just threw fireball after fireball killing groups of enemies every turn. Got it on the first try, was actually fun. 10/10 would do again.
Gortasch, I really thought it would be a second Ketheric, like with a Phase 2 with the dead one, but no, just Gortasch hitting a little bit with jos cute shadow hands.
Honestly Orin, Gortash, and the Netherbrain (not necessarily the battle to the brain stem, but the brain itself), but that was mostly because at that point Karlach was my DPT powerhouse being a barbarian with battle master (iirc), great weapon master, and having the trident you get from the Djinn at the carnival. She was on average dealing 90-120 damage each turn.
Katheric/Myrkul for me. Only Dame Aylin went down which I don’t count against me since she’s AI controlled anyway. But yeah I rolled that one and surprised myself
Raphael. I think I did it in like 3-4 rounds with very little health loss. Wizard with speed potion took out the soul pillars with missles, Hope banished the demon guy. Then other 3 just pounded on Raphael. I was very surprised cause I was scared a bit for that battle.
Ketheric Thorm.
I don't remember if I Cheesed the fight or something, but I had Aylin up and fighting by round two, and gagglepunched his ass to death with my melee-focused party
Raphael. Once i realised that you can cast a divine intervention by hope to refresh your spells and heal it was done.
Viconia, on the other hand was pure hell. My party was almost purely ranged and that darkness kept fucking me up. I tried some anti darkness spells but they didnt work.
That golem in adamantine forge. First play through, Balanced.
I see this huge golem. Lava pouring all around me. Enemies everywhere... so I checked his stats, give Karlach the hammer and potion of speed and she hammered him in 2 rounds (great weapon master). It was then I learned I was supposed to use the anvil because I got an achievement. Also my sister and gaming buddy were shocked because they tried multiple times before succeeding :P
Oliver in honor mode. I put up a wall of fire all the way across the screen between the steps and the tree lines. Every time Oliver sent out his shadows it directly hit the fire which took them out. I was able to stay back and deal with the shadow owlbears and the fight was over before I really knew what was happening.
Orin. I can't even elaborate why. It was just dreadfully easy my first playthrough. Though it glitched Halsin to where I couldn't use him or Karlach at all the rest of the game lol.
Cazador was a joke for our party. Gale used Curriculum of Strategy: Artistry of War on him and did 138 dmg in one turn with it which quite literally just killed him. We did some damage to him already and he was next to my cleric who wielded the blood of lathander AND who casted daylight on the center of the room in turn one (I prepared it cause I felt like it would fit the thematic, I full on kind of expected him to have some immunity to it lol)
But yeah, killing the stragglers and ESPECIALLY THE BATS??? Was harder than Cazador himself lol
I counterspelled balthazar in the shadowfell so he wasn't able to summon the other creatures. Had already failed the fight a handful of time, and when I went to retry it I was able to react with counterspell and the very start of the fight and it made a 20v4 into a 1v4, so much easier.
Nere on Honour mode.
This playthrough I decided to murder the Duergar before blowing up the rocks, so I had positioned myself where the ladder and stairs are, with the only other way to get around is all the way back by the Grymforge waypoint (with all the broken stone). I assassinated the Duergar by the way point first and had greased up that whole area. So them going that way was damn near impossible. Over by the ladder and the walk up stairs past the ladder, I had laid down Hunger of Hadar with Wyll, and Spike Growth with Astarion (multiclassed into Ranger). Then with Gale I had used Darkness on my whole team, with Shadowheart having Spirit Guardians in the Darkness. They basically couldn't hit me and died the moment they tried to get close, I just kept passing turns. Then I separated my team members and just blew up the rock solo with Wyll, then during the Nere dialogue, I snuck around with Astarion and just setup some explosives. Nearly oneshotted him with the explosives and finished him off in a single turn. I just laughed thinking about how much I hated this area, before I learned how to completely cheese this entire sequence.
Spectator. I fought him by accident and after killing him I searched up more info about him and learned he’s like a tough mini boss. I honestly found the matriarch harder then him
All major danger fights in the second half of the game on first honor mode playthrough were my unexpected easy fights. I wanted that achievement really bad and gathered the real OP team, including 10/1/1, fire acuity sorlock, optimized TB monk and revorb light cleric. I was going to only take mandatory fights, and even ask Gale to blow himself up for my achievement, but I ended up fighting all of them, including Ansur and Cazzador and the final fight, and all of them were easier than on my blind Explorer playthrough.
Same as you, it was the Orin duel. I had a college of swords bard and no strategy at all.
The first try went as bad as possible: Orin went first and killed my character without letting her get a single turn, the other three party members were dying horribly afterwards so I decided to reload and give it another try.
Orin went first again, but thanks to some miracle I got a turn. I cast Otto's Irresistible Dance on her, and that was enough to make her inactive for the rest of the fight. One of the most satisfying moments I had in combat in this game.
Steel Watch Titan.
On my first playthrough and did this last night. With how much the Gondian guy kept warning me I thought it was gonna be rough. Started the fight by throwing a flash grenade I got from the Ironhands and... wow... just an off switch for 2/4 enemies and I slayed the Titan before it actually moved. Tbh I think the fight in the main foundry was harder
Party is
Vengeance Pal Tav
Light Cleric SH
Evo wiz Gale
Arcane Trick Astarion
and Quothe (love this silly little bird)
this post is a few days old, but for my first playthrough it was probably gortash. i destroyed the steel watch knowing it would nerf him, but during the actual fight i got a hold person on him so he did none of his tricks and karlach finished him off in the next couple rounds. a pretty anticlimactic way to go 🤷 not that im complaining
The fight against Ethel. This is my first playthrough (just started act 3).
I didn't know she would flee into her cave, if I knew, I would have had Lae'zel finish her off in the first round, instead of dealing with the Redcaps.
Once inside the cave, I snuck up behind her, proned her and had Lae'zel, Karlach and my fighter Tav gang up on her. She never got to use turn.
the Nere fight. i remembered sucking so hard with this one on my first playthrough on balanced, so on tactician with Durge I just cast sanctuary on myself and hid all the companions. waited for the duergar to kill each other and Nere, then finished off those who were left (even the allies because my girl was eager to kill everyone in there and they're slavers anyway.)
Raphael. I was so scared, I didn't know what the mechanics of the fight were, and I thought I was going to get murdered.
Then I black hole'd his entire menagerie and himself, exploded his obelisks, stunned him, and the only turns he had he was both frightened and blinded. To add salt to the wound, I finished him with a vicious mockery. It wasn't a fair fight, but I didn't expect him to go down like a chump like this.
Also the end battle against the netherbrain, but I can accept that it's more of a consecration fight "you did it, hero!" than a hard fight.
A mate of mine played up to the Grove fight and said, "battles are quite few and far between, aren't they?"
Immediately I was like... erm no? What do you mean. Well... this MF had just talked his way through to level 4 without throwing a punch.
I was impressed, not even mad.
Cazador in my first playthrough, to the point that in my second playthrough I was way less prepared and had to reload cos I didn’t know what happens on turn 3 and didn’t know you were supposed to help Astarion.
In like my 3rd playthrough I didn’t realise just how much easier the Yurgir fight was if you picked up the bombs. And now I have some pretty neat bombs too. Yurgir got pretty pissy about it fast and stopped going invisible which helped a lot.
Mine was facing Orin in my first playthrough (Not Durge). Made sure to save the kidnapped party member and beat her down until she turns into the slayer monster. Had Shadow Heart cast hold monster praying for a success, it hits and Orin is stuck being auto critted to oblivion.
Another one was when we are facing a certain vampire lord. Lae'zel went first and smashed him into pulp in one turn saving the day.
For me it was fight with Cazador
But maybe it was not easy easy - but I expected real horrors
After first attempt - with activated cutscene and grouped up team I've got half of their hp eaten after his first cast and needed to waste a turn to help Astarion.
I reloaded safe and decided for sneak attack without activating cutscene (Replacing gale for SH with blood of Lathander)
And suddenly all problems were solved.
Everyone exept Cazador were surprised - so I've got a free turn for everyone - and with my fighter and Karlach dude was dead in first turn (without using lvl6 spellsnor anything - just standard fighter barbarian attacks/ class actions with him blinded from Lathanders light) - and rest was just some cleaning up with AOE attacks.
I was really surprised with differences in diffuculty - in first scenario after first turn my team was barely standing - while in second - almost no one was below half its hp in the end - with some characters untouched.
Slaughtering the tieflings was suprisingly easy
I didnt suspect they were such an easy target
Just to be clear I slaughtered them with my party and then went to Minthara
Raphael. I came with explosive barrels, but thought id try it the normal way first. Managed to convince the big guy to join my fight, and he ended up killing Hope's sister. Went for the pillars quickly and in no time it was just my party and Raphael. It went easier than what I expected. Normal difficulty.
Auntie Ethel in Act 1. If you can use a spell or ability that makes her unable to move, you can kill her before she even gets a chance to escape into the fireplace! It's how I handled her on my honor mode run
When you steal her potion of invisibility, you get an extra round of attacks on her. And she doesn't Misty Step that far so a couple people by the fireplace will catch up to her. A little closer than I wanted but she went down before she could escape.
Killed Orin in Turn 1 cause my necromancer durge didnt understand the concept of "fair" 1vs1 fights and had his 6 or 7 reanimated bhaal cultists with him. Having read the necronomicon might have been a little overkill here
For me it was Orin too, I was not Durge on my playthrough but the companion wich she kidnapped was Laezel. The fight was very tough (had to use Shadowheart to save me from death) but when I freed Laezel she used her multiple attacks and action surge on Orin and she lasted one turn.
Cazador on balanced at lvl 11 (I held back thinking it would be v hard). Just a cake walk once you hold Astarion back so the ritual can’t start and get daylight cast on him right from the begining. Setup a blade wall and shredded all the mob. I think I barely took any damage.
Mine was the trial of bhaal fight. I expected to nearly tpw and get through by the skin of my teeth, instead I basically froze the guy in place and sat around dealing with the adds while wall of blades cut though him
The steel watcher titan. Granted I played that playthrough on balanced as I was entirely new to a game like this but even being pretty bad at the game and struggling with a lot of other bosses the steel watcher titan was an easy first try which never really presented a challenge.
My blind playthrough I knew nothing so when it came to the hag I attacked a duplicate and used shove on the next closest one, which was the real one and she died because I pushed her into the center chasm
First honour mode and I've seen so many posts about the Death Knight being super difficult.
My durge is a Warlock, brought along a respeced light cleric SH, well as a sorcerer and Lae'zel as Lae'zel.
A hunger of hadar, wall of fire and Spirit Guardians later and nothing could even reach Lae'zel airing in the front line.. I think I was over prepared...
Surprisingly, House of Grief on tactician. Usually it's one of the harder fights in act 3, so I expected it would be even more painful on tact, but my utterly magicless gang (paladin, OH monk, battlemaster fighter and rogue/ranger) just steamrolled them while high on elixirs of bloodlust.
The gortash fight was more of a breeze than I thought it would be, the henchmen went down easy then big gortash's big magic fist was never really an issue
I found Orin easy aswell. I was a Monk and had already completed the House of Hope.
I killed Orin before she even got a turn.
Monks at endgame are broke af. I think I could do 220-440 damage a turn depending on my damage rolls but struggled with crowd control.
On my first honour I went to the spiders’ cave expecting TPK, but I used alchemist fire on the matriarch, so it burned the webs below them and fell taking a lot of damage.
I feel like I accidentally made an op char for honour (Halfling OH monk/thief), so most of it was a walk in a park with a lot of the bosses never managing to use legendary actions, but the spider encounter was the biggest surprise.
On honor mode, all the Thorms, Yurgir, Raphael, House of Grief. I was worried about those fights and they were a total non-issue, meanwhile a couple I didn't worry about at all (Myrkul, Cazador) nearly took me out.
Me when I figured out I could pick up one of the undead necromancers in the Mountain Pass. Once his buddy couldn't resurrect him, killing the rest with turn undead and spirit guardians made it so much easier in Honour Mode than it had been in Balanced/Explorer oof
Grym on my first tactician run. He’d pasted me on the first two difficulties and I was expecting a real struggle in tactician.
I used my throwbarian and enraged throw to knock him prone every round and he didn’t touch me once because he used all his movement speed standing up.
Tried the same approach on HM though and it Did Not Work.
I was really afraid of the fight with Cazador, so I kept the party back standing on the stairs and went down with Astarion. During the dialog, he managed to punch Cazador and stay free, then I walked him back to the stairs with the rest and cast Wall of Ice to block the enemies from reaching me. I blasted everyone from afar using bows and magic, and... it took a few rounds but I won without taking any damage at all. You might call it cheesing, but I felt really good after I finished that fight.
For me House of Grief, I kept hearing how difficult it was and how many enemies there were. Decided to try out blade barrier for the first time and half the room killed themselves on it lmao
Raphael, surprisingly enough, though that’s kinda my fault. I walked in with a paladin and two fighters, and completely obliterated him on my first turn.
Halsin's portal fight. Did it the first time in a playthrough with my friend, she said it would be really hard and tried preparing some barrels to make it easier. Well, let's just say my spike growth carried it hard, add a wall of fire in front of the portal and some black tentacles to catch everything that makes it through the spikes and it's a cakewalk. We did it right after switching to tactician too, and we had to re-do it once because of a bug. So we did it first try twice lol
Marcus trying to take Isobel.
I struggled big time in my first playthrough but for some reason that fight was a breeze and I see a lot of people post on here that they struggle with it.
Also my Durge fight with Orin. I just hit her with hold monster and disintegrated her to death. She never even got to move.
Balthazaar failing a Turn Undead saving throw and spending the fight cowering in the corner was a magical moment. I hadn't even noticed he was in range, so it was a real treat when he started running away.
hate to say it but its Raphael for me. He spent THE ENTIRE FIGHT cc’d and I was disappointed but also laughed my ass off that he just couldn’t get a turn in.
Second playthrough, went to fight Grym in Tactician mode. I remembered bludgeoning damage was the only way to hurt it, so it was myself (a paladin), Karlach, and Lae'zel all equipped with maces and hammers, with Shadowheart providing support. We basically surrounded it, turned on the lava, and whacked it repeatedly until it died. Sure, the magma mephits were a distraction, and it still did a good amount of damage to all of us, but hitting it with hammers until it stopped moving did the trick pretty quickly.
I once fought him with an unarmed monk that was decent level and had gloves that give advantage against metal things (?). Pretty sure she bitchslapped him to death before he even properly woke up.
Had a similar experience. Tried to use the forge hammer to smash it a few times, only got it once, but then Karlach pulled a "let me solo her" and whacked it to death with Yeenoghu's club until it keeled over. It was incredible to watch.
You can make the fight a lot easier with a Sorcerer who casts haste on your main damage dealer and main controller. You can also have a member in your be a throwing EK with a hammer and deal massive damage by throwing from on top. Additionally that would be a safety net for HM. Also you can kill the Mephits before fighting Grym.
I had Karlach up top throwzerking forge moulds and ingots at him. It felt thematic.
that is also 100% something Karlach would do
Alternatively one shot him as an owlbear
Put them all in one bag and throw the bag at him. Since the extra bonus damage from way up high has a height and mass damage it’ll basically be like dropping a nuke.
How do you fight the mephits before?
When you go down the stairs to the forge on the left there’s a little section with a second mithral ore vein and they’ll jump out of the lava
I’ve killed those ones and still had the ones for the Grym fight show up though?
Yeah those are different mephits
I'm sorry, what? There's a second mithral ore vein?!? Welp guess I know what I'm doing next play through then 😎
Yeah man Heavy splint + shield every play through for me
Sooooooo if you use Druid (owlbear) you just jump on him from the upper level and can one shot him. Very satisfying. Edit: if anyone wants to use this, make sure you are hiding and also try to get the inner circle on grym.
I was going to comment this exact same thing. The first time I fought him I was totally unprepared and lost my entire party in like 8 rounds. After I reloaded I equipped Lae’zel, Karlach, and Shadowheart with bludgeoning weapons and had my Sorcerer Tav up on the crucible providing support and took him out in like a round and a half, it was wild. That fight actually taught me a lesson about the difference that knowing your enemy and preparation can make. It totally changed how I play.
Myrkul. I was playing a papadin and divine smited him back to the abyss in two turns.
Similar. Had no idea the fight was coming, but we were accidentally perfectly positioned, and with great team synergy. He barely had time to get a turn.
not a paladin story but I was also pretty surprised by how easy he went down after what I've read on this sub! all it took was destroying the spawns asap. that damned mindflayer gave me more trouble than the Apostle (playing balanced)
once, the mindflayer took control of Aylin who then killed Wyll. since then, I always kill it first
I had that too! Watched her brutally Gale, just kinda stared in disbelief.
I steal the runepowder barrel from the gnome in grymforge to circumvent Myrkuls healing. Let Lae'zel and Tav wail on myrkul and let shart and astarion take out the incubating mobs.
This. Every time Lae'zel disarms him I'm like I can't believe that worked. And you can stun him in balanced mode. Once bae'zel is up on that platform swinging the fight is basically over.
I have NEVER managed to disarm him
Yep. A paladin makes the Ketheric/Myrkul fight laughable, you don't even need a strategy. Just send the paladin up to smite.
At least on Tactician if Ketheric gets to reply with his own smites, you have a problem.
thats why you convince him to repent
that is true!!
He didn’t even make it to turn two with my paladin thanks to two crits in a row for 4 smites.
I missed one and be stayed on with like 15 hps.
Gortash went down *super* easy. I was expecting a massive brawl, but as soon as I learned you could *pick up the grenades* and throw them, it was over. The adds just went down almost instantly. Summoned shades? BOOM, down they go. Even Gortash himself was easy. As it turns out, he's *not* immune to being knocked prone, so... Karlach knocked him on his back, and what followed was a massive stompfest, as my entire party surrounded him to bully him and wail on his ass.
I almost killed him in one round (after luring him out of his room on the roof) but then when he had 5 hp left I missed 3 70% chances to hit in a row so he got his 150 bonus hp from his avatar form.
I didnt even know he had an avatar form and i fought him fair and square in his room
It’s pretty easy to miss. He just gets a little taller and then dies the following turn to everything that burst him down to trigger the transformation to begin with.
Learned the hard way in Honour Mode that the bombs just explode when you try to pick them up.
Damn, they do? Holy shit, that sucks :( They were *lifesavers* during my first non-honour mode run.
My Wizard laughed at the launchers with witch bolt (what else am I using 1st level slots for by then?)
You can just throw them tho. Like do the throw action, and instead of using something from the inventory, just click on the bomb on the ground. It worked for me last time, I'm pretty sure, so unless something changed it should work
I cast hold person on him and then Minthara destroyed him with her smite! One of the easiest fights in the game
The hag for sure, I wait until lv5 and even with 2 spellcasters it was a cakewalk. The hard part is obtaining the hair since you can't use spells to buff rolls
If you have anybody with Magic Missile the hag is a complete joke of a fight
That coming from Gale enjoyer, of corse 😂
I couldn't even use Gale (whom I was planning to romance) since the game glitched and made me take his hand
“The game glitched.” This sounds like exactly how durge mentality would manifest irl lol. “I did nothing I swear; the portal glitched. it all went dark and now I have a wizard hand” 🤷♀️
If you have the "1. Continue." bug, always try swapping to another companion or even exiting and loading back in, _before_ picking it. This causes the graphics to reload and often times will fix the glitch.
Unless you’re in Honour Mode where you get punished for that.
Ranger go brrr.
Yeah, Astarion as a Swords Bard ranger took out half her health on turn 1 by himself
Yeah that strategy doesn't work in honor mode since casting spells makes her summon more duplicates. I use potion of speed and get as many handcrossbows as I can so people can dual wield them and get 3 ranged attacks each turn.
Since the amount of clones scales with the spell you cast it's better if you can use a cantrip to trigger her legendary reaction before casting magic missile.
Magic missile absolutely works. But you do you
I think he’s referring to magic missile triggering her legendary action again so more are summoned anyways.
my strategy against her now
Guidance, enhance ability, and thaumaturgy exist
Those trigger the legendary action and force you out of the conversation
Enhance ability has no turn limit. Both the others last for 10 turns. If you cast before the fight, you get to use them. I also save bliss spores for this check but that’s just my own overkill
OOOOH THANK YOU FOR SAYING THIS- I suceeded the check in my honour mode attempt and got super excited before the game kicked me back into combat. I was super confused but ik I for sure used guidance to get that success. Now I know what NOT to do 😅
I rarely get that dialogue as she goes down to fast but when I do she always picks Karlach to talk to. Best Girl has never failed the intimidation check for me though so I ain’t complaining
Ansur. No idea how I managed it but first time kill with a pretty unbalanced party and first time trying out Globe of Invulnerability. Turns out, good choice.
I only did ansur in my latest playthrough, think I had 2 monks, a fighter and a paladin. Str based tavern brawler open hand monk at lvl 12 is pretty damn good I found out
I agree with OP. I went to fight orin even before killing gortash and immediately locked into duel with her. I turned into slayer and slayed her in two turns.
I used hold person on Orin, and then beat her up with lightning spells. She didn't get a turn
The Act 2 boss fight against Ketheric Throm I whacked it completely in like 2 or 3 rounds and the „Second Phase“ was as easy i finished it in the first round
I had so many summons that could fly/phase for the siege (make them go over the room and getting the shooters fast makes life a lot easier) and they survive until Ketheric, so they just went around killing all the minions, opening the field for the characters to free Dame Aylin very fast and then gang on the main guy. That was so fast and then phase 2 was solved in 2 or 3 rounds. After getting wrecked so many times in the siege and doing this way it was so easy... In all other runs I just save all the summon scrolls for this fight.
I killed all summons and freed aylin first round only for the mindflayer to successfully dominate person her and make her smite the shit outta astarion.
same thing happened to me with wyll
First playthrough, the hag stood no chance (blinded, silenced, proned, burning). She was just on the ground for 3 turns and couldn't do shit. Also first playthrough, Gortash. I put my entire group in the corner, used Globe of Invulnerability and stood at the edge so Gortash and his Fists could not enter. Karlach slammed Gortash on the ground repeated, and he was killed by his own contraptions. How ironic.
Ethel in act 1.>!(Silence + Hold Person)!< Ketheric alone.>!(I was like "Is he supposed to be the main boss of act 2? Am just too good for this game? AM I READY FOR HONOUR MODE?" And then Myrkul happened lol)!<
I feel like Myrkul is easier. Just cast wall of fire on his ass and watch him burn while standing a safe distance away.
The reason I was so overwhelmed by freaking Myrkul is that he caught me by surprise; I thought I only had to finish off Ketheric as fast as possible and be done with it. (That's why I thought it was a good idea to misty step two of my characters on the main platform close to Ketheric, and when Myrkul appeared both of them were fucked lol) I still loved this fight though; and I appreciate it because I was starting to get cocky so I definitely needed someone to check my arrogance lmao >wall of fire on his ass and watch him burn next time it's either this or hunger of hadar :D
Oh for sure I agree with you. The first time I killed Ketheric and was like “mmmm that seemed too easy”. Waited a couple seconds and realized “there’s going to be a big ass boss after he dies….. yep”. Then immediately got wrecked. But since then he’s a cake walk
I would say Raphael in tactician mode. Got it first try and it was no issue at all. Also all of the endgame. I've played the game three and a half times already and I would say the hardest fight is Myrkul, by far. Depends on team comp but I usually struggle. EDIT: I also found Orin extremely easy in my three runs, even oneshooting her in my Paladin Durge run when using that lil power daddy gives you
Ansur first time made me shit myself. Myrkul looked like a baby infront of him
I feel bad for the queen of the theatre kids because he’s there with his obviously rehearsed Disney villain song, but the fight ends up with him cc’d the entire time. And that’s only if I haven’t used the gnome nuke on him for the comedy if it
Myrkul is 100% the hardest boss in the game and Ansur is the hardest in act three. Raphael is honestly kind of a joke but I never pass up his fight for obvious reasons
I love how we all have our own struggles in this game. Myrkul was fairly easy for me, but I spent just over an hour on Orin yesterday and still haven’t completed the fight… I got her down to 8hp and she wiped out my last two standing so I went to bed lol.
The only fight I found super hard was Viconia. That was utterly brutal. That and the Gnoll leader in Act One. He was tough.
that's how it is. I finished Orin and Myrkul easily, but struggle with Gortash
Raphael is a real joke. drink fire resistance potion, destroyed the pillars and killed his others. He literally has no way to damaged you.
Same. Threw down an ice storm first turn. He spent the rest of the very short fight on his back. Kinda disappointed, tbh.
Surgeon and his babes on honour mode! I never fought him before, as i always managed to talk him into suicide, but i failed *all* my checks so all his undead chicks were fighting with him. And i thought i was fucked but it helped that my Tav monk was under the hill giant strength potion so that i just picked up corpses before he could resurrect them and well without his babes he was not so scary.
I used Gale to cast Disintegrate on Lorroakan in my second playthrough and he straight up turned into a pile of ash. I had a hard time with that fight in my first playthrough, so I just stared at my screen completely dumbfounded lol
I feel like that is such a fitting end for him too. Disintegrated by a rival wizard.
did aylin still break his back?
No the cutscene doesn’t happen. I disintegrated him as well and when I saw the cutscene somewhere else I was so surprised, it was badass.
Lol I had the opposite experience to you recently in my Durge run! Sarevok was unexpectedly easy (Gale landed a Hold Monster on him and Astarion & Jaheira crit hit him to death before he even got a turn), whereas Orin bodied me. My Durge is a wild magic sorc/warlock and she saved on the spells I cast, and had my Elemental summon running in fear (I forgot to include it in Heroe’s Feast) and I died! On my second try, I succeeded better and beat her.
Cazador in my victorius honor mode run Lae'zel stunned him with the special attack of the silver sword and rocked his shit for half his health, then Gale with chain lighting and my OHTV hasted monk finished the job
That's Lae'zel in a nutshell
I wore down orin pretty easy trapped on the bridge with moonbeam and summons whaling on her
Orin just stood still on the bridge for me for some reason after she transformed? Idk why
Halsin portal moment. I still remember finding turn undead when I thought I was about to lose because there were SO MANY and then like half of the enemies just exploded when I did turn undead and there were only a few turns left anyways.
I thought Raphael would wreck me in Honor Mode, but I cast Hunger of Hadar on him and he just aimlessly wandered around the whole time lol
My first playthrough I expected Khaga to put up more of a fight. The support you get from other NPCs helps, and the only gimmick of the fight is wildshaping so it's not too bad. Definitely one of the fights I don't sweat too much
Orin was quite easy my first playthrough. I had two fighters that just hacked at her and ground down her unstoppable buff. My fourth playthrough was shockingly easy against Raphael cause I just counterspelled everything. The first playthrough I barely made it with sphere of invulnerability.
Same! The Sanctuaried adds, the Unstoppable stacks and her multiattacks that can bring any party member down low if she lands them all were always rough for me as Tav, so I was super wary going in for the Durge duel. Then my Pally!Durge smited her to 1 HP in one turn.
Damn. Good call on the gloomstalker... My fight was Ethel in the second playthrough. I doused the cage in water first, then proceeded to smack her into oblivion. After winning the fight, she randomly started up a convo with Karlach. Lucky for me, Karlach is *really* good at scaring people, so I managed to snag Ethel's filthy scalp and convince her to fuck off. Ended up saving everyone, including the Hag. Go figure.
the game did that with me too. she started talking to astarion, and I was like wtf
Raphael in regular difficulty! I’d heard that his fight was really hard, but I killed him pretty easily on my first playthrough. Didn’t need to take out any of the pillars, either. Level 12 Battle-Master Lae’zel just kept stunning Raphael so he couldn’t take any moves, while Gloomstalker Astarion did a decent amount of damage on his cambions, Durge Sorcerer was doing crowd control, and Evocation Wizard Gale was casting lighting everywhere w/ that handy spell-sculpting thing.
I imagine that fight irl. 4 crazy people bulling cambions in their own home
Honor mode Orin. Dubbed the most difficult fight in the whole game, in reality took one Arcane Missiles and one turn from the bard until dead.
Sarevok, and not even because of something I did. He casted sanctuary on himself in like the first round and then just...stood there. I dealt with his minions and still had like 8 rounds of sanctuary to go so I just overlayed wall of fire and hunger of hadar over him and waited him out. In the end 80% of the fight was skipping turns, watching him stand there and take damage with no reaction, and than Karlach finishing him off in one turn once the sanctuary expired. I remember literally saying 'Is that all..?' out loud.
House of grief. People on here hyped it up but the enemies barely fought back. I use a lot of summons, so maybe I just had an easier time dealing with the adds idk.
It took me and my partner a while to crack on our first attempt but hiding at the top of the stairs with a wall of blades, spikes, spinning daggers and darkness is basically easy mode
I found out that that fight is hard if you can be blinded. if not, it's just any other fight. my Karlach soloed it with steel watcher helmet
That was my choice too but when Shadowheart is Dark Justiciar it’s easier than normal >!half the room sides with you!<
I remember thinking the goblin leaders were going to be really tough but then I found all the Hold Person scrolls lying around
Grym on Tactician first try, and I didn't know anything. Granted, my Tav was a open hand monk
This is only on balanced so take with a pinch of salt, but the final boss in the steel watcher factory ended up being extremely easy for me in my last campaign. I had turned Gale into a tempest cleric/sorcerer multi with a focus on lightning spells. I'd been pretty disappointed with his performance throughout the campaign though and I'd kind of written it off as a poorly executed build on my part (not helped by my Tav soaking up a bunch of spellcaster gear he might have gotten use from). But steel watchers are all weak to lightning so I brought him along. Helpfully two of the regular watchers lined up perfectly with the boss, and I was able to fire off two lightning bolts, one using destructive wrath to maximise damage, and absolutely obliterate them. After that the fight really didn't take very long to conclude. Given in the past I've really struggled with this fight I was pleasantly surprised how simple it all felt.
For me it's Orin as well. I was using my Monk of Open Hand. She basically missed a lot and the scare didn't really affect me much. Added a bit of Stunning Strikes, she's dead and my Monk only had taken some small damages.
Ngl, raphael, on my first honor mode run. I was taking everything so careful in that run that I buffed my party to absolute hell by abusing the long rest spa that I had so many summons, every summon had every buff I could apply, and I also stocked the entrance hall with every smoke powder barrel in the game topped with 3 rune powder barrels. Raphael was also dead from the barrels on turn 1. I stunning striked him for 2 rounds in a row cause for some reason he doesn't have legendary resistances, and then I just ganged up on him with the squad and killed him. Thanks to the globes of invulnability, I took 0 damage in the entire fight. I felt so hallow afterward I just went on a boss rush to see how many bosses I could kill in a row with the setup. The answer was the house of grief, cazador, gortash, the foundry, and gortash because I ran out of minions and short rests.
The First hag fight ( sister kidnapp) When you Attack her with illnes spells giving her stats Like poisend, frighted , weakness, glowing, you can easily make out the illusions. Also Just let someone with Water Magic stand out of the fight with grp Splitting, and then just spellcast water on the trap after the hag tries to burn it, then just Join and yoink her
Grym for me, I read up he's weak to bludgeoning so I came in prepared with bludgeoning weapons and ended up taking him down in 2 turns without even hitting the hammer. Youtube was making him out to be this impossible boss at the time so it was really underwhelming. I also did the fight before going to the creche so I wasn't even max leveled for Act 1.
Myrkul Maybe it's because i went with a full health team and had shart running melee with BoL, but he was just really easy
Myrkul was really a surprise for me. My Laezel almst soloed him.
Gortash. I reached him after Orin, who had taken me the best part of an evening to beat. I then spent a stupid amount of time trying to find his location, having totally missed the staircase or passage. It was fairly late at night when I finally got to him. I was getting tired and I had work the next day. So I figured instead of carrying on for that last half hour I would call it a night and tackle him the next day. Defeated him first attempt in no time at all.
Funny enough, my first Ketheric/Myrkyl in first playthrough in balanced mode. My paladin and Aylin both crit their smite attacks and did a massive amount of damage
Cazador. I heard about the ritual shit so I left Astarion at the very top of the stairs, snuck down, got right behind him, and boom *Divine Smite*. Critted him almost out of existence. Monk finished him and put him in his coffin.
The cursed acid imp. I was just wandering around solo with my sneak thief, failed a con roll when I jumped on a random ship, and got surprised by the guy when I exited a box of shinies. Checked his stats: reflects all damage received 3-fold as acid. I was so maxed out on damage, I could have killed myself with the action+bonus action attack. Realized I needed to avoid damaging him at all, so I just pushed him away. Fucker flew right over the railing and into the ocean, combat over.
high hall courtyard fight, i thought it would so hard but i did it without using any allies on tactician (but the final fight in brain was really difficult so i summoned every ally there)
orin
Also, netherbrain on my first HM run. Granted I was running a pretty busted party but still I expected it to last until at least the end of the round. Orpheus went in the portal and triggered the reaction, everyone else was close to the portal since I did the runepowder meme and booked it to that crown. Paladin tav had two guaranteed crits on standby, SSB astarion had aberration arrows, monk karlach went wack wack wack, and light cleric shart had all the drs gear and finished it with a lv6 scorching ray. Never using any of the "meta" classes again holy moly what a snoozer
I overprepared so much for Raphael both on Balanced and Tactician because people said it was a tough fight but I just ended up mopping the floor with him.
On my HM run I was terrified of the Gith Inquisitor, he went down so fast. He got one turn & that’s it
Honestly it's almost every fight for me by now. I re-specced my Tav to a Paladin/Bard and he demolishes every encounter. I plan on making a playthrough with every party member having levels in Paladin, because it's just so damn powerful. Just smack the biggest baddy into oblivion in the first round and clean of the battlefield with a few AOE spells.
Was on explorer as it was my first playthrough, so that definitely helped with this one too, but never played a game like it before so made it a little easier on my lack of skills, but honestly? The Nether Brain. I was playing a Paladin, using Bernard's glaive I think, had the buff that gave me -5 to attack rolls but +10 to damage. Even with the -5 I very rarely had less than a 95% chance to hit because of other buffs. Sent Gale through the portal first, sent off a chain lightning or call lightning, can't remember which, then sent my paladin in, had the click heel boots so made it all the way down into melee, two attacks, then a third because of a buff, divine smite, and it literally took those four attacks to fuck it up. Fully sat there in shock for a few minutes like... 'was that it?' Not necessarily underwhelming though, I loved it so much because I'm not a strategic player in the slightest, but I clearly did something right to give enough buffs to totally wreck it.
mykul for sure! i got the free lunch achievement and went “wait, WHAT?? he can do that??”
Kinda Gortash? I rate the 3 fights as Myrkul, then Orin (but only bc I didn't realize I could harm the ppl with aoe attacks and they were responsible for the stacks of no harm), then Gortash. Like okayy sure he was maybe a bit difficult but nothing bad or anything, easily deduced that the shields can be broken by attacking the modules in the back. Besides I didn't even realize or know if he has a transformed form, like Ketheric as Myrkul, Orin as the slayer and Gortash?? He just stayed a puny human lmao.
I did Myrkuls fight in one round once, I don't know if it was just amazing luck or what (gale, halsin, wyll, sword bard)
The final fight against netherbrain smh... Saved all my scrolls and potions etc from the whole journey. Turns out gale can just go kaboom and save the day, finished the game today. Very happy but a little anticlimactic for me lol
Protecting Halsin and the portal. Kept hearing about how it was hell for everyone on here. So I gave karlach every explosive barrel I had, gave lae'zel every AOE arrows I had, and me and Gale just threw fireball after fireball killing groups of enemies every turn. Got it on the first try, was actually fun. 10/10 would do again.
Balthazar. Wyll and I knocked his ass into the infinite void turn 1.
Gortasch, I really thought it would be a second Ketheric, like with a Phase 2 with the dead one, but no, just Gortasch hitting a little bit with jos cute shadow hands.
Cazador. Whole party rolled the highest initiative and was able to KO him before he even got a word in
Honestly Orin, Gortash, and the Netherbrain (not necessarily the battle to the brain stem, but the brain itself), but that was mostly because at that point Karlach was my DPT powerhouse being a barbarian with battle master (iirc), great weapon master, and having the trident you get from the Djinn at the carnival. She was on average dealing 90-120 damage each turn.
The last one and myrkul’s
Myrkul,ketheric was a bit much but once i freed dame ailyn I was able cheese the lord of bones plus being a paladin didn't hurt either.
Katheric/Myrkul for me. Only Dame Aylin went down which I don’t count against me since she’s AI controlled anyway. But yeah I rolled that one and surprised myself
Ketheric/Myrkul: Round 1: kill the mind-flayer Round 2: free Aylin and reposition to focus Myrkul Round 3: done and done.
Raphael. I think I did it in like 3-4 rounds with very little health loss. Wizard with speed potion took out the soul pillars with missles, Hope banished the demon guy. Then other 3 just pounded on Raphael. I was very surprised cause I was scared a bit for that battle.
Ketheric Thorm. I don't remember if I Cheesed the fight or something, but I had Aylin up and fighting by round two, and gagglepunched his ass to death with my melee-focused party
Raphael. Once i realised that you can cast a divine intervention by hope to refresh your spells and heal it was done. Viconia, on the other hand was pure hell. My party was almost purely ranged and that darkness kept fucking me up. I tried some anti darkness spells but they didnt work.
That golem in adamantine forge. First play through, Balanced. I see this huge golem. Lava pouring all around me. Enemies everywhere... so I checked his stats, give Karlach the hammer and potion of speed and she hammered him in 2 rounds (great weapon master). It was then I learned I was supposed to use the anvil because I got an achievement. Also my sister and gaming buddy were shocked because they tried multiple times before succeeding :P
Oliver in honor mode. I put up a wall of fire all the way across the screen between the steps and the tree lines. Every time Oliver sent out his shadows it directly hit the fire which took them out. I was able to stay back and deal with the shadow owlbears and the fight was over before I really knew what was happening.
Orin. I can't even elaborate why. It was just dreadfully easy my first playthrough. Though it glitched Halsin to where I couldn't use him or Karlach at all the rest of the game lol.
Cazador was a joke for our party. Gale used Curriculum of Strategy: Artistry of War on him and did 138 dmg in one turn with it which quite literally just killed him. We did some damage to him already and he was next to my cleric who wielded the blood of lathander AND who casted daylight on the center of the room in turn one (I prepared it cause I felt like it would fit the thematic, I full on kind of expected him to have some immunity to it lol) But yeah, killing the stragglers and ESPECIALLY THE BATS??? Was harder than Cazador himself lol
Orin
I counterspelled balthazar in the shadowfell so he wasn't able to summon the other creatures. Had already failed the fight a handful of time, and when I went to retry it I was able to react with counterspell and the very start of the fight and it made a 20v4 into a 1v4, so much easier.
Nere on Honour mode. This playthrough I decided to murder the Duergar before blowing up the rocks, so I had positioned myself where the ladder and stairs are, with the only other way to get around is all the way back by the Grymforge waypoint (with all the broken stone). I assassinated the Duergar by the way point first and had greased up that whole area. So them going that way was damn near impossible. Over by the ladder and the walk up stairs past the ladder, I had laid down Hunger of Hadar with Wyll, and Spike Growth with Astarion (multiclassed into Ranger). Then with Gale I had used Darkness on my whole team, with Shadowheart having Spirit Guardians in the Darkness. They basically couldn't hit me and died the moment they tried to get close, I just kept passing turns. Then I separated my team members and just blew up the rock solo with Wyll, then during the Nere dialogue, I snuck around with Astarion and just setup some explosives. Nearly oneshotted him with the explosives and finished him off in a single turn. I just laughed thinking about how much I hated this area, before I learned how to completely cheese this entire sequence.
Spectator. I fought him by accident and after killing him I searched up more info about him and learned he’s like a tough mini boss. I honestly found the matriarch harder then him
All major danger fights in the second half of the game on first honor mode playthrough were my unexpected easy fights. I wanted that achievement really bad and gathered the real OP team, including 10/1/1, fire acuity sorlock, optimized TB monk and revorb light cleric. I was going to only take mandatory fights, and even ask Gale to blow himself up for my achievement, but I ended up fighting all of them, including Ansur and Cazzador and the final fight, and all of them were easier than on my blind Explorer playthrough.
Same as you, it was the Orin duel. I had a college of swords bard and no strategy at all. The first try went as bad as possible: Orin went first and killed my character without letting her get a single turn, the other three party members were dying horribly afterwards so I decided to reload and give it another try. Orin went first again, but thanks to some miracle I got a turn. I cast Otto's Irresistible Dance on her, and that was enough to make her inactive for the rest of the fight. One of the most satisfying moments I had in combat in this game.
Steel Watch Titan. On my first playthrough and did this last night. With how much the Gondian guy kept warning me I thought it was gonna be rough. Started the fight by throwing a flash grenade I got from the Ironhands and... wow... just an off switch for 2/4 enemies and I slayed the Titan before it actually moved. Tbh I think the fight in the main foundry was harder Party is Vengeance Pal Tav Light Cleric SH Evo wiz Gale Arcane Trick Astarion and Quothe (love this silly little bird)
this post is a few days old, but for my first playthrough it was probably gortash. i destroyed the steel watch knowing it would nerf him, but during the actual fight i got a hold person on him so he did none of his tricks and karlach finished him off in the next couple rounds. a pretty anticlimactic way to go 🤷 not that im complaining
The fight against Ethel. This is my first playthrough (just started act 3). I didn't know she would flee into her cave, if I knew, I would have had Lae'zel finish her off in the first round, instead of dealing with the Redcaps. Once inside the cave, I snuck up behind her, proned her and had Lae'zel, Karlach and my fighter Tav gang up on her. She never got to use turn.
the Nere fight. i remembered sucking so hard with this one on my first playthrough on balanced, so on tactician with Durge I just cast sanctuary on myself and hid all the companions. waited for the duergar to kill each other and Nere, then finished off those who were left (even the allies because my girl was eager to kill everyone in there and they're slavers anyway.)
Raphael. I was so scared, I didn't know what the mechanics of the fight were, and I thought I was going to get murdered. Then I black hole'd his entire menagerie and himself, exploded his obelisks, stunned him, and the only turns he had he was both frightened and blinded. To add salt to the wound, I finished him with a vicious mockery. It wasn't a fair fight, but I didn't expect him to go down like a chump like this. Also the end battle against the netherbrain, but I can accept that it's more of a consecration fight "you did it, hero!" than a hard fight.
A mate of mine played up to the Grove fight and said, "battles are quite few and far between, aren't they?" Immediately I was like... erm no? What do you mean. Well... this MF had just talked his way through to level 4 without throwing a punch. I was impressed, not even mad.
Cazador
Cazador in my first playthrough, to the point that in my second playthrough I was way less prepared and had to reload cos I didn’t know what happens on turn 3 and didn’t know you were supposed to help Astarion. In like my 3rd playthrough I didn’t realise just how much easier the Yurgir fight was if you picked up the bombs. And now I have some pretty neat bombs too. Yurgir got pretty pissy about it fast and stopped going invisible which helped a lot.
Mine was facing Orin in my first playthrough (Not Durge). Made sure to save the kidnapped party member and beat her down until she turns into the slayer monster. Had Shadow Heart cast hold monster praying for a success, it hits and Orin is stuck being auto critted to oblivion. Another one was when we are facing a certain vampire lord. Lae'zel went first and smashed him into pulp in one turn saving the day.
For me it was fight with Cazador But maybe it was not easy easy - but I expected real horrors After first attempt - with activated cutscene and grouped up team I've got half of their hp eaten after his first cast and needed to waste a turn to help Astarion. I reloaded safe and decided for sneak attack without activating cutscene (Replacing gale for SH with blood of Lathander) And suddenly all problems were solved. Everyone exept Cazador were surprised - so I've got a free turn for everyone - and with my fighter and Karlach dude was dead in first turn (without using lvl6 spellsnor anything - just standard fighter barbarian attacks/ class actions with him blinded from Lathanders light) - and rest was just some cleaning up with AOE attacks. I was really surprised with differences in diffuculty - in first scenario after first turn my team was barely standing - while in second - almost no one was below half its hp in the end - with some characters untouched.
Slaughtering the tieflings was suprisingly easy I didnt suspect they were such an easy target Just to be clear I slaughtered them with my party and then went to Minthara
The first time fighting the hag. Friend of mine told me this ward, it really wasn't for me
Raphael. I came with explosive barrels, but thought id try it the normal way first. Managed to convince the big guy to join my fight, and he ended up killing Hope's sister. Went for the pillars quickly and in no time it was just my party and Raphael. It went easier than what I expected. Normal difficulty.
Auntie Ethel in Act 1. If you can use a spell or ability that makes her unable to move, you can kill her before she even gets a chance to escape into the fireplace! It's how I handled her on my honor mode run
When you steal her potion of invisibility, you get an extra round of attacks on her. And she doesn't Misty Step that far so a couple people by the fireplace will catch up to her. A little closer than I wanted but she went down before she could escape.
Killed Orin in Turn 1 cause my necromancer durge didnt understand the concept of "fair" 1vs1 fights and had his 6 or 7 reanimated bhaal cultists with him. Having read the necronomicon might have been a little overkill here
For me it was Orin too, I was not Durge on my playthrough but the companion wich she kidnapped was Laezel. The fight was very tough (had to use Shadowheart to save me from death) but when I freed Laezel she used her multiple attacks and action surge on Orin and she lasted one turn.
Cazador
Cazador on balanced at lvl 11 (I held back thinking it would be v hard). Just a cake walk once you hold Astarion back so the ritual can’t start and get daylight cast on him right from the begining. Setup a blade wall and shredded all the mob. I think I barely took any damage.
Mine was the trial of bhaal fight. I expected to nearly tpw and get through by the skin of my teeth, instead I basically froze the guy in place and sat around dealing with the adds while wall of blades cut though him
Lord of Bones. I really wanted that scythe.
Ketheric was really easy
The steel watcher titan. Granted I played that playthrough on balanced as I was entirely new to a game like this but even being pretty bad at the game and struggling with a lot of other bosses the steel watcher titan was an easy first try which never really presented a challenge.
My blind playthrough I knew nothing so when it came to the hag I attacked a duplicate and used shove on the next closest one, which was the real one and she died because I pushed her into the center chasm
Orin also. After the Ketheric Thorm/Myrkul double feature I procrastinated so hard to fight her, then finally striking her down in a couple turns 🙃
First honour mode and I've seen so many posts about the Death Knight being super difficult. My durge is a Warlock, brought along a respeced light cleric SH, well as a sorcerer and Lae'zel as Lae'zel. A hunger of hadar, wall of fire and Spirit Guardians later and nothing could even reach Lae'zel airing in the front line.. I think I was over prepared...
Surprisingly, House of Grief on tactician. Usually it's one of the harder fights in act 3, so I expected it would be even more painful on tact, but my utterly magicless gang (paladin, OH monk, battlemaster fighter and rogue/ranger) just steamrolled them while high on elixirs of bloodlust.
The gortash fight was more of a breeze than I thought it would be, the henchmen went down easy then big gortash's big magic fist was never really an issue
Lorroakan on tactician. I went in at lev 11 fully prepared to have a tpk and have to come back later. Apparently, my team was good enough 😅
I found Orin easy aswell. I was a Monk and had already completed the House of Hope. I killed Orin before she even got a turn. Monks at endgame are broke af. I think I could do 220-440 damage a turn depending on my damage rolls but struggled with crowd control.
On my first honour I went to the spiders’ cave expecting TPK, but I used alchemist fire on the matriarch, so it burned the webs below them and fell taking a lot of damage. I feel like I accidentally made an op char for honour (Halfling OH monk/thief), so most of it was a walk in a park with a lot of the bosses never managing to use legendary actions, but the spider encounter was the biggest surprise.
On honor mode, all the Thorms, Yurgir, Raphael, House of Grief. I was worried about those fights and they were a total non-issue, meanwhile a couple I didn't worry about at all (Myrkul, Cazador) nearly took me out.
Raphael. I’m sure I just got lucky, but Hold Monster is a helluva good spell against a big bad.
The goblin camp was un expectantly for me… my first serious fights kicked my ass multiple times, the hag is brutal for the noob lol
Me when I figured out I could pick up one of the undead necromancers in the Mountain Pass. Once his buddy couldn't resurrect him, killing the rest with turn undead and spirit guardians made it so much easier in Honour Mode than it had been in Balanced/Explorer oof
Grym on my first tactician run. He’d pasted me on the first two difficulties and I was expecting a real struggle in tactician. I used my throwbarian and enraged throw to knock him prone every round and he didn’t touch me once because he used all his movement speed standing up. Tried the same approach on HM though and it Did Not Work.
I was really afraid of the fight with Cazador, so I kept the party back standing on the stairs and went down with Astarion. During the dialog, he managed to punch Cazador and stay free, then I walked him back to the stairs with the rest and cast Wall of Ice to block the enemies from reaching me. I blasted everyone from afar using bows and magic, and... it took a few rounds but I won without taking any damage at all. You might call it cheesing, but I felt really good after I finished that fight.
For me House of Grief, I kept hearing how difficult it was and how many enemies there were. Decided to try out blade barrier for the first time and half the room killed themselves on it lmao
Raphael, surprisingly enough, though that’s kinda my fault. I walked in with a paladin and two fighters, and completely obliterated him on my first turn.
Halsin's portal fight. Did it the first time in a playthrough with my friend, she said it would be really hard and tried preparing some barrels to make it easier. Well, let's just say my spike growth carried it hard, add a wall of fire in front of the portal and some black tentacles to catch everything that makes it through the spikes and it's a cakewalk. We did it right after switching to tactician too, and we had to re-do it once because of a bug. So we did it first try twice lol
Marcus trying to take Isobel. I struggled big time in my first playthrough but for some reason that fight was a breeze and I see a lot of people post on here that they struggle with it. Also my Durge fight with Orin. I just hit her with hold monster and disintegrated her to death. She never even got to move.
Balthazaar failing a Turn Undead saving throw and spending the fight cowering in the corner was a magical moment. I hadn't even noticed he was in range, so it was a real treat when he started running away.
Cazador. Hasted Lae'zel with a Silver Sword killed him turn 1.
The goblin base was a pain in the dick as a monk but a breeze as a barbarian
The Steelwatch Titan. I was built for zip zaps
Orin. My Barbarian-fighter Durge beat her in 4 turns. Would have been less if I had drank a health potion
Raph on Tactical. My party's build was set up in such a way that he never even had an action move.
hate to say it but its Raphael for me. He spent THE ENTIRE FIGHT cc’d and I was disappointed but also laughed my ass off that he just couldn’t get a turn in.