Incline Your favorite encounters

[Jack Of Owls]

The vampire in the graveyard crypt from the original Pool of Radiance on my C64. It took a while to beat him and was satisfying when I did. When I played the NWN module version a few years later I stupidly chose a fighter for my build and was so overpowered that by the time I got to that encounter that I beat the vampire in less than a second. It was my first valuable lesson about not choosing overpowered builds. I haven't played a fighter in any DnD game since.

 

[TheEntitledOne]

The Tribunal in Disco Elysium.

The one and only obligatory violent encounter in this game. Heavily scripted, but at the same time based on stats, skills, prior knowledge and deeds of your detectives. Part dialogue, part shootout with numerous variants and results. Due to the actual deadliness of actions conducted during the Tribunal, each success or failure has much stronger impact than in usual RPG combat. A truelly memorable and nail-biting experience.

 

[Bara]

My favorite has to be ToEE with Headrack, it was just such a fun battle and remained so even when Iuz appeared and prolonged the fight.

Also ToEE for my kill them all run when I made it to the alter I decided pull them into the hallway next to it to more easily control the enemies but part way through the fight reinforcements show up below me in the hallway and now I'm sandwiched between two foes. But I made it through turning both ends of that hallway into a meat grinder. I loved that fight.

For Planescape Torment the fight with the Fiend in the Box on the curst gone map was memorable as its the only fight in the game I recall could be difficult.

 

[AdolfSatan]

You're king of the world, roflstomping thru battles with six opponent against your sole self. Battle at the mountain pass? Could have taken the Ordu army all by myself, I'm a one-man shieldwall, nigger. Then comes Al Sahir. SON OF A BITCH, that battle took way too many reloads to get the right approach.

 

[Arbiter]

Traveling south from Beregost .. fighting my way past Hobgoblin ambushes .. getting pretty fucked up in the process .. its getting dark .. it starts raining and thundering .. but I am almost there, such a relief when I finally reach the town .. and there on the side of the road it is, a cosy and warm inn to sleep .. my exhausted group steps into the light and warmth of the place .. when suddenly a warrior approaches and asks for my name ..

That night I got my ass kicked by that assassin, being caught unawares. This was such a ride of excitement and differing emotions and it felt epic. You just knew you were in for a big adventure, that the world is large and that a lot of shit can happen to you.

Also emerging from the Nashkel mines after Mulahey battle only to be greeted by a new assassin.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

The Jabberwocky from Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar

'Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogoves
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jub-Jub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand,
longtime the manxome foe he sought,
So rested he by the Tum-Tum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgy wood
And burbled as it came.

One, two! One, two! And Through and through!
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back!

And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
"Oh frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!",
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogoves
And the mome raths outgrabe.

 

[Vorark]

Apex Rising and the cyber troll quest, both from Shadowrun Dragonfall. The former had you simultaneously fighting on 3 fronts whereas the latter was a sort of tug of war with the poor troll.

 

[Semiurge]

One that stuck to mind was from Skyrim, before I became disenchanted by it. I made my way toward Winterhold during a blizzard, and saw in the distance a figure hunched over something, a body as it turned out. I was greeted by a smile from a man dressed in rags, who recognized his fellow worshipper of Namira and offered me a chance to partake in the banquet.

 

[Onionguy]

When you get all your stuff in your "safe chest" stolen in STALKER : Call of Pripyat. First, it hurts you in the balls because you assume the safe chest is just a game mechanic and everything there is super safe, second it happens when you come back from a mission so, in typical STALKER fashion, you are by that point super low in ammo (or maybe you only have an handgun for one reason of another possibly linked to a previous mission that happened to ask you to be lightweight). Then you get to investigate who stole your shit but of course now you have to be sneaky sneaky in zones that used to be safe because you are out of everything. And you really pay close attention to this investigation, instead of just doing the investigation like you do in all other where you just ask everything to everything, because you know the game can fuck you up and you REALLY need to find asap who stole your stuff because the game suddenly became insanely hard, and because "traveling" in STALKER from one suspect / witness to another is dangerous when you are almost naked.


And when you find the bastard you did it, well, that's the only time in a game where it felt PERSONAL because it is a character that you heledp before. Here, you really can't wait to deliver payback.

Found the quest :

https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/Theft

It would all be great, if things like that happened more regularly in Stalker games as a result of a more advanced a-life system, and not just through some scripted scenario. Ah well, hope they will get it one day.

 

[Incendax]

Attacking the Citadel in Wasteland.

 

[DalekFlay]

Navarre on the plane in Deus Ex. I remember the first time I played I tried to pull it off a few times in a row and resigned myself to it being a scripted death and then finally I killed her and it was so cool.

The worm guy fight in Pathfinder Kingmaker was pretty cool. He only takes AoE damage basically and spawns endless monsters in, so you have to really get your shit together and hit him with the right attacks while your melee guys distract the spawns.

Optional dragon fight on the mountain in Dragon Age Origins. It's a pretty standard trope fight in games like that, but I still thought it was pretty epic how you called him down with the horn, and it was a pretty tough fight on harder difficulties.

Not sure if it's an encounter but I loved assassinating the Emperor and then getting away in Skyrim. The dragon king guys or whatever they're called with the masks were cool to fight as well.

In my first New Vegas playthrough Boone and I (an NCR spy) invaded Caesar's camp and wiped out every motherfucker there, which is a great gaming memory.

Banging the redhead in Alpha Protocol.

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

KOTOR
The duel with Bastila at the Temple of the Ancient was pretty sweet. Light or dark side, both forced some tough choices and was a good Star Wars moment. Thankfully, back then the woman-can-do-anything wasn't emphasized so much, so it felt more like just kicking the shit out of someone who made really bad decisions.

Doom
First battle with the Cyberdemon left quite a burn mark in my brain. And back then, arrow keys and limited knowledge of strafing, plus no free mouse look made the fight pretty tough.

Witcher 3
Any of the battles with the Wild Hunt. I just don't like elves generally, so killing a cult of wannabe Elf gods was very satisfying.

Morrowind
Scaling Red Mountain to finally confront Dagoth Ur. Fight itself was a bit underwhelming, but the journey there was long and the ashland monsters were creepy. Having to chase down an ancient undead god hiding inside a volcano was a nice design touch.

 

[octavius]

Don't remember if it was Doom 1 or 2, but there was one place where an army of Hell Barons fight a Cyberdemon. The Cyberdemon won, and then he went down from one shot with my shotgun. That's when I started loving in-fighting in games.

 

[EldarEldrad]

Don't remember if it was Doom 1 or 2, but there was one place where an army of Hell Barons fight a Cyberdemon. The Cyberdemon won, and then he went down from one shot with my shotgun. That's when I started loving in-fighting in games.

It was Doom 2 and indeed it was fantastically good encounter. Back in the time, my friend had no knowledge about in-fighting and got stuck on it for a week.
Btw, both Doom 1 and 2 are full of memorable encounters.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Attacking the Citadel in Wasteland.

It's reminding me of Wasteland 2
The raider's camp, which is a junkyard is very well designed, there is a tower made of old cars, containers and all kind of junk in the middle with a sniper on top, the boss on a lower platform and his goons all around, hidden behind piles of tires and containers.
There's only one entrance, you can try to sneak at first to surprise the first sentinel(s) but that's it, then, you have a huge fight on your hands according you chose to get there right after the first alert.

Also, the nearby Red Skorpions area, there's multiple good fights there and again, you have to get there first (or after the one above) in order not to trivialize it (the northern part of the first map isn't that good anyway), i remember specifically the Cave, which is the Red Skorpion's lair, you're attacked on sight but you can still sneak at first to get one sentinel before the shit-storm begins, then, you only have wooden boxes as covers and of course, they can blow them up (but so can you for theirs) with shotguns.

Voidspire Tactics

The Talking worm after a cut-scene where you eyes-drop on him talking with a man in a hood, you're in a different room but they sense your presence and the hooded figure leaves the scene leaving the Giant red worm to deal with you.
Then he chases you but you can't outrun him and he could catch you pants down in a room with nowhere to hide your most squishy characters, epic fight, SPOILER : until you get that defense isn't an option, only full offense works (then again, it's an open world so if you get there later, it might be trivial, also, the worm has hit boxes from head to tail but you probably don't know that then/SPOILER)

 

[Dr Skeleton]

It's been mentioned, but Icewind Dale Yxunomei

Icewind Dale 2 Lost Followers.

The last fight in Dungeon Rats: the enemies and the place itself aren't very interesting compared to many previous fights, but because it's war of attrition, and you don't know how many enemies there are in total (and you don't know for sure it's the last fight the first time you play) and you have very limited resources after going through the entire dungeon, it makes for an interesting calculation of using the last of healing items, bombs and letting your companions die if necessary.

For something more obscure: in Dwarf Run there's a series of fights against demons/sins, they all have some sort of puzzle element to them based on what they represent, probably the best one is greed, the more your party's gear is worth, the more powerful he is, the fight is basically impossible if you try fighting him with all you've got at that point. You have to balance using as little equipment as possible vs actually being able to defeat him without most of your items.

 

[NJClaw]

From IWD 1:
- the ogre in the prologue at the end of the Easthaven cave, he hits like a truck and you really need to squeeze everything you can out of your low level spells to avoid an horrible and premature death (it's particularly brutal if you play without rerolling/reassigning abilities, which clearly is the superior way of playing IWD 1);
- Yxunomei, that fight is absolutely brutal and (together with the entire dungeon) probably is the reason why in my D&D games I'm obsessed with yuan-ti;
- Belhifet, now I realize the IWD series has very cool boss fights;
- Malavon in Dorn's Deep, in my opinion it's the best "mage fight" IE games have to offer: he uses a lot of area spells (even on top of each other), teleports around, makes you fight his simulacrum, throws at you golems and humber hulks and the area of the encounter is perfect.
- Icasaracht, my favorite IE Dragon fight. Firkraag pales in comparison (regarding the encounter, not the entire dungeon).
- the Luremaster: I don't care that much for the entire area but, man, that's a long intense fight.

From IWD 2:
- the attack at the palisade at the end of the prologue. As a kid (9 years old) I was completely unable to build a functioning party and that was my IWD2 final battle: I would start a new game, play the entire prologue, manage somehow to beat the first wave and then get hopelessly wrecked at the second or third wave. I remember that the first time I reached the third wave I saw the open door in the palisade and understood that you could access "world travel" from there, so I abandoned Targos to its destiny and, with my last surviving character, I clicked on the coveted "go out of this fucking shithole mess" world travel icon. I did it! I finished the prologue! Now I could see the rest of the game, yay! And then I discovered that other locations only unlock once you defeat the last wave;
- the fight at the Shaengarne Bridge is extremely cool, with the ogres destroying the bridge while the wizard tries to gain time;
- Sherincal, only because the setting of encounter is amazing.
- the Lost Followers, what a trip.

From BG, I would probably say the demon and cultists at the end of the expansion. You want to take care of the demon because his gaze ability is insane, but you need to kill the cultists first because otherwise you will fight him multiple times.

From ToEE, I know it's an obvious choice, but the Balor fight is incredible. I never liked level caps in games, but this single fight made me understand why they are a good thing.

From KotC, the entire game. If I had to pick one, I would probably choose the first time you encounter a dragon, in the orc stockade, after an extremely long dungeon that probably drained all your resources. What? You think you will be able to rest after this fight? Nah, go fight another boss first.

 

[JarlFrank]

Soloing the Archdemon in Dragon Age Origins with no potions. My character was an Arcane Warrior, which if you remember the classes from that game, is limited offensively but has insane durability. I could only chip away at the dragon, but because of my defensive magic it couldn't do more than chip away at me. So the fight was essentially 30 minutes of me getting smacked around a bunch, landing the occasional hit, and timing my heals just right so that I wouldn't run out of either health or mana.

Maybe not the most tactically interesting, but it took a lot of intense concentration, and by the time it was over I really felt like l had slayed the fuck out of that dragon.

That sounds like the most boring slog imaginable.

Thanks for reminding me why I haven't replayed Dragon Age since its release over a decade ago.

 

[Trashos]

- BG2 SoA:
Kangaxx, the liches in general, Firkraag, the dragons in general, the mages, and the whole game really. The best encounter design I have ever seen in a game of that magnitude, you have to change tactics every other fight.

- Pathfinder Kingmaker:
Really enjoyed PFKM's encounter design (although it has some more trash fighting than BG2, so I will rate it a bit lower). The Technic League random encounter, the Stag Lord fight, the final fight in Lamshtu's Womb where you have to split your party, just about the whole of Vordakai's tomb, the mini boss fights in the Pitax Palace... too many to mention. I will not vote for the very final fight of the game yet, because I have yet to beat it without cheesing it.

- DAO:
DAO does have some excellent fights, Jarl, between all the trash mobs. The Jarvia fight is my favorite, one of my favorite fights ever. Also, the revenant fights play out like dance sequences from Terry Gilliam movies, if one does not cheese them.

- AoD:
Not sure which one to mention, every fight was done with care. AoD's encounter design was one of the game's high points. I will probably mention the final boss fight, because it kicked my ass countless of times.

- Underrail:
I generally believe that Underrail should have paid more attention to encounter design. Fighting in Underrail is good mostly due to its beautiful systems, not the encounter design. On the other hand, the fights where you get to explore the battlefield beforehand and make your strategic decisions are awesome, and are kinda an Underrail trademark. For instance, the bandits encounter in the old Omega station.

 

[moleman]

F I R K R A A G

And while not most favorite still one of the most memorable for me:
the pack of trolls in the slums of Pool of Radiance. Damn fuckers.

 

[Darth Canoli]

That sounds like the most boring slog imaginable.

Thanks for reminding me why I haven't replayed Dragon Age since its release over a decade ago.

I tried to play it last year, launched one of the DLC where you start level 19 or something, first area features an infinite respawn of enemies.
Uninstall.exe

 

[Curratum]

Gank Squad in Dark Chasm of Old. So balanced, so fair!

 

[Sreggin Etah I]

Don't remember if it was Doom 1 or 2, but there was one place where an army of Hell Barons fight a Cyberdemon. The Cyberdemon won, and then he went down from one shot with my shotgun. That's when I started loving in-fighting in games.

Tricks and Traps ?

 

[CryptRat]

Ishar has soom cool unique enemies which likely kill you the first time you encounter those, for example the minotaur on the bridge with its two flails, the invisible brat and the sorcerer which targets you with multiple afflictions (charm ...) before you even get to see it. Return to Krondor has more than one cool unique encounters too like the fight against the efreet.

Due to its saving system, one fight I had a lot of fun to deal with is in Wasteland where you fall into a sewer fighting against a gang, if I could I would probably have done something else and got back later but I could not and had to bruteforce through it. The fight against the two dwarfs in Blackguards is very hard if you go there as soon as it's available.

Each invididual battle from the "it's a trap" optional dungeon in Buck Rogers : Countdown to doomsday is hard and so is the complete sequence. The mage duel at the end of Heroine's quest as a mage is very cool.

The encounter against a big bunch of vampires in Natuk is cool because not much you can do affects them and combined with their life draining they are really unlike any other enemy in the game. Not unlike it, the very last fight in Death Knights of Krynn against the boss and its golems is arguably the best in the trilogy.

The first time you encounter a mind flayer in Eye of the beholder is something, generally resulting in your full party getting paralyzed. I've always liked fighting against sharks in Hired Guns, launching some grenades in the water and going in for some last close fight where you can't use laser guns and need to rely on machin guns. The first time one dragon attacks you in Drakkhen while travelling and decimates your party is something, and the first time you kill one is something too.

 

[laclongquan]

Fallout 1's Mariposa Base's 2nd floor, the barrack where you got a bunch of SM waiting for ya. The corridor would be a huge death trap because they got plenty of minigun and their burst are fearsome. The RPG is no joke either, since they got high BG skill and detonation seem to be quite highly critical. Overall attacking straight down that corridor is an invitation to party death. The circuituous trip around the warehouse and attacking them through the forcefield is better because plenty of obstacles blocking their view. The forcefield also stop our own melee fighters from jumping into the fray, and limit field of fire on BOTH side. because if, say Vic, can shoot other side, he's also in range of those Miniguns and RPGs.

Fallout 2's SAD's 2nd floor, the armory with around 20 active robots. If you dont have around 20 EMP grenades to bomb your own position, surrounded by all that mass, you are going to get out of it with plenty of companion's death. Also the only place where you can use THrowing skill and EMP grenades with great effect. Also, if you use Super Tool Kit with high repair on dormant robot, you get 200xp for disabling them, and kill them in that state for kill xp later. A place where high Repair player get reward for their investment. As for not enough science for final quest? We can let that slide until later, no need to get Cyberbot right then.

I will not mention IWD1/2 because they are all about encounters.