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Hardest encounters in RPGs

Jason Liang

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
8,337
Location
Crait
Every fight in AoD is a cakewalk if you have a combat build. And they are only slightly challenging if you do a zero combat skills build.

Those that disagree are clearly just shit at AoD.
 
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oldmanpaco

Master of Siestas
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Messages
13,609
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Winter
Level 8 of the Ultima 4 Abyss when you are 11 years old.

1) First time I walked out the wrong door in that 9 room path and rage quit.
2) Got to the end but didn't have Katrina because fuck that useless bitch. Also I had never gone straight down when entering Magnincia so I never found her. After I did she spent the entire trip back down the abyss dead (she was lvl 1)and then I resurrected her right before the end.
3 & 4) Spelling some shit wrong like compassion or Valor - spelling was not my strong suite.
 
Joined
May 31, 2018
Messages
2,509
Location
The Present
Khark from BG1 is always a fearsome fight. Crossing paths with Khark in unmodded BG1, or with SCS is assured to kill at least 1 party member even with total preparation and metaknowledge. Anyone without the benefit of those is going to reload.
 

waken

Educated
Joined
May 18, 2020
Messages
63
Twisted Rune in BG2 is always a fun fight. In all the IE-games I think I've reloaded that one encounter the most.
 

Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
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Location
Frostfell
Even BG2 with SCS is broken.

BG2 is more a mid to low high level campaign. And makes sense. Do you wanna jon irenicus to be a lv 9 mage?

I was reading your article about BG2 vs BG1 https://lilura1.blogspot.com/2017/08/Baldurs-Gate-2-Changes-and-Additions.html

One point which I strongly disagree about ToB is that "Bards can expect to reach 40th level, Paladins and Rangers 34th, and Mages, Sorcerers and Druids 31st. Essentially, Godhood." In reality, a lv 30 mage is far bellow what even a demigod is capable. Karsus which casted the strongest spell ever was lv 40. Any greater deity can turn a cleric into the chosen of that deity essentially making him a lv 30 cleric. Amellyssan is a Cleric/Mage lv 30/30 and she is a Bhaal high priestess. People downplay Gods too much on D&D... Here is the stats of Chauntea's Avatar and note that a God's avatar has a tiny fraction of a Gods true force which can't be measured by game rules

JK3Gc4z.png
Source : Faiths & Avatar - Page 48.


However, I strongly agree about "their preference was to wipe the slate clean and funnel the player down a linear path of cutscene after cutscene and intrusive banter after intrusive banter in order to appeal to a new audience (,,,)" The best parts of BG2 are the open chapters like Chapter 2 and 6; and the "semi open" chapters like 5 in underdark.

Talking about Godhood, Only I had a lot of troubles against Spawn of Rovagug on Kingmaker? Even Lanter King was far easier than him.

Also if we count Bloodborne as an rpg, Orphan of Kos is literally the only rpg boss I could not beat despite wanting to.No matter of reading up on his stats and moveset could help me against him, I always got filtered by his lightning attacks.

Bed of Chaos is the hardest boss in dark souls franchise. Took me 4 hours to beat her on my first run. I know, I an awful at platforming but still...
 
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Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
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Perched on a tree
Every encounter in Kotc2 is worse than any of the encounters mentioned in this thread with the exception of the Beholder Corps. Which sounds like a joke or exaggeration but is true.

Some of the chapter 3 fights are ok. But they do drain your resources in an environment with few resting opportunities, so...

Most encounters in chapter 3 are a cakewalk with at least one skewer build, aside from the dragon if you didn't rest after Pizarra fight.
Sso far, only Pizarra, the dragon and the Spider Queen (didn't beat it yet) were really challenging but i didn't explore the western side of the high sewers.
The dragon mostly dragged out because of the reinforcements though because he wasn't skewer immune, poor thing and flying on top of a lava pit didn't help him much either.

Also, that way, they don't drain your resources even if oozes and elementals are immune to skewer but one dual wield fighter type or a mantis gladiator and the problem is solved.

I'll probably go for a skewer DK/Samourai/Barbarian and a fighter next run.
At some point, you can even get an extra skewer weapon for your fighter and switch it when needed.
 

The Old Kiwi

Educated
Joined
Nov 9, 2017
Messages
63
Multanser Beholder Corps in Curse of the Azure Bonds has to be up there. 15 beholders and a bunch of priests, dark elf lords and rakshasa.
You could of course trivialize it with Dust of Disappearance but then you wouldn't have it for the final battle against Tyranthraxus...
I suspect I had fudged some before that, to have a reserve copy of the Dust available to use for both! I played through that game several ways, and decided to cheat against the Beholders. At least, that at least seems probable. Thirty one years ago, before even Windows 3 came along, with an 80286, most likely, an 80386 only possibly, my memory used to be good, then I turned my back for a little bit, and decades of years piled up!
 

Casual Hero

Augur
Joined
Mar 24, 2015
Messages
489
Location
USA
The legions of Baron Harkyn stand before you, recognizing you as intruders. "Death to them!" they scream.
The room is filled with 99 Berserkers, 99 Berserkers, 99 Berserkers, and 99 Berserkers.

Fight bravely
>Run away
 

mondblut

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
22,205
Location
Ingrija
mazar1234_4da705d7469fa.png


ds_339.png


Actually, the worst was that demon encounter at the bottom of a dungeon (temple? prison?) in Aleshar: World of Ice. I think it was supposed to be merely a finale of chapter 1 or something. You couldn't save in a dungeon and the beast killed you near instantly. The only time I managed to defeat him, I keeled over with stress, bloodloss, heart attack or w/e after making a couple of steps. So, no further Aleshar for me :(
 

Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
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Messages
14,476
Location
Frostfell
mazar1234_4da705d7469fa.png


ds_339.png


Actually, the worst was that demon encounter at the bottom of a dungeon (temple? prison?) in Aleshar: World of Ice. I think it was supposed to be merely a finale of chapter 1 or something. You couldn't save in a dungeon and the beast killed you near instantly. The only time I managed to defeat him, I keeled over with stress, bloodloss, heart attack or w/e after making a couple of steps. So, no further Aleshar for me :(


How you take screenshots from dosbox?

And do you know a good dark sun wake of the ravager walktrough? IDK what I need to do in many parts...
 

King Crispy

Too bad I have no queen.
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
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1,876,563
Location
Future Wasteland
Strap Yourselves In
Sorry if that has already been mentioned, but I've always felt the hardest (and most rewarding) challenges in RPGs are when fighting members of "another party". That is to say, other adventurers who may be evil or competing with you somehow.

One of the best examples of this is in IWD's expansion, Heart of Winter. You meet a full party outside the inn in the town, and, after having decided to maintain the secrecy of the innkeep's identity as a mage of that group's ruthless society, they attack you. Great fight, especially if you go into it non-pre-buffed. Another example is in Trials of the Luremaster, when you encounter a smaller but much more deadly evil party who can make mincemeat of your characters in a big hurry.

The loot gained from these encounters is some of the best in the whole game.
 

Jasede

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
24,793
Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
Hate NWN 2 all you like, but that final fight in the evil playthrough where you have to fight your entire party solo is the crowning highlight of the game - and next to impossible, too.


This screenshot does not communicate the MISERY that was loading your savegame. Zoomers, back in the day it took several minutes to load your save. And you had to reload dozens of times each jump in Ultima 8, especially before the patch that made it a bit easier. You literally spent 20 hours of that game reloading, if not more.
 
Self-Ejected

Thac0

Time Mage
Patron
Joined
Apr 30, 2020
Messages
3,292
Location
Arborea
I'm very into cock and ball torture
Also, no Underrail? List is shit, author is faggot. Underrail is full to the brink with ass-busting encounters. Depot A is a pain to everyone, I guess, regardless of the chosen build: it comes too early, before the world is opened to you, so you have very limited options to grind more XP and obtain better gear before it. Dozen dogs who spit acid, bypassing your DR/DT and stacking damage, acid entanglement preventing you from moving; muties reducing your offensive skills and spraying acid, two headed muties throwing some heavy shit at you; and yeah, all of them deal some serious mechanical damage.

Electrokinesis goes bzzzzt. My psychic crossbowman shat all over the base game, low key scared to start another run now with the heavy PSI nerfs.
 

Fowyr

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
7,671
Actually, the worst was that demon encounter at the bottom of a dungeon (temple? prison?) in Aleshar: World of Ice. I think it was supposed to be merely a finale of chapter 1 or something. You couldn't save in a dungeon and the beast killed you near instantly. The only time I managed to defeat him, I keeled over with stress, bloodloss, heart attack or w/e after making a couple of steps. So, no further Aleshar for me :(
It was indeed the end of chapter 1 (and probably of shareware part). Let me tell you, when you kill that demon, your problems are only beginning. The next dungeon is a nightmare, pure and simple. You have a four levels, you can save only on the stairs, there are a trolls everywhere, you need to kill a boss and return back. After many years I finished it, but was close to drop it many times.
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/dungeon-map-porn.108331/#post-4502019
Haba is a man of steel for finishing it and making that old walkthrough. I still can't understand how he found smallest caves in the game without looking inside resources.
Worse yet, when fighting members of your own party.
Do you talk about the end of Natuk and the Pool of Radiance or just unlucky mind control on your own party member?
 
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Fowyr

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
7,671
How you take screenshots from dosbox?
By pressing Alt-PrtSc (or just PrtSc, depends on the running game in the fullscreen), of course and pressing Shift-Insert in the Paint or some other graphic editor. If some keys are overwritten by a DosBox itself, you can manage them by pressing Ctrl-F1.
 

Twizman

Scholar
Joined
Oct 24, 2016
Messages
136
Party ambush encounters that you can't metagame as much tend to be more difficult in my experience.
 

ColCol

Arcane
Joined
Jul 12, 2012
Messages
1,731
The mission in the Silent Storm expansion where you have to disable bombs in like three turns with armored enemies. Caused me to quit the game.
 

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