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The most difficult boss encounter in a CRPG.

made

Arcane
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Eh idk about Kalistes. You could tackle the generals in any order and the Drow dimension was probably the hardest. The game didn't have any level scaling at all iirc so you could just do her last instead of 2nd like in that walkthrough for an easier time.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
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Stabwound said:
Did anyone mention Demogorgon from Nethack? I'd say you stand about a 0% chance of surviving a fight against him unless you read strategy spoilers. Even then, if you aren't prepared to take him (he generally shows up randomly), you're probably fucked.

There's an old spoiler FAQ about him here: http://www.steelypips.org/nethack/demogorgon_faq.html which probably won't mean much to you unless you know Nethack, but rest assured he's brutal, especially considering if you die, you're dead and have to start from the beginning of the game again.

I mentioned him, but I consider him significantly less nasty than One-Eyed Sam for Slashem. Sam's sword has a 10% chance of beheading, 15% chance of canceling, and 100% chance of hurting like hell (It's an @ slayer.) He also wears gray dragon mail, a shield of reflection, an amulet of life saving, speed boots, and he's immune to stoning. About the only thing about him that isn't scary is that he's entirely optional. You'll never have some random ass demon summon him on your head. He's always in his market, so you can cheese him out if you're so inclined. But if you fuck up or are stupid enough to try go all kung-fu on his ass, you're probably toast. He reflects, he's fast, he comes back to life, and he can behead you or cancel all your magical shit into worthless trash. His pets are evil fucking things that can gaze to paralyze or light you on fire.
 

Stabwound

Arcane
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Dec 17, 2008
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3,240
haha, yeah, I've never played Slashem, but I figured there was probably some ridiculous unkillable beast in it somewhere.
 

Kaanyrvhok

Arbiter
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made said:
Eh idk about Kalistes. You could tackle the generals in any order and the Drow dimension was probably the hardest. The game didn't have any level scaling at all iirc so you could just do her last instead of 2nd like in that walkthrough for an easier time.

I dont think it would have mattered.
I had a high lvl Human fighter, high lvl Human cleric, Dwarf Fighter/Rogue, a Dwarf Fighter, a Half-elf fighter/Magic User/Cleric, and an Elf fighter/magic user. My party was either maxed out or too high to Dual class. More XP wouldn't have helped that much. I only had two PCs that could lvl and there wasn't enough XP left in the game to make dual classing worthwhile. 2nd edition just sucked and I didnt want to exploit it. I wasnt the powergamer back then and I'm not really now. I was a powergamer in Baldurs Gate. I had a dual classed human ftr/mage that would have whipped Kalistes's ass, and at least four or five of her gigolos by himself.
 

octavius

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The final fight in Throne of Bhaal, with both Ascension and SCS installed, is nigh impossible with a sub-optimal party.
I was sick and tired of the game by then, so I didn't try as many times as I normally would, so I think it remains the only obligatory boss fight I've not won.
 

KateMicucci

Arcane
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Hm the Plague-bearer leader in VtM;B mainly because my character was mainly social at that point. Died around 70 times before giving up.
I gave up on trying to kill the chinese snake chick. That's my vote for hardest. It would have been easy with a few more points in fighting skills but it was too late by then.
 

Humbaba

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The final fight in Throne of Bhaal, with both Ascension and SCS installed, is nigh impossible with a sub-optimal party.
I was sick and tired of the game by then, so I didn't try as many times as I normally would, so I think it remains the only obligatory boss fight I've not won.
Same. I was so tired of the game by then that I gave up. I've never beaten ToB's final boss to this day. Any dragon encounter made me almost throw up because those motherfuckers cast haste, meaning you have to cast haste as well to not be at a huge disadvantage, meaning the game now plays at 2x speed AND THEN they cast shit like earthquake that makes the screen shake.

Lantern King threw me for a loop, along with the general difficulty spike of Kingmaker's last act. He's a big asshole because if you don't geek him before he gets off his omni-purge on your party, it's over.

The second phase of the Areelu fight is basically impossible on core but thankfully there's ways to skip it via dialogue. Khorramzade is also a huge dick because his electricity ignores immunities, not to mention his Vavakia and Vrolikai goons.

Not a bossfight strictly speaking but storming Meduna is pretty hard, because of the tanks and rocket rifle wielding blackshirts. There's another city (I wanna say Grumm but I don't remember exactly), where enemies first start using mortars and on experienced your guys are outnumbered at least 5:1.
 

Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
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:necro:

Any harder bosses arrived since this thread was latest updated?
Both Legend of Grimrocks (2012, 2014) have impressive final boss fights, as does Age of Decadence (2015)

YErMUDk.jpg
 
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No surprises about all the Baldur's Gate mentions. So many great fights are what make it the best CRPG ever.

Oddly enough, one of the hardest fights that springs to mind was Isair and Madae from Icewind Dale II. I think I had to get through it by casting Anti-magic Shell on both of them. This protected them from my spells, but prevent them from casting at me. The optional boss fight against Iyachu Xvim in the same fortress wasn't any cake walk either.
 

ShaggyMoose

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Can't recall exactly if it was Curse of the Azure Bonds, but there is an SSI Goldbox game that had a heap of shambling mounds followed by the actual end-game boss in two back-to-back encounters. Even with the wand of defoliation, it was difficult to kill the mounds quickly enough not to get swamped and the next battle was also difficult for reasons I don't recall. Regardless, I remember having to try this about twenty times to make it through and am honestly surprised I didn't just give up. Sticks out for me as the most difficult part of the entire collection (rightly or wrongly).
 

curds

Magister
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Nov 24, 2019
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Knights of the Chalice 2 puts a whole set of bosses on the map.
I could never beat Tyranixxus in KotC1, let alone the infamous optional final battle.

I remember in BG2 there was a guy who turns into a dragon, I forget his name. That fight was really tough.

Ornstein and Smough from Dark Souls are an obvious one, though like the rest of the game they aren't too bad after your first playthrough.

What about bosses that weren't as hard as they could've been? I can think of a couple.

Zuggtmoy from ToEE. Push over compared to the Hedrack encounter and the boss of the Fire plane.

The undead dragon from Gothic 2 (provided you use a certain spell).

Any game where you can talk the boss to death, Fallout, PST and Arcanum for example.
 

Contagium

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My memory is shit but just playing ATOM again, that Mycelium Cult bitch and all her cohorts sucked the big one. Starting Trudograd now and hoping there's nothing like that here.
 

Nortar

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Pathfinder: Wrath
Not a boss, but two of the harder battles I've ever seen are "Golems and Goblins" and "The Wheel of Misfortune" in Dungeon of Naheulbeuk.
 

Butter

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Can't recall exactly if it was Curse of the Azure Bonds, but there is an SSI Goldbox game that had a heap of shambling mounds followed by the actual end-game boss in two back-to-back encounters. Even with the wand of defoliation, it was difficult to kill the mounds quickly enough not to get swamped and the next battle was also difficult for reasons I don't recall. Regardless, I remember having to try this about twenty times to make it through and am honestly surprised I didn't just give up. Sticks out for me as the most difficult part of the entire collection (rightly or wrongly).
Yeah that's in Curse when the Cult of Moander invade Yulash. It's a fun gauntlet because even once you've beaten the shambling mounds and Bits o' Moander, you still have to fight your way past cultist encounters to escape and you can't rest. Curse handles those no-resting gauntlets really well.
 

vazha

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Aug 24, 2013
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Dungeon Rats - Could never finish it with a hammer character. Died to emperor. Finished with dagger and spear guy though.
 

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