The most difficult boss encounter in a CRPG.

[Andhaira]

Thats because they had you up against a TUN of enemies in battles. Like, a whole bunch of dragons.

 

[baronjohn]

He's not hard [...]

Well, no encounter is hard if you read gamefaqs before and prepare. But if you play properly, it'll be pretty hard, dare I say impossible.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

Scrolls of magic / undead protection aren't some kind of secret tech.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

By the time you use them, since you play fair and didn't enter protected, you have a couple of party members lost forever. Unless you happen to have "Freedom" scrolls. And before that you have to take him down, which is not that easy either since 90% of spells and weapons will be useless.
If that does not qualify as "hard", then what the fuck does ?

Also, I once beat him using "Melf's minute meteors", wow, I'm so cool and hardcore. This fight is piece of cake.

 

[Melcar]

Took me a while to beat Kangaxx. I don't remember how many times I reloaded. When I did managed to kill off his lich form, I always got killed because I had no prior knowledge about needing +4 and greater weapons. I tried him again after I came back from the Underdark. Lost Jaheira, Minsc, and Viconia to him.
The Twisted Rune was another though encounter I had a hard time with at first. Lost all my party to it.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

since you play fair

Heh? Why? I play by the rules. You can make anything hard if you restrict yourself enough.

which is not that easy either since 90% of spells and weapons will be useless.

Doesn't he have something like 50 hit points? With your main fighter armed with some kind of +4 weapon (I had some short sword from the Watcher's Keep) and protected from magic, you can just leave him whittling away Kangaxx's HP and go make some coffee or whatever, eventually Kangaxx will die and can't do a thing about it. Finding a weapon to hurt him took some time, but that's it.

If that does not qualify as "hard", then what the fuck does ?

Dunno, something you can't prepare for in advance, at least not in such a manner that you will have unfair advantage. Now, in many games you can spend time grinding to win bosses easily, and that can be hard on your patience, but Kangaxx requires you just to find some items (those +4 weapons, the scrolls are for sale right from the beginning) you would have found eventually anyway.

 

[laclongquan]

The Metzger fight in The Den, Fallout 2. IT's hard because I hadnt figured out how to lock those doors before combat . Even with the Assault Rifle from Modoc's quest, you still had trouble. Only till the second play I would use the dynamite trick, and the locks tactics.

Or the Fire Gecko encounter. Bunch of Fire Gecko spit irradiated fire/saliva onto you, the radiation goo on the ground damage you. that's pretty damn hard. Or the special cave/Robbers encounter where you got a bunch of robbers toting plasma guns in a long cave. If you blunder into them unprepared (which is very very bad luck, also very rare) you are gonna die unless you sneak away very very quietly.

I like Might and Magic 8 earth plane. In long corridors those earth elementals will grapple with you and explode when they die. Protections only protect your BODY, not your equipments, so you became nekkid before you know it. Very annoying and potential deadly.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Metzger? I just stole his shotgun since he looked the most dangerous one. If I couldn't steal it, I'd just walk past him and shoot the back of his head, didn't mess with the doors. Also, slugged through with the pipe rifle first, so when I came back later with the 10mm and leather jacket, I was like "showtime, bitch".

The hardest part of that fight was avoiding taking the fight near the

walking around the den, because some stragglers insisted on running away

 

[Excidium]

That japanese vampire that turned into an octopus in vtmb.

 

[Melcar]

Hookers hopped up on Jet were harder than Metzger. They killed Marcus a few times .

 

[Coyote]

By the time you use them, since you play fair and didn't enter protected, you have a couple of party members lost forever. Unless you happen to have "Freedom" scrolls.

Not really. Considering where you find him and the fact that you collect his body parts by slaying various liches throughout the city of Athkatla, it's not particularly hard to make the inference that he will be some sort of powerful undead and/or magic-using creature, and IIRC it was heavily foreshadowed that he was some sort of uber-evil being who would likely attack you as soon as you had done what he wanted. And even if you didn't catch onto that beforehand, you have to fight him in his lich form before he becomes the Imprisonment-spamming demilich, so you've got plenty of time to apply protection scrolls then.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

And even if you didn't catch onto that beforehand, you have to fight him in his lich form before he becomes the Imprisonment-spamming demilich, so you've got plenty of time to apply protection scrolls then.

Oh, come on. No one does this on his first playthrough, you don't waste one of those rare "Protection form magic" scrolls on a lich and there's no way you can know he will rise again as a demi-lich.

I'm not saying this fight is the hardest evah, just that it's hard if you play BG2 for the first time without knowing about it in advance. Just assessing what he does and what weapons you can use to touch him... half your party's gone.

 

[Lemunde]

Duriel from Diablo 2 is always a pain in the ass, especially if you use a character that relies more on range and speed than defense. Every other boss I can take down without worrying about dying. Diablo takes a while but I can at least keep my distance and let my skills do their work. I can outrun Mephisto just fine.

But with Duriel, they stick you in this tiny room with this big ass monster that freezes you so you can't move fast. Any henchmen or summoned creatures you have with you die in the first few seconds. Then he starts munching on you. My only successful strategy is to spam full rejuvenation potions which means a lot of prep work.

It's usually not a very long battle and I can always kill him even if I die several times in the process but I always feel a sense of dread every time I step into that hole in the wall.

 

[coldcrow]

Oh, come on. No one does this on his first playthrough, you don't waste one of those rare "Protection form magic" scrolls on a lich and there's no way you can know he will rise again as a demi-lich.

"Waste" my ass. What enemies are you fighting besides him? Gods? To get to him you have to beat 3 other high-level undead/liches, who are blabbering alot of cryptic and foreboding nonsense, so of course you will expect a mere cellar rat. I mean it's prefectly clear that this guy is tough. I tried Pro-Undead in vanilla when I met him first and magically he forgot about that party member.

 

[Nostradumbass]

benezia - mass effect

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

"Waste" my ass. What enemies are you fighting besides him? Gods? To get to him you have to beat 3 other high-level undead/liches, who are blabbering alot of cryptic and foreboding nonsense, so of course you will expect a mere cellar rat. I mean it's prefectly clear that this guy is tough. I tried Pro-Undead in vanilla when I met him first and magically he forgot about that party member.

Ok, I surrender. You've all beaten him easily, the first time. It's not a hard fight. Got it.

 

[Coyote]

Oh, come on. No one does this on his first playthrough, you don't waste one of those rare "Protection form magic" scrolls on a lich and there's no way you can know he will rise again as a demi-lich.

Meh... I actually did end up using a Protection From Undead scroll the first time I fought him, because I had a few laying around and was expecting a pretty difficult battle (after all, you have to beat a few liches to even access it). Plus, most of the other undead in the game are pushovers; vampires had some annoying abilities but those were easily countered once you knew what they were, and if you have a single-class cleric in your party then even that might not be necessary.

Edit: Or pretty much what coldcrow just said, didn't see his post.

 

[Krash]

I'm gonna second the ascention last fight in TOB, took me about 20 tries to beat. Other than that, the TOB dragon and demororgon were tough, but not quite as masochistic.

 

[Jasede]

lol @ people mentioning Kangaxx... the easiest Goldbox game was harder. Pools of Darkness' final boss was as close to near-impossible you can get.

Let's not talk about the optional bonus dungeon...

Also, Mulmaster Beholder Corps.

 

[Micmu]

lol @ people mentioning fucking Duriel. He's REALLY easy - I never died to him once (not even Hell) and I only play Hardcore. Any other boss (except maybe Andariel) is harder than him. Duriel is 99% psychological fear (tiny room and his holy freeze aura).
Btw. act 2 defiance mercenary can tank him for you (provided you feed him with potions) and low hitpoint classes like sorceresses and necromancers have brutal ways of dealing with him (static field, decrepify+clay golem).
He can't do shit to melee classes like barbarians and paladins with a little bit of life leech.

 

[made]

Lord Soth in Death Knights of Krynn.

In hindsight, I don't think he was meant to be killable with normal means. Probably missed some artifact or other gimmick; never finished the game.

Goldbox games in general had some of the hardest RPG combat I can remember. Even regular encounters could fuck you up if you weren't lucky enough to win the initiative and wipe out half the enemy force with some aoe spells at the start.

You needed the rod of omniscience. I didn't think you could assault his fortress at the end without it, unless you mean facing him in the Clerists tower where he gets up and walks away. Great game.

Yea, the final showdown in Dargaard Keep. I would finally beat him with most of my party dead and he'd just rise up again and finish them off. Guess I didn't have the rod or no clue how to use it.

Also, Goldbox games had a variable difficulty, but unlike BG and other new age D&D games, lowering it meant you got less xp for battles. OMG C&C...

 

[Gold]

Goldbox games in general had some of the hardest RPG combat I can remember. Even regular encounters could fuck you up if you weren't lucky enough to win the initiative and wipe out half the enemy force with some aoe spells at the start.

And that is why half your team has to be able to cast Delayed Blast Fireball on the first turn.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

Ok, I surrender. You've all beaten him easily, the first time. It's not a hard fight. Got it.

Who said anything about the first time? Even NWN2 can have hard battles if you haven't bothered resting in ages, and are all beaten up, without buffs. Oops - there's a dragon here! Well let's re-load, rest and blow it to bits. The same thing with Kangaxx - so this guy can't be hit with my current weapons, uses only magic and it's undead. He's not hard that time, he's impossible because you don't have proper weapons, and the next time he's easy. How is that a difficult battle, since that next time you can pretty much leave your fighters there without player control, beating him up? At least the dragons also have physical attacks, easy as they too might be.

 

[LittleJoe]

The dragon near the end of Dungeon Siege is pretty tough.
He's not the final boss, in fact he's optional, but he's much tougher than the final boss imho.

 

[hiver]

Improved Bodhi and Irenicus final fights from old Tactics mod.
Jesus that was a real sweating work.
And barely winnable.

I couldnt make the Ascension final fight though. That felt like someone using cheats against me.