[Spoilers] I found the final battle extremely unfun & tedious, curious to know how others handled it

[Dojac]

My group: Myself as a sorcerer, Shadowheart, Karlach, Wyll, and The Emperor

I found the fight with the brain so horrendously tedious that all the enjoyment I was having throughout some of the parts of Act 3 just dissolved really quickly.

Sorcerer: AoE spam to deal with large groups of enemies and to nuke the countermeasure enemies from the brain

Shadowheart: Healer

Wyll: Eldritch Blast spamming along with counterspell reactions

Karlach: Tank + single target damage for the dragon

Emperor: Single target damage via concentrated blast

Ally summons: Tons of group summons from allies to be used as distraction + fodder. Isobel for mass healing and Dame Aliyn to help with Mindflayers and resurrecting.

The problem came with the Dragon and just the feeling of an attrition fight, I was worried about leaving it alive due to the AoE it had and the knockback from its flight move. When I eventually got past it, I was dealing with the artillery strikes and the magic missile spam from the mindflayers. The mindflayers were dealing massive amounts which made me eat through a lot of Shadowheart's spell slots for healing.

This really ate through my resources, this made 'killing' the brain through the portal incredibly stressful. I nearly lost purely due to the AoE spam from the brain which was stunning my party.

I fully get it's meant to be a hard fight but man, I've certainly had more fun with other fights in the game. Curious to know how others approached this fight, and really any advice on how I could've handled it based on my party.

TLDR: Beaten the final battle, didn't find it fun at all. Wanted to know how others approached it.

[Aouregan]

I pumped all my allies into that one battle.
It was mayhem and bloodshed and, outside of the lackluster allied AOEs and command & conquer style insta-spawns, was quite fun. Harpers, city watch, demons, Bodguards, a wizard tower, dragon riders, Gnomes, and what have you, against the mindflayers, the dream doubles and a stinky dragon. They stood no chance.

[Chaos]

Spoilers need btw mate -

I just warped over to the crown and pushed the thingy to warp to the brain. Once there I cast a lv 6 cloud of daggers, waited a minute and it died. I think it be a bug but was really cheesy. I didn't kill anything really as it was a timed battle and I REALLY hate timed battles.

I thought the battle was pretty decent for an end boss tbh, if youy remove the timer.

[Hawke]

Went with Rogue, Paladin, Fighter, Wizard, Mindflayer.

Covered everyone with Invisibility and ran to the crown, covered the mindflayer with Sanctuary for casting, went with the surviving party (the paladin fell in battle) through the portal, started hitting. The Netherbrain was the target, loot and XP didn't matter, thus, fighting anything but the brain was not necessary. Also, the party was lvl 10.

[✙205🍉🐆→]

The last battle should always be unfun, that's the whole idea.
If the fight is fun, it starts to smell like a boss reconstruction.

Just remember the battle with the American Senator in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
It was both fun and frustratingly difficult at the same time

[Dojac]

Originally posted by ✙205🍉🐆→:

The last battle should always be unfun, that's the whole idea.
If the fight is fun, it starts to smell like a boss reconstruction.

I can definitely agree with that, partially anyway. I certainly didn't expect the fight to be fair; based on what the others have said in the comments, I guess I made it harder than it could've been.

[SoundsOfNight]

I found it fun bc I saved all my allies for it.

[Dojac]

Originally posted by DragonSoundxSG:

I found it fun bc I saved all my allies for it.

I did too, they all died pretty quickly from the Dragon's fire breath. I used them at the start of the fight then had Dame come in once I dispatched a couple of the summoned enemies.

[Aouregan]

Originally posted by Dojac:

Originally posted by DragonSoundxSG:

I found it fun bc I saved all my allies for it.

I did too, they all died pretty quickly from the Dragon's fire breath. I used them at the start of the fight then had Dame come in once I dispatched a couple of the summoned enemies.

Dame Aylin was the one who hit the dragon the hardest right off the bat, while my others took care of the mindflayers in the back. She smote that thing in every turn, it didn't know if it was dragon or lizard.

[Dojac]

Originally posted by Kaeptn Bleibaer:

Originally posted by Dojac:

I did too, they all died pretty quickly from the Dragon's fire breath. I used them at the start of the fight then had Dame come in once I dispatched a couple of the summoned enemies.

Dame Aylin was the one who hit the dragon the hardest right off the bat, while my others took care of the mindflayers in the back. She smote that thing, it didn't know if it was dragon or lizard.

Yeah I realised that pretty quickly, although Karlach wasn't a slouch either. The dragon actually ended up dying to an artillery strike which did save me a turn.

[Aouregan]

Originally posted by Dojac:

Originally posted by Kaeptn Bleibaer:

Dame Aylin was the one who hit the dragon the hardest right off the bat, while my others took care of the mindflayers in the back. She smote that thing, it didn't know if it was dragon or lizard.

Yeah I realised that pretty quickly, although Karlach wasn't a slouch either. The dragon actually ended up dying to an artillery strike which did save me a turn.

If you have Yugir, he proves very effective at dealing with the mindflayers. He has a devastating poisonous stealth attack and can pop invisibility after he hits.

[Lysamus]

Globe of invulnerability essentially unraveled this encounter. Misty step up to the platform and globe to prevent the dragon from being able to wing buffet you out of it, emperor channels safely inside the globe while rest of party stand on the fringes to keep the enemy out.

[Dojac]

Originally posted by Lysamus:

Globe of invulnerability essentially unraveled this encounter. Misty step up to the platform and globe to prevent the dragon from being able to wing buffet you out of it, emperor channels safely inside the globe while rest of party stand on the fringes to keep the enemy out.

I only realised after the fight that I actually had a scroll to use that exact spell! So definitely my fault there. Thankfully I made do with having Shadowheart cast Sanctuary on the emperor. Dragon was dead at that point anyway.

[Aouregan]

To be fair, the last time I went through that encounter my chars were also level 20.
I used a lvl 20 mod to multiclass 12 in main class / 8 in bard for all of them, since I already hit level cap very early in vanilla act 3, which bothered me endlessly. If you are maxed out at level 12 60 % into the story... something is not right.

[Dojac]

Originally posted by Kaeptn Bleibaer:

To be fair, the lat time I went through that encounter my chars were also level 20.
I used mods to multiclass 12/8, since I already hit level cap very early in act 3, which bothered me.

I'm quite a casual when it comes to RPGs, although I've played a good amount of DnD and other Larian games. I've never attempted multi-classing. Does it have a bigger power potential compared to focusing on a single class?

[Aouregan]

Originally posted by Dojac:

Originally posted by Kaeptn Bleibaer:

To be fair, the lat time I went through that encounter my chars were also level 20.
I used mods to multiclass 12/8, since I already hit level cap very early in act 3, which bothered me.

I'm quite a casual when it comes to RPGs, although I've played a good amount of DnD and other Larian games. I've never attempted multi-classing. Does it have a bigger power potential compared to focusing on a single class?

It depends. I mean in vanilla, if you multiclass another class to level 1, your main class can only reach 11, etc. The total combined level cap is 12, that's why I used a mod to pump it up to 20 for all following playthroughs. In vanilla I already hit 12 shortly after entering Baldur's Gate. I left Act 1 on level 7. The incentive to play on got cut in half just like that.
But having bard skills at level 3 always comes in handy, depending on the character. Disarming strikes, mobile strikes... knock spell, and most importantly: You can have your party jam together wherever you are :D
They also give insane boosts to your dice rolls, which stack. Similar to guidance.
If you make all 4 play the same melody, they will autotune. Bard NPCs around you will even chime in, like Volo or Alfira, or the guys at the circus. Lots of fun. I had myself on lute, Karlach on violin, Shadowheart on flute, and Gale on drums. Epic when half the city throws coins at you in the town square :D
Also, your trusty mage looks much more fancy, when he defends himself with a rapier (and maybe even an offhand dagger) and maybe even can disarm his opponent, than with some ole stick.