[Bobphantom]

I have to start by saying I have played all of the Black Isle D&D games now except Baldur's Gate II, Throne of Bhaal. And I have loved them...they have been all the good things that everyone raves about. Here is my one real, continuing problem with these games...

The final battles are *IMPOSSIBLE*.

Now, I am sure there are those out there that somehow managed to play the game and win the final battle without ever cheating. And I know the final battle is supposed to be challenging. However, over and again Black Isle amps up the challenge level of the final battles to FAR beyond what a party is prepared for. Put it another way, a party should not go through the module, succeed throughout and level up normally up to the last minute...and then be faced with an opponent who's level is such that the party's attacks and defenses are similar to a kobold attacking a 20th level character.

Am I whining? Perhaps...but I do believe that the enjoyment of the game is seriously compromised when after working hard to get to the point of winning the game, that your party CANNOT, regardless of what you try, tactics, weapons and spells available, win because you just don't have the NEEDED spells to win. Why should there be *specific* spells to win? And if you don't have them, you're screwed aside from cheating.

A game should be designed, of course, to challenge and make you want to play it....you want to win, you want to beat it, and you don't want it to be a cake walk. But, for some reason, Black Isle seems to want to force you to either play it a certain way (make SURE you have a paladin in your group, and a mass haste spell!) or you'll play hours and hours until you get to the end...and learn your group is incapable of defeating the bad guys no matter what.

Now, go ahead and rip me for whining if you like, but I simply ask, seriously, can anyone say they didn't feel overwhelmed by many, if not all, the final battles in these games? Who, seriously, was able to win the final fight without cheat codes, without strategy guides, without having to figure out a very *specific* way to win that often involved running away, hiding, and using the *program's* weaknesses rather than the actual game mechanics, and without cursing out Black Isle? Honestly, is there something intrinsic that I have missed in heading into the final fights?

Sigh. Okay, I'm done.