It's the asinine final battle the game has !! Totally ridiculous!!!!

In what way do you find it ridiculous? As too hard or how?

Dude, 2nd to last playthrough I gave 5-6 potions each to a dual-wielding Shar-Teel and an axe-wielding Kagain, who proceeded to stomp all over Sarevok before my mage was able to do much of anything.

Those potions of invulnerability/storm giant strength/etc really make things easier. Buff to the hilt, the final battle is a cinch. Green protections scrolls, too.

Now, the last playthrough was with SCS1, and that was...interesting. The full party died except for <charname> hiding with invisibility and spamming monster summons using the wand.

You managed to get all the way to the end before you realized the game was too hard?

Save yourself some frustration and stay away from BGII and especially the Icewind Dale series.

I was never able to play the last battle. It always gave me an error just as the battle started.

I do remember that I had a skeleton army at my command (maybe 100 skeles) and it wouldn't let me bring them into the final battle.

Summoned creatures don't come with you in area transits. You should summon your summons inside the building but before bringing the villains into view [/spoiler avoidance].

*WARNING: Some spoilers may be present*

I knew they couldn't come with me. If only! :D

If I remember correctly, I got them all by turning all of the skeletons in the area just before Sarevok into allies.

I beat that game by turning everyone into allies. I used Algernon's Cloak (or something like that) that I stole off a guy early in the game and that let me convert almost any enemy into an ally. I may have had an evil cleric do the undead turning, though.

I loaded up BG2 last night. Can't wait to play some this weekend.

It's a pity this forum doesn't have separete spoiler- and non-spoiler sections for each game.

I actually only use the Cloak for it's CHA-enhancing effect. It's one of the items that can make the game easy - too easy for my taste, so I just don't use the charm effect. Had fun with the Gypsy-kit though (Song and Silence), it's a Bard that can sing songs that charms enemies instead of buffing. Don't know if that makes the game too easy, I just started that campaign, but it's funny, seeing a random enemy suddenly turn green.

Did you not realize that you can just monster summon spam the whole screen? It's like a loop-hole so you don't really have to use an actual strategy.

(SPOILER Alert, even though folk know this thread is about the final BG1 battle, already).

The real test is beating Sarevok without using cheese tactics, such as charming his allies, constantly using the Wand of Summoning to create a horde of wolves at your service, using the 'edge of screen uber-cheese tactic,' or metagaming that you understand the terrain of the final battle.

There are modifiers in 2e AD&D rules that prevent against easy Charming and constant use of the Wand of Summoning, which the game mechanics couldn't implement - or perhaps they didn't want to, in order to help less tactically inclined players win the game. ;oD

I think I beat Sarevok by just buffing the hell out of everyone and sending Minsc and my character (ranger) just blast him to bits while everyone else played castus interruptus.

I vaguely recall having a terrible time the first time I played through BG ever, until I discovered the dagger of venom + requipping invis ring. Think that pretty much took me through to engame, including final fight (though iirc the poison didn't affect him).

Tactics are much more fun though