Highlights
- Baldur's Gate 3 features charming dialogue and exploration, but the combat can be frustrating, especially during boss fights.
- The Spider Matriarch fight is one of the most frustrating battles in the game, with deadly spiders and overwhelming attacks from her babies.
- Other frustrating boss battles include Auntie Ethel with her healing mushrooms, Viconia DeVir and her followers of Shar, and challenging mechanics like the Grymforge Guardian's lava requirement.
Baldur's Gate 3 is a CRPG with a lot of charm. Besides the incredible dialogue that gives the player the chance to get to know the NPCs that make up the world of Baldur's Gate 3 and the exploration that can be had across the three acts of the game, another large part of the title is the combat.
Inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, each character has an action and a bonus action with every person in the battle taking turns. While the average fight may be easy to complete some boss moments in Baldur's Gate 3 are sure to frustrate players. Be it a mage with one too many deadly spells, or a construct that hits hard, these are by far the most frustrating fights in the game.
8 Spider Matriarch: A Mother Spider And Her Many Babies
Hiding underneath the Blighted Village of the first act in Baldur's Gate 3 is a group of spiders that players will likely want to avoid until they have leveled up. These Phase Spiders on their own are deadly, but it gets even worse when players finally encounter the Spider Matriarch deep within the webs.
Besides hitting incredibly hard and being protected by two more Phase Spiders, this mother spider will summon her babies from their eggs to also attack the player and their party. If they struggle to keep on top of these spiders the player is likely to be easily overrun by these Arachnids and suffer a horrid death, which can become frustrating the more times they are overrun.
7 Auntie Ethel Has Too Many Mushrooms
While some players may have struggled with the first battle against Auntie Ethel in the first act, players may be unhappy to know that she can be encountered once again in the final act of the game. She continues to use all her old tricks from before, but now she refuses to stay dead. Players will be put in a room with the hag as well as three blue mushrooms.
Although it may not seem like the best idea, players should first ignore the hag and instead opt to destroy the mushrooms. This can become quickly irritating considering if the player doesn't break a single mushroom in one turn it will likely heal itself to full and the player will need to hit it all over again. Combining this with more of Ethel's manipulated followers can become increasingly stressful.
6 Viconia DeVir With Her Followers Of Shar
Act Three is filled with plenty of difficult battles and therefore plenty of frustrating ones, too. A great example of this can be found in the House of Grief, a location the player will need to visit with Shadowheart to finish her companion questline.
What makes this battle so frustrating is the number of enemies found inside this location of Shar. Players won't only be defeating Viconia Devir but also every other follower of Shar found inside the temple. Every single one of them hits incredibly hard and Viconia herself transforms, which forces the player to essentially defeat her twice.
5 The Grymforge Guardian's Mechanic
Another opponent of the first act that players are likely to struggle with is the Grymforge Guardian. Players will need to defeat this ginormous construct if they hope to use the forge to craft two pieces of Adamantine Armor or weapons. This fight can be made ten times easier by simply using the hammer from the forge to hit the boss for a large amount of damage every time it stands under it.
However, those who are attempting to earn the A Grym Fate trophy are not allowed to use it. Therefore, the player is forced to make sure the lava is always flowing. If the Guardian is out of it for too long it becomes immune to all damage, instead of resistance to the vast majority. This will take a long time if the player doesn't have bludgeoning weapons.
4 Yurgir Has The High Ground
Another challenging boss battle can be found during Act Two of Baldur's Gate 3. When exploring the Shar Temple players will need to defeat the Orthon called Yurgir to help Astarion learn what the scar on his back means. This may seem quite straightforward, but players are at a disadvantage when they encounter Yurgir as he stands above the player with a group of horrid allies.
Getting Yurgir and his crew to sacrifice the high ground can be incredibly annoying. Therefore, a player may need to sacrifice a familiar to attract the group off of this higher surface. With an equal footing, the battle is far more likely to go the way the player wants.
3 Orin's An Abomination
Orin is one of the three main antagonists of Baldur's Gate 3. She takes the most pleasure out of murder, which is unsurprising as she is the Chosen of the god of murder, known as Bhaal. Depending on the choices made by the player in the third act players are likely to encounter Orin in her grotesque monster form.
While it may seem simple to just hit her directly, the fellow cultists in the room are protecting her, which makes damaging Orin nearly impossible until they have been dealt with. This is frustrating as players cannot directly hit some cultists and should instead get creative with how they deal damage.
2 Ketheric Thorm And The Apostle Of Myrkul
Although Ketheric Thorm is the first of the main three antagonists in Baldur's Gate 3, he is surprisingly considered one of the hardest in BG3. With this difficulty the player is also likely to face frustration as Ketheric isn't alone but instead aided by plenty of skeletons.
Players will have to attack him twice, first on top of Moonrise Tower and the second time deep below. It doesn't end here as players will then be forced to take on Ketheric Thorm's final form as the Apostle of Myrkul that kills anything near it. It continues to summon skeletons leaving players with too many choices on what to defeat first.
1 Pushed Off And Poisoned With Balthazar
Out of all the boss battles available in Baldur's Gate 3, the one fight that is by far the most frustrating has to be battling Balthazar inside Nightsong's prison. This deadly mage is incredibly powerful and will hit the player with everything he has. Players should get ready for Cloudkills as he loves to summon them.
Although Balthazar himself is a pain, the true frustration comes from the summoned undead he controls. The strongest of them will easily shove the player to their death, making the first turn of the battle incredibly tricky. If a player fails to move their party away from the edge, they are likely to fall off and be lost for good unless they're revived.
Baldur's Gate 3 is out now on PC and PlayStation 5. An Xbox Series X/S release date is yet to be announced.