NPCs, crap? Uh, okay.
I usually get creamed first time I go into a battle. Second time I know what they can do, so I counter accordingly.

Good thread....

My toughest had to be that dern Shadow Dragon. It must have taken me 3 hours to kill that SOB! I was only level 8-10 at the time, which probably explains it...and i did not know about the magic resistance 'exploit'. I tried to take him on like any other fight. The Demi Lich was tough as well, and the first time taking on a large group of beholders ranks up there.

Just thought of one. The Rune assassins in the tanner murder quest. Definitely not the toughest battle in the game, but if the AI had been better they would have mopped the floor with me every time.

I think I must agree with the shadowdragon being one of the hardest monsters to beat. When I got there I already had done most of the side quests, so thought I were pretty tough already, but it also took me about an hour to kill the freak...but that fight I couldn't have won without a few air elementals, fire elementals and a djinnji.
The twisted rune place....well, when I entered it for the first time I got wacked...and wacked...and wacked. So I left to do many other things first.
When I returned from the underdark I attempted the fight more prepared, and it was no longer impossible. I still wholeheartilly believe that Minsc and Boo who went berserk had personally soloed the second mage, the beholder, and the vampire (Minsc and Boo walked berserk out of my screen and I didn't see the actions of the two). Offcourse there is also a slight possibility that the pit fiend had been helpful a bit.
The third really tough fight was with those beholders in Hell (the Fear place) because I didn't accept the cloak.

If you WEREN'T prepared and you party was all in a bunch in the middle of the room, those demon knights that appear when you try to summon Demogorgon in the Underdark are pretty damn tough. First time i had no idea what was going to happen so my group was all clustered together, and we all had to go toe to toe, half my party got shredded. Took a few reloads.

Hmm I would consider the twisted rune to be the toughest fight. As for the beholders in hell I just had someone cast remove fear on the party before going in and getting the gem.

No one in my group was imprisoned by Kangaxx, I used two protection from magic scrolls
and he didn't stand a chance.

Because each hit drains 4 pts of intelligence i think and minsc doesn't have a lot of intelligence to begin with . I remember getting creamed by these guys even though some of my guys had AC of -5 at least with all the drow armor. I basically took them down one room at a time, usually casting cloudkill spells which were the best AOE spells against them and making sure the caster was invisible and had Chaotic Commands cast on him/her. Once you close in melee with them you better kill them quick or they will smash your ass, so try and do as much damage as you can before you have to melee them.

Why is no one meantioning the Mind Flayer dungeon? I have got My Ass killed by them! I really nead help. Why does it only take two hits from them to kill minsc?
HHHEEEEEELPP1

Hehe who is Kangaxx?!? And what Adventurer's Mart party are you talking about? IMHO Firkaag the dragon was the hardest. I mean what a biotch! Stuns every other cast! Ahhh!! I'm up to lvl 6 now but Firkaag was still the easiest. Did anyone do the Kuo-Toa Dungeon while in the Underdark? There were beholders and gauths in there!