Kevin Quillen

I really thought this was one of the easier bosses in the game, and yes, I have faced off against Kangaxx the Lich in BG2 (one of the hardest bosses in any game I’ve ever played, period). It took me at least 30 solid tries against Kangaxx before winning, but Gaxkang I destroyed on the first attempt at level 19. Nothing to it really.

If you are fairly well prepared, you should have spirit resistance and a mage in your party (see a pattern?). When GaxKang appears, have a mage throw Cone of Cold or Hold Person to hold GaxKang in place, then start laying hexes down on him to lower his resistances. Keep the aggro on your tank, keep the party above 50%. Pretty standard fare as far as boss tactics go, but apparantly people are having a harder time with him than the High Dragon or Archdemon. Personally I don’t think its all that tough, its just the perception of difficulty since you are in a very small room to fight. I think the Sloth Demon was a hell of a lot harder because he had so many forms to defeat. Gaxkang isn’t so bad, you just need to interrupt his attack rhythm. Plus, if you have Zevran or another rogue, coat their weapon in any Magebane poison to disrupt his casting ability.

He drops a Keening Blade, warrior only. It’s kind of lame, versus what you usually would get from a boss like this. Most people like to get loot that their main/custom character can use, and if you are not a warrior you are screwed here. I chose an assassin for the combat difficulty (it didn’t seem to matter) and fun, and there aren’t any rogue-specific gear in the game but a ton of warrior/mage only stuff. Design oversight? I wasn’t too happy with loot drops overall in Dragon Age being a Baldurs Gate veteran myself, but eh, what can you do. I’ll play through it again in a few months.