The following is a spoiler for a relatively low level (about 10th level) party that can be completed before running off to spellhold.
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far enough?
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a little more...
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Have Yoshimo plant all his traps in the area that the lich "warps" to right after you trigger the conversation. If planting isn't successful, reload and try again. The trick here is to trigger the conversation, have everybody retreat back into that little alcove and have your thief waiting for a well timed back stab when the lich transports over. If all the traps hit, and you get a lucky backstab in, you've just taken out the toughest of the 5.
The beholder is simple, as long as you have that shield which reflects beholder rays (Shield of Balduran?) that can be bought at the adventurer's mart. That makes 2.
The warrior in all likelyhood will charge you while you're taking out the beholder. He's simple enough. Let him get close, cast hold person on him, then hack away. Only 2 to go.
The next part can be tricky. You can either wait out the mage's various protections, then backstab her with Yoshimo, or you can have her come to you with a well placed fireball / cloudkill. In some cases, the vampire will be visible, and in others, it will just stand in a corner out of the way. If it's visible when you approach the mage with Yoshimo in stealth mode, perhaps it's best to try to seperate the 2. Have Yoshimo retreat to an area where just the vampire is barely visible, but the mage is not. Fire an arrow at it, then try to retreat to where your party is waiting, back at that alcove. If you have the amulet of power, give it to your strongest non warrior / thief, and try to get the vampire to engage only them. Or, use the upgraded mace of disruption if you're lucky enough to have it. This will prevent that crappy level drain. Remember, 4 levels drained per hit means death in 3 hits unless you're over level 12.
The mage is definately the trickiest, because she will cast that nasty time stop, followed by a meteor storm and then gate once one of your party members becomes visible to her. In most cases, the summoned demon will go after her, even if you don't have protection from evil cast on your party. Somebody mentioned letting the demon kill her off. I disagree, every time I let either the demon or the vampire kill her (I saw that happen once, she cast meteor storm at my warrior and hit the vampire in the process), the item you've come all this way for (Staff of the Magi) will be destroyed. Maybe let the demon get in a few good licks, but if you don't deal the killing blow yourself, say bye-bye to one of the best weapons for your mage.  |