ulgoths beard and cultists

[andy2h]

have just done durlags tower and am entering ulgoths beard when i meet the guy who steals the dagger, need some tips please on how to defeat the
cultists that attack me, thanks

[Philos]

**Possible Spoilers**

Welcome to Game Banshee andy2h

This initial encounter with the cultists is just one of several you will have in Ulgoth's Beard. What makes it tough is that you basically arrive and are confronted with little to no time to do any pre-fight preparation or "buffs". The time to travel there pretty much precludes you being able to use any potions ahead of time. I forget the amount of time it takes to get there but you "might" be able to have "stoneskin" cast on your mage(s). I really struggled the first time through but survived without anyone dying.

Here is what I did with my second character (elven fighter/mage) and his party. **Spoiler below**

Spoiler

Gave everyone a potion of invisibility. When I arrived and as soon as the conversation triggered and finished, my first action was to have everyone drink their potion. Blip, everyone gone and safe from those "nasty" backstabs. (Immy almost died in my first go through) I now reposition some of my party to take out the archers before they can shoot. If a party member is within melee they might shoot one arrow at "someone" but will quickly switch to melee weapons to deal with the immediate threat in their face. They have studded leather armor and should be easy to hit for you at this point in the game. Lest I forget those nasty assassins, I send one character safely away from them, but within range, that has the spell "Invisibility Purge" or other similar spell that dispells the invisibility. They cast the spell and "oh my, look what I see". Without their invisibility, the assassins lose their big advantage and no longer get their triple or quadruple damage. Light armor again so they are easily taken down with ranged weapons. The armored guys are a bit tougher, but have your cleric, mage or Jaheira cast "Hold Person" in the middle of them, they tend to run in a "pack", you should freeze one or two (maybe more if lucky). I used one party member as "bait" and got them to chase the bait around (potion of speed helpful for this) while my party took down the others. Once the support troops are down. My fighter mage had stoneskin and mirror image running by this time and was able to get through the fight without taking a point of damage. I basically used ranged weapons and dropped the armored toughs, still content to chase the bait, with a hail of bolts, bullets, and arrows.

I am sure there are many other strategies that will work just as well. But this is what I did the second time through. My third BG1 character hasn't gotten that far yet. Probably play around and try something different.