Guide to Tactical mods (spoilers)

[Stworca]

Insane guide to Tactical mods (spoilers)

Hello

I shall introduce myself first, as a 'gentleman' should. My name is Tadeos, but im better known as Longshot or Stworca. Please note that this guide may lack : correct grammar, updates with newer versions of listed mods, solutions that i havent found out myself. It is in "beta" state and will be upgraded. If you spot any inconsistencies, please report them. If you have anything to add to the guide, feel free to leave a PM or reply here.

Thank you.

Before we start

I strongly recommend that you get G3 fixpack and G3 tweaks. Aside from those two, add-ons that may aid you during this epic struggle are :
- Aurora (nice banters and a huge variety of boots + food! )
- Weimers Item Upgrade (make some minor items more powerfull by combining them!)
- Weimers "Anti Paladin" if you want to play evil. An inquisitor for the 'dark side'. I like this class and use it quite often.
- lvl1 NPC, if you want to play with Bioware NPCs (it allows you to change their classes, very handy). :

I will try to post as much helpfull info and tactics for following mod fights (the most difficult ones in my opinion) :

• * Tactics : Improved Illyich, Kuroisan the acid kensai, The Ritual fight with Pontifex (ak. Ira'Kiou'Dneg), "Red Badge" encounter, Improved Bodhi (with SCS II AI), Improved Irenicus in hell (with SCS II AI)
• * Solaufein's Eclipse Party
• * Improved Spellhold's : Adventurers party v0.93
• * All Bhaalspawn battles enchanted with Ascension and v13 SCS II. That is : Illasera, Gromnil, Yaga Shura, Abazingal, Sendai, Balthazar, Mellisan and the five.
• * SCS II : Spellcasting Demilich - Kangaxx v13, Ust'Natha defenses v13, Improved Irenicus in Spellhold v13, Twisted rune - enemy has HLA's v13, improved beholder hive v13
• * Vanila game : Watchers Keep lvl 5, huntress party. (with and without SCSII)
  
• If you want tips for other fights then listed above (incl. mods) simply leave a post and give me some time to play through them, you'll get a response for sure. Additionaly, if you have other tips/tactics that i havent included in this guide, please post, those will be added
• * Bonus : Minor encounters : [url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/baldurs-gate-ii-shadows-of-amn-9/guide-to-tactical-mods-spoilers-116063.html#post1068558"]Tactics : Gnome Fighter/Illusionist in Docks,
  Tactics : Lich in the Docks
  SCSII + Insanity enchanted Sion and his party that guard Celestial Fury
  SCSII + Insanity enchanted Demon Wraith, without thief.
  SCSII Six Glabrezu Summoners (Impr. Watcher's Keep)
  SCSII + Insanity enchanted Saladrex the Red Dragon fight
  SCSII + Insanity. Spellcasting Demi-Lich from Watcher's Keep[/url]
• * Bonus : Sorcerer Spell Picks ([url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/baldurs-gate-ii-shadows-of-amn-9/guide-to-tactical-mods-spoilers-116063-p3.html#post1078980"]click here to view, or jump to page 3, post 44[/url])

This guide wont require HLA's usage except for the last fight in ToB. I may however mention some HLA spells as helpfull. Every tip for encounters on insane with -party-. Playing with a single character without xp cap is much easier then with a party. If you have a Cleric 30 / mage 30 or a 20/20/20 F/M/C you'll just run through all this fights with ease, protected from everything. Its much trickier to beat this game with all NPCs alive if not all of your characters have pfmw. Now i have nothing against a good solo playthrough, this guide however is for regular parties. I had an xp capp, you dont have too. Its masohistic. Additionaly i dont realy recommend playing on insane with above mods, a single mistake results in wipe. Finishing the game however gives much, much joy. Lets get on with it.

Preperations

First of all, you need a party prepared for every encounter. You'll need to deal with mobs highly resistant (or even immune) to some forms of damage. Enemies that have nearly countless protective spells. Fights where the boss can destroy you in few blows... And fights where there are 6 such bosses at a time. And last but not least.. fights, where enemies unleash hell during time stops (whole parties.. or even dragons).
Now, before you start wondering which classes you should take, know, that every class is capable of soloing the game both vanilla and modded (as many great players around the world proved) For some its easier, for some barely possible (very gear dependant) and that any combination is capable of finishing the game. I strongly recommend taking at least one mage / sorcerer, for it is the core of my guide.

Except for Viconia (huge passive MR) Edwin (the amulet he's wearing) and Sarevok (deathbringer assault) you can make better characters than there are NPCs. Some NPCs added by mods however, are added to the exceptions. The best example here is Valen (many immunities, level drain, awesome scripting), Tashia (her quick slot item) and Jon Irenicus (just take him and you'll see. This character will spoil your fun)
I realy recommend taking Vici with you, she is an awesome char, and will be of great use. Mostly because of the MR (you can go above 100 easily, which i recommend.. but we'll get to this later), high dex and good priest spells. Aside from that i encourage you to make a custom party for tactical mods, but if you don't want to - that is ok too. Its beatable with Bioware NPCs aswell.

My usual setup

An arcane spellcaster : Sorcerer (elf).
2 melee butchers : Cleric of Talos dualed ASAP to fighter and Anti Paladin or an Inquisitor (Cleric/fighter dual weilding, paladin with 2h.Any warrior is good for dual weild, except WS, i recommend berserker to tank mobs that use imprisonment. Mine was a core warrior cause it was the second class.) :
An archer : wizard slayer dualed to thief ASAP


The last spots are changed with each play (or left empty). The chars from 5th and 6th spot that i remember :
Swashbuckler dualed to Cleric.
Another 2h paladin / anti-paladin.
Weimer's Generic Archer.
Blade
Viconia
Valen

I dont use rangers, druids, monks, kensai, barbarians, assassins etc. But it does not mean that these classes (or sub classes) are weak.
Also note that i never use 2 sorcs / mages (bards are limited to lvl 6 spells). Because one is enough to beat all enemies who should be beaten with magic, and having 5 physical dps makes short work of those who are resistant to magic. Having second arcane spellcaster will greatly reduce the difficulty of most encounters (not having one will increase it)

General Tips, before we go to details :
- If you want that any of your character stays single class... Create him as priest and dual right after the game starts. Why?
First of all armor of faith! Damage reduction is the key to later fights, cause enemy can wipe your whole party with just one spell if you fail its save (Horrid willings for 100 is a good example) This 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 % (which is always added to your regular resistances) may be lifesaving.
Next on the list is Sanctuary, Doom and DUDM. Free time to prebuff in middle of hell, a handy saving throws debuff, and a bonus to all melee stats.
Then we have resist fire and cold (cold is usefull only against Adalon, but fire..! 80% of non-physical damage is fire including many HLAs!)
Last 3 positions (level 3 spells) are dispel magic - its good to have a magic dispell for everyone!) Protection from fire (100% to normal and 80% to magical!) and zone of sweet air (for my gameplay in later encounters its not necessary, but its always good to have in emergency case).
If you want to play a mage, start with cleric and dual him to mage asap! Not only will you get above spells (contingency with sanctuary is made of win) but you'll be able to use flails and shields and helmets!
- Make sure one of your warriors specs 5 stars in flails and maces.. You will need it.
- Run speed increase isnt just a way to speed up the traveling around map, hastened character has huge tactical advantages. You can kite, you can get out of spells AoE before those even fire, you can flee.

[Stworca]

Illyich, Kuroisan, Spellhold party, Spellhold Irenicus

Illyich Party

This is by far the toughest fight possible for a newly created party. You must be sneaky, stealthy and cunning to beat this one. And most of all you must be patient..

- Get every item you can before facing this group. If you manage to kill Neophyte Glabrezu and have enough invisibility powers then you can sneak your whole party to the air plane with djinjii.
- Get Yoshimo, and all the one-time-use wands from trap corridor on upper level.
- Golem can be killed only by +1 blunt weapon or better. If you have SCS II the quaterstaff + 1 wont work cause its changed to non-magical, excelent staff. You will have to kill Illyich and get his Club +3.
- Turn footstep sounds ON and listen where they are!
- Haste spells, oils of speed, fast ambushes - with wise tanking - and faster escapes will allow you to beat those after some time. Remember to flee when third opponent arrives (or even second one) even if your target is Near Death. Their party can annihilate you in seconds.
- Zhivago can summon Deva. This is their worst weakness! If you dont want to spend hours luring one of them, damaging and escaping before they overwhelm you... You can try my cheap tactic to deal with them. Wait till Zhivago is in Library, and send a summon (from wand of summoning for example) so he will create a Deva. Now, send in another one so the Deva will cast fire storm.. Which will heavy damage or even kill their party members!
- If a deva is summoned either use above tactic or wait till it despawns. Deva will wipe you out.
- The other 'cheap' way of dealing with them is using aoe skills in library from out of visual range and let those damage them. At least enough to force them to use potions.
- Save often.
- Aside from Karamazov and Zhivago they cannot attack you from far away.
- They will stop chasing you as soon as you won't be able to see them (either cause of distance or obstacles) Single exception here is the Deva, which will chase you till it despawns.
- Their patrol route remains the same regardless of how many are alive.

[url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/baldurs-gate-ii-shadows-of-amn-9/how-to-improved-illyich-on-insanity-118840.html"]I've posted videos of my most recent fight with Ilyich in this thread.[/url]

Kuroisan, the acid kensai

With the right tools this fight is very easy, with the wrong ones, you die. Lets get it started shall we?
Kuroisan is a fighter mage who visits you when you have Celestial Fury. Much better fighter then mage i might add, but the most important information here is. He plays defensive. Attacks only when his defense is up to the task. He has few great items like Robe of Vecna, ring of Gaxx and belt of infernal barrier, sadly those are undroppable. His main tool is a katana which gives him immunity to acid, lowers acid resistance on hit, adds acid damage on hit and shots a melf's acid arrow on every target that performs a hostile action towards Kuroisan. Always. He starts the fight with many protections and recasts them while fighting. Kuroisan focuses on one person - make sure it's your mage or sorcerer - but CAN eventually switch targets.
Protection from magical weapons stops his acid katana fully, acid protection spells or scrolls deal with the backlashes, and Globe of Invulnerability stops them completely (the backlashes are counted as Melf Acid Arrow, lvl 2 spell)
Mage protected with GoI (maybe even a minor one) and pfmw is absolutely immune to everything Kuroisan can do. If you dont want to risk anyones lives, tank him with mage protected with those 2 (and preferably Spell Shield to stop his Breach spell, if you play everything well he wont be able to cast more then one.) and kill him with characters fully protected from acid. Eventually you can gang on him with melee characters weilding non-magical weapons, but beware. He can easily deal up to high 90s damage with one hit (on insane)
[url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/baldurs-gate-ii-shadows-of-amn-9/how-to-videos-part-2-kuroisan-acid-kensai-118928.html"]Here you can find a video walkthrough of the fight[/url]

Voila!

Improved Spellhold's : Adventurers Party

"This is easily the most difficult fight in the game, and probably tougher than anything you've ever seen before." Rastor

The enemies have high levels, some special abilities.. and -GODLY- equipment. You fight mostly against their items, not themselves.
- Dwarf has huge, HUGE, resistances to most elements, immunity to lvl1 and 2 spells, permanent impr. haste, protection from elves, his attacks are vorpal hits (10% chance)
- The elven mage is very high level and may have some minor immunities
- The elven ranger is immune to time stop, her attacks drain 3 charisma, she must be killed as last. She changes targets randomly.
- The drow... Is immune to lvl 1-6 spells, has 75% MR, 40% other resistances, immune to all single target damaging spells, immune to time stop, all types of crowd control, immune to all weapons except +6 (in later versions its fixed to +4 or higher) permanently invisible, and heals whole party to full hp when you're out of his visual range. + you have game over if you kill his wife - the ranger - before he dies.

Lovely enemies aye? Now lets get their gear!

First of all clear whole map before trying this, you will need room to deal with them. Hide your party in library - LOCK THE DOORS! -, where the lich once were, and using one hastened character aggro the enemies. (mage preferably). Buff your resistances to elements, to magical energy, protect yourself with death ward, spell turning, pfmw and as backup mirror image and stoneskin + as much MR as possible. Aggro them and instantly start running towards the place where Dace was locked. Drow and the second mage will now buff up and keep chain casting time stops and aoe damaging spells. If your buffs are good enough you should survive. Kite the dwarf and the ranger. What you want to do is lock the dwarf in Daces room (for he is much faster then the ranger), lure the ranger to the doors where dwarf is locked, tank her with pfmw while rest of the party escapes to where umber hulks were and lock the ranger in library from which your party just escaped... If you manage to do so, part one completed. (It does not realy matter where you lock them up, just make sure they are seperated and that you wont have to bother with the ranger before its her turn to die. As last)

Now you should kill the dwarf. Tank him with pfmw and kill with physical damage. Note that elves wont be able to even target him! Loot his gear and prepare for part two.
It is possible that drow will keep healing the dwarf when you're out of his visual range. In such scenario you must send someone (or something) to keep him entertained (magic and fire resistance at 100 are a must have)

Time to kill the drow and the other mage. It would be best if you manage to kill the dwarf and prepare for drow without resting, otherwise they’ll have all time stops and AoE spells again. Your mage should be the only character who moves in. There are only few spells that can touch the drow. Elemental damage spells of lvl 7 or higher. Incendiary cloud is the best choice cause it stays for long. Meteor swarms and fire storms will also work here, but these are obtained on higher levels than Incen Clouds, and are weaker in this fight. Move in as mage, protected from everything you can, and unleash as many clouds as possible. You can lower drows resistance with chain contingency with 3 pierce defenses on nearest enemy, but thats not necessary. Remember not to ever move out of his visual range or he will heal himself.
Both mages will die for sure from Incen clouds, you just have to tank them till it happens.

Now for the ranger. You can rest (and should rest). Simply tank her with pfmw (or drows robe!). Beware tho, she changes targets. Her weapon can easily kill any character permanently. Have everyone hasted and run if needed. Bards won't be able to target the ranger.

Side notes
- Spell Immunity does not stop the imprisonment that Breu casts when his wife (ranger) dies.
- If you have the XP capp removed, and have a high level mage / sorcerer in your party, then know that both Comet and Dragons Breath work on the drow.
- Some of their items are cheesy enough to ruin your fun, you have been warned
- Dont equip ranger's ring, you will die.

Improved Irenicus Spellhold battle

This fight is fun, but can be nearly impossible if your party has items from above encounter. Thats right, Irenicus makes exact copies of all party members when fighting in Spellhold!
Now i cant realy say how to beat your party, cause its YOUR party and i cant write anything about it.. However here are few tips that might help you.
- Your main advantage is that you know what weapons and skills your enemies have here. Exacly the same as you have! The same advantages.. and weaknesses! Instead of asking yourself "how to beat them" try "what are my weak sides"
- Re-read the above once again
- Your main concern here is Irenicus, when he escapes the plot goes forward. The clones wont vanish when Irenicus does, but you can simply escape when the storyline part is over and proceed to Sahuagin / Underdark.
- Emotion spell.. Use it. Abuse it. Love it!
- If you have serious problems, remember that you can use Tiax and his gang to buy you some time.
- Its cheap, but you can de-equip everything except armors and equip it again when the clones spawn. I believe that they wont use items from backpack. I haven’t try it, but it might be possible.

[Stworca]

Ust'Natha part 1

Ust'Natha defenses. SCSII

"this component is not intended to make the conquest of the drow city somewhat more interesting and challenging: it is meant to make it virtually impossible. I predict that it will be enormously difficult for any party to defeat all of the drow and conquer Ust Natha." DavidW

I shall quote the mods readme first. So you know what we will face.

The drow defenders of Ust Natha look like this:

* Group A: disorganised raiders (about every five rounds)
o Three L9 fighters, two L9 archers, a L12/12 fighter/mage
o Two L9 fighters, two L9 archers
o Four L9 fighters, two L9 archers, a L10 cleric
o Four L9 fighters, a L11 mage
* Group B: serious war-parties (every four rounds)
Each party comprises six L9 fighters, four L9 archers, a L10 cleric, a L14 cleric, a L12/12 fighter/cleric, a L11 mage, and a L15 mage. There are four of these war-parties.
* Group C: elite battlegroups (every ten rounds, with another Group B war-party between each battlegroup)
o Four L9 fighters, three L17 mages
o Four L9 fighters, two L12/12 fighter/clerics, a L18 cleric, a L18 mage, a glabrezu, and two nabassu
o Two L11 mages, a L15 mage, a L22 mage, and four stone golems
o Six L9 fighters, two L10 clerics, two L12/12 fighter/clerics, a L14 cleric, a L20 cleric, two balors and two glabrezu.

Thats right. Over 150 drow (with 65 or higher MR each), 4 golems and 7 demons. Instead of posting how to beat this encounter, i will write down how I did it the last time.

I had 6 man party each time i faced this one. The last attempt was with :
Sorc with sling of erevard and staff of magi.
Anti Paladin with Watchers Keep Unholy Reaver + a non magical 2h sword. Boots of haste.
Anti Paladin(#2) with Watchers Keep Unholy Reaver + a non magical 2h sword. Boots of haste.
Cleric of Talos / Fighter with Flail of ages and Kuroisans katana + a non magical flail. Boots of haste (Renals).
Wizard Slayer / Thief with Taralash and quiver of plenty + a huge pack of non magical arrows
Valen with Valen claws ofcourse + dragon shield

Everyone protected from fire above 100! Helmets, rings, red dragon armor, green scrolls, priest and mage spells and backup potions if spells fail in the worst moment. 100+ for everyone. You will see why. Also everyone had a potion of +50% MR which is highly recommended to have in each characters inventory later on.

Since i've beaten this quite a few times already i had my sorcerer prepared. Lvl 8 spells were : Spell trigger (one active with 3 sunbursts, rest after casting this one) and Incendiary Clouds. Lvl 7 spell turning, spell sequencer (secret word x3) sphere of chaos.

Phase 1 : Free target practice.

Right after i enter drow city, i start the great purge. It is crucial to deal with initial waves fast enough, to have time to clear the platenau with djinjii (4 spellcasters) all merchants and the one with beast-slaves (another caster) cause they will get aggroed. 20 rounds to kill them and all the waves, pick the right battleground and prepare for the tougher part. WS has to pick mages asap to prevent them from casting after their buffs go 'live'. My mage does not cast a single damaging spell but gets buffed up with defensive spells like stoneskin, mirror images, spell turning, staff of magi's spell trap and globe of invulnerabiliy. When 4th wave falls everyone who deals physical damage quaffs oil of speed to double their speed, and increase attacks per round.
Note that if you move too far towards the tavern, you might lure some additional enemies.

Phase 2 : Swarm of enemies.

15 enemies every 4 rounds (24 seconds). With group with 4 melee butchers + WS archer its possible to keep up with clearing the enemies, as long as WS picks spellcasters asap and you switch weapons when needed while killing mages. It might be a good idea to move on the bridge between initial platform and the tavern, enemies will be closer to each other. Its crucial to have all party members stick together as tight as possible right before another wave spawns, cause enemies spawn randomly around all party members. Having them spread out may result in increasing time needed to kill them and failure chance.

In case my meleers didnt keep up, or had to retreat cause of wounds, there's the "Anti-crowd" tactic, which is the reason why my characters are buffed with fire resistance >100. Incendiary cloud both damages enemies (when breaches MR, but it happens ~ once every 3 ticks per enemy. So every enemy is damaged 0,(3) times per round -per cloud-) and heals your party if their fire res is >100. It is important not to boost MR for chars with high enough FR but increase MR for chars that have less then 100 FR. Normaly i cast 2 clouds right after 2nd wave appears, and a third one when 4th one appears. Putting pressure on enemy priestesses while having an incenciary cloud active prevents them from using zone of sweet air (wizard slayer is simply awesome for this task, cause of the fact that priests have no protection from weapons aside from Physical Mirror - which is used only by the high ranged ones in Phase 3 - that means : pausing often and picking priestesses that aint yet swarmed by your melee asap will stack miscast magic high in short amount of time) Right after priestesses are dead, melee chars focus on archers who are out of cloud range, or mages regardless of where they are. Enemy fighters either follow my fighters, or go towards WS and mage. If the last case is true a single teleport field will lower the pressure on those two.

If things go very bad, there's the "Lets start again" wild card, which is the spell trigger with 3 sunbursts. Gather up the enemies (preferably more then 2 waves at once. However it is highly recommended that wild card is used after 2nd main wave in phase 3 spawns. The one with demons and matron mother Ellaviir) and blast them out. Sunburst ignores MR. However, if i waste the wild card before phase 3 it means that i have low chance of survival. It is possible to recast trigger but its not realy recommended (unless you have a spell trigger scroll)
If things dont go THAT bad you can fire single sunbursts. Gather enemies up (move towards enemy archers with your mage) and gather yourselves up for a significant boost in damage and heal.

Phase 3 part 1 : Beginning of the end

First wave of Phase 3 isnt tougher then any from the previous ones, and their warriors die in nanoseconds. But 3 high level mages who keep it defensive are pain to kill. Both A-Ps have True Sight going on, which will dispell enemy buffs only when Spell Immunity : Divination isnt active. Observe the combat log with buffs, and if anyone lacks Spell immunity : Abjuration use Secret word. There's still one incen cloud going on, which sometimes damages them slightly.

5 rounds after this wave spawns, a Phase 2 wave appears. My sorc casts minor spells now like magic missle in addition to sling attacks to aid other characters in killing as many foes as possible.

Phase 3 part 2 : Wild card

A nasty wave spawns now. One which contains demons - with SCSII Nabassu and glabrezu are rather mean - and high level priestess + high level mage along with some other mobs. Demons are very tough, but slow. Hastened characters can simply ignore them, but i focus melee dps on demons while surviving others. WS is focused on matron mother (unless she has physical shield). If all 3 demons die before the 'half' wave appears - perfect! When the wave appears, gather them up and unleash the wild card trigger. (If you dont have it by now.. ouch.. try regular sunbursts and pray that the next step will work)

Main targets for melee dps are matron mother and the other priestesses now. So they wont use zone of sweet air on your last incen clouds. Yes, now is the time to use them (+ scrolls if you have). additionaly now is the time use spheres of chaos.

[Stworca]

Ust'Natha part 2, Improved Beholder Hive, Kangaxx spellcasting Demi-lich

Phase 3 part 3 : The gathering

4 stone golems and 3 mages spawn. Including a powerfull archmage (lvl 22 with HLAs). A-Ps use true sights and my sorc fires spell sequencer on arch mage (unless he's protected with Spell Immunity : Abjuration! Ruby Ray from scroll is casted then). Then sorc casts 1 spell turning (if the last one got dispelled) and all spheres of chaos that he has. The target here is to kill archmage and golems before next half wave appears and pray that the remaining two mages (and everyone who survived till now) wont make you regret that.

Last minor wave spawns now. 15 enemies. And worse yet, incen clouds are finished. Luckily spheres of chaos, even tho random, are life saving here, and just as incen clouds 1 every 3 ticks works on drow. Beware tho, these are luck based, and only having 3+ is beneficial against drow. (Spheres sometimes heal, sometimes haste enemies.. but have 4 non-beneficial effects too) Note, that if you have any sunbursts left its the correct time to use them!. Everyone but sorc use +50% MR potion now, no more healing from fire (unless you want to play with fireballs, it might work) focus on enemy archers, then priestesses, then fighters. Sorc buffs with pfmw.

Phase 3 part 4 : One way or another

The great culmination. Depending on how many foes are left alive you have a rather easy battle, or hell from which there's no escape (but if you made it so far, there is no such thing as no way out).
Bunch of crappy fighters, 2 lowbie clerics, 1 medium-leveled cleric, 2 powerfull cleric/fighters, matron mother Finadryl and 4 demons. + everything that survived till now. Normaly i end up with 2 of 3 mages from Phase 3;3 and a bunch of wounded survivors from last wave.
Baalors are very powerfull with SCSII mod, and you dont want to face two of them at a time with all enemies around. 4 of my characters were permanently hastened (3x boots of speed + Valen) that leaves sorcerer and archer. Archer should use another oil of speed, otherwise he'll be killed if unlucky. Sorcerer did not use many lvl 2, 4 or 6 spells by now, and is basicaly immune to physical damage. (you know what spells i talk about). Kite the demons and finadryl till all fighters and lowbie clerics are down. Then take demons one by one while kiting others (time consuming, aye) and slowly work on mages till you kill them and only Finadryl is left..

Why Findaryl as last? So she can see how her servants die, how her house dies, how her city dies... Drow are the most evil race from material plane? Yeah right ^^

Few general tips for whole fight :
- If anyone dies, ress him asap with rod. Raise death and healing up is too slow.
- You can use delayed blast fireballs and normal fireballs + staff of magi aoe and all fire scrolls in game to make this fight easier and more spectacular. I didnt bother.. yet.
- If you have problems with killing everyone fast enough, know that i managed to deal with this bunch with Sorcerer, Paladin and 4 Wizard slayer archers once barricaded between beast cages. Pick the right battleground, that will serve your playstyle. (and yes, i actualy had 50+ enemies on screen when last wave spawned. Your game will slow down greatly, and crash risk will be enormous!)
- It is possible to rest between waves if you manage to wipe them all very fast (Phase 3 part 2 for example) If you're positive that you will manage to kill the enemies right after they spawn with the help of wild card, you may risk using it. Recast it later tho!
- 2nd mage makes this fight a piece of cake (2 wild cards, more incen clouds).
- I believe it might be possible to escape via main gate / enter tavern etc, i didnt try it yet tho.
- Fire elementals, efreeti, mordenkeinen swords are good summon mobs if you want to use any.
- A single wish scroll (you can get one in WK lvl 5) can be another wild card for you, remember to have 16+ Wisdom.
- I didnt write down when my warriors heal and if my sorcerer recasts mirror image now or not yet.. Have inventories full of potions (from WK even, makes the fight easier) and heal every round if needed. Heal right when you get damaged, dont wait till you’re damaged twice!
- If you have problems with priestesses try changing the sequencer to 3 remove magic spells. I didnt type down when i used them, but i assure you that i did remove some spells in last part of phase 3.
- Do not waste lvl 2, 4 nor 6 level mage spells unless it is crucial for your survival or unless you have many defensive scrolls. Mirror images, stoneskins and pfmw are priceless here.
- If things go very very nasty, simply move whole party to other spot. You wont be able to keep running away forever, but this may give you some time to heal up. DO NOT try this before phase 3.
- If you cant get through phase 2, try on lower difficulty then insane. Also try leveling up a bit if you have problems with this one. I believe its possible to return to Ust Natha after you kill Bodhi if you open the drow city gates while in Adalons disguise and then leave the area (by killing the dragon or bribing the guards of the gate to the surface)
- In v9 its always added, but in v10 its optional : AoE Lower resistance. I didnt use this spell in Ust'Natha (cause of Sunburst beign better choice for my tactics) but you may. Drow have somewhere around 65 MR so 2 (or 3) should be enough to bring them to a level, where horrid willings will decorate the floor with their insides.
- High five[url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=38&pictureid=216"], and watch the carnage![/url]

Improved Beholder Hive

This one will be short. There are very few ways to defeat the SCSII beholders without risking too much. They pierce defensive shields, they steal shield of balduran and cloak of mirroring.. Lovely eh? You must play all your aces to survive here. The one and only method to be able to actualy go in there and chopp everything to pieces is having 100 magic resistance. This will stop -everything- except Death Tyrant and Hive Mothers cause serious wounds (for some reason it ignores magic resistance). In addition it may not stop telekinesis ray, im not 100% sure...
The other way to deal with them is summons. With a stealthy thief explore the map a bit. Summon 5 strongest mobs you can and send in there (if there's an elder orb send summons one after another - short pauses- so they wont all die to one death spell). Keep doing so until beholders die in that spot (move to next one then) or until eye tyrants move towards you (bad!). In last case it depends on how many and how tough are on their way to you. Flee or wipe them out. If you chose to fight them, focus on one at a time.
The last groups (to the east) are linked to each other and its a powerfull force!
Hive Mother (and perhaps Elder orbs too) has imprisonment spell. Focus on her.
You might try using the 3 mind flayers (that fight gauths) to help you. Simply lure enemies there and if you're lucky they will attack each other.
If you chosed "beholders dont pierce magical protections" in SCSII instalation, then activate spell turning spell and charge head first. Watch them kill themselves. In that case Spell Immunity : Necromancy will stop fingers of death and cause serious wounds spells.

Ofcourse if you don't mind cheese, you can stop beholder anti-magic rays with Spell Shield, and without this one, Eye tyrants are effordless to kill

Kangaxx, the spellcasting demi-lich!

"...I would be unsurprised to discover that Kangaxx is now beyond most SoA parties..." DavidW

Vanilla game Kangaxx-demi lich was very easy to deal with. With only two spells and barely any target switching. SCSII changes that to something challenging, worthwhile.

Kangaxx has all his immunities from vanilla version, in addition
- He can cast spells as a rank 35 mage (this also means he does not have more spells than a rank 35 mage would have!) but with somewhat increased casting speed.
- He starts with a rather nice pre-buff (+ has triggers, contingencies etc)
- He can cast Imprisonment in the same round he casted spell (main difficulty here)
- His imprisonment has been changed. A save vs death is now allowed, if you succeed you suffer level drain but aint imprisoned.

And now for the fight, which aint realy that bad.
- Things that stop Imprisonment : Spell Immunity : Abjuration, Spell Trap, Protection from Magic Scroll, Any form of Enrage (Berserker, Barbarian, Minsc, Lilith Amulet, Cursed sword of berserking <-- this one is worthless)
- Things that stop THIS imprisonment : All of the above, plus : Combo of Protection from negative energy (spell or item) + Potion of Magic Protection (the one that makes all saves successful)
- Remember that single spell cast by Kangaxx can wipe your party on insane. Protect yourself from fire, magic fire and magic before even trying to face Kangaxx and recast if these are dispelled

I recommend using Protection from Magic scrolls for this one. Yes - spellstrike takes them down, but it is one spellstrike less in Kangaxx spellbook. Have more scrolls!. Protect your main character with potion of magic protection regardless of everything. If you have everyone protected (or have a bunch of Freedom scrolls + restoration spells) Kangaxx is a.. regular mage! Well.. except for immunity to weapons weaker then +4. Work on his buffs / outlast them till its possible to unleash physical hell.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnndWbtzo_g&hd=1"]I did not record Kangaxx fight. But here is a video on a tougher demi-lich.[/url]

[Stworca]

Twisted Rune (enemy has HLA's), Improved Bodhi

Twisted Rune (enemies have HLA's! )

This is very tough nut to crack. I strongly recommend doing this one -after- you face underdark, however with enough scrolls (or if you're high enough level to cast the spells by yourself) and potions its doable before the drow. I bet you know the enemies in this encounter, but lets make a quick list of what has changed compared to vanilla game.

- Shangalar has HLA's, casts simulacrum.
- Vaxxal cast simulacrum, has all the beholder abilities described in "Improved Hive" part
- Ravanek isnt gearless anymore
- Layene has HLA's, casts simulacrum, USES staff of the magi to make herself invisible whole time
- Vampire - no change.

"Must have"
- Every single character of yours must be hastened at all times. (with oils of speed / improved haste if possible)
- Every single character of yours must have some item based resistance to fire, buffs may and will be dispelled
- Fire protection buffs, fire protection buffs and more fire protection buffs. Before the fight starts and after those get dispelled. MR wont work here, Dragon Breath will kill you all if you aint protected.
- Next stop is the damn Horrid Willing. Start with protection from magical energy if you want, but it is better to drink the 50% MR pots (preferably the ones that buffs your saving throws. Worry not, there are many of these in SCSII)
- Your main character followed by your best melee characters must be protected the most, others can be resurrected later.
- Mace of disruption (+2), Unholy Reaver / Carsomyr, non magical weapons are 3 must have's!
- Protection from undead / protection from negative energy (items or spells) / sunrays one of those 3 is a must have.
- As many ruby rays, secret words, true sights and breaches as possible
- Even more ruby rays, secret words, true sights and breaches!
- For mage heavy parties, spell shields will keep you alive much, much longer

"Ok, i got all set and ready, what now?"

There are too many wild cards in this fight to make an ABC walkthrough. Your buffs can be dispelled, or not. If they are on which character? Enemies can cast spell Y instead of spell X. They can use summon deva HLA instead of Dragons Breath. The deva may score a vorpal hit. Shangalar can imprison someone that you wouldnt want him to... I hope you get it I will post few tips on how to deal with this one therefore.

- Shangalar is an undead and this is his main weakness. Mace of Disruption makes short work of him regardless of spells.
- Vampire is a minor undead and can be wiped with single sunray if you're lucky (daystar sword is nice to have here) and ofcourse MoD counters her easily.
- Vaxxal must be dealt with ASAP. Note that he does not have any basic immunities, and only his spells protect him. If he uses Mantle / Improved mantle counter it with Carsomyr / Unholy Reaver, if he uses Pfmw use non magical weapons.
- If you didnt use protection from magic scrolls on Kangaxx (i recommend facing the demi-lich first) then use them here. Nowhere in ToB will you have such mage heavy encounter.
- Even your mage needs to have protection scrolls and potion, as he might get disabled by Vaxxal and will die if unprotected.
- Pause very often, MORE often then very often! Get out of any AoE spell that you can , unless your chars are protected from its damage. (you are all hastened right?)
- If possible try having your mages OUT of Vaxxals visual range while he lives. When Vaxxal falls your buffs (esp magic shields!) will be much safer and the fight will become fair.
- Once Vaxxal falls get rid of the vampire and Ravanek, or kill the lich with MoD its up to you. Its best to kill Layene as last cause she is the most resilient of this bunch ( cause of perma invisibility )
- If vampire gives you problems, have one of warriors that is protected from level drain lure her first, and THEN move to Vaxxal. Vampire will switch targets eventualy to someone who is vulnurable to level drain. But it will happen after few blows. You can always kill her with hastened character weilding MoD and Daystar, while others kill Vaxxal. Its up to you.
- If you have problems with Ravenek you can try to tank him with a mage for short time (stoneskins, mirror image and immunity abjuration) note however that you need to put HIGH pressure on Vaxxal if your mage is to survive.
- In order to kill Layene easier have as many true sights running as possible (one after another, multiple chars) and then keep launching secret words / ruby rays till her immunity - divination wears off. Layene has no core weapon immunity so just observe her buffs and switch weapons to kill her.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnQC8BcnxdY&hd=1"]A video of the fight can be found here. (note that the AI behavior in your game may differ)[/url]

Improved Bodhi

Bodhi in her own lair, upgraded by Wes Weimer.. and upgraded further with SCSII AI.. now may pose a threat. But if you prepare yourself, her black heart shall be yours on a silver plate. Its a heavy level drain encounter, with many wampires and many archers. If you have priests, protect everyone from negative energy and charge head first into the battle, focus on the mage first (can dispell buffs) Wipe them out with sunrays and false dawns.
If you dont.. you will have to proceed slowly.
- Get as many items that protect from level drain. (amulet of power, mace of disruption +2) and give them to front liners. What you want to do is use doorway to reduce the danger to the front line characters. A mage protected with pfmw will work as front liner aswell.(thankfully level drain does not work when their claws are ineffective)
- One of your warriors should have daystar (it does not have to be used, but has to be equipped in weapon slot) use its sunray, watch them fry! Unleash magical hell from backlines! (or front lines if your mage works as a tank)
- Protection from undead scrolls will help too in reducing the amount of attacked players. Note that it does not stop Bodhi however, and im not sure if it stops the Grimarchers. Grimarchers dont drain levels tho.
- Bodhi death shroud (blue fire shield) can deal lots of damage, you might want to protect yourself from it (cold damage. Perhaps magical cold im not sure).
- If you dont chose to fight in doorway, or you killed everything except Bodhi, use holy water that Elhan gave you on the blood pool in the middle. (i have no idea what the pool does exacly, but game suggests that purifying it will make things easier, so do it )
- Bodhi heals to full health once (dialogue triggers). Make sure to have negative energy protection on everyone whom she might hit. Her claws rip 5 levels each hit meaning 4 hits are enough to kill ya.

[Stworca]

Irenicus in Hell!

Irenicus in Hell

Preparation is the key for this one. This is hell of a fight! Make a list of who takes care of which enemy, and these are :
- Sword of Greed that is absolutely immune to physical damage (and elemental magic for that matter), spawns mordenkeinen swords, drains MANY levels on hit and becomes more painful after doing so. Regenerates
- Sarevok looking Wraith of Wrath which drains strength on each hit. Immune to magic. Spawns wraiths
- Eye of fear - Elder orb with anti magic ray replaced with con draining ray. Spawns beholders!
- A shadow dragon - drains levels, knocks back, uses pfmw to survive longer. Spawns wyverns.
- Jon himself - Immune to damaging magic, casts spells very fast, has a all-in-one dispel "shatter magic". Spawns.. take a guess.. LICHES!
In addition (lovely) You'll lose some of your items! (the Dragon takes the Amulet of Power, the Orb takes the Shield of Balduran, the Wraith takes Crom Faeyr, the Sword takes Weimer's (Kuroisan's) Acid Katana, and Selfish Jon takes the Cloak of Mirroring). You can prevent the last thing from happening by dropping the listed items before placing last tear, and picking them up at beginning of the fight. (but beating this encounter without such methods is far more satifsyfing )

Phase 1 : After the small talk, all enemies are teleported to staircases leading to tear's tests (that you've just made).

* SW! Sword and his mini versions are for sorcerer to tank (pfmw) and kill. Only magical damage (Horrid willing and magic missles) can damage the sword. (mini swords are wiped out with death spell if you spawn too many, but those should not be a problem.) One Horrid willing and one minor sequencer with 2xmagic missle takes out sword of greed. If your mage is high enough level, and you have problems with this one, place horrid willings in chain contingency. Instant death for the sword, one enemy less. If you DONT have a mage or bard, then vorpal weapon is your only chance here. Silver sword mainly. Quaff oil of speed and pray that it procs fast.
* NW! Wraith and its mini versions can also be tanked by the same sorcerer. Wraith however can only be killed by physical damage. The mini wraiths however are regular low rank undead. If you have an evil priest you may abuse it (ie. let the wraiths spawn while taking out other enemies, and control all wraiths as your own army, but this encounter depends on speed, so i recommend killing everything asap.) Wraith is not much of a problem at all, it can be easily controled. Wraith should be the third target of everyone. If you DONT have a mage or bard, then you need to kite wraith till beholder, sword and dragon are down.
* SE! Beholder should be killed ASAP! Beholders pierce magic shields, dispell buffs, cause miscast magic, steal items, knock back! Eye of fear and his minions should be your first target! You dont tank the beholder, you must wipe it out before it wipes you. As first send a char with highest MR. You can drink the +50% MR potions here, or the better versions which set all your saves to succesfull.
* NE! Dragon must be tanked with someone who can cast pfmw. It might be simulacrum of your sorcerer. (awesome class it is) Belt of infernal barrier amd Cloak of displacement are perfect items for this one, but im not sure if you get both pre-TBC (can anyone confirm?). Also, sorc MUST be protected from negative energy, and a way to prevent magic dispells is very welcome (either Spell Immunity, or boots from the ritual). Remember to place the simulacrum in right spot, so wing buffets wont send him too far away (and endanger party). Dragon should be killed right after beholder. If you do NOT have a mage or bard, then this one will be very tough. Ignore the wyverns and focus on the dragon before he wipes the party.
* S! Irenicus should (MUST is a better word) be tanked with summons. Skeleton Warriors are great here, but send them in one by one, not to lose them all to one death spell. If you have a high lvl priest, a GREAT option are elementals. Summons will soak death spells and shatter magic skill. And ofcourse take beating from liches. He must be killed as last one, because all unkilled enemies 'advance' to round 2. Iren is not difficult to kill in this phase. Just remove his protection magics (2 ruby rays followed by secret word and a breach will be enough to open him up for melee chars) and your physical dmg dealers will wipe the floor with him. Wizard slayer is godsend here. Kill liches with Mace of Disruption with impr. hastened char

Now, the faster you manage to kill stuff, the less adds spawn. In my best try i wiped out sword, beholder and dragon before first add appeared... When Iren dies, the game saves, and you're teleported to the gate again, for phase 2. (in some versions your party rests aswell)

Phase 2 is a 1v1. Protagonist vs Irenicus. Do note : your character drops ALL items on the ground. Just pause and pick them up (you wont however be able to use armor). My protagonist was a sorcerer, so this fight was a piece of cake. Too many defensive spells left in arsenal.
If ANY mob from phase 1 survived, it will attack either you, or your unconcious party! Thats why you -MUST- wipe them all in phase 1 before Iren. If your protagonist is a warrior, or worse, thief without UAI, then this phase might give you serious problems, for Iren hits like running train. Has very, very low base THAC0 (-always- hits you), so dont bother with shield. In addition to physical, his attacks deal some cold damage too (small amount). Wipe him before he wipes you.

And so Phase 3 starts.. You're teleported back to the gate.
Irenicus teleports himself to the south, buffs up like hell, and the final battle begins. He has permanent aura cleanse after each spell (as a mage with IA can have) and has greatly improved casting speed. But other then that he is a regular mage. Shouldnt be any problems if you just didnt waste all spells in previous phases. He has many time stops, many summons, many damaging spells.. Which means, you want to tank him with summons and have party at safe distance. He keeps teleporting around and healing himself a bit. Stay on your toes and victory shall be yours .

In SCS II remix version, the fight is much differend. First of all no adds appear unless you set it with console by yourself, next - you dont lose any items in phase one. And last but not least - there are only 2 phases, second one is exacly the same as vanilla game fight.. Except for upgraded demons (2 balors and 2 glabrezu).

[Stworca]

Illasera, Gromnir, The Ritual

Illasera the Quick.

Keep in mind that for this fight you are allowed to plant traps prior to fighting, aswell as getting summons. After the hell with Irenicus, this fight is very easy, but here we go.
Illasera has 4 adds.
NW. A rogue-like character. Goes invisible and backstabs,
W, A mage.
S. A warrior.
SW. A priest.
S Illasera herself (between warrior and priest). Archer, with two magic dispells per shot. Has invisibility spells. Her damage is not to be underestimated.

I tank illasera with either mage (pfmw) or priest (physical mirror) or sometimes a melee character (shield of reflection) she's helpless then, keep in mind that she might change targets, so have an invisibility pot or a defensive spell for every character in case things go nasty.
First target that should die is the assasin. Before the fight begins, have everyone that can do it - cast True Sight. Try doing it right after another, so there'll be as many invisibility dispells per round as possible. Warriors melt him in seconds.
Mage and enemy warrior are both tanked by summons, skeletal warriors for mage, mordenkeinen swords for warrior. Keep in mind that the mage will cast death spell quite fast, but the summons will buy you some time to nuke assassin. Warrior can be easily tanked with mirror images, stoneskins etc. (keep in mind however, that warriors tank should never get Illaseras aggro) also - like every other enemy in this fight - can be killed easily.
My wizard slayer took care of the priest, priests dont have any protection from weapons aside from sanctuary and physical mirror - both are rarely used - so in just one round impr. hastened WS scores 6 to 8 arrows resulting in 60-80% spell failure for priest.
Illasera has quite a bit hp, but aside from invisibility very little defenses. When you chose the right tanking tactic, and have multiple true-sights running she dies in few seconds - you can go straight for Illasera, her adds run away when she dies! In that case protect everyone with less then 100 hp with everything you can, to prevent assassin from 1 hitting them -

Gromnir.

(at this point one of my melee characters was permanently blind)

Gromnir never was a big threat, tactics didnt change it, SCS II didnt change it. The fight is however tougher then the one with Illasera.
Few things that alter this fight from vanilla game :
- Gromnir has 2 mages instead of one
- Gromnir has Vhailors Helmet (simulacrum)
- Gromnir has a pet
- Better guards spawn at stairs. (archer with called shot, assassin, wizard slayer with HLAs) And additional 2 guards spawn SE the next round. (a priest and another archer)

First of all you can buff up before entering Gromnirs floor. Elemental resistance is very welcome in this fight, aswell as true sights (same as in Illasera fight). Also spell turning, spell trap (from staff or regular spell) spell defense, and other anti magic stuff for the main sorcerer / mage. Pfmw on the sorcerer/mage. Run in!

With a single lvl 9 spell you'll make this one a very easy fight. Either :
- chain contingency with incendiary cloud, horrid willing and other aoe spell (with other then fire and magical dmg. Death fog is nice. Skull trap is nice) triggered when : "enemy spotted" target : "nearest enemy". Make sure that this mage will be leader of the party while entering Gromnirs floor.
- Time stop, during which you cast mentioned above aoe spells on gromnir.
Additionaly, have a spell trigger with 3 sunbursts.

Now.. at the beginning of the fight mage / sorcerer charges gromnir.
Everyone else takes care of the adds at stairs.
Nuke the living hell out of the three unfortunate soldiers, while mage fires trigger, and contingency activates. Usually this brings Gromnir and his Simulacrum to Badly wounded, kills his pet, sometimes kills one of the mages.
While killing the adds every single physical dmg dealer should quaff oil of speed.
Gromnir and his copy will now change target, cause of "weapon ineffective" messages and will charge the group... and get chopped into tiny pieces.
If you have problems with downing 2 out of 3 adds before Gromnir charges, then use stoneskin and mirror image on the tanking mage instead of pfmw. This will allow him to tank the orc without him changing targets but its risky!. Keep in mind tho that Gromnir has lots of attacks per round and can deal quite some damage and keep in mind that at least one mage will survive the aoe hell.
While killing the orc, last two adds will appear. Priest - who will buff himself first, and nymph archer - with very, very few hp.
I had my wizard slayer wipe out the nymph, while rest of the party finished gromnir, and went later on for the priest.
As for the mage who survived. The main player of this scenario - sorcerer / mage - will make short work of him for sure.

Ritual and Pontifex / Ira'Kiou'Dneg fight

There are three possible ending for the ritual itself, and two endings with the dragon.

First of all, you may attack the priestess - which will disrupt the ritual - but this will kill her, and Pontifex will be "angry"
Second of all, you can let the priestess finish the ritual - she will then vanish, but you get the rewards you would from Pontifex - the yellow guy will ofc be angry.
Third of all... You may disrupt the ritual WITHOUT killing the priestess, by interupting her casting any other way then damaging her. Examples : Fear, imprison then freedom, silence, mind flayer collar from underdark (note that sometimes she still gets strange transformation and dies, the best way to deal with it then is to imprison her, then kill the golems, then haste your party, cast freedom and zone before the transformation message occurs and she dies). Pontifex will be surprised that you did so well, and will give you additional reward - an armor - which otherwise is obtainable only via fighting him + lots of XP.

As for fighting the yellow dragon - which in my opinion is harder then Eclipse party and Improved Asylum mod party - only few pointers.

- Best way of surviving the regular time stops is having mage or sorcerer tank the dragon with "Protection from Magical weapons" (overpowered spell, but so is the dragon) Absolute immunity or even improved mantle MAY work, im not sure how "magical" his claws are. PfMG is however the best way to go, you will need the high lvl spells.
- If you have serious problems, run to the stairs to the left of watchers keep (the ones to lower levels). he wont be able to follow and you will be protected from SOME of his attacks.
- If you position whole party to the left (or right) of the dragon before the fight starts, he will wing buffet you all from Sand Golems reach, this may help.
- If you installed "Smarter dragons" and any mod that uses even MORE dragon casting cheese, then prepare all the ruby rays, breaches, spellstrikes, lower resistances you can. You wont have much time to fire them, so try getting robe of vecna and amulet of power for this one.
- Give everyone some potions, the map-wide aoe spell he casts sometimes may hit for lots. I am unsure what damage it causes but one of my chars (which i buffed like hell) was immune to it, so do try out. My best guess would be acid or electrical.
- He is immune to fire (and unluckily best arcane spells are fire dmg) but Chain Conf with 3 horrid willings is great tool against this guy. However its wasted if you wont reduce his MR before. (with 3 lower resistances in a trigger for example!)
- You may want to get a second mage / sorc for this fight. Also note - he teleports to you, so you cant run out of range (but you can run upstairs, as i said before)

[Stworca]

Nalmissra, Red Badge part 1

Nalmissra and her party (Watchers Keep 5, NW seal)

This is one of two toughest fights in vanilla game (second one is Twisted Rune, above). However, few things can make it much easier. A quick list of enemies. Starting from left side.
W Nalmissra - Level draining succub, casts spells like pfmw and fireshield. Can charm your characters.
SW Y'tossi - demon, melee fighter with defensive spells like pfmw, stoneskin, circle of blades, animate dead and teleport. Very slow moving. Very fast hitting.
S Hive mother - toughest of beholders, the most important enemy in this fight. Casts improved mantle and stoneskins aside from whole beholder arsenal.
S Xei Win Toh - warrior with HLA's
SE Ameralis Zauviir - priestess with HLA's and mass heal.
E The Huntress - archer with lots of health

All of them spawn very close to the seal, unlike other guards, so the first step here is right positioning.

Nalmissra and Y'tossi :
In vanilla game i have my sorcerer kite both Nalmissra and Y'tossi. They have unlimited amount of defensive spells, but with cooldowns on them. Both Nalmissra and Y'tossi are easily kite'able with boots of speed. Do not waste any spells on them, the MR is too high, and they are heavily resistant to fire damage. Using imprisonment is a bad idea for both Nalmissra and Y'tossi have valuable loot that You want.

In SCSII game i use summons to keep them busy while the party kills hive mother and priestess. In SCSII Nalmissra might change targets randomly. Y'tossi can teleport around, but is slow enough to be kited by anything that moves.

Hive Mother :
In vanilla game she can be tanked with someone who has 100 MR (Viconia for example) shield of balduran or cloak of mirroring, or a mage with spell shield and spell trap, she aint a threat then.

In SCSII she attacks everyone and everything, can steal shield of balduran and cloak of mirroring, and pierces mage shields with rays (sweet!) you must take her ASAP in modded game. She -may- dispell protections of your sorcerer and disable his casting for 4 rounds! Have a backup scroll of pfmw in quick slot! Or a backup oil of speed / boots of speed to kite if you decide to do so.
A good idea is to have carsomyr / unholy reaver / staff of magi for hive mother, to dispel her improved mantles (which, in SCSII, protect from everything but +5 and +6) If you don't have any of them you'll need someone to breach her i.mantles, probably with wand of striking. Once again, Hive Mother in modded game MUST be killed as first.

Xei, Ameralis, Huntress : Regular NPCs that you encounter as trash mobs in every ToB fight : Tank all three with either bard, second mage or simulacrum of the first one. Huntress has a bow, but her arrows end after some time. Xei has lowest magic resistance of them all, so You if want to wipe one foe with Skull Traps, use them on Xei.

Strategy for Vanilla : Its a tank and spank fight, cause enemies dont care if their attacks are effective or not, and always attack nearest target only. Have every melee character use oil of speed.
Tank 2 demons with mage / bard / sorc using pfmw (recast every 4 rounds ofcourse!) OR kite them
Tank hive mother with a char using shield of balduran, cloak of mirroring, spell turning or having 100 MR.
Tank (if needed) Xei with a simulacrum of the main mage / another mage / bard / anyone who has mirror images and stoneskins. OR wipe him out with skull traps
Priestess isnt much of a problem, i never saw her using any useful spell except for Insect Plague. She may however heal the bunch, stay on your toes and interrupt her casting if necessary
Kill Huntress (position them next to NE seal before combat starts) with remaining party members, and move clock-wise killing everyone else.

As far as the vanilla encounter goes, you can effortlessly kite, tank, and kill all 6 of them with any single character.

Strategy for SCSII : Use oils of speed on every melee character and potions of magic protection / resistance on everyone you can. Bracers of binding strike and ring of gaxx are also very welcome items, for they grant improved haste.
Have summons stand on left side. A spellcaster on the right one to tank Xei (and huntress and Ameralis). Eventually use skull traps on Xei to badly wound him.
Every other party member attacks hive mother right when she spawns!
After Hive mother you should kill the priestess. She may heal the group, and we wouldn't want that. Nalmissra is number 3. Y'tossi should be your last target. I often kill him AFTER the summons that he spams.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSSWx2_wg0o&hd=1"]HERE is a quick video how the fight should look like if you do everything correctly.[/url]

Red Badge - Poison encounter (w/o poison resistance)

Before you read any further, i urge you to have boots of speed on every melee character and on mage / sorcerer!

Now this one is damn tough when caught off guard! They kicked my ass time and again before i got how to beat this fight. To trigger this encounter you need to either rest outside watchers keep or exit it. At first they'll just chat with you, the second time you rest / exit keep you will have to fight. I strongly recommend NOT resting outside WK otherwise you will get caught without any preperations (its a huge disadvantage) and trust me, they can wipe out whole party before first spell is cast. It wont trigger before you reach a certain amount of xp. 2 000 000 i believe. However i strongly recommend getting 3 000 000 for your mage, or getting high poison defense for every character that you have. Read the fattened text below if you have high poison resistance

There are 5 mobs to kill.

SE Bittersnake : Immune to elemental damage, partialy resistant to physical damage, vulnurable to magic damage.
E Bloodcaster : Immune to elemental damage, partialy resistant to physical damage (i believe that less to crushing and slashing, and more to piercing and missle), vulnurable to magic damage.
N Fallowmist : Immune to elemental damage, vulnurable to both physical damage and magic damage. Immune to magical weapons!
SW Redspike : Immune to elemental damage, partialy resistant to physical damage, vulnurable to magic damage. More hp then other enemies.
W Bloodspear : Immune to elemental damage, partialy resistant to physical damage, can stun with ranged attacks!

Some of them (i aint sure which ones, sorry) have project force, a knockback + unconciousness (if save vs breath fails)
Others (bloodcaster and fallowmist for sure) cast poison clouds, which can deal quite a bit damage.

Key to this fight is to counter their fast attacks with your own buffing and counter. If every of your characters has poison protection on at least 75 (or at least your main char and.. say.. two others), then you should go for bloodspear first, for he deals the most physical damage. Followed by redspike. Then Bittersnake. Then the last two. The fight is very easy when their main offensive abilities do you no charm.
If you DONT have poison resistance (this guide is just for you) then you must take Caster first, then Fallowmist, then the remaining 3. Here we go :

If you trigger this encounter with resting, you have only nanoseconds to buff up after they teleport you, and before they unleash hell (if you're fast enough you can start casting before they trigger dialogues). The one buff that you'll manage to activate :
- For priests use Armor of Faith
- For rogues invisibility potion (or greater evasion if you have HLA)
- For warriors potion of heroism / power (or hardiness if you have HLA)...

Your mage/sorcerer is a differend story...

Sorcerer, as always during my plays, is the key here. Your warriors wont be able to wipe all 5 monsters before harm is done, and project force knocks them through whole room making it very hard to deal damage. Sorcerers Horrid willings make short work of the snakes. The best way to prepare your caster is for him to have a chain contingency with 3 horrid willings, on enemy, when enemy is spotted (you can try to change it for : "last hit by" and "when hit", little more risky) and a normal contingency with pfmw, triggering when helpless. If you have any poison defense item (like ring of gaxx) give it to your main character, if you got two (there are at least 3 other items aside from ring of gaxx), give the second one to the sorcerer / mage. At the very beginning of the fight have the sorcerer rush south - southeast towards Bittersnake. So horrid willings will affect 3 targets instead of just hollowmist. 3 willings will make short work of Bittersnake and Bloodcaster. Redspike has ~200 hp so he will survive it, but will be weakened.
Warriors should charge north (with non-magical weapons!) to kill hollowmist, while mage casts his first spell.. which is pfmw (remember that he has another one in contingency!) and move west to Bloodspear. This is to try and 'catch' few of Bloodspear and Bittersnake attacks, and give rest of the party time to wipe Hollowmist. Next on the list is weakened Redspike, and as last wipe Bloodspear.

[Stworca]

Red Badge part 2, Yaga-Shura, Abazingal

If you dont have chain contingency but have time stop spell then : change the normal contingency to trigger when you spot enemy, but it still needs to have pfmw. Give your sorcerer / mage boots of avoidance, cloak of displacement, belt of infernal barrier and all items that increase casting speed (robe of vecna, amulet of power), and again, a poison warding item (if you have one). At the very beginning of the fight, before dialogue triggers, start casting time stop. Then fire horrid willings as described above, and follow the above tips.

If you dont have chain contingency, nor time stop, nor poison protection (this is pretty bad) then have a spell trigger with 3 emotion spells. And normal contingency with pfmw "when enemy spotted". Move out of the poison clouds, cause they tick for 25-30 on insane, and if there are too many - use zone of sweet air. Use potions / buffs on every character as soon as cooldowns finish (unless not needed) keep in mind that elixir of health cures poison and heals for some silly amount, which is better then antidotes. Killing order does not change! When the 3 emotion trigger is fired, then you should cast : another emotion - IF there are more then 2 enemies 'on their feet', horrid willing - if not.

Yaga - Shura.

Depending on what type of Fire Giant mod you have, and how much dps can your party push up, this fight may be VERY hard, or rather easy! You might want to clear watchers keep before fighting Yaga to get 4th head to flail of ages. There are two phases in this fight. First one is to find Yaga Shura and hurt him. Second one is to kill him.

Phase 1

First phase starts when you're on the middle of the bridge, with enemies spawning everywhere around you and the big ugly giant nowhere to be seen (till you get a message that Yaga can be seen to the west). Most of the enemies are worthless cannon fodder, but sometimes fire giants spawn, and those may be a pain if not downed asap. If enemies will keep growing in numbers, control their number with horrid willing. Focus physical damage dealers on giants. The main difficulty in this fight are the fire giants. If not disposed quickly, they may overwhelm you.
It may be a bugg, but after some times the enemies stop spawning, so everytime i face 1st phase i stand on / very close to the bridge and just keep killing them till its over. and THEN go find Yaga (it allows me to buff up and even rest after Yaga escapes, cause there are no foes anywhere nearby).
When you find him, its enough to hit him once. He escapes.

Now it is time to buff up with long-lasting buffs, or even to rest.

Phase 2

Next phase starts when Yaga spawns right next to you with his elite troops. The elite troops are rather small. 2 wizards, a thief, a cleric and a warrior + Yaga himself. Usually i wipe adds with horrid willings while having everyone else attack Yaga. Adds have HLAs but very little defenses and 2 spells are enough to annihilate them all. If you have Valen, make sure that she does NOT attack the giant till he uses Sunray. Its instant death for her.
Now.. The main reason to have flail of ages is this enemy right here. It deals elemental damage on each hit, so his 99% physical resistance aint that bad at all. Additionaly it slows enemy!.Yaga sometimes casts an aoe fire attack with knockback, so potions of fire resistance / fireshields / protection from fire spells will be a great help here. As said before giant starts with 99% damage resistance, which slowly keeps decreasing. Other then that he is very easy foe.

Abazingal

Normaly Draconis is much tougher then his father, but Tactics and SCS II on insane change the fight dramaticaly. Fighting two dragons, both with 600 hp, and many adds while beign wing buffeted and with earthshattering aoe damage flying everywhere.. But yes, you can, and yes, you WILL beat this one.

Before entering the cave he is in, prepare proper spells. Many breaches, all defensive spells that you can handle (esp. protection from electricity) some ruby rays. Also get protection from poison for everyone who will stand in melee range, you can buy scrolls in Amerk..th..kan.. temple and a ring of anti-venom on Vongoethe body. This fight has two phases.

Phase one :

Abazingal is a humanoid warrior with Sword of Grief (deals additional high poison damage) and the cave is full of enemies. I strongly recommend tanking Abazingal with sorcerer / mage and having the party move counter-clockwise and clear the cave before focusing on the bhaalspawn. In some versions, if you hug north wall when entering, and move west as close to it as possible, then you can avoid the dialogue with Abazingal and clear his lair without tanking him.
The bhaalspawn himself uses HLA's like hardiness and whirlwind. Just a regular ToB fighter with a very good weapon.

Phase two

Abazingal knocks you all back (map wide aoe) heals, changes into blue dragon, and spawns another dragon -Tamah- to help him.. If you dont have high electricity resistance then you will get killed. Additionaly both dragons trigger their buffs, chain contingencies and start the fight. To take out their pfmw you first need to remove spell deflection and spell:immunity. Depending on what spell:immunity they pick use Ruby rays or warding whip.
Keep in mind that Abazingal has remove magic spells, which will screw your defenses. (either rebuff right after its done manualy, rebuff with a correctly pre-casted chain contingency or protect yourself from spell immunity : abjuration).

The best way to deal with this fight is to split the dragons up. As always my sorcerer tanked Abazingal (electricity resistance 127, pfmw, stoneskins, mirror images etc.) while rest of the party wiped Tamah outside Abazingals visual range! Keep in mind that Tamah does not have protections from stats drain. Having such tools allows you to annihilate her in several seconds.

When she is death, unleash hell on Abazingal. He will recast pfmw few times (has one in contingency too) dispells magic once or twice and reduces electrical resistance + he changes targets now and then. If you fight him long enough he will damage the ceiling and cause stalagmits to fall and cause earthquakes. Make sure not to kill him by level drain, stats drain or any other means. He has to trigger a dialogue on Near Death.

[Stworca]

Sendai, Eclipse party, Balthazar

Sendai

Now this fight is FUN! Every round a statue comes to life. Each statue is a high level NPC with HLAs. Each time a statue activates, two adds will come through western doors. If you kill one of the statues before a round ends, the next one will appear immediately. In total you need to defeat 7 high lvl clones of Sendai, 16 drow minions and sendai herself. Key to this fight is speed. Its easy to be overwhelmed, and getting hit by multiple damaging HLAs at once isnt healthy, especialy when they deal double damage. Before entering this chamber, quaff oils of speed, have everyone that is able to cast true sight, to dispel invisibility potions / spells. Have a spell sequencer and a sperr trigger both filled with secret words.

Here's the order that clones come to life and short tips on how to deal with them. Have one of your melee characters (and him alone) stop the trash mobs.

W 2 drow appear each time a clone activates.
NW priestess (breach - or not - and annihilate her)
SW thief (it might be activated 3rd, your true sights will dispel invisibility instantly, annihilate her)
SE mage (it might be activated 2nd. After her buffs pop, fire a sequencer. This will bring down Immunity : Divination and allow true sight to reveal her. One of warriors should use wand of breaching then to get rid of pfmw and you're free to kill her. If she has a contingency pfmw then switch weapons to non magical ones, or fire another breach from some source (this may delay you if you dont have a third person who can use breach). Eventualy inquisitors dispel magic may do the trick, but it dispells your buffs too! Watch out!. Warning! If she fires Immunity : Abjuration DO NOT use sequencer, instead use ruby ray of reversal. )
NE warrior (finish off the mage first, warriors are easiest enemies. Its the NPC that can be picked anytime, or left to be killed as last. You can tank her easily with the sorcerer while still breaching and dispelling everything in sight. Use the right contingencies and cast few more buffs before entering this room.)
N mage/priest (exactly the same as SE mage, but with trigger not sequencer - or vice versa, its up to you. Warning! If she fires Immunity : Abjuration DO NOT use sequencer, instead use ruby ray of reversal. )
E archer. Teleports around (this one is very annoying. But if the mage/priest from N still lives, ignore the archer for now.)
S thief (same as SW priest)
Middle : Sendai herself - mage/priest : Now is the big test. Depending on how many clones are left, the battle can be hard as hell, or barely noticable. Killing mages as first is crucial, cause they dispell buffs and can unleash hell with single spell. I always manage to get 5 or 6 out of 7 clones before Sendai appears. I leave the warrior alone cause it has much hp and it aint a big threat with right spellcasting. The thief is sometimes also alive when Sendai spawns, but it changes shortly after. Now... If you have two mages, or IA HLA skill, then simply fire ruby rays till her spell protections are gone, and follow up with breaches. Then kill her.

If you dont have enough spellpower, then slowly work on her shields, spread out when dragons breath is casted, and focus on the planetars if she summons them.

Eclipse Party (one mage)

This fight for some is one of the toughest of all encounters, mainly because you need to face 6 opponents who can ignore time stops (and the time stops very often). However, few things can make this encounter very, VERY easy, so i will just point them out, and keep it short.
- Time stops ("Total eclipses") happen at the end of every round.
- Everyone must be hastened, no matter how. Pause the game every 0,5s to spot any dragons breath that is about to get unleashed and get the hell out of its range. Unless you are protected from magical fire greatly.
- Your mage is the key. Place 3 emotion spells in Sequencer, place another 3 in trigger. Place 3 more in chain contingency. Emotion will disable the meleers effectively (see pic in my album) Aside from emotion, spells that are very good for this fight are : teleport field and sphere of chaos. As many as you can, one after another. During the time stops you will be hit much, much less frequently.. If at all.
- Alternative : 3 remove magic in sequencer, 3 emotions in trigger, 3 horrid wilings in chain contingency. Start the fight with sequencer on eclipse party. This will remove all their buffs. Contingency should fire now killing the shades and damaging the front liners.
With Spell Revisions : Emotion is removed and Teleport field allows enemy to save vs it, so malisions and doom spells are very important here. SR adds few spells to use in this fight however.. Ice storm, grease, acid fog. Unleash as many Teleport fields and Spheres of chaos as possible and add greases, ice storms or acid fogs. Should be way easier.
- Melee characters must die or be disabled asap. Its either this or wipe. Its as simple or as hard as that.
- It is possible that Eclipse party focuses on target with lowest hp, im not sure if its true, but if it is, just have your mage always with lowest hp and protect him with pfmw.

Balthazar

He is immune to time stop, but other then that no philosophy here, focus on Balthazar and kill him as fast as possible. The longer the fight goes the more difficult it may become. Dont use time stop cause he is immune to time-stop. Have superior potions ready at all times.
If he teleports away before you kill him, kill one of the adds while Balthazar will charge towards you. Note that he is immune to time stop! (did i mention that he's immune to time stop?)

If you want the last fight to be MUCH easier, try forming alliance with Balthazar instead of attacking him. You need a decent reputation and charisma or intelect + good aligment is a huge help. Siding with Balthazar makes last fight much easier.

[Stworca]

Amelissan part 1

Amelissan

And here we are, at the throne of blood. This is hell of a fight. No, this is hell! This fight has many stages, and more enemies. Lets try to get this over with.

Few Things that you may find usefull :

- Have as many items from the list at the beginning as possible.
- Have at least 10 superior healing potions in every chars quickslot.
- Remember that in this fight you will want to tank the mobs, not just survive them. This means - sadly - that pfmw is useless on the tank. (without SCSII or when playing solo this point can-and should-be skipped. That means If you DONT have SCSII or play as solo sorc / mage / whatever then simply tank everything with a mage using pfmw. Only Balthazar will switch targets if he has any others to attack.)
- Do NOT use time stops at all if you dont have Balthazar, and dont use them ever, under no circumstances in phase 4 and 5. (if you play solo this point can-and should-be skipped)
- If you have problems with keeping everyone alive. Try raising everyones fire and magic fire resistance to 100+ (127 preferably) and simply fight in Fire clouds, Fire storms, Meteor Swarms. With sunrays here and there, and with detonation club +5.
- Defender of Easthaven is an awesome tool, with Roranach's Horn and Armor of Faith you can raise Crushing resistance to 95% and to tank Yaga Shura. Your main character received +25% to all physical defenses in pocket plane, and barbarians have some too.. Combine those to get as close to 100% value as possible, but dont reach the hundret or mobs will switch targets (without SCSII enemies are unlikely to switch targets)
- Starting the fight with Improved Alacility for every high level mage, and simulacrum for everyone who can make one (including Vhailor helmet and scrolls) WILL help you greatly to win this one.
- If you're in need of spell restoration in phases 3,4 or 5. Wish may be your answer. Beware tho, cause the options are random and you may just waste a lvl 9 spell. 16+ wisdom is required to have a chance for "I want my party to fully re-memorise their spells" option.
- In phase 4 use the newly gained "Focus" once Melissan appears. She has one time stop and she tends to use it right after spawning. Focus will allow at least one of your characters to act in her time stop. It would be perfect if you manage to kite her during it.
- If you have Acid Katana (from Tactics - Kuroisan encounter) then melf acid arrows and death fogs will bring Yaga-Shura down in a hearthbeat!
- This fight is very chaotic in its worst phases, so i wont be able to tell you what exacly to do. Observe what is going on. Pause very, very often. Read the combat log. Good luck.

Ascension Phase one : Distant past.

When you appear Melissan is waiting for you already. She has few tricks to share, which she reveals slowly, phase after phase.
In this one you must face Irenicus (yet again), Imoen and Bodhi + 3 Fallen Devas. If you allied with Balthazar, he'll be on your side from now on.

- Imoen changes into slayer and attacks you, no matter if she is in your party or not. You can either kill her (not recommended) or kill everyone else, and then she will turn back to normal and rejoin you (if she was in your group) or escape (if not).
- Irenicus does nothing special, realy. Try not using any spells at all (aside from true sight for devas) it will be a test of some sorts for you.
- Bodhi.. If you're neutral or evil, with decent charisma and low reputation, you can convince her to join you. Also note : you cant have Balthazar with you if you want Bodhi. Regardless of what path you chose, joining her or fighting, she has all the abilities that she had during your last fight.
- Devas. They turn invisible making it annoying to kill them. Its a minor problem however.

Ascension Phase two : Lets get it started

Note : You can REST out of combat
Now you need to visit three pools (SW, SE and NE) examine them, fight guardians and disable them once demons are dead. With each disabled pool your party gets healed and your main character gets some special abilities / immunities. When you're done with 3rd pool, you'l get teleported and phase 3 will start. Before doing so, quick save, and if you have thieves, plant traps at x:1600 y:1050. Keep in mind : No time stop traps! Dont use time stop at all during this fight, unless you have Balthazar with you. Even then you can use them only in phases 1-3. If you don't have a thief, you can use delayed fireballs and skull traps instead.

Once guardians of the third pool are dead, and before disabling it, place mirror image blurr and stoneskin in triggers and sequencers. No pfmw! rest now for the last time, summon whatever you can and leave them where you appeared, create simulacrums, buff up (All the powerfull potions you have, then HLAs, then trigger it)..
Tip : if you start with NE pool, you can get a demon to fight for you in incoming encounter. Make sure however that it dies in phase 3, otherwise he'll be controled by Melissan

Ascension Phase three : Super Happy Smiling Band.. of bloodthirsty bhaalspawn

Sendai, Balthazar (Or Gromnir), Yaga Shura, Abazingal and Illasera. Yuppie!

On left wing :

Sendai (heals others, cast time stops, has many defensive spells)
Yaga Shura (99% damage resistance)

On right wing :

Abazingal (human form only, but gains spells! Fighter/Mage)
Balthazar (immune to time stop during "Lunar Stance") or Gromnir
Illasera (just like she was before, her arrows dispel)

And the big surprise..

Sarevok! He'll join Melissan if :
- You didnt take him with you.
- You didnt ask him to swear an oath but you failed at bringing him to goodness.
And here's another big surprise.. His weapon is NOT magical! Depending on which choices in Hell you made (SoA) and what armor your characters have, this may be very difficult turn of events. + he still has his deathbringer assault (its instant death).

This Phase is pretty hard, but it is just the beginning of this lovely encounter. Before we go any further you must first know about phase 4. Phase 4 starts after any of the bhaalspawn (including Sarevok - in some versions) die. This spawns Melissan. It would be perfect if you manage to kill Sendai, cause if she gets time stop in phase 4, in which Melissan works normaly!, you will die. Try damaging other Bhaalspawns as much as possible (thats why traps) before killing Sendai. Bringing few Bhaalspawn to Near Death before killing Sendai will reduce the difficulty of next phase GREATLY!
Now, if you have thieves, and you laid 7 traps on mentioned above spot, this might bring Abazingal to Badly Wounded or even Near Death. Balthazar will make most his saves. Illasera will get hurt somewhat too.
Once traps explode you send your summons to the right, to buy you time and damage the three further, while your party moves to the left, and the task at hand. Key to bring down Yaga Shura is Flail of Ages or a combo of greater malision - doom - harm (beware tho, for yaga hits very hard, you may want to tank him with Bodhi / mordenkeinen swords / with Roranachs Horn, Defender of Eastheaven and Armor of Faith.). However if you have Acid Katana (from Kuroisan encounter) then melf acid arrows and death fogs will bring Yaga-Shura down in a hearthbeat! If you use explosive traps on the right group, then there is a chance for some of them to be knocked back far away, and stay out of the fight unless you're in range again.

If your party members are tough even alone, it might be a good idea to split the Bhaalspawn up, so you can arrange 6 duels instead. I leave it up to you. When scattered far enough not to see other bhaalspawn / players they wont change targets when weapon is ineffective, and you can for example kill Illasera with physical mirror when they're scattered. Exceptions however are : Sendai, she teleports around the whole map, and Balthazar, who switches target every second.

If you have Balthazar with you, this phase is very easy if you just use as many time traps and time stops as possible, and damage all spawns while they stand frozen in time. Good characters have it easy mode.

When you feel that it is time, that the Bhaalspawn are enough damaged, protect yourself against confussion and hold, and kill Sendai (with non magical weapon its very easy)... let the party begin..

[Stworca]

Amelissan part 2

Ascension Phase four : Just how bad can it g... *reload*

Melissan hits like train.. No.. Trains hit like Melissan. On insane she can kill unprotected character in few blows (and has 10 attacks per round). She moves like lightning, ignores time stop, summons 2 fallen devas when spawning, controls every demon that you summoned by now, casts time stops on her own, casts meteor swarm, casts aoe stuns and aoe holds, and is invulnerable till all of her minions die. After one of her minions dies she is temporarily stunned and this will give your tank few seconds to recast a buff or two.
As you can see she IS tough, and she must be tanked. In addition, she must be tanked WITHOUT pfmw (once again, it applies only to SCSII enchanted Ascension fight. Also note, if every single one of your characters can use pfmw - use it!), so with stoneskins and mirror images alone or she will change targets. Try luring her away from your group using your tank. If Bodhi / Balthazar survived phase three, you can tank her using your helper.

This phase is all about killing every other Bhaalspawn before Melissan gets trough all protection skills of your tank. It would be perfect if you manage to get a simulacrum on to tank Melissan, this will give you much more.. MUCH more time and options.
Depending on how much hp do other bhaalspawns have, this phase can be very short and easy, or a nightmare. Do not attack melissan, she will heal herself when phase 5 starts. (If she is vulnerable to Soul Reavers THAC0 penalty - i have no idea if she is or not - then you may consider using it. Dont risk it however if you aint sure that it works)

Ascension Phase five : How many more aces do you have?! [url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/album.php?albumid=38&pictureid=219"]- Picture -[/url]

Last phase of this fight starts when all of the bhaalspawn die. Its rather easy compared to the hell you just went through but.. here we go..
First of all Melissan heals fully.
Second of all Melissan instantly summons a true army of minions. Alu-fiends, succubi, cambions.. you name it. Some of them are of high enough level to use HLA's. Killing the demons is generaly a bad idea, as Melissan continues to summon them infinitely.

She does not buff in any way, she doesnt cast any dangerous spell that you didn't see before. Depending on how many warriors you have, you might be able to just surround her, activate greater whirlwinds and chopp her to pieces in a matter of seconds. It is possible. Dragons Breath centered on Melissan will knock all the adds away, giving you more time. Make sure she doesn't run away, and once her hp reaches zero..

..Congratulations, You've just finished one of the most "badass" fights in RPGs

The End (for now)

Regards

[Stworca]

Bonus :

Tactics "Gnome Fighter/Illusionist in Docks" fight video.
Soloed by a rank 14 sorcerer.
Obtaining Celestial fury with SCSII on Insane.
Rank 13ish party.
Tactics "Lich in the docks", with nearly no spells left after previous bosses.
The same party as when fighting Gnome, five minutes later.
"Demon Wraith. SCSII + Insanity
Rank 14ish party. No thief.
SCSII only - Six Glabrezu Summoners. Watcher's Keep encounter.
Rank 16ish party, no lvl 8 spells used.
Saladrex the Red Dragon (SCSII + Insanity)
Same as above.
Watcher's Keep own : Spellcasting Demi-Lich (SCSII + Insanity)
Solo sorcerer. Level 18.

[appo13]

You are an AWSOME FREAKY BA***RD

But I LOOOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (for this^^)

[Stworca]

As long as it helps, im happy

I might add Impr. Anvil guide to it in the future, not the nearest one tho (i realy dont enjoy this mod + dont have the time till late november)

Regards

[appo13]

I got a question about imrpoved spellhold, since my party will arive there tomorrow^^:

It is the spellhold, my character have usually around 2.300.000 XP points when i arrive there. Now you speak about inc clouds, chain contingencies and meteor swarms, as well as dragon breaths, which means that you were OVER 3.000.000 Xp when arriving there. How did you do so? Ok if you played 4 player party.... but iam playing 6 players, since I followed your tipps:

Sorcerer, Anti Paladin, Talos (dualled ASAP=), Wizardslayer (dualled thief), Vici (omg she is SOOO nice with magic resist 90 atm!!!!) and a kensi (dualled mage).
Shall I clean watchers ceep before going for spellhold? Or will the 2.300.000 XP be enough.
I not shure weather there are any scrolls of inc cloud or chain cont to find so i could cast them from scolls?

How to solve it at all. Will cleric spell "fire storm" do? Vici go it!

[Stworca]

No no, my party sorc did not have any other lvl 8 spell then incen cloud, and none lvl 9 spells. I just wrote down what spells can work on Breu.
You need at least one from mentioned AoE damage over time spells (Or Dragons Breath). If you dont have any of those, then the only hope is mentioned Chain Contingency with 3 pierce shields followed by some other high level AoE spells (like horrid willings). Breu is not immune to pierce shield spell, but it is not possible to cast it on him in any other way than Chain Conf (invisible whole time). I guess that this part was misleading, i'll re-write it later today. Once again, you dont need anything higher lvl then Incen Clouds.

[url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/album.php?albumid=38&pictureid=222"]Here's[/url]how it should look like. (note, that there is no damage taken, this is because of 100+ resistance to fire and magic fire. Make sure to be hastened however, for one magic dispell made by Breu, and you're fried)

I do recommend going to WK before Spellhold and Underdark, if only for the items. Esp. if you'll go to improved Ust'Natha! Also, before you sail to Asylum visit every single alchemist for oils of speed, potions of magic protection etc .

Fire storm will work, but you will need quite a bunch of those (last only 4 rounds, so will damage Breu only once) Incen are by far the best spell here (10 rounds, that means Breu will get damaged 2,5 times per cloud)

Remember to deal with Dwarf, and lock the ranger before trying anything

[appo13]

Well thank you so much for that tipps. I guess with my sorc I shall get at least one lv 8 psell at 2.250.000 XP if i remember correctly. And now the other problem: When I reach WK the improved read madge will trigger wont it? Or does is trigger at 3.000.000? Red Badge without these highlevel spells sounds a bit MORE impossible (I did it a few times and always got around 4.000.000 when entering, busting their asses with chain con 3 horrids and timestops)

So this sounds like:" OK; ONE problem is solved, what about the next?"^^

I gues I will have around 2.100.000 on all character when completed whole quests in Alkthla and around as well as ALL the items and all lichs and dragons beaten (they already are).

[Stworca]

Red Badge will trigger only when you rest, or after you exit WK -twice-

And yes, i believe you also have to have 3 000 000 xp. But dont quote me on that, it may be 2 000 000.

As for the encounter itself, its hard only if you -dont- have protection from poison. There's ring of gaxx, and a necklage in SoA + scrolls / spells, ewentually potions of health.

What i normaly do is clearing WK up to Demogorgon (but not himself) to get gloves of extra-ordinary specialisation and wish scroll, and leave to Spellhold. Later in ToB, after Gromnir, i finish Demogorgon, Ritual and Red Badge.

[appo13]

I finally owned the spellhold party and am facing an even BIGGER problem now:

What to do with this GODLY equipment. This isnt cheese anymore this is imbalanced BULL****. Now I see myself finding out, what is "ok that cheese like venca or kurisans katana" or "this is absolute IMBA GODSTUFF that will make the game a never seen easy ambush".

I got a few bugs fighting the party and spellhold before. One was a room full of 15 pitfiends ???? with 2 lichs. It seems the fiends summoned more and more other fiends, while I were fighting a room with 25 UMBER elber hulks, each giving me 25000 XP. Each of my party member got 1.000.000 XP after i cleaned the room with inc cloud and fire storm... BUG? When fighting the party the game laaged like helly ****, forcing my party to walk 5 feeth per round... at least vici tanked the drow with 100 magic resist and protection from imprisonment while prject images and my mage did what your tactic said.


UFFF, what a fight. Now I got so much cheese stuff and think am not to use it... sigh**** how pitty