In the vanilla game:
5 waves of Cowled Wizards spawn before the last guardians (Zallanora & co) arrive. Zallanora (from what I know) is a powerful lich, that has taken over the body of a female elf and is the leader of the Cowled Wizards.
The vanilla Zallanora chains 3 Time stops and several other spells, and if not killed quickly, will escape during the third Time Stop via Dimension Door. All Cowled Wizards, including Zallanora, have the chance to drop powerful (and very hard to find otherwise) spell scrolls.
A little known fact is that if your reputation is too low, and you get ambushed by Amnish patrols (which include Cowled Wizards), then afterwards even if you restore your reputation, and cast a spell on the streets, no Cowled wizard will chase you. That, of course, disables Zallanora too.
In improved anvil 5.0.:
There are 5 waves of 'regular' Cowled Wizard enforcer suqads of 4. By 'regular' you should not imagine those easy-to-slay vanilla wizards. The Anvil ones are at least level 18 each (well, maybe one is a little less leveled), and are immune to the thieves' traps that serve so well in slaying the vanilla Cowled wizards on appearance. Well. they're not immune to Time trap, but that's all. All of these suqads come well buffed: two with SI:Abjuration and other protective buffs, two with SI
![Big Grin :D](./images/smilies/)
ivination and illusion buffs.
Well, a picture is worth more than a thousand swords:
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216445.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216446.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216447.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216448.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216449.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216450.jpg
Luckily, the only one HLA those guys use is Summon Fallen Planetar, which is bad enough, especially vs good-aligned spellcasters, since the first action of the Planetar is usually Unholy Word that gives automatic 50% spell failure for 1 turn. The Cowled wizards have and will use if needed things like ADHW, Death Fog, Breaches, high-level Remove Magic, Ruby Rays of Reversal, Mordy Swords, etc. Moreover, several of them are resistant to physical damage, and magic resistant too.
Here is an example of what is like the battle with Zallanora:
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216505.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216506.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216507.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216508.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216509.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216510.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216511.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216512.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216513.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216514.jpg
http://www.picbg.net/u/29969/19878/216515.jpg
To put it simply: Zallanora is either level 30 or 31. She appears with illusion buffs and SI
![Big Grin :D](./images/smilies/)
ivination, is highly damage resistant, and regenerates. She has 5 or 6 Protection from Magical Weapon spells, and uses other high-level wizard spells in combat if not pressed to take care of her own defense. This means that only a higher-level spellcaster has any chance to dispel her buffs via Remove/Dispel magic. Someone would mention Keldorn now. No. Improved anvil nerfs Inquisitors and their Dispel magic is not that good anymore (not to mention that a badly targeted Dispel Magic will leave party members with no buff protection and thus immediately dead). And Carsomyr/SoTM don't dispel magic on hit either.
Moreover, each couple of rounds appear 1-2 more Cowled wizards and 1-2 Coin Golems (coin golems are immune or highly resistant to everything except melee Piercing damage by weapons with at least +3 enchantment- meaning that if a character with a good piercing +3 shortsword and strength of 25 hits them, they will take 6-7 points of damage - and they have around 150-200 hp or mb more, not sure). The additional enemy gating stops when both Zallanora and Kolynuus Paac (the other 'named' wizard) are slain - then all you have to do is deal with the rest.
The battle is fun, once the tactic has been developed, but it's still not an easy one to win, that's for sure.