Balthazars seemingly invincibility...

[Thakrintiz]

I've soloed through SoA with a Priest of Talos lvl 14/Mage lvl 27

And so far there has been NOTHING that could stop me (Through all of SoA and ToB just till Balthazar of course

In ToB however i took Sarevok with me...
I just couldnt stand for the idea of fufilling your destiny brother-and-brother!

But it's not like I'm using Sarevok for much other than cut down on the resting by letting him kill Drows, Beholders etc. etc. etc.


One thing that must be said though...
Since i was looking for a challenge i installed David Gaiders, or whatever his name is, patches for original tougher Bhaalspawns...
Now the only places this cause my REAL trouble was at Balthazar
Another thing...
Since this is my first time through ToB please dont reveal anything about the ending and such...


Here's a quick list of what Balthazar does with the patch installed:
(Some of this might be normal for him... i never saw him without the patch so dont flame me for mentioning anything ordinary about him)


Stunning Blow - Monk Ability (Countered by free action(?))
Quivering Palm - Monk Ability (countered by Deathward)
Lunar Stance - Casts magic missile (5 missiles) and then Bigby's crushing hand (No save)(Countered by Spell Immunity - Evocation)
Shadow Stance - Improved Invis
Solar Stance - Much like the spell Sunfire, except that this also works as a Dragon's Wing Buffet. (Countered by Spell Imminity - Evocation(that also prevents knockback))
Shadowless Kick - Works like a Dragon's Wing Buffet, but affects only one (No known form of counter)
90% invincibility to all forms of attack except physical (Natural(That's actually impossible, according to REAL rules))
Chant - Confers about 90% resistance to physical attacks(Countered by Breach)
Faster Than The Eye - Sorta small version of Teleport, transports him some place in the battlefield very fast...
Dragon's Fist - No idea
Hand of Murder - No idea

This is all i can think of right now...
I may have left out some stuff...

Oh yeah he also has 4 or 5 other monks helping him (they are called Adherents, whatever that is

Now i found a good way to handle the first bit of this battle:
1, Spell Trigger - Lower Resistance 3x on Balthazar
2, Maze on Balthazar (For some weird reason Imprisonment doesnt work, which i think is a load of bull)
3, Kill all the other friggin monks! (They have stunning blow AND quivering palm)
4, Maze Balthazar again should he return
5, After other monks are dead cast pocket plane(Balthazar's resistance are el grande CHEESE, so if he plays cheese, i play cheese(i dont normally do this(oh BTW heres a nice way to use thief traps for real, instead of that cheap@$$ smack down all traps and then initiate dialogue: Simply Maze the target then you'll have time to place about 4 or 6 traps ina a more "legal way"))
6, Rest and regain spells, make new triggers contingencies etc. etc. etc.
7, Go back and do what must be done to Bally...
I just havent been able to yet...



I found that since he has all those cheesy resistance to magic damage and fire etc. you can just use ALL the LOW level spells...
Such as the clerics magic stone, magic missile, fire arrow(its good cuz it does damage in many small portions, and therefore Bally's resistance doesnt reduce it much more), Blizzard, Incindary Cloud(place 3 in contingency and use Spell Immunity - Evocation)...

I took him down a nice lot by this tactic (Project Image, then have image cast Improved alac. and fire away). But then he starts teleporting around the place quaffing a seemingly infinite supply of superior healing potions and using lay on hands about 4 times (which is impossible since it's a once a day skill)... I tried using energy drain on him about 9 times which sohuld drain 18 levels(which sohuld bring him down to about level 16-20)That didnt work either.

The battle window didnt even display anything like:
Balthazar- Magic Resistance
or
Balthazar- Spell Ineffective
or anything like that...

Also...
All of the above abilities is something he can use about every 3 rounds...
Planetars dont work well either since they are stunned instantly...
(never saw any saves made...) and then killed outright
When i try using Sarevok Against him he just fires about 5 lunar stances and that pretty much toasts anything...
Also i dont think the sword "The Answerer+4" works as it should (every hit drains 15 magic resistance and 2 AC)
Demon summoning doesnt help either... demons seems to have stopped caring about protection from evil in ToB, besides Bally eats them in literally seconds...

If you have ANY idea as to what might be done please post it...
It seems pretty hopeless.... i've been trying for 3 days in a row now...

PS:
I have tried Slayer Shapechange, and it didnt work well... he just uses chant and then all attacks are pointless...
if you use time to dispel it with a wand of spell striking (which i have becom quite fond of) you use the "safe" time in which you can be the slayer w/o loosing hps...

Thanks in Advance

[Xyx]

Power Word: Blind? Blindness immunity is incredibly rare. In fact, I think only Jan's glasses give it.

[frudi]

hm, i had some serious problems with that fight when i soloed it for the first time (with a kensai/mage). he just teleported himself away and healed up whenever i got him beyond 'injured'; i thought he had an endles suply of healing potions and spells...
but finally my persistance payed off and after about half an hour's worth of running around he seemed to finally run out of spells. then i just whacked him to death...

so from my experience, he does eventually run out of healing spells/potions, chants, moon/solar stances and all the other cheese that he pulls on you (either that or the ai forgets to use them after a while ).
the only trick is surviving long enough... mainly make sure you're immune to death magic (quivering palm), stun (stunning blow) and have the lowest possible AC (well, not to get hit as much ). i also remember i relied a lot on simulacrums and mordenkeinen's swords in that fight, also planetars/devas to show me where he's moved when invisible.

hm, one thing that also just popped into my mind - maybe using a protection from magic scroll on him might prevent him from using his abilities, if they're considered as spells. never tried this, but it might be worth a shot, if you still have any of those scrolls on you...


and then... you can also install the Ascension mod where you have the option not to fight balthazar... but then the finall battle will be much harder (a lot harder than the fight with balthazar in my experience) and since it's your first time through ToB it's probably better to try out the original ending first.

[UserUnfriendly]

i believe prot from magic works the same way as tensors transform spells, you cannot even cast preset spell triggers....

that definately would work, just have savvy whack to death as teh scroll protects him from your spells...

id try going in with multiple spell immunites up and running, including spell immunity divination and mislead up and running( this will make you immune to most spells), increased acutiy and try for a cheap kill...he sounds mmune to imprisonment, so he is probably immune to timestop as well. with increased acuity try to hit uhim with spell triggers to drop his shields and malison him, and hit with chain contingency that includes khelbens waridng whip, this might break his script, causing his ai to try to restore spell protections giving you 3 free rounds, while in acuity uload every spell you have that bypasses magic resistance. I know dragon breath is one, load up on that, i think earthquake and implosion are two more, and try multiple bolts of glory. hit him too with holy smites and pword stun, that should blind him.

[UserUnfriendly]

and if you get really pissed, give yourslef his abilities via sk!!!

blathazar abilites is one of the few that if you use avatar, fighter, his abiliteis can be used by pc...

i didnt like them, since i first htought they were high level fighter abilites renamed, but lunar stance looks GOOD...

or give yourslef giggle, the 8th level innate ability anti magic ray, this will punch thru all his defenses, and miscast magic for 3 rounds....

shadowless kick might be countered by RING of free action, the ring, not spell gives you many more immunites and benefits...totally protects you from stun effect of psionic blast, and symbol stun effects and tanari death gaze...

somebody looked up the ring in infinity and found its way better than the spell...

[Delita]

What I did to keel that sucker:

Nalia with power amulet and Vecna robe

Time Stop
Improved Alacrity
Horrid Wilting 6 times
Summon Djinni

Imoen

Time Stop
Improved Alacrity
Dragon Breath
Horrid Wilting

It took out ALL of his monk buddies. I'm not sure that it did much damage to Balthazar himself but... He died pretty damn fast.

My main character the Holy Avenger +6 with Whirlwind and Valyger with Argundal or something like that and Foebane with whirlwind and Jaheira with Spectral brand and whirlwind porlly killed him though.

Quivering palm and all that junk didn't do anything to me. Even that horde of monks outside barely touched me.