I stepped in it

clacka · Post by **clacka** » Tue May 07, 2002 10:11 am

So I am wandering around the bridge district for the first time minding my own business right, when I come across a trapped door, die, reload, remove trap, pick lock, open and WHOOOSH! I am in what I learn later is the twisted rune.

I quick save and then enter a room in which I am facing the devil incarnate and some cronies of his.

So here is the question. I could reload and just avoid this area, but after the tenth time of getting my entire party wiped out, it is getting personal, so I am willing to get a little advice from you folks as to how to make it out alive.

I have a paladin, Jaheira, Nalia, Airie, Minsc, and Viconia with a pretty good mix of spells. The time stop is what is killing me.

Any advice?

clacka · Post by **clacka** » Tue May 07, 2002 10:14 am

my apologies

Just realized that posting the same message on two different boards (SoA and ToB) is not only useless, but probably annoying. Won't happen again. Rookie mistake. Feel free to ignore or flame both.

Ignorance of the law...and all that.

GNGSpam · Post by **GNGSpam** » Tue May 07, 2002 10:19 am

The "easy" way to beat them is.

When Shanglar warps in, beeline for the top left out of his sight range. Kill the beholder as soon as it warps in, and the vampire too. Chick at top right casts time stop and casts meteor swarm and gates a demon in. Run to the bottom when time stop ends, kill the other guy.

Demon gates in, begins killing the spell caster because she forgot protection from evil. Let them duke it out, then run up there and finish her off, and then fight Shangalar alone.

To make it even cheesier, put traps at spawn points.

But thats just if you want to get by them. There is a patch ive heard which fixes some of the cheesier elements of the battle making it that much harder to cheese your way through.

clacka · Post by **clacka** » Tue May 07, 2002 10:31 am

Wow, that is cheesy, but effective

I will definitely try to see if that works for me.

What I have been doing (as I have modified my approach over the ten or so times I have tried to beat them) is to:

1. Fill the first room with as many pets (total of 5) and berserker warriors (total of 1) as I can.
2. Enter the second room with full party.
3. When Shanglar warps in, pause, target with everything I can, unpause, unload on Shanglar.
4. Shanglar then "beams" over to the first room and gets chewed on by my pets. They actually continue to do some damage.
5. Send everyone after chick in upper right to try to stop her from time stopping. (usually doesn't work).
6. Reload because the world came crashing down and people started dying.

Your way seems much easier.

Is there a way to cast spells faster? Will hasting do that?

Glod · Post by **Glod** » Tue May 07, 2002 11:48 am

Well you can cast with lower delay by way of amulet of power or robe of vecna, but the only way to to cast more than 1 spell/round (besides triggers or contingencies of course) is the 10th level improved alacrity whcih you likely don't have.

The biggest thing IMO is to take down the beholder ASAP.

GNGSpam · Post by **GNGSpam** » Tue May 07, 2002 12:01 pm

In nearly every battle a Beholder/Hive Mother should be your first priority. Secondly, dont mess with the chick up top, just try to escape the Meteor Swarm with as little damage as possible and let the Demon she gates keep her busy.

Cram your pets in the entrance where Shangalar is but dont hang around to fight him. You can get out of his sight range, and then he is a non-entity in the fight. If you throw down some traps, by the time you get back to him he will be Injured and have wasted his best spells on the pets.

Dont waste your pets in the main room. The Meteor storm alone will annihlate most of them.

Mini Me · Post by **Mini Me** » Tue May 07, 2002 12:04 pm

Pulling and fireballs

I run in with my hasted dude, trigger Shandy, then run back into the little room. Shandy beams in there, but none of the others can see u, so kill him (daystar reccomended, protect urself from confusion and fear so that your peeps dont run into the big room), then fire a AoE spell (fireball or Smite) into the bottom left and pull the Beholder and Vampire into your room. Kill them using Shield of Balduran and a Simulacrum of urself with daystar again. While this has been happening, the mage has summoned her fiend, released her storm, and one of them has died and her Protections have run off..run in and eliminate her/it

GNGSpam · Post by **GNGSpam** » Tue May 07, 2002 12:10 pm

Same principle, different order.

I think im going to try the improved Twisted Rune battle, supposedly it fixes the protection from evil problem and makes the battle more challanging as a whole. Itd be nice

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Tue May 07, 2002 2:44 pm

you know all the fun things you can do with staff of magi, break target lock and attack, reequipp and go invisible?? and how for the rest of the round even if the enemy has true sight up and running you have 2-3 free attacks and can cast a spell???they do that in the improved twisted rune!!!!

as the author of the truely cheap twisted rune tactic...project image and put 5 dealy blast fireballs in each spwan point, thus only blast lich with minsc and azuredge...i went in brash and ****y and had my head handed to me 4 times!!!

finally, had tashia nd bun bun stack about 6 dragon breaths under greater acuity...messy and cheap, but this killed the mage with staff...he becomes top priority since the hive mother can be had with standard triple abu dahzim in chain contingency...

even with hacked and overpowered sorcerors the improved twisted rune is hard...

already had a taste of the improved mind flayers..yummy and very challenging...

turned down diffuculty to core, first time since bun bun version 1...wow....

those stinking mind flayres go invisible, and like demons can see invisible...icky...

for even more fun, try the arch lich in kangaxx...superb loot, well worth it...

Littiz · Post by **Littiz** » Wed May 08, 2002 4:28 am

It's not that the mage forgets to cast Prot. from Evil, the Staff of Magi should grant it to her.

The Solaufein mod fixes this and should make the battle a lot harder.

decadurabolin · Post by **decadurabolin** » Wed May 08, 2002 11:19 am

Cast 2 or 3 Morken's sword near the stairs, cast true seeing, then send everyone out of the small alley and into the room. Once in the room, direct a fast hacking fighter immune to level drain down to meet the vampire. Direct someone with spell turning, Baldurian shield or Relfection cloak up to meet the beholder. Have your mage cast cloud kill or incendiary cloud at the area where the enemy mage will spawn out, make sure you move the mage some where up, alway from the enemy fighter.

Morkens sword should get rid of Shangalar when he teleports there, True seeing is important as both shangalar and the mage will turn invisible via mislead or shadow door. The cloud will disrupt her spell casting, vampire is not a problem if you are immune to level drain, beholder is the one you should take down fast, that fighter is just a pest. Secret word and breach is needed to take down the mage's defense.

decadurabolin · Post by **decadurabolin** » Wed May 08, 2002 11:35 am

One summon Deva/Fallen deva with one Morken sword will also do. Seems like I do it differently with others, my party rush out instead of camp in.