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ok, i'm in the rift area of the Unseen Eye quest and Ive answered the 3 questions on the bridge. The bridge repaired itself and i go to cross and get HAMMERED by three (3!) beholders!

I can take one of em out if im lucky before half my party is wiped out.

I may be stupid, but I cant seem to figure out how to kill these things while protecting my guys from gettin slaughtered.

thanks for any help u can give.

<D>

Beholders.... ( minimal spoiler)

Well, you may not have a party that can challenge them yet. The anti-magic ray is the real beast, because it makes spell casting on them extremely hard, and they're practically uninterruptable as well as highly magic resistant

Basically, there are some items available in the game that can help a lot with these guys, but there is soom room for dealing with them without, using techniques like:
Anything which does damage either rapidly or while you're safely out of range
Dragging them onto traps using a mage with all the spell immunity/ turn/ deflections possible, or even possibly pets
Waves of pets (particularly uncharmable ones) to distract them while you use AoE attacks like cloudkill, etc. can help.
Scrolls and potions of protection against magic can help, as well as resistance buffs against their attacks
Level 7 Spells help A LOT *cough* sequencers & swords *cough*

Remember, you can wear them down, you don't have to kill them all at once - but be ready to need a resurrection or two

3 words: Shield of Balduran.

The thing is designed for the sole-purpose of kililng beholders. Cloak of Mirrors will work too but it's just so much cooler to use the shield. Same reason why I always put on full dragon slayer gear when I take on dragons.

...though some people consider it too cheesy, it certainly takes away most of the challenge in fighting beholders. Does installing the tactics mod with "smarter beholders" from Weimer balance the gameplay a little more even when your character has the shield or cloak? (I wonder...)

I would accept that cloudkililng dragons and such could be considered cheesy but when an item whose sole stated purpose is to defeat an enemy, I think it's safe to say it's not. I mean, that's saying Mace of Disruption +2 is cheesy.

But it depends if you're making 'cheese' an issue of player skill. The shield removes the skill of taking on beholders.. Laying traps, backstabbing, summoned skeletons and so on. It makes it much less the epic battle, and more a place your single tank has to take rather more slowly than walking.

It depends on how you play I suppose, and the depth of your gaming morals. It doesn't sound like you're equipped for the encounter. You could leave now and get the cloak or shield, or you could try memorizing more spells and resting there, or you could stow the quest's items in the face near the spiders and come back later with more experience and NPCs. *shrugs*

Having the shield and putting on a cloak of mirroring on your 2 best fighters is the way to go... that was I did the first time I had problems with beholders.

If your party is still low-level, you may like to gain a few more levels before completing the quest.

Yes, I agree, it does depend on how you play. But I also choose not to not cast (don't you just love double negatives?) any dispel magic or breech because it will take away the "skills" required by my fighter to hack through layer after layer of magical protection. Ultimately, as you said, it comes down to how you want to play. I personally found it a lot more fun and somewhat challenging to save up for a balduran's shield and then rain down blow after blow at the beholders with impunity than to spend an extra two or three hours going through the same battles with the dozens of beholders throughout the game.

Don't sweat it... I used the shield too. *thumbs up grin*

NB - Shield of Balduran is only available if you have the bonus merchants (see reference crossroads if you don't have them) - the Cloak of Cheese is later in the game.

My main point is that you probably can beat them without that stuff and at lower levels - it's just quite a bit harder. Me? I used the shield last time (I did that fight in Chapter 2)

Yeah, but..

The Helm is also a bonus merchant item.
Dang! Diedre sells some nice gear, eh?

Anyway, the beholder problem is fairly easily solved if you have suitable gear and/or level 7 spells available, but I believe you can do it with nothing more than level 5 spells.

In any case, don't feel bad - my first time through, Beholders squashed me like a bug,,,,I kept hearing faint echoes of "Butt kicking...for Eeeeevil!" as my party crumbled into dust around me.

I just use a few Cloudkills, a few Fireballs, and a few skeletons as decoys. Play around with those three components and you should be able to make it past.

Spoiler:

One problem to be aware of with the Shield of Balduran (SOB?) is that it doesn't stop Imprisonment. This is not a problem with the regular Beholders in the Unseeing Eye quest, but those Elder Orbs in the Underdark and the Fear Test in Hell cast imprisonment like nobody's business.

I found this out the had way last night when I sent Hotshot Anomen off by himself and went to get a snack. I came back and he wasn't in my party anymore. Took me awhile to figure out what had happened.

Fire Elementals + haste = dead beholders If you got enough of'em that is....and stay back out of sight.

cheesy spoiler














that bridge in the unseeing eye???

send one buffed mage with a fully charged wand of cloudkill, spell shield, (stops anti magic ray) deathward, spell turning

up the platform, do NOT answer riddles, thus the beholders cannot get to you, start sending out cloudkills, and nuke them without them ever even able to get to you...

hhehehhehhehehh

The way i did it...

I sent in 1 fire elemental to them and let him take them down, as he seems to be imune to their rays. 1 fire elemental isn't very hard to get as it's fairly early i nthe game if you have jahiera or another druid in your party. An aerial servant is also good if you have a cleric.

If you're just facing gauths, just cast Protection from Electricity and Spell Immunity: Necromancy on your heavy hitter and send him in, or send in some skellies/fire elementals.

However, if you've got beholders, whip out that Shield of Balduran. In the first round, they dispel all protections with their @#%@ anti-magic ray (which also scrambles magic for the next two rounds or so) while casting Death Spell to get rid of your summons and hitting you with an average of two nasty rays per round. Cheesy beholders deserve to get nailed with cheese.