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Beholder Dungeon **Spoilers**

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 1:03 pm
by jstattel
I am currently in the Underdark and I'm trying to get through the Beholder dungeon. I'm at the point were there is a massive fight with what seems to be about 600 (okay, maybe 5) beholders and the same number of gauths. I have tried and reloaded about 15 times to take these guys out, but I continually get HOSED. I've tried summoning elementals, skellie warriors, mass invisibility, buffing keldorn, candy/flowers and nothing seems to work.

My party:
main char (swash 7/mage 14)
keldorn
immy
minsc
anomen

Jahiera ditched us midway through the Kuo Toa dungeon. Nice gal!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 1:54 pm
by UncleScratchy
Do you have the bonus shops?

There are two items that really come in handy here. If you have the Adventurers Mart bonus shop (either from the BGII Collector's Edition or by downloading it from one of the many BG2 related sites) you can purchase the Shield of Balduran+3. It reflects Beholder rays. The other item you could have picked up in Sahaugin City was the Cloak of Mirroring. I believe its on the body of one of the rebel gangs that attacks you. Anyway it reflects all spell damage back to the source (unless you have ToB installed which weakened it a bit). Perhaps you missed it. (It's a good idea to kill all the Sauhaugins and loot their bodies regardless of which side you initially side with.) Either of these items pretty much allows the wearers to walk up to the beholders and gauths and just stand there as they kill themselves with their reflected spells. Without one or the other of these items you will have to resort to other tactics like Cloudkill spells and summoned elementals. Also go to GameBanshee's home page and click on the BG2 link. There you will find tactic guides for dealing with various creatures. If you want more ideas use the Search function to find old threads dealing with this subject.

Try this link: Beholders

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 2:33 pm
by jstattel
LIke a dope, I equipped Jahiera with the cloak before she hit the trail! I didn't think it would be a problem, so I didn't save at the appropriate time.

Thanks for the link. I'll try some of those tonight!

Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 2:56 pm
by VonDondu
If you have the Cloak of Mirroring or the Shield of Balduran, then the Beholders don't stand a chance. But if you don't have those items, you can expect a pretty tough fight.

Even if you cast a lot of protection spells on your party, the Beholders can dispel them, so don't count on 100% protection. Still, you can try to avoid Hold spells, poison damage, death spells, and petrification if you have the right scrolls and spells. You also need to watch out for Imprisonment, which the Elder Orbs can cast. If you don't have a Berserker or a Scroll of Protection from Magic, about the only thing you can do is try to kill them without getting close to them.

You need to disrupt the Beholders' spellcasting any way you can, and you need to inflict as much damage as you can as quickly as possible. To accomplish the former, I like to use Spook, Glitterdust, and Emotion (preceded by Doom and/or Greater Malison). To inflict lots of damage quickly, I like to use Fireball/Sunfire, Skull Trap, and Glyph of Warding. Hasted Fighters with Potions of Giant Strength can certainly help, as well, but watch out for Remove Magic, Death Spell, Flesh to Stone, and Hold spells. Summoned monsters might help, but they won't do you any good if you plan to use area effect spells like Fireball, which will hurt your own helpers.

The first room is probably the hardest, because you walk right into a Death Tyrant and a Beholder without any chance to prepare for battle or to position yourself strategically. The other groups of Beholders are bigger, but they might be easier to deal with if you use stealth and scout the area before you attack them. You can also let the Drow war parties soften them up.

I just took a look at the Beholder strategies page, and aside from the cheese (for example, using an item that makes you invincible or casting Cloudkill off the screen to kill monsters who just sit there taking damage), there was one major error: Beholders are immune to Web/Hold/Entangle/Grease/etc. If you use those spells, all you will do is waste a round, endanger your own party, and make the Beholders angry. :)

When you use the Cloak of Mirroring, you can see what works against Beholders and what doesn't when their own spells get bounced back to them. For example, they are susceptible to Petrification, Charm/Domination, and I think the Death spell and maybe Cause Serious Wounds, but they are not affected by Hold or Slow. From what I can tell, they don't have any special immunities and they don't use protection spells, so there's no need to cast Breach, Pierce Magic, Lower Resistance, etc. (Except for Elder Orbs, which do have 50% magic resistance.) And they are always susceptible to physical damage if you can last long enough against them to hit them.

Good luck!

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 4:34 am
by boo's daddy
Minsc is your friend! Haste, strength potion, all protections you can muster (esp petrification and death), some cannon fodder for distraction (project image style stuff too), send 'im berserk and watch the eyestalks fly! If you can get Keldorn in on the act, all the better.

IIRC, it's possible to lure some of them off so you don't have to take 'em all out at once.

Pity about Jaheira, cos they don't like summon insects at all.

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 9:35 am
by fable
You might consider using an editor to get that cloak back, you know. :)

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 10:02 am
by lompo
Originally posted by jstattel
I am currently in the Underdark and I'm trying to get through the Beholder dungeon. I'm at the point were there is a massive fight with what seems to be about 600 (okay, maybe 5) beholders and the same number of gauths. I have tried and reloaded about 15 times to take these guys out, but I continually get HOSED. I've tried summoning elementals, skellie warriors, mass invisibility, buffing keldorn, candy/flowers and nothing seems to work.

My party:
main char (swash 7/mage 14)
keldorn
immy
minsc
anomen

Jahiera ditched us midway through the Kuo Toa dungeon. Nice gal!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!


Jaheira died and you didn't resurect her?
And maybe you also had a romance with her?
And you are playing a very good aligned party?
Sorry, but from a role-playing point of you ther is something wrong with your behaviour, and you will also miss a great Char..

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 10:02 am
by jstattel
Thanks for the info. I went to an earlier saved game, switched the cloak from Jahiera to Keldorn and went to town. Between Carsomyr and the cloak, lets just say it was a bad night to be a beholder. Thanks again for the advice.

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 11:06 am
by jstattel
No, Jahiera didn't die. She is waiting patientlyfor her beloved (me!) at the Harper hideout.

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 3:12 pm
by Coot
I know this is a bit after the fact because you already beat those beholders but I'd like to give my two cents anyway...
The spell I used to beat them was Confusion. The gauths especially seem to be susceptible to that.