The Twisted Rune.....GAH!

Malykor · Post by **Malykor** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:17 pm

The Twisted Rune in the Bridge district is driving me insane. I'm having a hell of a time defeating those guys. My current party levels are around 14 or 15. Anyone use any sort of specail tacticts here? I had no problem with either of the dragons. (Which I have my own tactic for.......casting Gate with Viconia, "run and hide", then pummel the dragon to death after his spells wear off and the pit fiend is dead. I lost maybe a total of 20 hitpoints doing it this way) But that tactic doesn't work here

Should I just wait until my levels are higher? I need that bloody staff for my main character! Any tips would be grateful.

Kambion · Post by **Kambion** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:36 pm

tell us more about party
you have already passed through underdark? do you have this nice cloack, that reflects all the magic damage?

i defeated them rather simply. I started the battle, my warriors dealed with vampire and thief (of course, viconia casted a lot of protection on them). While warriors fought them my mages (me, imoen and edwin) were casting abi-dal-i-don't-remember-the-full-name horror bla-bla-bla on the entrance to the hall. This spell does a lot of damage and doesn't affect party members, so it simpy killed everyone but the girl-wizard with the staff of magi. Of course she is rather tought but not enough to defeat 6 characters.

omg, or abi-dal horror is available only in ToB? i am not sure.

whtever you can use cloudkill and smth like it. Good luck

sorry for bad english )

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:38 pm

We've had a number of threads deal with this. Do an advanced search on the word twisted in this forum.

Malykor · Post by **Malykor** » Wed May 04, 2005 1:43 pm

I'll check it out, thanks Fable. Many thanks for your input as well Kambion.

Thrifalas · Post by **Thrifalas** » Wed May 04, 2005 3:14 pm

I kind of always made everything as quickly as possible during my first runthroughs, so I have some nifty semi-cheating cards up my sleeves =).

First of all, position all of your characters as far away from the room as possible. After walking out talking to Shangalar, run away with your main character and position yourself with your fellow team.

Now, as liches doesn't target you if they can't see you after casting a spell, you can walk out, get Shangalars protection stuff on him, then walk away and just... waiting for it to fade away. Repeat untill you can take him down with various spells and weapons (Daystar is my personal favourite).

This is considered cheese by a lot, but that's pretty much what you have to do if you want to kill them on lowlevel. I'm not sure when it's possible, but you can do it on... like lvl11 or something. I'm not sure, didn't count my levels back then.

That's what you learn when kicking Sarevok's ass with a party entirely consisting of lvl4-5 chars.

Deadalready · Post by **Deadalready** » Wed May 04, 2005 7:51 pm

Shanglar will teleport into the first area where the party first enters, so really I don't see how it's possible to "avoid" him until his spell protections run out.

Try using that Azure Edge axe against Shanglar and then slowly whilttling the rest away, the only trouble makers are Shanglar and the Beholder.

I might note that Shyryssa regenerates at a phenominal speed and I don't remember killing it in any of my recent games (it usually turns into a bat and flies away).

Malykor · Post by **Malykor** » Wed May 04, 2005 8:46 pm

I found some great tips searching through the posts earlier.....and with those tips, not a single character died (which I'm only using four.....Me, Chaotic Good Gnome Illusionist...level 14, Viconia at 15, Korgan at 15, and Yoshimo at 15 or 16) I went for a more dark party this time around. (Sided with Bodhi

) Which is actually mad fun. But back to topic. I set four traps in the hallway with Yoshimo, then casted Death Fog with my main. (he can only cast up to level 7 spells so far) For the most part I got lucky and they came one at a time in the small hallway. Shangalar was pretty much dead on contact due to Yoshimo's traps. Death Fog played a huge roll as well. Korgan is a deadly tank, so he speaks for himself. Viconia threw in a heal here and there, but really wasn't needed. I threw in a few summons with my main, but it all happened so quickly after Shangalar died, it was hard to tell if they made any difference. (in the heat of a tough battle, I find that time flies quicker than you can think,I had to pause once just to catch my breath), Changing your tactics does make a hell of a difference when fighting different NPC's. I also casted "Summon Nishruu" to help me with the casters. I wish I had "Summon Hakeashar" but I'm having a hard time finding that scroll. (if anyone knows the location of the scroll, please do tell) This was one of the toughest battles I've came across thus far.....VERY fun.

Many, many thanks for your input gang. I'm new to forums, and you make me feel welcome.

On an off note, my difficult setting is normal.

Deadalready · Post by **Deadalready** » Thu May 05, 2005 12:30 am

I think it was possible to get the scroll of summon Hakeshar from Bernard in the Copper Corronet after completing the slavers quest.

Malykor · Post by **Malykor** » Thu May 05, 2005 1:42 am

I'll kick myself if so.

Malykor · Post by **Malykor** » Thu May 05, 2005 2:29 am

Nope, he doesn't have it. (I almost thought he did when you mentioned it) I remember seeing the darn scroll somewhere from when I went through BG2 last time. Now it's no where to be found. I've done most of the side quests in Athkatla, and all the quests on the map exept Suldanessellar. But I'm just now getting on the ship to head to Brynnlaw. My main is my only mage, and he doesn't have it memorized, and I highly doubt I erased it from my spell book. So the scroll is floating around somewhere. Only thing I can think of........I took Bodhi's route this time. (my first time on this route) So maybe I missed it that way? I'm clueless.

EDIT: On a side note, I always check every merchant I come across for new spells. I've also been as far down as level 4 in Watcher's Keep. No scroll to be found there either.

boo's daddy · Post by **boo's daddy** » Thu May 05, 2005 4:51 am

Another approach is the protection from magic scroll.

Read all about it here http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/showp ... stcount=49 (lvl 12/13 party)

Malykor · Post by **Malykor** » Thu May 05, 2005 5:21 am

Thanks boo's daddy, for going back to topic. I'm bad about wandering off topics on my own thread.

I loved how you described everything with detail. (you even threw in some roleplaying) It would have been nice to have your imagination when I played paper and pencil AD&D, mad props to ya. From the look of it, your party was anywhere from 2-4 levels behind mine when you done Twisted Rune. Might I ask what difficulty level you done it on? Bieng that easy for you, I'd suggest moving your difficulty rating up a notch or two. Tons more enjoyable that way. I was looking through my BGII Game Manual the other day, and somthing caught my eye. Page 37, near the bottom. "Note: There is an experiance point penalty for reducing the difficulty of the game to easy" I've had this game for awhile and just noticed it. (I'm a tad slow for my age, lol) Ever since I found out this information, I'll never play on the easy setting again.
Cheers for your little guide/story, I really enjoyed reading it.

boo's daddy · Post by **boo's daddy** » Thu May 05, 2005 6:06 am

Hey, thanks! Some of the best of times have been good RP-ing with like-minded souls; though the right balance between getting into it and not taking it too seriously is hard to find.

To answer your question, I have no idea! Whatever the default is. (Talk about slow on the uptake..

) This is the first time I'll have played from the start of BG2 right through to the end of ToB (I've done each separately once). That may well explain both why it was easier than I expected and I got f-all XP for duffing up those high level mages and such like.

Thanks for the tip though... I can see whole new vistas of self-destruction opening up

Malykor · Post by **Malykor** » Thu May 05, 2005 6:21 am

Hey, thanks! Some of the best of times have been good RP-ing with like-minded souls; though the right balance between getting into it and not taking it too seriously is hard to find.

Touche!

I was curious, because this battle scene got the best of me. The way you described it, it was a breeze. On normal difficulty, I got slaughtered my first 2 tries. Which I then thought to myself, "I'm not doing somthing right". I read up on other tactics, and it made the battle so much easier. Yoshimo's traps is what surprized me. I've never used them before this battle. (and I've went through the game once already) Setting down 3 or 4 traps changed the tide in battle by a great margin. It just shows how important tactics are in this game. (or knowing the game's AI by heart, either or)

Thrifalas · Post by **Thrifalas** » Thu May 05, 2005 6:49 am

[QUOTE=Deadalready]Shanglar will teleport into the first area where the party first enters, so really I don't see how it's possible to "avoid" him until his spell protections run out.[/QUOTE]

Then you obviously must have missed the door, the stairs and the tiny space after that. It's perfectly possible to avoid him seing you with a 6 char party, as I've done so several times.

boo's daddy · Post by **boo's daddy** » Thu May 05, 2005 7:22 am

[QUOTE=Malykor]Touche!

I was curious, because this battle scene got the best of me. The way you described it, it was a breeze. On normal difficulty, I got slaughtered my first 2 tries. Which I then thought to myself, "I'm not doing somthing right". I read up on other tactics, and it made the battle so much easier. Yoshimo's traps is what surprized me. I've never used them before this battle. (and I've went through the game once already) Setting down 3 or 4 traps changed the tide in battle by a great margin. It just shows how important tactics are in this game. (or knowing the game's AI by heart, either or)[/QUOTE]
Indeed. Or even (as in my case) the downright cheesy knowledge of how many of them there are, that those who were out of sight will stay that way until we close in, and that Shangalar will teleport into the entrance hall.

Also, a friend had recommended using the Protn from Magic scroll in this way to do Kangaxx and TR consecutively.

I've still got an old, old saved game which is stuck in the TR entrance and got creamed repeatedly, so I might reload that and see what happens. (I abandoned it because I was trying to get through with a party of oppositely-aligned characters for a laugh but IIRC Korgan and Aerie were about to come to blows and it seems that it's impossible to avoid it.)

Glad you liked the write-up though.

WRT the above post, I've never been able to prevent Shangalar from teleporting into our midst either. Maybe we should cut down on the burgers.

The Chosen One · Post by **The Chosen One** » Thu May 05, 2005 7:29 am

Hi perhaps it is too late but here is my tactik on killing those guys at Twisted Rune.
Take your thief (in my case - Yoshimo) nad set up as much traps as possible (five recomended). Cast a druid spell Pixie Dust or Invisible 10' radius on you party members exept two or three of your strogest fighters (example: Minsc, Kogan ect.) in my case it was Minsc and my main character a fighter/mage. My character had a Daystar in his hands (highly recomended). Cast then protection fro Undead scroll on those who will fight the lich. Talk to Shangalar and run away to you traps. Lich will follow you. Traps will sprung and make a huge damege to him. Wile he trys to cast True sight slay him. With Daystar it will be easy.
Then the rest. Don't show yourself to the rest of the Shangalars friends and cast Emotion, Finger of Death and Chaos at area where the Beholder should be (it's important he don't see you!). When beholder if asleep or confused he is harmless and an easy fight. If spell works, you can take care of the vampire. Cast such spells as Sunray and False Dawn. Then take care of the rest. But don't forget to cast Protection from Evil 10' radius first ....

Chosen

Malykor · Post by **Malykor** » Thu May 05, 2005 8:09 am

Nice strategy. I don't get to use Finger of Death with my main. (downfall of bieng a gnome illusionist) I hate not having Skull Trap either. I agree with setting traps 100%. Yoshimo can put out mad damage setting traps. (Shangalar sure didn't last long after stepping on a few....he actually tele'ed right smack on top them)

Wabbit · Post by **Wabbit** » Sun May 08, 2005 2:09 am

The last time I played through there, I had a pretty high-level party and they just ran over to the right side of the big room the second the lich appeared in the foyer. He takes a couple seconds to cast protections, so there was plenty of time to vamoose.

The lich stays over there and so I took down the rest first - the beholder is the first priority for me, then the vampire. I had a full party so it was easy to put someone on the beholder and a level-drain resistant person on the vampire. The mage and the gated demon aren't a big deal, I don't find. I put some summons near the doorway to the room with the lich so that he would have something to do while I got rid of the rest of the crew.

Once they were gone, I went to work on the lich. The party I was just playing was all casters - fighter/cleric PC, Jaheira, Haer D'alis, Jan, Nalia and Aerie. With all those spell slots I was able to take time and do the correct spell counters to remove the lich's protections and then kill him, but it's quicker to just use brute force attacks if you don't have high level spells handy that will remove spell trap. The party I was playing, with 4 arcane casters, could put up an amazing hail of Melf's Meteors, but it gets a little boring.

Devilock · Post by **Devilock** » Mon May 09, 2005 7:37 am

I an playing with just a Kensai/Thief and a Kensai/Mage (yesyes, cheese-o-rama, I know) and I was already ridiculously high level (20+ as thief and 18+ as mage, bot lvl 12 as kensai) when I did the TR, so I breezed through: insta-killed the lich (of whom I didn't even know that he was going to warp in) with traps, insta-killed the vampire and the melee-type with a backstab and killed the beholder and the last mage with only a bit of effort. I have to say I was fairly disappointed, I expected the thing to be a lot harder, even without Tactics. :/