Saving the Gondians in the Iron Throne

[e11]

Well, this one's a pain in Minsc's favorite place.

I've had a couple of cracks at this, and given how damn long it takes with all those characters, I wanted to ask advice.

I'm trying to save the Gondians, the Mind Flayer, and Ravenguard. I was able to reach everyone, but not keep everyone alive as they ran for the exit, because there just wasn't time to kill a major number of the Sahuagin. And not everyone who wasn't shot or clawed to death actually made it to the submersible before time ran out.

I DID split my team three ways, (the second time around I sent two for Ravenguard, in order to both heal the lazy bastard and deal with Mizora's pets), and I made use of Misty Step, a Haste Spell, and mostly Dashed my way around rather than engage the Sahuagin. I STILL couldn't get everyone out in time. And I never invested in the higher-end teleportation spells, because I never saw much point.

What should I do here?

[Brian_the_Brute]

Get 1 PC to Omeluum ASAP to help you teleport him and his ability to include 1 other back to the sub a couple of times. Dimension door helps as well to get you there quicker, you can tag team it by casting it on one person and taking a +1 and then have the other cast it with a +1 and you are there at the end of the corridor in 1 turn. Same procedure you can use in the final battle as well to get you where you need to go fast.

[ReoHays]

You don't have to kill them, just shut the door. Send your Vampire down there because he can Dash 2x every turn and just close the door on them. It is a puzzle set up as a battle. Just think smarter, not work harder.

[GriffinPilgrim]

Also I summoned a bunch of things to keep the Sahuagin off my back, although annoyingly summoned beings can't press switches, even if they have hands to do so. Although Scratch can get people out of Sahuagin nets.

[shoobeedoobeedoo]

The Sahuagin that spawn after you start spawn with the wet condition so ice or lightning deal double damage. I also had a warrior throw a potion of flight onto everyone at the beginning of the encounter.

[Sentient_Toaster]

"Arcane Gateway" is really useful in this scenario, and scrolls exist for it. Caster stands towards the middle of one of the east/west corridors, targets one portal near the room with the cells and the other portal closer to the central room. Prisoners will take full advantage.

The endless spawning does happen in the south, so you want to have somebody e.g. close that off by hitting the heat sensor with a ranged attack as soon as you can.

Ravengard can be protected by a variety of means, like using Otiluke's Resilient Sphere (drop it once the spawned spiders are dead, because it slows him down).

[seeker1]

Your highest priority rescues down there are Duke Ravengard, and Ophelia Toobin, who is not in a cell and will immediately start heading for the sub once you arrive. Be warned: Mizora will normally try and interfere with rescuing the Duke.

Rescuing Omeluum will get you a nice reward and is worth pursuing, but is not obligatory. All you gotta do is have one person make it to him (preferably in stealth); once you free him, he can teleport both of you over to the sub.

There is an achievement for rescuing all imprisoned Gondians down there. Apart from that, there is no reason to rescue them all, just try and rescue as many as you can. You actually can activate the switches to open their cell remotely with mage hand, shooting them, etc.

Bear in mind you can leave summons down there as cannon fodder to hold everything off as all party members and rescues head to the sub. Also, if you MUST, don't fear leaving one party member there to die. Only Tav needs to make it to the sub. A party member that dies in the Iron Throne explosion CAN be revived by Withers, even though technically their corpse is deep undersea.