Shangalar's Spells

[Steffan]

I have been very casually exploring the main city while preparing to go to the graveyard district to deal with the vampire guild. My mage and the group are level 13 (Minsc is 12). The group is main PC (mage), Minsc, Viconia, Aerie, Yoshimo and Jaheira. All tired and with half-depleted spells (I was planning a rest afterwards). I checked one of the houses where I entered a crypt. Gut feeling told me to wait and I checked the other door which sucked all the group in. What followed was a mind blowing sequence. Skip below if you want to proceed to the question.

1. I got the same feeling as with the "djinn" and the circus. The way back seemed shut. OK. We explore further.

2. This time a real djinn(?) Shangalar appeared. Tried negotiating. That failed. Then S. summons reinforcement.

3. Nine hells! That looks like a beholder.

4. It is a beholder! And It's raining death Good that Viconia had the shield of Balduran in her inventory (and I thought I bought it too early!).

5. I still could not do any real damage. Shangalar had either some regeneration going on or similaricum, no idea (more about it later)

6. The moment I saw meteor swarm I realized I am at the wrong place. The moment I saw time stop confirmed it. Did I say there was a pit fiend as well?

Yoshimo is a bad fighter but excellent scout (and he was invisible at the start). Somewhere at the early stages of point 5, I started to look for a way to cheese the fight. I thought the puzzle is going to weaken the enemy. Then the beholder and the meteor swarm managed to kill it, Viconia casually walked with the proverbial eye of the beholder (surrounded by what it looked like a vampire and being targeted by the mage) . She and Yoshimo completed the ritual. Half of the party was dead, the main PC only got out. Minsc and Viconia were mazed for a little while. Viconia almost unscathed despite the fact she was holding a beholder and three other high level characters. All the of kills were done by the djinn, except for Yoshimo who died after he completed the ritual slain by the pit fiend. I was so happy I saved and said goodbye to the equipment of three characters (there were some losses but nothing critical). And Viconia now has more XP than the main PC. I think she can be b*tchy as much as she wants after this fight.

++++

My main PC still had a number of deadly spells: disintegrate, flesh to stone. And one charge of breach. When I tried to target S. with Breach the game gave me a message that I can not target it (it said something about sanctuary or being untargetable). The spell was not expended. Poor Minsc could not do anything. Does anybody know what kind of spell blocked the breach? Was it the fact he was deep into a small corridor? I think my character had a direct line of sight as he did use dispel magic but nothing happened. Or was it some kind of spell combination S. used? I mean there was no use to try anything else at that point.

[AlexMBrennan]

You found the Twisted Rune.

There are two problems:

1. You cannot cast single target spells at invisible (including sanctuaried) creatures - you need some way to remove their invisibility first.

2. Shangalar is a lich and thus immune to lvl 5 spells, which includes breach and true seeing.

as he did use dispel magic but nothing happened.

Dispel is not guaranteed to work. Since the lich is lvl 26 and you are only lvl 13 the chance to dispel him is 5%

The lich is probably protected by spell turning which means that dispel would not have worked anyway; you need pierce magic or better.

Spoiler: Their mage had the best staff in the entire game and you missed it

[Steffan]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

Since the lich is lvl 26 and you are only lvl 13 the chance to dispel him is 5%


Spoiler: Their mage had the best staff in the entire game and you missed it

Then my luck (and by extension Viconia's with her 70% magic resistance -13 armor ) was even bigger than I thought... 26th wow! Shame for the staff but... well... it was a nice encounter.

[red255]

the twisted rune is the hardest fight in base SoA. you passed on an easier fight for a harder one.

[Godsarm]

Shangalar will teleport right into the middle of your party...cast two Sunray Spells (doesn't matter if he's invisible or not, he will die instantly. Timing is important, wait till he fully appears in the entry way. If you aren't high enough to cast it, the Longsword Daystar can cast it 1/day as can the Helm of Brilliance, but you need to wait to get back from Spellhold to buy it from Ribald. The Sunray strategy works on any undead, including a lich.

It's still a tough fight, but better if you can remove Shangalar upfront.

[red255]

if he could leave and resupply the fight would be less of an issue yes. thats kinda against the premise of the topic though. so I'm not sure why you brought it up.

[Steffan]

Originally posted by Godsarm:

Shangalar will teleport right into the middle of your party...cast two Sunray Spells (doesn't matter if he's invisible or not, he will die instantly. Timing is important, wait till he fully appears in the entry way. If you aren't high enough to cast it, the Longsword Daystar can cast it 1/day as can the Helm of Brilliance, but you need to wait to get back from Spellhold to buy it from Ribald. The Sunray strategy works on any undead, including a lich.

It's still a tough fight, but better if you can remove Shangalar upfront.

A solid advice for the fights to come.

The main problem was that I had only one characters able to cast (the mage). I was woefully unprepared and underlevelled. I had no spell capable to penetrate S.'s defenses. Although I wonder whether the turn undead from Viconia (13th level cleric) would have worked on the vampire or the lich... Winning them to my side might have won me even more XP... Actually, turn undead from Aerie could have worked as well. Or that's what I wonder.

On a side note, I did win the steam achevement for that battle. Hehe.

P.S. I have not left for the Spellhold yet. Currently dealing with some final quests of Jaheira and did free Hexxat (but she feels way too evil for my group).

[AlexMBrennan]

I think that it's impossible to turn undead who are more than two levels above the cleric's level so you are not going to have much luck turning a lvl 26 lich. If you get close to the BG2 XP cap and then do Watcher's Keep before confronting the Twisted Rune you might be able to do it (powerful undead including Kangaxx can be turned if you are very high level).

Shyressa is a lvl 13 vampire and would presumably have been vulnerable to turning by Viconia.

Since Aerie splits her XP between cleric and mage she would only have been a lvl 10 cleric and would thus be even worse at turning undead.

[Godsarm]

Originally posted by steffan8:

Originally posted by Godsarm:

Shangalar will teleport right into the middle of your party...cast two Sunray Spells (doesn't matter if he's invisible or not, he will die instantly. Timing is important, wait till he fully appears in the entry way. If you aren't high enough to cast it, the Longsword Daystar can cast it 1/day as can the Helm of Brilliance, but you need to wait to get back from Spellhold to buy it from Ribald. The Sunray strategy works on any undead, including a lich.

It's still a tough fight, but better if you can remove Shangalar upfront.

A solid advice for the fights to come.

The main problem was that I had only one characters able to cast (the mage). I was woefully unprepared and underlevelled. I had no spell capable to penetrate S.'s defenses. Although I wonder whether the turn undead from Viconia (13th level cleric) would have worked on the vampire or the lich... Winning them to my side might have won me even more XP... Actually, turn undead from Aerie could have worked as well. Or that's what I wonder.

On a side note, I did win the steam achevement for that battle. Hehe.

P.S. I have not left for the Spellhold yet. Currently dealing with some final quests of Jaheira and did free Hexxat (but she feels way too evil for my group).

You can always come back later...Level 13 is a bit ambitious for the Twisted Rune, not impossible depending on your gear and buffing/potions before you go in. I stumbled into this in my very first play through many years ago too. The fight is worth it for the XP and the best Mage staff in the game. Same thing with Kangaxx...no need to rush into these, wait till you have the levels and the gear.

[AlexMBrennan]

There is no need to delay the Kangaxx fight - just hire Korgan, enable berserk mode, and hit him once with the mace of disruption.

[red255]

I'd generally use minsc with the IMOD and kundane and a scroll of protection from undead, but yeah OK.

[Godsarm]

For all the times I've done this, I've never had any luck with the Mace of Disruption against high level undead including Kangaxx...even with the -4 Save vs. Death, Kangaxx and others seem to make every save.

Also, never had any luck with using Protection from Undead against Kangaxx or any other undead that has to initiate dialog, other than I guess just going up and whacking on him and skipping the dialog entirely.

What I have been able to do is use Daystar to kill him in 8-9 rounds 1pt/physical & 1pt/magic damage after using Protection from Magic. It's automatic...he notices my character, goes through his dialog...gets killed the first time, transforms, gets killed the second time. No damage, no Imprisonment.

It's a use of a Protection from Magic Scroll, of which I think there are only two, but I cant' figure out a better place to use it. I can't speak for others, but this is the only reliable way I've been able to do this in the EE. Prior to EE, I was able to kill him in his Demi-Lich form other ways.

[AllegoricRanger]

This is great. I loved reading about someone stumbling upon the twisted rune. Its a 1 of a kind experience.