Mindflayers lair in the sewers

[Volo]

Who thought it was good idea to give them an instakill attack and there also so many of them... I have to very carefully lure them one by one and it's really annoying tbh

[Volo]

Made it through but it took way too many tries...Probably the hardest area (more like cheap imo) I've been so far in the series

[philos3]

Mind flayers and Ulitharids are pretty much one trick ponies. Cast Psionic Blast, stun victim, close in, drain intelligence to 0, kill victim. Their attack is not an "instakill" per se, Each hit drains 6 points of intelligence. Minsc with a low intelligence is pretty vulnerable, 2 hits and out. If you used Intelligence as a dump stat on your MC, then yeah one hit will likely kill you.

There are a lot of viable strategies. Best defense is cleric spell Chaotic command which negates their Psionic blast. My usually strategy is blocking them. I cast chaotic commands on a missile weapon user and then invisibility 10' radius on the whole party.

I put 2 party members near a doorway and send the missile weapon user down the passage to start the fight. I shoot one or two arrows (or bolts/bullets) at the pack. They will fire off their blasts but chaotic commands negates the effect. I retreat back to the party and put the invisible blockers in the doorway. The pack advances but cannot move past the blockers and cannot see them to attack them (if you use scripts be sure to turn them off so your blockers do not attack). So they jam up in front of the doorway. I keep the archer with chaotic commands closest to but a bit back from the blockers so that the pack focus their blasts on him/her. The other missile troops are scattered around so that the psionic blast does not catch them in its area of effect. It is then just a matter of shoot them down one by one.

EDIT: You can also use Potions of Clarity (available from Roger the fence just around the corner from the Mind Flayer Entrance) instead of the spell Chaotic Commands.

[Luka]

I counter them with chaotic commands. TBH idk how to counter them without spamming chaotic commands on my party. But it does work

[Centurion]

I summon skeletons, the big kind, and other "mindless" summons (Golem Manual is great here.) Party sticks to missiles. Mind flayers waste their attacks on mindless melee opponents and go down easy to missiles. Even regular summons help. They may be vulnerable to psionic blast, but they force the flayers to waste it on them.

[Lord Squirrel!]

Mordenkainen Swords are immune to the intelligence drain. They are the only summon that is immune in an unmodded game, at least to my knowledge.

[BORN2DIE]

seeing as you can return to Athkathla at any point later in the story there really is no need to brute force it at lower levels if you are struggling

[red255]

1.) in BG 1 and 2, pretty much everything has instant kill attacks considering hold lasts so many rounds the combat will be over if it lands, same with fear.
2.) to deal with flayers, I generally summon things without minds (animate dead or mordenkain's sword) and let them suck the attacks.

I tihnk they dead and maybe even the swords are still vulnerable to the INT drain kill. so I might also need to buff them with strength of one and haste to make good use of them. or buff the party with chaotic commands and other buffs and send them in 5 seconds after the dead after the flayers have already decided who to attack so you can mop them up while they are busy with the undead.

[Pieshaman]

If you think that little hideout in the sewers is the hardest part. You will need to prepare for worse :P

[wendigo211]

There have been a couple of bugs with them, like int draining skeletons. I usually just rage, buff and melee them. They have 68 HP, so an Improved Haste buffed dual wielding Berserker/Barbarian should kill about 3 of them a round. I think their Psionic Blast is a targeted ability, so Improved Invisibility/Mislead might be enough to stop them from stunning you.

[Volo]

Thanks for the tip with the chaotic commands spell, Jaheira and Aerie are both in my party but I overlooked the spell somehow..

Dont have any Mordenkainen Swords so far but I'll look out for them!

Originally posted by Pieshaman:

If you think that little hideout in the sewers is the hardest part. You will need to prepare for worse :P

Oh no...

Originally posted by BORN2DIE:

seeing as you can return to Athkathla at any point later in the story there really is no need to brute force it at lower levels if you are struggling

I didnt know you could return later since I'm playing for the very first time but even then I'd be too stubborn and proud to turn tail lol

Originally posted by Centurion:

I summon skeletons, the big kind, and other "mindless" summons (Golem Manual is great here.) Party sticks to missiles. Mind flayers waster their attacks on mindless melee opponents and go down easy to missiles. Even regular summons help. They may be vulnerable to psionic blast, but they force the flayers to waste it on them.

This was the closest to what I did, summon monsters, spiders, skeleton warriors, bait 1 mindflayer and while he fights with my summons my party engages in ranged combat

[The Great Cornholio]

chaotic commands, int potions, summon undead, haste, shred them