How to proceed in Mind Flayer Dungeon

[basaroundtheworld]

Hey Baldur's Gate fans,

I need your help again. Currently I am in the Mind Flayer Dungeon. I explored most of the area I think. At this moment I am at the area where you can make brine potions. So created those for my members.
I put on armor of faith, chaotic commands. All the preparations to fight the group of enemies (Ulitharid, mind flayer and Umber hult) in the room south west of the brine area. However, I am unable to kill them. I tried a couple of times, it seems like an obstacle for me. Magic resistance is what most of them have.
How do I get through this?

Thanks for your help.

[Nobody]

Do you have access to Mordenkainen's sword (Wizard spell)? You may find having a Mordy's sword or three handy.

P.S. The old school (Pre-EE) answer would have been to summon 5 skeleton warriors who used to be immune to the Mind-Flayer brain drain. Sadly in EE Skele's get demolished by flayers in 6 seconds flat.

[Kamuizin]

1 - make a brine potion;
2 - use them on the other machine to create a enthralling collar;
3 - go back in the brine potion workshop room and enslave the mind flayer that respawn in that spot with the enthralling collar;
4 - make that mind flayer walk near the locked door in the room on the upper part of the map.

The door will blast open, but be aware that the mind flayer will go hostile as soon as the door open.

Alternatively, use slayer form and force attack (bash) the door. Will also open it, but it’s a waste.

The enemies at the upper room are optional, but afaik one of them drop an artifact piece to reforging later with cromwell.

[philos3]

Knowing the make up of your party will help in creating suggestions. Do you have anyone that can shoot missile weapons? They can be taken down pretty easily with a hail of bullets, bolts, and arrows (especially arrows of biting as they use poison and not magic) . Using magic only will not work well, as you have discovered.

[Centurion]

So many strategies. Items, spells, summons. Mord's sword is the easy go to. Send it in to distract them and then area of effect spells. (Cloud Kill takes care of any umber hulks around.) Chaotic commands, Lilarcor (?), and berserk/enrage are good.

[Zotliatlicor]

And drink Intelligence potions on your frontliners. Just to be safe

[Kamuizin]

The issue was the umber hulks? I read it wrong then. Just throw 3 skull traps and they’re done for. Not directly on then, but together in the same spot and then lure them.

[Zotliatlicor]

Umber hulks auto die on the lvl 6 Death Spell. And on a ton of other stuff, so i think the main Problem is the Illithids / Flayers.

[Kamuizin]

Originally posted by Zotliatlicor:

Umber hulks auto die on the lvl 6 Death Spell. And on a ton of other stuff, so i think the main Problem is the Illithids / Flayers.

I know the old BG2 didn’t have the immunity flag on skeletons, but EE version they’re immune to intelligence drain, no? Animate dead is a good option, since it will endure for other fights.

[Centurion]

Originally posted by Zotliatlicor:

Umber hulks auto die on the lvl 6 Death Spell. And on a ton of other stuff, so i think the main Problem is the Illithids / Flayers.

Cloud Kill is like bug spray on them!

[Nobody]

Originally posted by Centurion:

Originally posted by Zotliatlicor:

Umber hulks auto die on the lvl 6 Death Spell. And on a ton of other stuff, so i think the main Problem is the Illithids / Flayers.

Cloud Kill is like bug spray on them!

Open the door, drop a cloudkill into the room (wand of Cloudkill is great for this because it's so fast!) quickly close door. Laugh manically as all Umberhulks in the room drop dead.

[rompier02]

Hey. Chaotic Commands spam for anti psionic blast. Potion of Intelligence for the fighters. Poison arrows. Mind you the 2 H sword Lilarcor only protects vs Charm & Confusion. Totally useless vs psionic blast. My play I'd throw 2/3 Web spell, Cloud kill or Death Fog / Confusion / Ice storm. Fighters to block the doorway. Make sure they have Chaotic Commands on them. Helm of Charm Protection for those in support that can use them. The illythids will rush your peeps. They are highly resistant to magic. Good luck.

[a_delo3]

Either use cloudkill (cast it and close the door to gas everything inside) or take your best tank/s, haste and give them the brine potion, send them in directly against the mind flayers.
Cernd and Korgan are especially effective because hit like trucks and can really take a beating; Minsc hits hard too but is more fragile. Of course a tank main character could do the job as well.
If have freedom (item or spell) may also use web or other similar effects to pick the targets one by one; in such case may avoid cloudkill.
Last, any high STR character with a good sling can lay waste upon anything in a short time: if opt for this approach mind that some spells/abilities cast by the flayers and umber hulks have an area of effect so either protect all the party or send them away from the slinger

[basaroundtheworld]

Thanks everybody for your help. I do not know exactly how I killed this group, I did it this time after 5 attempts.
The problem was I think that my companions got drained by mind flayer, despite the brine potion. The strategy was summoning monsters constantly throughout the battle. While I attacked with bow and crossbow constantly.
Still I do not know how to protect my party members from draining. The brine potion did not seem to work. Or there is another protection method. Chaotic command at least not.

[a_delo3]

They got drained if hit by the flayers' attack. Their Tac0 is bad so can really harm only disabled targets; very low AC (e.g. shapeshifted Cernd) or spells like mirror image further reduce the chances of losing part of the brain (luckily it eventually will regrow...).
The potion and chaotic command reduce the risk by preventing being knocked out but do not stop the drain itself.
Actually the best way is to squish quickly the flayers: 3rd level spell haste is extremely helpful at that (it also gives a bonus to AC).

BTW Timestop+polymorph self into a mindflayer is a "classic" to quickly dispatch hard foes

[Brevan]

Glad you got past them, though there are some other areas in the game where you face Mindflayers. One thing to consider for next time is to focus on the killing the Ulitharids first, they get more attacks (4?) per round than Mindflayers (1?). As you've discovered, the Brine potions are not about preventing mind-drain attacks (so evade being hit with excellent AC and evasive spells (I usually make a character invisible and block the doorway)), but they should prevent against Charm and Stun (just like Chaotic Commands, so if you didn't bring a Cleric you can drink a potion).

Noteworthy things near that room was the Staff of Command (no saving throw) behind a secret door beside the door to the Elder Brain and an improved ring of fire resistance from the dwarvish fighter in a room south of that area. It's not a bad idea to keep any extra Control Collars you made, as far as I can remember (I haven't reconfirmed in BG2:EE) they can control anything without saving throws and bypassing magic resistance.