Underdark Problems *Minor Spoilers*

[tarkin96]

Hello guys. After doing tons of side quests and really taking my time to learn the game, I have run into a bad spot. I have reached the underdark, using drow gear, spending 1-2 minutes before each fight to cast summon and buff spells.

I have come across a cave with beholders in it. I have come to the last room with 2 beholders and a mini-boss version of them (can't remember what it is called) and I can't beat them. If I buff my characters up with abilties that prevent loss of control and with tons of defense boosting spells, the boss just dispells them on my whole party. I can try to silence him, but he always ends up killing my main character or my cleric (who is the only character with silence) with a spell that kills me unless i make a saving throw (it erases the character from the party, with no chance of ressurection). I can also summon monsters/animals, but they always get instant-killed at the opening. I can't summon them during the battle, because the other two beholders are constantly bombarding my casters with damage.

I have decided to leave them alone and try to leave the Underdark, but I can't unless I complete a quest for the drow that summons mind-flayers. However, despite tons of buffs, keeping fighters out of their melee range, I still end up getting killed very quickly. Since my main character has low intelligence, he gets killed very quickly by mind-flayers.

Since you can't leave the Underdark, losing a character forces me to restart from a previous save and I can't get better gear since I am already using the drow gear and have cleared all but those 2 areas of the Underdark. Am I truly stuck or is there some cheesy way out of this?

[o.t.j.p]

Have you tried using Animate dead? I found the skeleton warriors worked well against both beholders and mind flayers. Have them concentrate on one target at a time and wear them down, keep saving after each enemy dies, keep your party at a safe distance, might be a slow way but should get there.

Also did you purchase the shield of balduran earlier? Just send in a warrior or cleric equipped with that against the beholders.

[tarkin96]

I will try the animate dead strategy. As for the mind flayers though, there is someone who has to summon them as part of the quest. I figured I would have to make sure he does not die. Also, should I try to stack up some more saving throw stats? I hae a couple rings and cloaks with saving throws, but because they also have +armor, I can not wear them with the drow gear, which is what is keeping me alive against the hard-hitting physical damage enemies. For example, to get an extra 2 saving throw stat on my main character, I would go from -9 armor to -2 armor (and that is with me re-equiping my suface-world gear). When the mindflayers are summoned, it also summons a couple hulks, so I also need the armor.

As for the shield, I did not buy it. I remember seeing it at some point, but I was nt able to buy it and by tiem I was, I did not remember it.

[o.t.j.p]

You could try using sanctuary with your cleric which will make the mind flayers ignore him then fall back to find time to use animate dead. Potions of invisibiity work as well, the ring of gaxx gives one use of invisibility as well if you have it. Also haste or whirlwind attack are good for taking down the mind flayers quickly.

[Soft Lockpick]

Traps, summons, pre-buffing, running away and letting the drow handle some of it, whatever. Mind flayers suck to fight (much like enemies that drain levels) but if you've gotten that far I guarantee you have the tools to deal. Maybe if you post your exact party composition, spells available for mages, etc someone can give you a specific tactic.

[tarkin96]

Thanks for responding guys. I was able to get it yesterday. I ignored the beholders. As for the mindflayers, I got lucky. Somehow I was able to do the whole fight once without my fighters even getting hit (unlucky hit rols on the mindflayers' ends i guess). I also found out that drow armor does not prevent spellcasting, so I put some on my spellcasters to protect from the hulks. Once the mindflayers were dead, the hulks were easy enough to deal with using my summoned animals and monsters.

I tried using my animals to attack the flayers and my fighters to attack the hulks, but the hulks always seemed to ignore my fighters and attack my spell casters and archer. The mindflayers also loved to attack my fighters. I guess that is a good thing though, that the AI uses NPC weaknesses to their advantage.

But after I got that fight, everything else has been easy. Fighting the Kuotan (which I didn't discover their cave until afterward) was easy, as most of them was physical damage and all I had to do was block up the skinny cave passages to win, so the next quest was purely easy.

[Soft Lockpick]

I think the advice I'd give is that this game is harder and easier than modern games. Once you know the fiddley tricks you can cheese the hell out of it. But until you do you are often in the dark enough that you haven't prepared properly for a fight.

Try to think of the game differently. If in all possible circumstances you leave the lions share of your party behind and use a scout, then retreat so they can adequately prepare for a fight, that's probably the 'normal' way to play for the time.

Basically the game design of BG2 is just not the same as a modern game. And you should adapt your play style.

[AlexMBrennan]

Both the Mindflayer City and the Beholder City section of the Underdark are very difficult, and both are optional (but you lose some pertty good gear if you skip them).

However, both have some weaknesses:

Mindflayers can stun you, and their melee attack can drain intelligence if you get hit (which means that melee fighters like Minsc will die in 2 hits).
The key, therefore, is TO NOT GET STUNNED. If you are stunned, melee attacks are guaranteed to hit and you are toast.
Your best bet is to summon meatshields that are immune to stuns to take them out (skeletons and invisible stalkers will do, and Mordenkainen's Swords will annihilite them). Make use of the fact that enemies can't use doors - summon creatures, open the door, send them in, close the door. Repeat until the enemy is dead.
Failling that, use spells that prevent stuns (such as the brine potion you get to make), but you will still die if enemies get lucky.

Further, the only group of mindflayers you have to fight as part of the quest technically count as summoned enemies and are therefore vulnerable to AOE death spell.

Beholders come in three varieties: Gaunts, which use minor versions of spells; Beholders, which use both anti-magic ray (will dispell your defences AND prevent you from casting magic) and death spell (instantly kills summoned creatures), and Elder Orbs (which cast imprisonment which basically kills any character they touch with no save).
When you fight beholders, they will subject your party to a barrage of spells (petrification, damage, death, anti-magic ray), and there are two items in the game that will negate this spell barrage: The shield of Balduran (can be bought from the OP item merchant in the Adventure Mart) and the cloak of mirroring (can be found in the underwater city you had to go through unless you took the portal from Spellhold).
As such, your best bet is to equip your best fighter with one of these items, and have him chop all the beholders to pieces.

There is one downside, however: As I mentioned earlier, Elder Orbs can cast imprisonment, which will bypass the spell reflection. There are only there counters: Use a berserker's rage (Korgan or PC), use a mage's spell immunity:abjuration (for fighter/mage multi/dual PC), or a spell immunity scroll (supposedly one is sold in Ust Natha).