That's not my style xD My solution was going through the 2nd lvl of Watcher's Keep just to get the Wand of Spell Striking, with that I could dispell Liches protections even when they were invisible. What's the point of making the game more challenging if you then try to avoid it?
Theres an option in SCS2 (or possible spell revisions) which allows breach (a level 5 spell) to work against liches (which are normally immune to level 5 spells). If you haven't already then I'd suggest including this option - otherwise there is literally no way to dispel a lich's melee protections short of a dispel magic spell (spellstrike, ruby ray, etc only get rid of non-melee protections). And since liches are almost invariably much higher level than you, dispel magic is unlikely to work (unless you have an Inquisitor).
Once the lich's melee protections are gone your melee fighters should have a fairly easy time killing the lich (although watch out for contingencies which redo the lich's protections) Now, if the lich has immunity: abjuration up (which a lot of them will do) then it's much more difficult as you'll need to remove that before you can breach them. That's probably beyond the ability of most low level parties - or at least beyond their ability to remove the protections before the lich kills them.
I've not had much luck with Protection from Undead vs liches. However Protection from Magic works fairly well provided your whole party is protected. Basically this means parking the rest of the party somewhere and soloing the fight. I've beaten Kangaxx at low level with this trick - even though I installed the spellstrike removes Protection from Magic option, Kangaxx never seemed to try dispelling it - maybe he didn't have the spell memorised, saving L9 slots for Time Stops, etc?. Nor did he cast any summons against a single opponent which was Protected from Magic - although he did cast summons if I brought in anyone who wasn't proteced. The downside is that there are only 2 Protection from Magic scrolls in the entire game. Demiliches were my worst nightmare, but happily there are only two of those in the game, so guess where my Protection from Magic scrolls got used
On another note, I found that Negative Plane Protection worked just fine against the Shadow Dragon. Are you sure it wasn't getting dispelled? Dragons love casting remove magic with SCS2 installed. Worse they love casting haste and munching my melee in double quick time.
I'm in spellhold now and I have no equipment (Improved spellhold installed) and must get pass that one lich who is in my way to Dace Sontan. I have 3 mages and 2 clerics but it seems impossible to kill the lich with spells or get pass by of him. He can see my character even when I have casted Improved invisibility, non-detection and spell immunity (divination). Any advice from players who have survived from improved spellhold?
Any advice from players who have survived from improved spellhold?
I have not even tried improved Spellhold (tho I play with SCS 2 usually). Kind of cheesy but try summoning lots of monsters and then walking them up to the lich 1 at a time to make it waste its spells.
Have you guys just tried turning the difficulty lower like Easy/Normal? IMO SCS goes a long way of removing cheese from the game. You can no longer (accidentally) abuse the game mechanics because the AI is so much smarter.
I believe liches see through invisibility naturally so there is no point using it at all. Summoning as many creatures as you can might be a good idea to make lich focus on them instead of your party. I'm not sure if death ward protects them against death spell but thats worth a try. Also pick summons that resist magic well. Buffing up one party member as much as possible and then have him/her tank some spells while others try to wear out the magical protections on the lich is something I've used in the past too.
The fairest way to kill him is to wait until your strong enough to do so within the boundaries of the game. Of course however you could sneak around the mechanics and effectively cheat to kill it, but you might as well open up dat cheaty thing (think shadowkeeper) max out your exp / level give yourself the most powerful items, tons of gold and so on.
My experience watching comments and reports on SCS is that there is really no stable and well-defined boundary between "clever strategy" and "effectively cheating". I encourage everyone to use whatever strategies they find makes the game interesting for them, and not worry too much about whether it's "borderline cheating" or whatever.
(Having said which, SCS itself tries very hard to err on the side of not exploiting anything. This is advice to players, not data on the mod's own design.)
generally against liches: inquisitor's dispel,thief traps, entering-exiting the room so he looses spells, protection from evil if he summons demons, use tons of fire resistance gear (fireshield alone is 50%) if he uses meteors,comets,sunfires,dreagon's breath etc, sometimes you can oneshot liches with sunray(lvl 7th cleric spell) if you time it right( i used to do it in the liches that you summon by clicking on theier tombs) if he has no protection from evil you can summon demons yourself he can't really harm them and he will waste tons of spells to kill them, if a specific spell troubles you use spell immunity x school
the best way imo is the inquisitor,you just dispell and butcher him
I tried to protect my group with protection from evil, but still those summoned (by lich) Glabrezus can target me. Also death ward on my summons doesn't prevent them to be killed with lich's death spell. And for some reason Keldorns dispel magic won't dispel any protections from lich (because it's lvl 1- 5 spell?). I find all this strange... it seems like cheating to me. God I hate these creatures IMO they are hardest enemies in SCSII in Baldur's Gate 2.
@DavidW I have one question. I'm 100% sure that in BG2, with SCSII installed, Spell Immunity: Abjuration prevents from being dispelled by any Dispel Magic/Remove Magic. But here in BG:EE this doesn't happen, the Dispel Magic gets through it. So the point is: was that a feat of SCSII or just vanilla? So long since I played without mods...
I love the difficulty as well, it just shits me that negative plane protection doesn't work against the level drain for no apparent reason other than "it's a dragon"
Most dragons, including Thaxll'ssillyia, open combat with a stoneskin/dispel magic combo to wipe your buffs. Most (though in this case, not Thaxll'ssillyia) like to force a lower resist right before their breath attack for maximum effect, i.e. Firkraag throws in a spell to lower your fire resistance before breathing on you.
Yay! I got him! I summoned 5 skeleton warrior and hasted them, then casted Farsight to reveal the room where the lich stood. Opened door with one of my chars, and rushed inside with skeleton warriors and closed the door. Skeletons killed his minions (couple mummies etc) and then attacked the lich. For some reason he didn't answer with any spell or contingencies to the attack. He just stood there and died. It seems that only my characters trigger his defences, not my summons. Cheesy it was but there is little to do against lvl 25 smart lich with level 12-15 party and without proper equipment. I'm happy now!
Comments
My solution was going through the 2nd lvl of Watcher's Keep just to get the Wand of Spell Striking, with that I could dispell Liches protections even when they were invisible.
What's the point of making the game more challenging if you then try to avoid it?
Once the lich's melee protections are gone your melee fighters should have a fairly easy time killing the lich (although watch out for contingencies which redo the lich's protections) Now, if the lich has immunity: abjuration up (which a lot of them will do) then it's much more difficult as you'll need to remove that before you can breach them. That's probably beyond the ability of most low level parties - or at least beyond their ability to remove the protections before the lich kills them.
I've not had much luck with Protection from Undead vs liches. However Protection from Magic works fairly well provided your whole party is protected. Basically this means parking the rest of the party somewhere and soloing the fight. I've beaten Kangaxx at low level with this trick - even though I installed the spellstrike removes Protection from Magic option, Kangaxx never seemed to try dispelling it - maybe he didn't have the spell memorised, saving L9 slots for Time Stops, etc?. Nor did he cast any summons against a single opponent which was Protected from Magic - although he did cast summons if I brought in anyone who wasn't proteced. The downside is that there are only 2 Protection from Magic scrolls in the entire game. Demiliches were my worst nightmare, but happily there are only two of those in the game, so guess where my Protection from Magic scrolls got used
On another note, I found that Negative Plane Protection worked just fine against the Shadow Dragon. Are you sure it wasn't getting dispelled? Dragons love casting remove magic with SCS2 installed. Worse they love casting haste and munching my melee in double quick time.
I believe liches see through invisibility naturally so there is no point using it at all. Summoning as many creatures as you can might be a good idea to make lich focus on them instead of your party. I'm not sure if death ward protects them against death spell but thats worth a try. Also pick summons that resist magic well. Buffing up one party member as much as possible and then have him/her tank some spells while others try to wear out the magical protections on the lich is something I've used in the past too.
site:forums.gibberlings3.net, scsii+lich
and
site:forums.gibberlings3.net, lich
(Having said which, SCS itself tries very hard to err on the side of not exploiting anything. This is advice to players, not data on the mod's own design.)
if he has no protection from evil you can summon demons yourself he can't really harm them and he will waste tons of spells to kill them, if a specific spell troubles you use spell immunity x school
the best way imo is the inquisitor,you just dispell and butcher him
I'm 100% sure that in BG2, with SCSII installed, Spell Immunity: Abjuration prevents from being dispelled by any Dispel Magic/Remove Magic.
But here in BG:EE this doesn't happen, the Dispel Magic gets through it.
So the point is: was that a feat of SCSII or just vanilla? So long since I played without mods...
And this is in the unmodded game.