I've never actually used any of the potions to deflect his gaze (though I will the next time I fight him), but I found wands of monster summoning to be immensely useful. I had my mage stand to the side and simply max out the number of summoned monsters continuously. In most cases he focused on wiping them out while I dealt with the cultists. Once they were gone, I swamped him with everyone in my party in order to take him down quickly. There were a few reloads, but it worked for me the two or three times I've faced him.
Potions of Mirror Eyes and Protection from Magic scrolls both work wonders. Last time what I did, was have my entire party fully buff up right before going downstairs.
Potions of Str on every warrior Potions of Invulnerability on every warrior Prot Evil Bless Yeslick was all like "DOOOOOOOOOD Draw Upon Holy Might!" and I think I had all 5 people chug Potions of Mirror Eyes (i'd saved my ProMagic Scrolls for my PC, since she was a Wizard Slayer). Then I went downstairs.
Please note, using this strat is a race against time. I generally kept 2 people on Aec'letec to beat him down while everyone else mopped up cultists. Sure he changed between them a couple times when he died, but this is a "race" for lack of a better term. If you saved every protection from magic scroll available, I think there are JUST enough to cover an entire party for the fight, but then you couldn't heal yourself and he still melees pretty high. You want some bookoo -AC on the people who are facing him. I think I had Yeslick and my Wizard Slayer on him, while Ajantis, Imoen, Xan and Rasaad cleaned up the cultists.
It gets even better considering I had the belt of obscenely strong stupidity (the Cursed Belt of Hill Giant str that sets your str to 19, but lowers your int to 6) on him too.
I fought him for the first time (never played the original Baldur's Gate). He wasnt that bad. I had a cavalier charge down stair to see what is going on. I killed the female cultist and went straight for the demon. I knew it was fishy that the other male cultists just stood there and didnt do anything. Regardless, I fought the demon at opposite of the stair and brought my party of archers down. After I killed the demon, one of the cultist polymorphed into another demon.
Once I saw through this trick, I reloaded (my cavalier had 1/4 hp left). This time, I just parked my cavalier at the corner while the rest of the party killed the decoys. When all the decoys were dead, I went on to slay the demon. I was super excited when the sweet and adorable Alora made the final kill. Boy, I was surprised in the immediate aftermath. I never knew in my BG playing life that there is this nasty "dying" status. Imoen got chunked and turned into a Ghast! NO!! I overrided my save too (I only quick and auto save).
Well, I guess a little cheating here wont hurt. Cltr+R and Imoen is given a second life. In the future, I just need to have full protections on my party.
Edit: Nevermind. My autosave was at the entrance of the village. I just had to kill those cult guards again.
@bbear; reading through all the CLUA cheats you used including the quicksave foreknowledge I don't see how you can say he wasn't that bad.
I just have Viconia drink a pot of magic protection for 100% resist, Kagain's saves can get into the negative with a pot of invulnerability, Dorn and Fighter/Mage Charname with a pot of magic shielding, rest with pots of mirrored eyes. You are warned of the danger of Aec's gaze by a ghoul on the last floor or Durlag's tower, and as soon as the dagger is stolen by crazy cultists you can already guess what's going to happen so I don't view it as cheesy metagaming.Kinda like how I enter Demon Knight's room buffed to the hells and back because there just happens to be an npc shouting DANGEROUS ENEMY AHEAD in the previous room.
Huh. I never considered this encounter cheesy. Is it hard? Yes, especially if you're metagaming that you don't know the cultists will transform in to demons and don't kill them (then it's very, very, very hard). But cheesy? Not really. Aec'Letec follows the rules, and you're actually warned about his gaze attack first as well as warned that you'll probably be facing him.
So I buff up, obviously, but I don't cast spells with no one in sight, retreat up the stairs, or use any meta knowledge. I use potion of mirror eyes, spell protection, and cast what spells I can on the tanar'ri.
The battle only really troubles me if I let the cultists live. Then it's like, hello, face six tanar'ri at once. That's not fun. That's not fun at all.
O_o 6 at once?! Did they change something for the new patch? I'm pretty sure he used to just pop up one at a time until all the cultists are dead. 6 at once?! I think even a party of dwarves might struggle against that!
They spawned six at once on Tutu, which was admittedly my last experience with doing this fight without killing the cultists. I haven't tried it on BGEE yet. If they only come one at once, that's a lot saner and also will clue you on to 'Gee, maybe I should kill all these other cultists too dohhhh'.
Still, defeating six Aec'Letec's at once is probably my ultimate victory in the BG series. I've never done anything else so amazing. >.>
@bbear; reading through all the CLUA cheats you used including the quicksave foreknowledge I don't see how you can say he wasn't that bad.
Well, it was the First time I fought against him cuz I never play the original BG1. Arguably, I cheated after I killed him (reload quicksave after I see the respawn from cultist trick and cltr+R Imoen from the dying status the second try I killed him). Frankly, one on one combat I overcame him easily. The cavalier has a very low armor class and good hp (potion of invlunerability, ring of prot +2, defensive harmony, protection from evil, chant, 18 dex, potion of power, potion of cloud giant str, 2 potion of magic shielding). The demon managed to hit me at a roll of ~17 and during the whole fight my character was just sipping healing potions. After he's dead, my cavalier only lost 50 hp.
Comments
Potions of Str on every warrior
Potions of Invulnerability on every warrior
Prot Evil
Bless
Yeslick was all like "DOOOOOOOOOD Draw Upon Holy Might!"
and I think I had all 5 people chug Potions of Mirror Eyes (i'd saved my ProMagic Scrolls for my PC, since she was a Wizard Slayer). Then I went downstairs.
Please note, using this strat is a race against time. I generally kept 2 people on Aec'letec to beat him down while everyone else mopped up cultists. Sure he changed between them a couple times when he died, but this is a "race" for lack of a better term. If you saved every protection from magic scroll available, I think there are JUST enough to cover an entire party for the fight, but then you couldn't heal yourself and he still melees pretty high. You want some bookoo -AC on the people who are facing him. I think I had Yeslick and my Wizard Slayer on him, while Ajantis, Imoen, Xan and Rasaad cleaned up the cultists.
It gets even better considering I had the belt of obscenely strong stupidity (the Cursed Belt of Hill Giant str that sets your str to 19, but lowers your int to 6) on him too.
Cheap? Yes. But so is an instant death gaze attack on a ****ing tanar'ri on a low level adventure.
You are warned of the danger of Aec's gaze by a ghoul on the last floor or Durlag's tower, and as soon as the dagger is stolen by crazy cultists you can already guess what's going to happen so I don't view it as cheesy metagaming.Kinda like how I enter Demon Knight's room buffed to the hells and back because there just happens to be an npc shouting DANGEROUS ENEMY AHEAD in the previous room.
So I buff up, obviously, but I don't cast spells with no one in sight, retreat up the stairs, or use any meta knowledge. I use potion of mirror eyes, spell protection, and cast what spells I can on the tanar'ri.
The battle only really troubles me if I let the cultists live. Then it's like, hello, face six tanar'ri at once. That's not fun. That's not fun at all.
Still, defeating six Aec'Letec's at once is probably my ultimate victory in the BG series. I've never done anything else so amazing. >.>