Black Pits II Vampires Killing Me

talkitron

I have easily gotten past the first few fights in Black Pits II. But now I have hit the vampires and am getting slaughtered.

The vampires are led by the mage vampire Gaul, who can cast Time Stop and Horrid Wilting. The Vampires have domination, level drain, backstab for quadruple damage, and poison abilities. I have only one cleric and she cannot cast Negative Plane Protection and Chaotic Commands on all party members to protect against both level drain and Domination. Unlike in the regular Baldurs Gate 2, you cannot metagame and buff before a fight in Black Pits II.

Basically I get rushed by Vampires and overwhelmed in a few rounds. Even if my sorcerer gets a Time Stop off and can cast one Comet and two Horrid Wiltings, the vampires survive it pretty well and continue their onslaught. Usually one or two characters are dire charmed, others are poisoned, and everyone drops like flies from backstabs and who knows what else. I cannot even see what is going on from the smoke from Gaul's Horrid Wilting.

I don't have any special anti-undead gear, unlike in the regular Baldurs Gate 2.

My party is a sorcerer, cleric, F/M/T, beserker, archer and Dwarven defender. In my save game, I have also recruited the phony cleric of Lathander who is actually an assassin. Everyone except the F/M/T and sorcerer have +3 weapons, although the archer lacks +3 arrows.

Any advice? This is frustrating!

FinneousPJ

You should have HLAs by now, so use them to the fullest.

Cast some summons to occupy the vampires.

Buy potions of clarity to protect from domination

ryuken87

Can't give you any specifics on this fight but you can load sequencers, triggers and contingencies in the bunkhouse area. I did this for nearly every fight with 3x Skull Trap, 3x Horrid Wilting, etc.

MacHurto

And if all that fails timestop + imprisonment

Metalloman

You could try to redo some of the previous fight (you can repeat encounters you've won) to raise some levels and then retry the vampires fight.

Pibaro

No, if you repeat fights you get money or premium items, but not experience.
But some of the items you can get in that way can be very helpful

FinneousPJ

BTW re anti-undead gear, The Azuredge is available.

talkitron

Thanks everyone for the advice. Because repeating past fights does not give experience, I was not able to level up and try some of the suggestions. I did fight some past battles to get cash for the Potions of Clarity, getting some other items along the way. Here is what worked:

1. Fight starts, four characters drink (expensive) Potion of Clarity, to prevent Domination. Sorcerer starts casting Time Stop; I hope she is not targeted by Domination. A sixth character has an anti-charm weapon from fighting a past battle again. If the sorcerer does not cast Time Stop as soon as the battle starts, she will not get it off.

2. During the Time Stop, the sorcerer casts one Comet and two Horrid Wiltings. Maybe I got lucky with magic resistance rolls, but several vampires were badly injured or near death. Archer and melee characters finish those off.

3. Finally, only Gaul is left. Sorcerer and F/M/T use Pierce Magic type spells to rebuff. The killing blow was a Bolt of Glory cast by the cleric.

One suggestion was not useful: summons. Gaul has area affect spells that can kill off the summoned creatures easily.

When I won, I got a second anti-domination weapon. Bad timing!

FinneousPJ

talkitron said:

Thanks everyone for the advice. Because repeating past fights does not give experience, I was not able to level up and try some of the suggestions. I did fight some past battles to get cash for the Potions of Clarity, getting some other items along the way. Here is what worked:

1. Fight starts, four characters drink (expensive) Potion of Clarity, to prevent Domination. Sorcerer starts casting Time Stop; I hope she is not targeted by Domination. A sixth character has an anti-charm weapon from fighting a past battle again. If the sorcerer does not cast Time Stop as soon as the battle starts, she will not get it off.

2. During the Time Stop, the sorcerer casts one Comet and two Horrid Wiltings. Maybe I got lucky with magic resistance rolls, but several vampires were badly injured or near death. Archer and melee characters finish those off.

3. Finally, only Gaul is left. Sorcerer and F/M/T use Pierce Magic type spells to rebuff. The killing blow was a Bolt of Glory cast by the cleric.

One suggestion was not useful: summons. Gaul has area affect spells that can kill off the summoned creatures easily.

When I won, I got a second anti-domination weapon. Bad timing!

Your epic HLA summons are immune to the instakill effect. You should have those by now... unless you picked another HLA, lol.

ryuken87

Yeah I dunno how many HLAs you should have by this point, but Comet is generally my last choice.

FinneousPJ

Yes, I tend to pick Summon Planetar first in BP2. It's just too good almost throughout. Summon Deva is a decent alternative in the early battles but becomes obsolete earlier than Planetar, which stays relevant pretty much all the way.

talkitron

You have only one HLA per character in the vampire fight. I did pick Comet; maybe I should not have.

Skaffen

Send the berserker and any summons you might have to the front to soak up the charms. Buy Azureedge and focus on Gaul - he can be one-shotted with that.