Grrrr-arrrrgh
Valferys
Member Posts: 47
Just going on record to say I hate hate hate hate Aec'Letec... Following a few different strategies found on here and still cant beat him... Doesnt help that my stupid characters will randomly run towards him and get stared to death... I know eventually he will die horribly, but I feel obligated to bitch about it for now...
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Comments
That includes stocking up on potions/scrolls from High Hedge/Sorcerous Sundries.
If you have a good archer who can also use wands of fire, the scorcher function can expedite the guard-killing stage of the battle immensely. It's not at all necessary, though.
- put all Wands of Fire on character that can use them
- make that character fast - Boots of Speed, Haste, Potions of Speed
- run with that char only downstairs
- quickly move to back wall
- use wands from afar to kill stupid demon followers (or use regular spells, but that fight is usually one of my last and I have more than enough wands)
- go back up, buff up
- go down with tank first (preferably super buffed v magic) and have them engage the demon
- run down with rest of team
- kill any reaming followers (if none, proceed to next step)
- hack demon to pieces =D
EDIT
Alternate version of this strategy is to use bow-user with Arrows of Detonation
However, Aec'Latec's death gaze is a magical effect that allows a save, so either 100% magic resistance (2x potion of magic protection) or automatically making all saves (potion of magic shielding) will protect you from it.
So, you have to work it out for yourself, playing to your strengths (party composition and personal playing style).
In this particular case I had Dorn firing bolts of biting, Baeloth throwing darts of stunning (as it turned out they only needed one of each) and charname charging down the stairs with a meat cleaver (all hasted) and the rest of the party doing nothing. As a result Aec'Letec was lying on the floor twitching by the time charname got to him - job done.
For the most part, I think you have just as much flexibility for BG2 battles, if not more cos your higher level characters got more tricks. It's one of the things that makes the entire BG saga so re-playable.
For example I watched an entire Let's Play by "Mynameisnotlily", and his party was very magic heavy, but lacked good front-liners, so he had to rely heavily on summons to stay alive and use spells to dish out the hurt, even in fairly minor skirmishes. In contrast I had a much tougher time with mage battles because I only had multi-class mages who were behind the curve in the protection vs penetration arms race, but most "brute force" enemies were easy because I had good melee fighters, and didn't need to bother with low level summons.
If by lack of options, you mean you have to use specific spells to defeat specific spell protections... I don't think it's inherently different to other games where you have to be aware of enemies' strengths and weaknesses, for example using water against fire, fire against ice, etc... Even here you got options in BG. My multiplayer friend demonstrated the awesome power of poisoned attacks against mages, you can also backstab with some type of thief, or use Bard/Inquisitor Dispels.
Improved Invisibility (or some variant thereof)
Countered by True Sight (mages, priests, inquisitors), Detect Illusion (thieves, dark moon monks), and for low-level folks See Invisibility (mages) and Invisibility Purge (priests). Must be countered before other spell counters can be used. Does not particularly need to be countered before fighters can do damage, though, although beware of Fire Shields if the target is also Stoneskined.
Stoneskin
Countered by weapons that do bonus elemental damage, any sort of poison, Breach spells, Inquisitor dispel, and druid bug spells. Note that Breach and Insect Plague don't work on liches, because of their immunity to spells of 5th level or below.
Weapon Immunity spells (Mantle, Protection from Magic Weapons, etc.)
Countered by Breach spells, Inquisitor dispel, druid bug spells, and just walking away for 24 seconds. Note that Breach and Insect Plague still don't work on liches.
Interesting to note is that all three major problems can be solved or effectively ignored even without special preparation. Which is not to say you don't want to be prepared, as it'll make your life much easier, you don't strictly need to have specific counters.
Which isn't to say I don't appreciate the complaint that BG2 is a game of hard counters. It kind of is. But there are workarounds, if you know what they are.