Don't think I used Shield of Balduran on my initial playthrough.

TrudeauIsSanta

Using it now. First playthrough since original game came out. That lair in the Underdark sure was a lot easier...

Aewyrven

So was cult of eyeless

TrudeauIsSanta

Didn't have it purchased yet for that. But Beholders... they're worse than Mages. Not sure what they were thinking when they put them in the game.

lansounet

There are spells to counter beholder rays and most (if not all) encounters with beholders are optional.

Aewyrven

lansounet said:

There are spells to counter beholder rays and most (if not all) encounters with beholders are optional.

What spells... because 4 be holders anti magic ray then into hold person to disintegrate make me a sad puppy.... especially when you don't have access to a lot of the gear to immune yourself to start with or the levels to save vs....

That and their speed.... it's like they are naturally on.... speed.... lol...

lansounet

I learned (learnt? I never know) today that Spell Shield blocks anti-magic ray, Spell Immunity : Alteration to protect from petrification/disintegrate. Don't forget about potions, to increase your saves (potion of invulnerability) or even not fail a saving throw (potions of magic shielding, actually not sure if those are available in BG2), potions of free action/clarity and related spells.

Of course nothing as reliable as the shield, but there are ways to deal with beholders and as I said, they are optional or you can delay them until later.

Aewyrven

It will. Once. And that is if it's the first that impacts. Against a group that goes kerflewie real fast.

Without using the shield I usually just used mass summons to shield a guy who had a free action mind protect and death ward item to go slap them down. Keldorn and vicionia/aerie or charname ect.

Against underark ones your main char should be immune to everything they have or you should have enough gear that you can be immune or enough rotating summon spell slots it doesn't matter kind of thing and toss the dice...

It's doable.... I'd honestly rather fight a lich dragon combo than a group of beholders.... at least those 2 don't fire of spells like a ferret on crystal meth.

lunar

Mislead works wonders, too, as long as the mislead clone stays in another place safe, you can blast the beholders safely with spells and wands. Though you need to hurry to finish them off, when the mislead stops even a single beholder can squish you then.

Diomedes33

I usually just create summon army.. run them into the beholders then charge in behind them. Pots and beatings are usually enough to win.

abacus

In the unmodded game, very little is as effective as summoning 3-5 Skeleton Warriors, hasting them and then chugging an Invisibility potion.

SCS will change that, of course.

Arius

I just sneak in with a thief or ranger with a cloak of non detection. Then have him basically there to target where my mage casts web and then AoE spells and let Cloud kill ice storm and fireball have there way withem. And I have the rest of the party on back up with missile weapons. That's been the tactic I have used since 99 when BG came out and I would run into groups of spell casters and or archers.

Basically Web or entangle..both is fun too. Then drop the hammer with with the mage artillery barrage.

prairiechicken

I don't use the shield because it feels too cheesy, although it makes beholder lairs really annoying

ber5nie5

aewyrven, the comment about a ferret on meth was hilarious lol.

i hate beholders and won't mess with them without the shield. the shield makes life sooo much easier.

think i saw in a strategy guide that you can also summon a creature that's 100% magic resistant to tear them up, but not sure about that.

Aewyrven

ber5nie5 said:

aewyrven, the comment about a ferret on meth was hilarious lol.

i hate beholders and won't mess with them without the shield. the shield makes life sooo much easier.

think i saw in a strategy guide that you can also summon a creature that's 100% magic resistant to tear them up, but not sure about that.

Sounds like a nishruu but it won't deal any damage to them either. I may have to try this. I do love my nishruu. .. or maybe launch a pit fiend at em and see what happens.

Tenrecc

Hmm, I usually just charge them and they die. But I'm a sucker for saving throws and usually runs a lot of shorties and saving throw-reducing gear, which probably has something to do with it.

lansounet said:

There are spells to counter beholder rays and most (if not all) encounters with beholders are optional.

Well, there are at least two in Sendais Encalve, but at that point your saving throws are pretty good.

I'm not sure you can call them optional though, since you can't complete a bunch of quests if you don't fight them, like the unseeing eye, or their city, and they can show up as random encounters. Dragons are optional because they don't block out content if you chose to not fight them, but saying beholders are optionals are like saying that any enemy except chapter bosses are optional.

lansounet

@Tenrecc Yes I was talking more about SoA, because by ToB they're not much of a threat anymore. And random encounters you can always run away from

In Underdark you can choose between Kuo-Tuas, Illithids or Beholders, and the Elder Orb is right at the entrance of the area, no need to fight anymore beholder.

For Unseeing Eye quest you can always wait for chapter 6 or go invisible past any of them until you recover the rod part and fight 1 weakened Elder Orb

Tenrecc

lansounet said:

@Tenrecc Yes I was talking more about SoA, because by ToB they're not much of a threat anymore. And random encounters you can always run away from

In Underdark you can choose between Kuo-Tuas, Illithids or Beholders, and the Elder Orb is right at the entrance of the area, no need to fight anymore beholder.

For Unseeing Eye quest you can always wait for chapter 6 or go invisible past any of them until you recover the rod part and fight 1 weakened Elder Orb

Yeah, you can either use tricks to bypass them or skip out on content, but by that measure 99% of all enemies in the game are optional, and the whole word loses its meaning.

To me, the only optional enemies in the games are the dragons, because the developers went out of their way to make sure you never have to fight them. No dragon in SoA will attack you unless you take that route through dialogue or attack them upfront. There's no need to use tricks, and you're not losing out on content for not killing them. "Only" the loot they carry.

But I'm mostly just marking words though. You're correct in the fact that they are rare and easily avoidable, so if you really don't want to fight them, you usually doesn't have to. It's not like vampires, which you run into practically everywhere.

Aewyrven

I still get wrecked by gibberlings....