Total Maevar Fight Chaos: Help!

ZaramMaldovar

I don't know what mods I added, but the Maevar fight is way harder than it used to be and even turning the difficulty down doesn't seem to give me an edge in the fight.

Maevar is now a mage with a ton of spells at his disposal.
His assassins are way heartier and backstab my party members into oblivion
2 Skeleton Warriors also
The Priest of Cyric is higher level.

I cannot handle this fight and I feel like I'm cheating by turning on Story Mode.

Party consists of
1. Evil Skald
2. Jaheria
3. Nalia
4. Yoshimo
5. Korgan
6. Edwin

Nothing I seem to do does any good.

OrlonKronsteen

Well, your party level and the gear you have will have an impact on the opportunities available to you, and some of it depends on how 'fair' you want the fight to be.

If you have no qualms about abusing the fog of war, you can cast disabling and crowd control spells from just out of sight. Web, Cloud Kill, Chaos, Greater Malison, etc... should end the fight fairly easily and at a relatively low level. Keep your party members invisible to avoid being backstabbed by any assassins that get through.

On the other hand, if you prefer to waltz into the room and initiate the dialogue first, well... then it's really time to think about a 'defense first' strategy. You're right, the backstabs are a pain in the wazoo. If any of your party members are able to cast true sight, this is a great fight to do it. Have it running before you walk into the room. You may also have the third level cleric spell 'invisibility purge' handy for Jaheira to cast later.

Your mages should have Stoneskin and Mirror Image up before hand. Iron Skins wouldn't hurt for Jaheira, either, if you can afford the level five spell slot (she gets few level 5 spells in SOA, and choosing which ones to use is tough). Having your own party invisible is helpful, too. Invisibility 10' is a great spell to walk into the room with. Additional potions for other party members are good too. An invisible character can't be targeted for backstabs. Other standard buffs are great, too. Protection from Evil 10', etc.

You mentioned mods: if you have SCS installed Maevar might dispel all the aforementioned buffs, so it's a good idea to have other castings of Stoneskin ready to thow up again, if need be.

As for offense: you want to shut Maevar down quickly. True sight will dispel his illusory protections. Your skald will be effective with Remove Magic spells due to high leveling. Jaheira can wreak havock with Summon Insects or Insect Plague (the latter will be more effective as it will hamper the priest and assassins as well). Edwin and Nalia can use Secret Word and Spell Thrust to remove lingering protections on Maevar. Korgan can chop him to bits, Yoshi can backstab or use arrows. Edwin and Nalia can hit the whole group with debuff spells like Slow, or crowd control spells like Chaos or damaging spells like Skull Trap.

As for the skeleton warriors: Korgan with a hammer or other blunt weapon, and Jaheira standing behind him with a staff is a great combo.

All in all it shouldn't be too bad - unless you have other mods I don't know about which turn them all into epic level foes?

Davide

Moved to the proper section.

jmerry

Mae'var is actually a mage/thief in vanilla, with a script that knows how to cast spells. He just can't actually cast anything because he's wearing the shadow armor.

I know that SCS removes the armor from him, thus instantly making him more effective in combat.

One other tip - you have Yoshimo in your party. There's no reason you can't prepare the battlefield in advance with some traps. After all, Mae'var isn't hostile until you actually take the final mission to eliminate his guild.