Melissan 3rd clash

Fabrizio81

Hi, I know this is a request that comes up several times but I need expert help. I'm playing TOB and I'm on the 3rd fight with Melissan (the one where he teleports). I have a party of 6 people, all with the most sophisticated weapons and very high levels. The battle usually goes like this: Melissan summons the first 4 monsters, 2 of which attack my magicians (Imoen and Aerie) who struggle to cast spells. With some of my tanks I can quickly reach Melissan but they can't do any damage to her. Eventually she summons tons of monsters and my party is destroyed. I tried casting a couple of breach spells on her to do some damage but they had no effect.

jmerry

Well, the easiest way to win that fight is to put a bunch of spike traps where she's going to spawn. But if you're running Imoen and Aerie, I doubt you have anyone in the party capable of that.

Mel has about 250 HP. She's immune to all elements, level 1 and 2 spells, weapons below +3 enchantment, and virtually all status effects. Then she has 90% magic resistance and 50% physical resistance. And she's immune to Time Stop; if one of your party stops time, she can act while the rest of your party is frozen. She has lots of spells, including Heal and Stoneskin every five rounds. Her Stoneskin is immune to Breach, by the way; it's marked as a spell protection rather than a combat protection, so you need something like Secret Word to take it down instead.

Actually, that might be one of your problems. You see the mage casting Stoneskin, you cast Breach and send in the attackers ... and the Stoneskin is still up to absorb ten hits. Use Secret Word/Pierce Magic/etc to take it down instead, and you'll do better. Then send in your warriors, use their burst damage HLAs, and focus her down while your mages and summons are dealing with the riff-raff.

Fabrizio81

First of all, thanks so much for your help jmerry.
As you correctly guessed, I don't have those types of traps available because I have very low level thieves (which I regret given that against all monsters they would have been more than useful, as I've seen from many videos on YouTube).
I need to check if I have Secret Word loaded in the spells. I definitely have Pierce Magic which I tried to cast on Melissan but it doesn't seem to change the outcome of the fight much (consider I only have 1 left on Imoen).
On Internet, many people recommended using the "Ruby Ray of Reversal" spell, but I didn't add it to my spells.
Question: Since you can't sleep, if I load the spells I need, then kill and resurrect my wizard, will I find the spells loaded?

jmerry

Any of the spell-breakers will work to take down Mel's stoneskin. Except for Spell Thrust; it's a level 8 defense, so that one doesn't hit it. Secret Word, Pierce Magic, wand version of Pierce Magic, RRR, KWW, Pierce Shield, Spellstrike - doesn't matter which one you use, they're all basically the same in this fight, taking down her stoneskin. Well, the ones that reduce magic resistance might be helpful if you plan to throw some offensive spells at her (Skull Trap, Slow, Horrid Wilting ... can't think of much else given all her immunities).

Mel also gets a Blade Barrier variant, with 12d12 damage - and, crucially, "save for half" rather than "save negates". That's one for a Breach, because you can't just ignore it with always-successful saves. And you want your warriors to be able to stay in the fight and pile on the damage.

Death and resurrection will not reset spell memorization. Limited Wish can restore some lower-level spells for its caster (26 WIS required), as can the cleric spell Wondrous Recall. Then a full Wish can restore all your party's daily abilities; you need 15 or more WIS for that option to have a chance of appearing, and it's about 1 in 5 on any given Wish. And that's it for spell restoration in combat. But hey, this is the very end of the game. If you've got any consumables like scrolls lying around, there's no reason not to use them.