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Beholders in the Original

WisteriasWisterias Member Posts: 226
in Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
Hello. How can you resist those beasts in the original (no EE)? I'm in Maluradek Castle and no way, they desintegrated 1 of my characters even when he was protected with AntiMagic-Shell. In the originals you don't have access to all the protection spells so... what's the strategy? I sent a wall of summons but the beholder ignored them and started throwing desintegrate against my bard and my f/m. The bard drank a potion of magic shielding just before the 'ray' got him and he saved, but the f/m had none. This potion works?

Comments

  • DinoDinDinoDin Member Posts: 1,688
    Can't summoned skeleton warriors work? Been a long time since I played non-EE IWD
  • WisteriasWisterias Member Posts: 226
    DinoDin wrote: »
    Can't summoned skeleton warriors work? Been a long time since I played non-EE IWD

    Well, I had skeletons and all, but the beholder focused on my characters, even when I was quite far away 🤷🏼‍♂️ The beholder even moved back a bit and cast 'Disintegrate' on my bard. I drank that potion and it seems to have saved him, but I'm not sure if it was just a good successful saving throw or if the potion had something to do with it...
  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,891
    The only solution I’ve ever seen is: reload, try again.
  • WisteriasWisterias Member Posts: 226
    atcDave wrote: »
    The only solution I’ve ever seen is: reload, try again.

    Well I always try to make no reloads tbh... I guess those potions are my best chance, but I'm not 100% sure if my bard got saved because of the potion or it was only a lucky ST roll. If it was the potion then I know what I have to do next time.
  • atcDaveatcDave Member Posts: 2,891
    Doesn’t potion of Magic Shielding give you like a flat 50% magic resistance? So yes, it would literally double your chances of resisting a Disintegrate.
    And you likely encounter the Beholders pretty late game, when you’re high level and likely to make most saves anyway. So it’s unlikely you’ll loose more than a single character in the encounter anyway.
    And since it is so late, you can likely push through to the end with a reduced party and you’ll be just fine. (Maybe create a new character to join your team when you get back to Lonelywood. Or decide you’ve recruited a jackelwere)

    But for me, reload…
  • WisteriasWisterias Member Posts: 226
    atcDave wrote: »
    Doesn’t potion of Magic Shielding give you like a flat 50% magic resistance? So yes, it would literally double your chances of resisting a Disintegrate.
    And you likely encounter the Beholders pretty late game, when you’re high level and likely to make most saves anyway. So it’s unlikely you’ll loose more than a single character in the encounter anyway.
    And since it is so late, you can likely push through to the end with a reduced party and you’ll be just fine. (Maybe create a new character to join your team when you get back to Lonelywood. Or decide you’ve recruited a jackelwere)

    But for me, reload…

    Not sure now... In BG... The potion provides the following effects:

    "Boosts resistance by +50% to Acid damage, Cold damage, Electricity damage, Fire damage, and Magical damage.
    Provides a +20-point bonus to all Saving throw values.
    While the item description claims that "all saving throws are automatically successful", this is technically implemented as a bonus of 20 to all saves. In practical terms, however, this does usually translate to all saves being successful."

    Don't know it it does the same in IWD 🧐
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 6,105
    edited April 20
    from what i remember in the original IWD, the beholders first shoot off their "anti magic ray" effect first, dispelling all your sweet stuff, if you can, get summons to either soak up that anti magic effect and if the beholders dont care, all the better, because then you can summon stuff ( say elementals ) and cast buff spells on them like emotion courage and hope, haste, righteous wrath of the faithful, and then perhaps finish it off with a champions strength

    that will make it so your summoned squad hits fast an hard, and perhaps you can use far sight spells to have them scout ahead. thats right, original IWD oops

    well, if they ignore your summons have your summons ambush them when they come for your team and they should be taken out with relative ease
  • WisteriasWisterias Member Posts: 226
    sarevok57 wrote: »
    from what i remember in the original IWD, the beholders first shoot off their "anti magic ray" effect first, dispelling all your sweet stuff, if you can, get summons to either soak up that anti magic effect and if the beholders dont care, all the better, because then you can summon stuff ( say elementals ) and cast buff spells on them like emotion courage and hope, haste, righteous wrath of the faithful, and then perhaps finish it off with a champions strength

    that will make it so your summoned squad hits fast an hard, and perhaps you can use far sight spells to have them scout ahead. thats right, original IWD oops

    well, if they ignore your summons have your summons ambush them when they come for your team and they should be taken out with relative ease

    Yes... They cast like a cone of dispel magic. They die pretty fast, but the problem is that even if they are fighting your summons, they randomly target and shot some Desintegrate or Finger of Death vs. your chars. Next time I reach this area I will do some testing to see what's the best strategy, if the potions of magic shielding work... because I plan to play in HOF after Insane.

    Atm I'm starting a new party anyway.
  • WisteriasWisterias Member Posts: 226
    In the EE it's so easy because they are not inmune to Time Stop and stuff like Antimagic Shell makes you totally inmune against them, etc.
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