@Battlehamster actually that spell they cast is hold monster, a level 5 mage spell, but yet woodland beings is a level 4 druid spell, this is one reason why even vanilla druids can be great, hold monster is one of the most powerful spells in the game, it can affect any creature, and the creatures have to save at a -2 penalty, not to shabby
@sarevok57 Soo...you're saying my nymph cast hold monster on 3 different beholders outside the AoE of one another? Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure the summon only has 1 hold monster spell available.
the nymph does only have one, but hold monster can affect 1d4 monsters, or so the spell says, and if they were gauths, that makes sense because usually those little guys are pretty close together, and if not, still possible because its within the 4 monster limit
The shield of Balduran effectively removes beholders from the game. Similar with scrolls protection from undead, and protection from magic. The shield of reflection removes a lot of casting in it, too. There are priest spells that protect against most of the elder orb's spells, unless they get dispelled. Fast run of damage is normally the way to go. [The elder orb] It only casts one spell per round. A good backstab will do it, too. A stealth scout, and then area damage will get rid of beholders without magic immunity. Reduce magic immunity, and then remove magic spells will get rid of it's protections. Similar with liches. Special classed, like berserkers/barbarians, and high level monks can get through certain situations.
Anti-Magic Ray (basically Breach that also gives the target 100% spell failure for 3 rounds) Death Ray Flesh to Stone Cause Serious Wounds (17 damage) Domination Slow
I remember the Beholder den. First thing I did was put the cloak of mirroring on Korgan. Second I casted Improved Haste and gave him Storm Giants Potion. Then I put him into bezerk and let him destroy everything to his hearts content.....awwww the good times :')
I remember the Beholder den. First thing I did was put the cloak of mirroring on Korgan. Second I casted Improved Haste and gave him Storm Giants Potion. Then I put him into bezerk and let him destroy everything to his hearts content.....awwww the good times :')
I don't see how you found that rewarding. Without the cloak, he'd have been decimated. It's cheese I tell you! :P
I remember when I first encountered Gauths, I think it was under the Temple District. I was a complete noob then. I'm surprised my hard disk didn't burn out from all the reloading.
And then later, when I got to Beholder Den in Underdark... Those Beholders are one of the nastiest creatures in all of gaming history.
Well... after a 3 month break from BG 2 and quite a few level-ups since I wrote the original thread, I went back to the Southern Tunnels of the Underdark and finally defeated that Elder Orb and his Beholder friend.
I then ventured a bit further and defeated a random gang of Drow, before stumbling into another band of Beholders/Gauths. They were defeated with heavy losses... so I rested outside and went back in again. This time I ended up getting ambushed by Beholders from 2 directions as I attacked another group of Beholders. My party was fighting back reasonably well until Charname died due to some sorta instadeath spell, maybe Petrification... Before I died Imoen did some scouting and found at least one more Elder Orb with Beholder buddies... MAN those tunnels are deadly!
I think I've had enough of Beholders... It is crazy how much more dangerous they are than anything else I have encountered in the game thus far...
Oh yeah I had hoped that Skeleton Warriors would be immune, or at least resistant, to Beholder attacks... I summoned a Skeleton Warrior, a Fire Elemental and an Aerial Servant before the last battle... They lasted about 2 seconds before being snuffed out. How can you Death Spell something that's already dead!! *sobs in trauma at latest ass-whooping by the Eye Tyrants*
I've found magic resistance helps a lot against beholders. Viconia ended up killing a lot of beholders, very slowly, with her sling. Weirdly enough the Elder Orb never cast Imprisonment, even though it's supposed to bypass magic resistance. No idea why but I'm not complaining.
Hmmm... You are probably right, though my Charname is not a min/maxed superhuman killing machine, he is probably still my best bet as a Fighter/Mage armed with Celestial Fury. The problem is that Beholders have all sorts of instadeath spells, which is pretty dangerous for a Charname. I can mitigate all the Cause Serious Wounds with Cloak of Mirroring (currently used by Aerie), I can cast Protection from Petrification, but I have no idea what (if anything) can be done to save him from all the Finger of Death, Symbol Death, Imprisonment, Maze etc... Also by himself I don't think he has enough Breach to take down an Elder Orb's defences.
Protection from death magic is what you are after. Barbarians, Berserkers and some Paladin kits are good sources for this, as is Baldarians old shield. If you haven't got any of those (and why not?) with you then there are cleric spells which work. Getting saves really low can also work.
As for breach, I find that repeatedly poking the Elder Orb with a pointy object is more effective than magic.
How i deal with anything that looks pain in the ass: 1. Summon Wizard Eye 2. Summon Planetar (which depends on ur alignment) have ur cleric buff it with "Free Action" and "Chaotic Commands" and if u feel like that is not enough feel free to buff it with whatever you want, then have ur wizard eye light path while having ur planetar slaughter the shit out of everything that stand in ur path.
Obviously that will only work if you high enough level to use planetar in the first place. And so you don't even need to bother with artifacts.
I noted that the beholders seem to cast rays at a random direction rather than your player. Sometimes this goes through walls. Similar things have been observed for enfreeti's (sp?) Agnorwhatever scorcher. I don't remember this being the case in vanilla. Is this a bug introduced by EE?
Comments
Soo...you're saying my nymph cast hold monster on 3 different beholders outside the AoE of one another? Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure the summon only has 1 hold monster spell available.
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The standard beholder abilities are:
Anti-Magic Ray (basically Breach that also gives the target 100% spell failure for 3 rounds)
Death Ray
Flesh to Stone
Cause Serious Wounds (17 damage)
Domination
Slow
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The Elder Orb has all those, and...
Opens with Spell Trap (30 spell levels absorbed and can have spells replenished) + Stoneskin (and casts another Stoneskin when it goes down)
Spell Trigger: True Sight, Dispel Magic, Fireball
Spells Known: Vocalize, True Seeing, Spell Turning (12 spell levels reflected), Maze, Imprisonment, Power Word: Kill
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This is why it's such a tough fight.
If you approach it invisible, it casts True Sight and Anti-Magic Ray.
It will cast Spell Turning early fight, creating 42 spell levels to overcome without a removal spell.
It will cast the Death Spell if you send in multiple summons.
It also has 50% magic resistance.
It also casts Stoneskin twice for 10 skins total.
It has -6 AC.
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Prognosis: We're all doomed!
And then later, when I got to Beholder Den in Underdark... Those Beholders are one of the nastiest creatures in all of gaming history.
I then ventured a bit further and defeated a random gang of Drow, before stumbling into another band of Beholders/Gauths. They were defeated with heavy losses... so I rested outside and went back in again. This time I ended up getting ambushed by Beholders from 2 directions as I attacked another group of Beholders. My party was fighting back reasonably well until Charname died due to some sorta instadeath spell, maybe Petrification... Before I died Imoen did some scouting and found at least one more Elder Orb with Beholder buddies... MAN those tunnels are deadly!
I think I've had enough of Beholders... It is crazy how much more dangerous they are than anything else I have encountered in the game thus far...
Oh yeah I had hoped that Skeleton Warriors would be immune, or at least resistant, to Beholder attacks... I summoned a Skeleton Warrior, a Fire Elemental and an Aerial Servant before the last battle... They lasted about 2 seconds before being snuffed out. How can you Death Spell something that's already dead!! *sobs in trauma at latest ass-whooping by the Eye Tyrants*
Hmmm... You are probably right, though my Charname is not a min/maxed superhuman killing machine, he is probably still my best bet as a Fighter/Mage armed with Celestial Fury. The problem is that Beholders have all sorts of instadeath spells, which is pretty dangerous for a Charname. I can mitigate all the Cause Serious Wounds with Cloak of Mirroring (currently used by Aerie), I can cast Protection from Petrification, but I have no idea what (if anything) can be done to save him from all the Finger of Death, Symbol Death, Imprisonment, Maze etc... Also by himself I don't think he has enough Breach to take down an Elder Orb's defences.
As for breach, I find that repeatedly poking the Elder Orb with a pointy object is more effective than magic.
Obviously that will only work if you high enough level to use planetar in the first place.
And so you don't even need to bother with artifacts.