Beholder Tactics

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Howdy all,

So I finally decided to sit down and finish BG2 SOA. I just got the unseeing eye quest, and -man- beholders suck!
I did a search for strategies, and it looks to be all cheese. I tried a few of the non-cheese tips and got _NOWHERE_

In addition to the usual buffs / battle prep

I tried berserking Minsc, and he got zapped with fear? I though berserk protected against mental attacks...
I tried drinking a potion of magic shielding (glad I bought a few), and it helped for like two rounds then I got killed.
I tried summoning undead + nymph + spiders --all squashed / charmed / afraid
I successfully cast insect plague on all --no effect...
I tried having Nalia cast all her protection spells and then blast away with fireball, cloudkill, etc... Did damage but got killed after two rounds again.

SO. This is what finally worked: I went back to my old anti-mage strategy of sneaking / invisible surrounding the spellcasters with fighters, but this time I protected the fighters w/fire-resist, and triggered the beholders with fireballs from Nalia and Aerie, then attacked with my fighters. Took down beholder + gauths in two rounds...

Hope this helps, although I hear the big beholders detect invisibility. --Back to the drawing board!

 

This usually works against Gauth, and often works against beholders.

I simply cast Greater Malison -> Confusion, and sometimes slow for good measure. Its pretty much game over when they are confused.

Or you can use the Shield of Cheese.

 

Cool, I'll definitely try that... After reading some more tips, I also want to try powerword blind. Plus it would be great if I can get those silly skull traps to work without blowing up Nalia -and Yoshimo's traps seem to work on everything.

 

An easy way to deal with Gauth's and Beholders is to have Jaheira cast summon fire elemental-type creatures. I can't remember the name of the exact spell, but it's a level five or six spell I think (been awhile since I've done that section). Cast at least two, preferably up to four.

The Gauths and Beholders do minimal damage whilst the firies can slap them silly. Just heal your firies between bouts and send them out to hunt and destroy again. Stealth your thief so s/he can tag along behind and direct them, but he won't get attacked as s/he's invisible.

 

That may work.

I found using cloud kill only got them hurt enough that they became annoyed and started looking for my party (it damages too slowly).

See if you can hit them with a few web/gaseous cloud spells. See if, given time, a bunch of them become stuck or unconscious and then hit them with a few fireballs and.... sorry I cannot think of the name right now but there is a cleric spell (3rd level?) that does area effect damage too. I often use it on the Cowled wizards because it cuts through magic resistances.

 

Fire Elementals work great against Gauths, but Beholders tend to use Death Spell, at least at higher levels. (I cleared out most of the Pit of the Faithless with two Fire Elementals, but they only seemed to last a couple of seconds in the Beholder-cave in the Underdark?) I don't know if Death Ward will help, or if the spell protection will be removed by the Beholders' Anti Magic 'spell'...?

 

You can buy The Shield Of Balduran form the bonus merchant in the Adventurer's Mart. She is up the stairs behind Ribald. It reflects beholder rays.

If you have TOB installed, she should be there, even if you have no other mods.

 

cloak of MIRRORING i love that cloak so much. you get it in the sauhagin city and it's not hard to find (if i remember correctly, some little priestess has it) and it reflects all beholders rays back at them. job done. also use boots of speed and helmet of charm protection. Just go in there with one COMPLETELY buffed up character and wipe the floor with them ( I usually give everything to minsc.)

 

Apart from the already mentioned, Invisibility!

a fighter/thief with invis potions ready

a invis mage with triple instant sunfires.. or a sunf sunf invis trigger or helpless-> invis

a horde of skeleton warriors with mass improved invisibilty

..once your guys are close enough they won't last long

*sigh for a really long time I never considered invisbility, beeing any use against them, I mean come on they must see through anything with that many eyes.

 

I just yell "Go for the eyes, Boo, go for the eyes!!!"
...I shouldn't have done that, Minsc got pawned. Hehe.

Seriously now, I use Yoshimo to lay his traps then go to hide mode and stands in a place with a couple of fighters for an ambush. My mages also stands ready in another place where they can cast fireballs near the traps. Then I send my bait, usually a buffed up missile user. Does a hit and run and basically draws the eyes into the traps. Once traps are triggered, mages cast their fireballs, and Yoshimo and fighters finishes off whats left. Works most of the time, you'll just have to find the right nooks so your party can play hide and seek.

 

The worst is Elder Orbs cause they instantly cast imprisonment and there's no saving throws or spell protection for those. I just cross my fingers and pray that I kill them before they cast that spell

As for beholders and goths, I just charge in with chaotic command cast on my fighters. The Unseeing Eye quest doesn't have them in large numbers and by the time you're in underdark you'll already have that cloak from the sahaguins, so I never had a problem with them.

 

I thought it was common knowledge from fighting Kangaxx that spell immunity:abjuration protects from imprisonment. So does going bezerk with Minsc or Korgan. I think a barbarian rage also protects you.

 

As for tactics vs beholders, IMO having a halfling cavalier helps a lot. At higher levels his saves will make him practically immune to their attacks. Helps against umber hulks as well. I presume some people will say that a monk's and wizard slayer's MR helps as well. Never tried that myself.

Confusion + slow is good, cloud kill is cheesy but effective. Web and fireballs are almost always effective. Shield of reflection, and cloak of mirroring - of course.

 

I used the shield, too. Shame about the STR penalty, though.

 

Excuse me? Essence of what?

 

It's Limburger then