1) The Zerth blade? 2) Ring of Gaxx?

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Has there been any kind of enhancement to the Zerth blade for the BG2 EE at all? It's only +2

In order to get the ring you have to beat 3 liches and a demi-lich right? Do any of them, especially the demi, have to be hit by a certain level of +# weapon? Meaning does Khang need to be hit with +4 or better weapons?

 

Nope, dak'kon's zerth blade is still only a +2 in BG2:EE, it's value is more in the extra spells it lets you memorize then in it's power as a weapon.
And yes, Kangaxx is only affected by +4 (or better) weapons.
There is the "The Burning Earth" sword in the druid grove, which is only +1, but has a +4 to undead enchantment, which will also work. probably one of the earliest available weapons that you can use on 'gaxx.
other early available weapons are The Sling of Everard - from the bonus merchant in the CC, +5
Staff Of The Magi - from layenne in the twisted rune lair, though it's another tough battle to even get this weapon.
Staff Of Rhynn - +4 staff, can be bought at the adventurers mart as soon as you exit irenicus' lair.
Carsomyr - again a tough battle to get it, since you need to get to and defeat firkraag.
all the other weapons able to hit kangaxx are either only found in spellhold/underdark/sahaguin city, or not available until after you return to baldur's gate after passing through them all.

There's a few spells that will also work :
Fireseeds (lvl 6 druid spell, treated as +6 by the game does 2-16 fire damage.)
Sol's Searing orb (lvl 6 priest spell, also treated as +6 by the game, does 6d6 fire damage.)
Mordenkainen's Sword (Lvl 7 mage spell, summon is treated as a +4 weapon.)
Black Blade Of Disaster (lvl 9 mage spell, creates a weapon in the caster's hand, counted as a +5 weapon - also drains levels and has a chance to desintegrate.)
Seeking Sword (Priest of Helm special ability, creates a sword in the caster's hand, counted as a +4 weapon for determining what it can hit. - cant cast any other spells while the sword is active though.)
And of course melf's minute meteors strike as +5.

One thing to keep in mind is that kangaxx has 90% immunity to physical damage, so even with weapons that can hit him he's going to take a lot of hits before going down.
On the other hand, he has no elemental resistances to speak of, so using a combination of Sol's Searing Orb/Fire Seeds/Melf's Magic Missiles would probably take him down faster.
Mordenkainen's is useless, it's going to get imprisoned before doing any real damage, unless you can get him to focus on a single character that's immune to his imprisonment spell.
Similarly, by the time you can cast black blade of disaster you've probably allready been to spellhold and have enough weapons able to hit him.
Seeking sword is allright, as you get 1 use of the ability every 10 levels, but it's damage isn't that great. Coupled with the fact that you can't cast any other spells while it is active, make sure you cast all your sol's searing orbs first
And remember to cast spell immunity : abjuration + death ward before taking him on, or you're going to have a bad time

 

After the upgraded mace of disruption, my choice would be daystar. The best part of daystar is that it deals additional damage to Kangaxx on each hit. So while your normal damage is capped at 1-2 per hit, the additional damage will not be resisted and will do an additional 4-6 damage, I thought (the description says +4 vs evil and double damage vs undead and I seem to remember hitting for more than 4 damage with it on Kangaxx, so I'm not sure).

I'm not entirely sure, because I usually have enchanted weapons on everyone very, very quickly, but I thought normal liches need +1 or something as well.

 

What about elemental damage like the fire from Spectral Blade? Will the extra cold damage goes through at full effect?

 

So I had to dig up this gem:

http://www.baldurdash.org/kangaxx.html

Maybe there's a tip in there.

 

I guess ? i assume you mean the Spectral Brand +4 weapon ?
As long as it can hit him, the weapon efects should be applied as normal, and since he has no elemental resistances he should take full cold damage.
Kangaxx in his lich form has no resistances at all btw, it's only his demi-lich form that has the 90% physical resistance.
He also has free action, and uses 2 spells : Trap the soul, the demi-lich variant of imprisonment, and Demilich Howl, the demi-lich version of wail of the banshee (save vs. death magic or die instantly), though he has a heavy preference for using imprisonment.
That's the reason why you want to use the spells i adviced, spell immunity : abjuration makes you immune from his imprisonment, death ward protects you from the wail of the banshee.
you could allways cheese and use a scroll of protection from magic or protection from undead, but where's the fun in that ?

keep in mind btw, that kangaxx is immune to all spells lvl 1-9.
the only reason spells like melf's meteors and sol's searing orb work, is because the spells have a target of self - you cast them on your own character, effectively creating a magic "weapon" for them to use, which will work as normal. So don't waste your spells on him, if you're going to cast anything, stick to buffs (and melf's/sol's/fire seeds of course)

 

Sorry for the confusion. I just noticed I said fire from Spectral Brand & then the cold damage as well. It should be just cold. No fire. But yes I mean the Spectral +4 or +5.

Bluerose where did you ever find that? Lol.

 

"Balance in all things."

 

Does the demi lich move at all?

 

Yup, though if you have him focusing on one of your companions that is made immune to his imprisonment/wail of the banshee spells, he won't - since he'll be boxed in by the tomb/bridge he initially spawns.

 

That must be a change in EE because in the original BG2 daystar only ever could hit critters of +2 or lower even if they were undead. It took a mod as I recall to get it to effect +4 creatures like it should.


Buffs are key get imp haste on everybody with +4 weapons and you need someway of countering imprisonment. THe dwarf is your best bet though some spells can help as well (though some leave you vulnerable to his death wail).



AS a note one easy way to get to the demilich fight is to set up traps before the fight using Yoshimo. The traps can destroy him as soon as he gets out of the tomb which will enable you to concentrate on the demi lich alone.


Also do not dismiss summons like the sword or fire elementals (each hit at +4) because they can very nice to have if they can live long enough to actually fight the demi lich (I think kangax may have a death spell chained to one of his spell triggers which instantly kills summons). Yes they will all die once kangaxx uses his death wail but that takes most of a round. IN that time a bunch of hasted fire elementals and swords could hit (assuming a full 5 critters at 2 attacks each which may be actually less than what they can do) 10 times which since they will all do about 2 damage per hit (which is about 4% of kangaxx's HP) means that the summons could eliminate around 40% of his health in that one round. Combine that with a couple warriors adding 6 attacks each or so (imp haste hopefully) and a couple other attackers and you can be very close to killing him in one round (and perhaps can kill him with some luck and if you have enough resources to IMP haste even your mages using meteors).

Also remember that if a summon takes an imprisonment to the face that is an imprisonment that one of your party members did not take and so you have wasted an action for the lich. That is worth the spell slot on a creature where most spells do not work at all.

 

Then it's probably a change in the BG2tweaks/fixpack mods, as I don't have EE.

A quick way to deal with the lich fight is the upgraded mace of disruption. Insta-kill with a bit of luck. The easiest way to deal with the demi-lich is protection from undead. Sure it's cheesy, but what else are those spells for?

Also, your summons will never get that many hits off, unless you first lure him out of the corner he spawns in.

 

Getting the summons near him is not the problem since you can have all your summons right next to him at the start of the fight. The problem is the death spell he casts at the start of the fight that auto kills all summons. I believe it is part of one of his spell triggers as a lich.

 

Will the "Immunity to all forms of death magic" ability/power of Hindo's Doom +4 protect you from the death wail?

 

It should, yeah - the only death effect spell i'm not sure it will protect against is symbol:death, because it technically falls under the conjuration spell school.
But since death wail is basically wail of the banshee, you should be fine.
Otherwise, the cleric spell Death Ward should protect you just fine.

 

Sweet! Thanks xosmi!

 

Yes though I do not think any spell will protect summons from death effects that auto kill them.

Protection from magic and protection from undead (cheaper and easier to get) are the easiest options (so easy it makes the battle a complete joke).

 

Just wanted to drop this link in here in case anyone in the future is looking for an upgradable Zerth Blade

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/29328/upgradable-dakkons-blade#latest