Fighting beholders in the Underdark

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I've done some research on this already, but I don't know where the cloak or shield is that is needed to fight these beholders and frankly I don't feel like backtracking to find it. I'd rather clear it out without these 2 items. Having said that, I did find some kind of amulet that has 15 charges (only lasts one round) that gives me a plethora of protections (which has proven helpful so far) but still not good enough by itself for fighting beholders. I tried undead, but they are quickly unsummoned. What are the white 2-pronged blades that are being shot out of the Beholders and Gauths continuously?? is that cause serious wounds? how can I protect myself from it? thanks jim

[ August 09, 2005, 15:40: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

Shield of Balduran reflects beholders' rays (never tried it) which is selled by Deidre in the Adventurer's market. Cloak of Mirroring reflects (absorbs?) offensive magics such as cause (whatever) wounds that are shot out of beholders' eyes with their rays.

So use SoB or wear CoM and kill Gauth first because you still cannot defend your guy from all of the confusion or whatever mind-whaking magics. (Gauth shoots hold person and Beholder shoots dispel...held->dispeled...got it?)

EDIT : you can get the CoM from certain creature in the certain creature's mouth which is in the certain creature's city after you deal with Saemon Havarian again.

 

thanks for telling me where the items are but I would like to do it WITHOUT these 2 items if possible...

jim

 

Try some long-range spells like Fireball, Holy Smite, and / or Cloudkill. Just watch out with Elder Orbs - some of them can cast Imprisonment. I think the ones that can do that are a sort of grayish color so you know which ones to attack first.

 

Keldorn and Korgan will have some great saves and lots of HP, if they are of high enough level. So you should keep either in front of your party to attract all the attention.
Soften them up by using area wide spells like WP said. The more you have covering the beholders at the same time the better. Then you can send in the melee units. You could also summon in fodder but they hardly ever last long enough. At the same time attack them with targeted spells.

 

These two items are as cheesy as can be. Avoid them, the shield not only makes beholders completely inoffensive they destroy themselves.

Western Paladin has given you a sound piece of advice. What you can do depends on your party level.

Since your summons are not good enough yet, you will have to lure beholders one by one, it's fairly easy to kill one but they do have a tendency to swarm around you and use all these nasty spells.

Don't forget about the potions you might be carrying in your pack, they can be really useful.

Do you have Viconia? Her Magic Resistance really helps, buff her up, use spells like circle of blades (or whatever is available) and let her walk into the fray. Of course she will have to get lucky but with enough buffing she is going to make a killing, just don't let her go too far.

 

Potions of anti-magic or such give good MR, and it helps against their rays. Unless they dispel it!

Smarter beholders(from Tactics) ALWAYS uses Anti-Magic ray on spellcasters, dispels everything and prevents further casting for a few rounds and it hurts.

Mage spells Spell Deflection and Reflection(even minor ones) will work. Or buff to max and hope they can not dispel.

Try GOOD summons, send Fire Elementals or large beasts, in pure SoA they did not bother using their rays on summons (was it a bug?) and only tried to bite them(pathetic) though when you see a NPC or YOU they quickly shoot rays.

Use wands, 2charge from a wand of lightning is generally enough to kill a Gauth, it is casted fast and never interrupted. (even you are under anti-magic effect )
EDIT:Clerics can use Wand of Heavens which does considerable amount of damage. Holy Smite is killer against groups.

Hope you can beat them. Don't give in!

 

Depending on who's in your party, these might not work as a few of the spells work only on the caster.

Try Spell Immunity: Necromancy for the Cause Serious Wounds and SI: Abjuration for Imprisonment. I don't know if this spell will stack with itself or not. Spell Shield should protect you from any dispelling magics the beholders cast the first time. Chaotic Commands will protect against mind-effecting spells. Protection from Magical Energy might help also.

Equip the Ring of Free Action. Use any enhancing potions you have tucked away for that 'special occasion'. This is it.

A character's berserking/raging ability might give you an extra boost. Korgan, Minsc (though only once) or if you're a barbarian - check the kit feature for more details.

As others said, use groups spells like Fireball, Holy Smite, Cloudkill, etc. Have your thief, ranger or monk hide in shadows and scout out the area. Lure them out one at a time. Also, who's in your party?

 

Scroll of Protection from Magic works very well

Also, there were some potions you could get from Roger the Fence (I think) that gave 50% magic resistance.

 

Beside using special items, there's another cheesy tactic with cleric. Cast blade barrior then cast sanctuary then walk around beholders. Mage's spell turning spell works well, but it reflects only small amounts of spell thus the spell disappears before it kills beholders.

 

wow, thanks guys. My girlfriend and I finally beat them. I think I took a bit of everybody's advice. there were only 2 beholders left and we thought there were going to be more. One was elder one was regular. I used a ring of invisibility to sneak up to the entrance, cast 2 webs (yes it worked!) then cloudkill and ran. unfortunately cloudkill didn't work..had to go back. Used fireball and they came screaming out of their hole. Ran like hell and had the rest of my party including a fire elemental and 4 skeletons waiting by the entrance. as soon as the beholder came out, it unsummoned everyone of my creatures. I used my lvl 14 werewolf (with haste) and ran up to it, and was incinerated before I even could land a claw on it.

Started over and tried again. this time i brought everyone (this time i used an air elemental, fire and some skeletons) sent them in first and buffed up my werewolf with magic potions and the amulet. The quickly dispelled a few of the skeletons and imprisoned the fire elemental ??? which enabled my werewolf to run in there and rip threw them. almost every second he lost another bit of protection but finally killed them both before they could do any serious damage! thank you all!

 

Ruin, that is something I'm gonna have to try!

 

Never overlook simple things like hold spells, if you have your mages fire off a few of those and a druid/cleric summon some minions you've got time to get your tanks in to start chopping them down. Upclose and in groups of less than 3 they're no problem but it's when you end up chasing after a gauth and run into an ambush situation being surrounded on all sides by gauths and beholders, grr!

 

Just to share a weird experience. I was once in the Unseeing Eye's lair without the Shield of Balduran and had run out of spells. Instead of just sleeping to get my spells back, I just summoned all the creatures I had left and sent them in with my thief as an invisible scout. Guess what happened? Those big eyes didn't shoot rays at my fire elementals and arial servants. They just BIT them. So, of course I won by my monsters' superior brutal force.

I haven't tried this in the underdark though, and I don't know if the Elder Orbs there would cast spells on my summons. But it will be interesting to see those self-respecting elders of one of the most wise and ancient races just BITE to vanguish their enemy.

 

well, like i said in my previous post, the elder orb thought my fire elemental was a threat enough to cast imprisonment on it! I never thought I'd be so happy to have one of my creatures imprisoned (cause i knew it wouldn't be me after that..) anyway I'm pretty sure my party was in view of the elder orb as well...as to why he didn't bypass my creatures and attack my party, I'll never know, but I'm not complaining!

jim

 

When I tried the creature stuff in Unseeing Eye's home my party was outside the viewing range of those beholders. I was very curious why my summons didn't die after a long time of fighting by themselves, and then I found this out. Gonna try it this time in Underdark.

 

EDIT: Sorry, my mistake.

[ August 11, 2005, 22:41: Message edited by: Felinoid ]

 

If you got spells, you can always summon some skeleton warriors or elementals, then cast mass invisibility and haste on them. Beef it a bit more by casting prot. from evil at the same time for your party and the summons. This should allow them to live a bit longer and even if they die, it doesn't take long to summon some more. Provided that you keep your party out of sight.

Area of effect spells are nice, but won't help much if you got a bunch of beholders automatically coming for the source.

 

M/T and F/M/T are particularly good for using area spells, because in my experience, if you stealth before the spell hits, they won't come after you. Just pause and stealth between when you finish casting the spell and when it 'activates' at its target. Potions of Invisibility (or any other very quick-acting Invis.) work as well.