How the heck do you battle beholders?

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Here's an even easier way: inqusitor + cloak of mirroring. That's all you need in the beholder lair in Underdark. Sure, it's cheap, it's cheesy, but it's also ubelieveably easy. When the elder orb rolls around, dispel and hit it with everything you got, it will fell in few seconds. If you need a little extra help with saving throws, use Protection from evil, which by that time you should have in aboundance. Works well with mind flayers too. Protection from evil, and my inqusitor could hold a barrage of ten or so psionic blast without being stunned.

 

POWER WORD: BLIND has been working for me. One shot of this spell and they stop shooting rays and try to bite you to death!

 

^Ooo really? I never knew it! I gotta try and see! If it works against my modded and super cheesy and smart beholders it would be cool! I will definitely add PW:Blind to the list of my future sorcerer!

 

I'm pretty sure that common sense solution is only made possible by a mod.

 

My game is unmodded, I hate mods. I usually have the ability to soften them up with Lower Resistance & Greater Malison first. POWER WORD: BLIND is a great spell no sorcerer or mage should be without.

 

I hope you aren't using greater malison to set up power word blind. There is no save to power word blind, so the GM is wasted. But PWB is a great spell. I've never used it against beholders but it makes sense that it would work wonders.

 

Aye, and you do not need Lower Resistance for regular Beholder&Gauth groups.

 

You are correct. I use Lower Resistance & Greater Malison together on a lot of enemies. The Greater Malison is for the purpose of helping other spells. When an enemy fails his save against spells that are halved by a save they take the full brunt. I useually keep Lower Resistance & Greater Malison in a sequencer so it gets cast even though I don't need it for power word blind it is part of an overall strategy that I use for tough encounters.

 

Melee works best...preferably with a character who has very high Magic Resistance and great saves.

I tried using the Cloak of Mirroring and the Shield of Balduran...but it doesn't protect me from half the stuff Beholders use. I mean sure, it protects me from Cause Wounds and stuff, but Death Ray, Anti-Magic Ray, Domination, Charm...all that stuff still gets through on occasion.

So I just make sure I have a character with good saves, and beat them to death as soon as possible. Also, I don't bother buffing as they seem to have a Dispel Magic ability that completely disregards SI Abjuration as well as Globe of Invulnerability etc...

 

With barbarian rage, you can avoid some of the spells which get through your "Cloak of Mirroring"...

But they manage to dispel even that!But occasionally i don't need an item which protects you against mental spells..Because usually when they they remove all my protections,i would be right near them --> Flail of Ages works wonders!

 

i like using ranged attacks - first set ambush position somewhere safe. position your protectected fighters ,
resistant, low saves, buffed in front line along with summons and best archer somehat back so he don't get disabled. Send a mage to attract the beholders - some Area of effect spell to get their attention, eventualy scatter a few skull traps and cloud kills along the way back to the party. When they finnaly arrive to the party - weakened by the mage they target the summons and other tough party members.
The mage usualy gets another AoE going before he gets disabled(anti magic) but the archer kills them one by one as they arrive trough the narrow tunnels. If you have a powerfull ranged party and somewhat tough motherF***R in the front lines it gets even easyer.

 

Just as in all the battles against spellcasting enemies, I prefer fireball here too. And more then one, preferably from Wands of Fire, so by the time the beholders reach you, they are torched already.

 

Some pointers(sorry if you already mentioned those, I didn't read all of the posts:

- Spell Sequencer is the right way of dealing with large Beholder groups. But not loaded with Flame arrows, but with Skull Traps. Be advised. In the unpatched game the range of the Skull Trap is bugged(shortened by mistake). So be very close when you release the sequencer. And have your mage protected with Protection from Magical Energy(SI: Necromancy won't save you from Skull trap, another bug). Best way is sending 2 mages with 2 sequencers loaded each with 3* skull trap. This way no beholder will survive.

- When the fight continues a while, each grown-up beholder uses Anti-Magic ray, immediately followed by Flesh to Stone ray no-save attack. You may defend against this if an ally mage casts the first lvl spell 'Prot from Petrification' when a character becomes hit by an anti-magic ray.

- Gauths use Lightning Bolts. Elder Orbs use Sunfire and Imprisonment. Use adequate protections.

- Spell Shield stops Anti-magic ray, but is absorbed in the process.Keep enough spell shields ready when fighting Beholders.

- for fighting Elder orbs, Death Tyrants and Hive Mothers, the Shield of Balduran is total crap. They mostly use Anti-Magic ray, which isn't stopped by the shield, and powerful spells like Imprisonment right after the Anti-Magic ray usually. These are dangerous enemies, since they are also Magic Resistant(the Hive Mother 100%), use various protective spells like Stoneskin, Spell Deflection and so on and have True Sight spell. Also, the Hive Mother is immune to thief's traps, which are otherwise a great way to deal with Beholders. The best tactic is Time Stop or Time Trap(find a way to trigger it yourself if battling a Hive Mother), and melee. If you have a Wizard-Slayer in the group, arm him with enough powerful missile weapons and when a Hive Mother appears, activate Greater Whirlwind. He has to hit her enough times in order to stop her casting forever.

- total cheese-way. There are 2(two) scrolls of Protection from Magic, sold by Ribald Barterman, a scroll called Simulacrum by Bernard in Copper Coronet and an item called Vhailor's helm sold by Deirdre(bonus merchant) at Adventurer's mart. Buy these.Equip the Scrolls of Protection from Magic on a quick-slot. If you are a solo arcane caster, use the spell Simulacrum to create a copy(it will have too 2 scrolls of Prot from Magic equipped), and use the scrolls from the Simulacrum on your main PC thus making it immune to spell levels 1-9 and all beholder rays except the Anti-magic ray. Then kill the beholders in melee while they waste spells and rays on you.

The Scrolls of Protection from Magic from the main character must not be used. Only the Simulacrum copies of the scrolls can be used.

Same goes for non-arcane casters, in this case the simulacrum copy comes from the Vhailor's helmet.

Another easy way to get rid of some Beholders is going amidst a group(of normal beholers, not elder orbs) with Invisible cleric alone. The cleric must have enough Blade Barriers remembered. And (s)he starts activating them one by one, thus killing Beholders without allowing them to see him/her.

Same tactic works with Sanctuary, but it lasts only a turn, and Invisibility lasts 24 hours. The same tactic may be applied for Elder Orbs(and maybe Death Tyrants and Hive Mothers, since Blade Barrier bypasses Magic Resistance), but in this case this must be a Cleric/Mage, who has enough Spell Immunities(as well as Blade Barriers) remembered. Aerie is perfect for getting rid of any type of beholder after lvl 12/12. SI: Divination, of course, against True Sight.

Stoneskin stops Blade Barrier.As does successful saving throw. Yet I think that Aerie can use Contingency with Greater Malinson(and still remain unseen, but I haven't checked), thus lowering enemy saving throws, because they always seem to make them successfully.

[ July 14, 2007, 11:51: Message edited by: saros ]

 

@Saros

I did not know that Flesh to Stone ray did not allow a saving throw. I thought all of the rays allowed a save vs spells?

 

Well, I always get stoned after an Anti-Magic ray. Maybe this is simply because without my buffs my saving throws are not great at all. Yet, I think it did not allow save.

 

Spell Shield + Spell Turning

 

Hmmm, Spell Shield will stop one Anti-Magic Ray. Unfortulately, often beholders travel in large groups. And some like the Hive Mother and the Death Tyrant shoot in rapid succession Anti-Magic rays. So refreshing Spell Shield is an option only with enough improved alacrities. And another thing - spell shield is quite rare spell.

And Spell Shield + Spell Turning will stop exactly the first 3 Cause Serious Wounds + 1 Anti-Magic ray. After that what?

The best way to deal with large groups of tough and magic-resistant beholders(Elder Orbs, Hive Mothers), is having Edwin in the party, well buffed(with Spell Shield, SI: Abjuration and all elemental resistance spells), with enough Lower resistance spells remembered, 1 Improved Alacrity,another Spell Shield just in case prepared, the rest Dragon Breaths, and as many as possible Skull Traps,Pierce Magic, Power Word Stun and Blind and Magic Missiles. The tactic is simple - IA while protected from their rays, 3-4 Dragon Breath spells in quick succession, then some Lower Resistances and Pierce Magic at the survivors, after that all of the skull traps and magic missiles and powerwords.

 

This is SoA, not ToB.

 

saros:

No, it will stop ALL of them. The spell is bugged, in that it can't be removed by Anti-Magic Rays. Check out the Spell Reference.

http://members.chello.nl/~j.vanthull/BG2SR/Main.htm

It's not that rare. And that isn't even important, if you're playing a Sorcerer.

I'm not sure what Lvl Cause Serious Wounds is.

But the answer is: Recast Spell turning. Note that Beholders don't just toss off Serious Wounds, but also death, petrification and charm rays.

 

Mountain Hare:

Spell Shield may stop all of the rays in an unpatched and unfixed game. Yet I think that the G3 fixpack eliminates this Spell Shield bug and it can be removed by a single Anti-Magic ray(as it should rightfully be).

Cause Serious Wounds always were and always will be a fourth lvl spell - whether cast by a cleric or shot by a Beholder Ray. And casting time of Spell Turning is 7. This means, that in the middle of a Beholder group, you have exactly 2 seconds while protected. They all shoot at first Cause Serious Wounds, and after that charm, domination, Flesh to Stone and Death ray. So, your spell turning will work vs the first 3 Cause Serious Wounds, after that you will be unable to recast it quickly enough - first because you need 2-3 Spell Turnings to be cast each round(which is impossible unless you run IA), second because the Beholders continue shooting rays at you thus disrupting your casting even with the Robe of Vecna and the Amulet of Power on.

Not everyone wants to play with a Sorcerer. And the spell itself is quite rare actually - there are only three legitimate scrolls in the game - one in the Duergar merchant in Underdark, the other two in Lazarus Librarius. And hoping to get the spell as random treasure is a bit unreliable.