Lets do the Dundee method of responding [img]tongue.gif[/img]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Divinar:
/sigh

yeah, I may be forced to accept the fact that its just too soon for me to be able to win this battle...

Never say Die! I would load a save back outside, and go invest in a protection from magic scroll, and a protection from undead. Also, I found a wand of cloudkill with a decent amout of charges helps.

What also doesnt help is the fact that I have been utterly raped in terms of hp rolls on levelups... My main character (monk) has less overall life(92) now at level 11 or 12 whatever he is, than an Elven Archer I just created to attempt to solo with, and that Elf is no more than level 7 and started with 97 life... go figure.

Odd thing is, the Monk has more starting constitution than the Archer...

Two things you should know about Monks. First, monks do not gain the benefits of having constitution over 16. Only paladins, fighters, barbarians, and rangers do. Secondly, Monks are not high HP creatures. If ya look in the manual you will see that they don't get as many HP per level as the fighter types do. It has always been this way, since they have been more about not getting hit than being able to take damage. In 1st edition AD&D, if they made a sucessful savings throw vs rod/staff/wand they would only take half damage from attacks [img]smile.gif[/img]

Anyway, thanks for the ideas... I know a couple characters have traps, I'll play with those a bit...

That may help, since you have a little time to set them where people appear. Try setting as many as you can where the lady mage appears, as she cannot be as easily dealt with as the lich.

I've done all the quests, so I'll probably want to find out where I put that Amulet from Renal... I'll also download the merchants, and give Valygar that shield to play with the Beholder...

If you take care of the lady mage with traps, then have say valygar go in with the shield of the baldurian, have him use a scroll of protection from undead, and then he can safely take care of the beholder.... Since that human assassin is pretty weak really.


I am fairly close to actually finishing the battle, these tips might just be the edge I needed.

I hope you do... Nothing is more satisfying than beating what seems a no win situation. Last fight I had with the twisted rune was with a sorcerer of mine... All I had to do is summon a planetar, and it was pretty much over... I hardly did any work, just threw a few damage spells in from the doorway.

Thanks again!

[img]smile.gif[/img] If you win, boy is that gnome going to be a happy camper.
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It's one of the toughest battles in the game. If you're doing this on core it's a real challenge.

Buff yourself up first, while in the foyer. Haste, Protection from Magic, Defensive Harmony, Stoneskin, etc. Negative Plane Protection and Chaotic Commands on a fighter will help him defeat Shyressa the vampire, since he won't be dominated or level drained.

Use some summoned cannon fodder to take the brunt of the beholder and vampire melee attacks. Summon animals, skeletons, anything that will keep them from getting to you. Choose your ground - stay in the alcove where Shangalar teleports to and focus your efforts on him, keepimg the summonings in between you and the rest of the Rune members. You can summon up to 5 critters at any one time and make sure you max this up. If you venture into the room you will probably get slaughtered.

Make sure you cast True Sight so you don't get backstabbed and so that you can see where the female mage is. She will summon a pit fiend who will then attack her (unless you have ToB installed) so you don't have to worry about her.

Cast Lower Resistance, Greater Malison and Warding Whip/Remove Magic or some other spell protection disabler on Shangalar to get rid of his Mantle. Your weapons (and your melee fighters) will be useless otherwise. Once his Mantle and Stoneskin is gone Shangalar can be dispatched quite quickly by a hasted fighter.

Once you get rid of Shangalar try and draw the others into the alcove one at a time. If your summonings are still alive then have them do a fighting withdrawal into the alcove where you can hopefully dispatch them one by one. The female mage and the elder orb probably won't move, so you can worry about them last.

Spoiler?....
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Well... the pixie dust and undead/magic protection tactic blew up in my face...

I was gonna give up for now, so I went to Jan's place to do his quest... well that little gnomish bastage left my group... so I thought... hrmmm.... maybe Yoshi will have the firepower I need to win this.

So, I headed to the CC and grabbed Yoshi for the first time... slapped the Armor of the Night +5 and that Backstabbing Dagger on him and headed back to the Bridge...

Traps did NOT work on the lady mage... they just simply did not go off any of the times I tried that...

However, with all 4 of Yoshi's traps laid down in the Foyer... positioning Yoshi behind where Shanglar spawns, and my monk there as well... with some quick reflexes with the pause button, and a little bit of luck... the 4 traps, plus a backstab, plus a round of Monk attacks before his triggers and protections are activated, yields a very dead Shanglar ...

Now, you would THINK that it be easy after he's gone... and it might very well be... but it was late as hell when I was attempting this, and I still got my ass handed to me on a silver platter each time. Another very, very annoying this is that damned Petrification... Being that I do not cheat in any way shape or form, I only have 43,000 gold... so those fun toys at the vendors I downloaded last night arent a really viable option if I want to still have the 15,000 to end Chapter 2....

Maybe I will toy with it a little more later tonight, I'll keep you posted on the progress of my relatively low level group attempting to take out the Twisted Rune bosses with core rules.
We shall see....


-Div

EDIT: The paragraph spacing was FUBAR for some reason...

Bah, the Twisted Rune is EASY, if you want to be cheap.

You can do it at level 8/9.

Get Yoshimo.

Go into the Twisted Rune, hide in the alcove, now plant as many special snares as possible. When Yoshimo runs out of snares, remove him from the group, but when the dialogue pops up, tell him no, you really /do/ want him. This will reload his snares. If you're careful, you can utterly obliterate everyone by bringing one or two at a time into your field of special snares. The only toughy is theh sorceress, and she can be handled by having her waste her energy on summons, and letting her /own/ pitfiend smack her around.

Well... almost there...

I'm gettin pretty damned good at this, heh...

Won the battle a few times... only problem being, my monk was the only one left standing at the end.

Current tactic lies with placing all 4 of Yoshimo's traps where Shanglar spawns after his speech... as well as leaving Yoshi in the shadows to do a quick nasty backstab and finish him off if the traps dont... snimal summoning 3 and a fire elemental where the beholder spawns, as well as my monk/Jahiera/Viconia/Valygar... to try and take that out asap because quite frankly... petrification sucks and I don't have the necessary protections for it. I buff up Minsc with aid, bless, berserker, negative plane protection, and magic resistance and place him directly on top of the vampire spawn...

So, when the shit hits the fan, Minsc engages Shryssa(sp?)... Shanglar get whacked by traps and a quick backstab, the beholder usually goes down, but that mage lady usually takes out a few people with that damned meteor swarm and other spells... the beholder by the time he died has also whacked a couple... that little fighter is a wuss, something usually kills him fairly quick...

Pretty soon, aside from the "cheese" of using Yoshi's traps... my low level party is gonna finish this fight pretty legitimately...

Only thing I cannot afford, is petrification... I guess I wouldn't care if Yoshi himself was turned to stone, but he is wearing my Night Armor+5 and using that kickass backstabbing 0 speed factor +3 dagger...

Havent done sphere yet, canot lose Valygar, Viconia is mah cleric, havent done Harpers for Jahiera, Minsc is staying with me to the end...

Damned petrifications!


Almost there...


-Div

Protection from Petrification is a level 1 Mage spell... if none of your Mages has it, buy the scroll and scribe it. You just need to sacrifice a few Magic Missiles so that you can cover your whole party. The duration of the spell is 5 turns( roughly 5 minutes), so you do not really need to worry about it running out.

Good luck. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Aye, you are correct... however:

*Glances at his party*....

Monk?.... no...

Minsc?.... nope...

Jahiera?.... nada...

Valygar?.... worthless bastage...

Viconia?.... ffs....

Yoshimo?.... well for the love of--...


No go on that level 1 mage spell =/


I just need to perfect my Beholder Slaying techniques... or find some way to persuade him into aggroing the summoned pets the entire time...

Do you have money to burn? You can buy the Shield of Balduran from a bonus merchant( if you have her) named Deidre. This item is a Beholder killer. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Refer to a post above...

Only 43,000 in the coffers... I refuse to cheat or exploit, so I can't quite afford to dish out that kind of cash since I still have to give Gaeylan his cash to finish chapter 2...


Besides, that shield is almost like cheating =)

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Divinar:
Refer to a post above...
Only 43,000 in the coffers... I refuse to cheat or exploit, so I can't quite afford to dish out that kind of cash since I still have to give Gaeylan his cash to finish chapter 2...
Besides, that shield is almost like cheating =)<hr></blockquote>

Actually, you can afford the Shield of Balduran, but if you feel that it feels like cheating, then try using Fire Elementals against the Beholder and stay out its' sight. Fire Elementals hate Beholders.