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I am in the mind flayer area at the north end of the sewers beneath the Temple district. They are destroying me without much difficulty including some one hit kills (where they don't actually do much damage). Any tips on how to fight these things?

Why they are killing you so fast is that Mind Flayers drain your intelligence with each hit, usually about 5 intelligence each time. This can add up quickly! Although the effects are not permanent, if your intelligence ever drops below 1, then you are killed. I would suggest using people with high armor classes to stand in front while having as many archers or ranged weapon party members attack from behind. Be aware that they are heavily magic resistant, so mages are almost useless as a frontal assault. Be sure to let your intelligence regrow before attacking a new group! Good luck,
-Brainless One

Illithids are scary nasty icky thingies!!! Stay away from them!

Illithids use Psionics, which is not actually magic, which means it cannot be blocked by Magic Resistance. In standard BG2, their Psionic Blast is an area-of-effect spell that forces all enemies to Save vs. Spell or be Stunned for several rounds, and a Stunned creature is essentially a dead creature.
Countermeasures: Improve Saving Throws, gain immunity to Stun.

Illithids' favorite food is the brains of intelligent creatures. They wrap their tentacles around their victim's skull (or helmet), and try to rip right through it to get at the yummy brains inside. If anyone's skull gets ruptured, they will instantly die, regardless of any remaining hitpoints. This method of attack isn't mirrored all that well in the game: The game engine takes the easy way out of making every melee hit from an Illithid temporarily lower the victim's Intelligence by 5 points. If your Intelligence ever hits 0 or lower, you're dead.
Countermeasures: Have more than 5 INT. A lot more.

[ 09-28-2004, 08:18 PM: Message edited by: SixOfSpades ]

Hah, Mind Flayers, Illithids, they never were much of a problem for me, even with a low level party. Ok, so here's my strategy: have a cleric cast Chaotic Commands on a tank (this protects you from their psionics) and maybe Negative Level Protection (i know it works against vampires, but i don't think it works against Mind Flayers, but it always gave me more time against these critters) then try and kill as many as you can with a single tank without your intelligence dropping below 5. If it does, run and close the door so they can't follow you ;) . Then do it again and again and again 'till all bloody brain suckas dead [img]graemlins/evillaughter1.gif[/img] . Or you can try going to the door and make only one Mind Flayer/Illithid follow you, then go to your party and have archers waiting in the back. You can move all over, back and forth with a character and the flayers can't catch you and suck your brain (try using the Boots of Speed). Then put your archers to hit it hard and good. So that's all folks! Today we're having Stuffed Mind Flayer Surprise.

The main thing to remember is not to just stand there and get your brains sucked out. Assuming that you can't cast Protection from Magic Weapons yet, try putting something between you and the flayers (read: summons), while you attack them with ranged weapons. They are relatively weak physically. Then again, they'll chew through your summons, so be prepared to throw in more.

Chaotic commands is critical to protect against the psionic attacks. Negative plane protection, AFAIK, does nothing, unless you're dealing with vampiric illithids (you're not).

Bring along a bunch of potions of genius and mind focusing to counteract the intelligence drain.

Good luck.

While flayers have nasty habit of killing things that are important to you, you can just send a demon in to kill them if you want. I don't think Flayers can even hit a Balor, let alone kill one.

Just remember to Pro. Evil before you summon a Demon [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Or if you have no Pro. from Evil spells or scrolls, send the demon in and close the door ;)

First time around I killed Flayers by getting as many summons as possible and standing them just infront of a door, blocking anyone going in, or out. Then I pummelled them with arrows, it seemed to work.

Second time around I used my ranger (wearing leathers, has Hide in Shadows) to sneak until one mind flayer could see him. Then when they would cast the stun spell on me I'd run back to where the rest of my party were (I had boots of speed). Then, before the spell caught up, I'd give Imoen the boots of speed, and send her off to watch the Mind Flayer come. Then I'd get everyone to attack it, it might get the occasional Int. Drain but no one was badly injured [img]smile.gif[/img]

You can't get badly injured by the flayers, just stupider. Only the Umber Hulks can damage you that way in the Illithid cities.

Just cast a Cloud Kills (or use a wand), close the door, and wait...

Death Fog also works.