I finally got past Dragon's Eye last night and recovered the Heartstone Gem. After 2 very bad attempts of beating Yxunomei, I developed a new battle plan that ensure victory and just wanted to share it w/ the rest of you. Party stats are below in my sig.

By the time I got to Yxunomei's door, my druid had 2 summon fire elementals and 1 summon animails II. So I casted all 3 of these spells. Originally, I was just using the 2 fire elements, but on the second defeat, I learned of those @#$%^ snake mages that come from behind. So I added the animals 2 spell to deal w/ them. After casting all 3 of the summoning spells, I had Vassago & Onyx hide w/ melee weapons in hand. Eldran opened the door and I moved Vassago & Onyx into position (right behind the "odd little girl"). I kept the animals at the door and entered w/ Eldran and the 2 fire elementals. After the dialog and the "odd little girl" became Yxunomei, I unleashed my party. Vassago & Onyx starting beating Yxunomei down. I had a Silence spell in my quick slot which was the first thing Eldran casted on Yxunomei. The fire elementals went for the snakes on the left and right side. The cave bears starting in on the snake mages that were coming from behind. Surprisingly, Yxunomei was the first to go down. Vassago & Onyx were then surrounding by an undead mixture, so I had Eldran cast entangle (Vassago & Onyx have ring of freedom). I had Onyx proceed to the right side to help one of the fire elementals and Vassago went to the left. Eldran then casted spike growth to finish off the undead group and one of the snake mages. It was pretty much all over at that point. Eldran walked away without a scratch, Vassago & Onyx had lost about half their hps which put them around the 60 pt range and I still had 1 elemental and 1 cave bear left. They collected their reward and returned to Kuldahar.

congrats, sounds like a good adventure to tell by the fireside. My own fav event was when I (re-running through the game with my first party, all exported from my first run through) went through Kresselaks tomb with AI off, and only turn undead for a defense, my cleric and pally leading, did the same through the severed hand.

I think if you fully explore every side passage (and kill all the monsters), you won't have any problems with anyone coming from behind. The only things you should have to deal with are Yxunomei, the things in her room (6 archers and 2 mages?) and any summon spells she casts. When you encounter her, ALL side passages open and anything you didn't kill comes out to get you.

Etsap,
I did fully explore everything. I even double checked by looking at the map. I just thought it was something that happened for the battle. Kind of like a trap or something. Oh well, they had a hard time casting w/ the cave bears whooping up on 'em.

My encounter with the Big "Y" was somewhat amusing. I just lumbered on into her room and then the fight broke out. Party withdrew to hallway with her giving chase. My Illusionist and Cleric summon monsters and animate dead for cannon fodder. Plus the cleric tries to heal fighters that are beating on the Big "Y". My main fighter, Jericho Walruin, is going toe to toe with her but one is going to go down first. I'm down to ONE hitpoint, no potions, cleric is out of spells, and decide to run back through the corridor. She chases me. My Thief/Mage, Mark Tornado, gives chase too. My fighter, with the Big "Y" hot on his trail, is now all the way at the end of the corridor, but can't go through the door to the adjoining space because "You must gather your party before venturing forth." Agh! I turn to face her! Meanwhile the Thief/Mage has caught up, rips off his armor, and casts his very last Magic Missle spell. And the Big "Y" drops. :D

One of the hardest things to deal with is the party AI blundering into the room and triggering the traps. This has proven lethal to me more than once. For some reason, characters with bows seem reluctant to open fire on Yxunomei whilst she is casting spells at you. 'Course, this could just be my interpretation of the battle, so who knows. Thank the gods of Faerûn for the Fireball spell!

yeah... ive found AI less than optimal in this game... i have my characters set to none for that reason. ive had them wander off, blunder over traps, happily charge forth from a good defensive line to get surrounded by enemies... the works.

I would have to agree about the AI. I have it turned off as well. I like to decide my own fate in battles. Of course, I am a heavy user of the pause button.

AMEN, brother. See my post in the topic about doing stupid things here in the IWD discussion. ;)

Another heavy user of the pause feature here! LOL

I've whupped ol' SnakeLady Y several times, in single and multiplay but last night my multiplay partner, Sazerac, and I did it ONE try (no reloads)! I almost couldn't believe it!

We have two pcs each. I run a bard and cleric/fighter, he runs a thief/fighter and a mage and amazingly enough, we got through in one take. His mage cast web on half the room, then he and my bard sent magic missles at Y. The cleric sent some Holy smite spells in and we all wailed on the Yuanti with missle weapons. What finally brought Yxonemei down, was a combo of my cleric/fighter with Conlan's hammer and the magic missles, but she was distracted by the 6 goblins the bard summoned up behind her...let the cleric get a few really heavy hits on her with the hammer!

I squealed so loudly I scared my cat, but MAN it felt good to finish that battle in ONE try! WHOOOOOOOHOOOOO!

[ 09-20-2002, 10:46 AM: Message edited by: Cloudbringer ]

What level is your druid?

Animal summoning 3 is the best way to kill the mages.
Winter Wolfs really mop the floor with most spell casters.

Oh, that was a sweet battle indeed, Cloudy! [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

If I had to narrow it down, I'd say the key elements in that success were A) the web spell, B) the Conlan's Hammer, and C) the summoned goblins. That's something we must remember when we get to Severed Hand.

Heck, we had more trouble with the false Eldathyns on the level above than we did with Yxuonomei! :D

-Sazerac

I don't remember excatly what level he was, but he wasn't high enough to have that. I think the next spell level I will be able to get that.

Well I just did this battle last night at work and it was the first time I did with out losing a single person. Little luck I would say the first time I did this battle it took me a few times.

But what I did I took my thief/mage and walked into the room just to expose the little girl standing there and then backed away so no one could see me then casted two scull traps and then the cleric casted two Glyph of warding. And then sent the cleric back out side the room to raise up some skeltons and the thief/mage summed up some beetles. Then the thief ingaged the battle. Then the mage bached away from the battle. As the aramy was walking forward all the trap like spels went off. And then the mage/thief casted haste on the two tank. All melee fighting people went to the door to do battle. The mage was picking off snake people with assorted spells and the hasted Pc,s hacking the snake queen. And bingo 92 000 exp later she was dead.

I was very happy since there is only 4 people in the party.

Just beat Yxunomei on Heart of Fury mode I am using a party that has already been through the game once so it wasn't horribly difficult but it still gave me several surprises.

First I opened the door had my bard and cleric/mage litter the area near the girl with 3 skull traps and 2 Glyph of Wardings. My Druid summoned 2 stalkers. My Bard and Cleric/Mage both cast Stoneskin, and my bard cast both hope and courage then I set him to play his war song for the entire battle LA!LALA!. Then my druids cast entangle at the door and my cleric/mage cast web. I had my Fighter/thief go in view of the girl to get her to talk. She turned into Yxunomei and started moving towards me so he baked off toward the party. While waiting I had my druid cast Spike stones and Spike growth past the door. What I didn't notice right away that my Stalkers had already taken up the fight with three Yun-Ti priest with PNM shields and had already lighting bolted some of my guys. Thay did not appear in normal mode. I sent my Ranger, Fighter/Theif, and Fighter along with the Stalkers after the priest. The bard continues to sign LA! LA! LA!. Meanwhile Yxunomei and at least six archers and one priest appears in the doorway. I send my cleric/mage to open the back door for a hastey retreat as my ranger and fighters hit points had fallen into the yellow from lighting and archers. LOCKED!! This didn't happen on normal mode. That's OK I will send my fighter/theif to unlock it. PAUSE to take off armor. Door cannot open due to mechanism. CRAP! I am trapped. The Bard continues to sing away LA! LA! LA!. The cleric/mage and the druid have at this point being dealing with the archers using spells like cloud burst, Thorn Spray, Static, and Shroud of Flame. Most of my spells have been used getting through the rest of the level. By now the priest are almost dead a slightly damaged but Yxunomei has made her way in to the room. My ranger uses his belt to cast 4 mean Ogres to hold her off. As the last priest drops I send my Ranger, Fighter, and Fighter/Theif after Yxunomei who is fending of my Ogres. My fighter paralyis her with the Minitour King's Ax, now she is easy pickings and the Ranger gets the final hit in on her with his gloomfrost halbard. Their hit points are now in the green thanks to the Bard who is still signing LA! LA! LA!. With the remaining archers I send my two remaining Ogres, and two Striders to stop them while the rest of my guys stay behind and pelt them with missle weapons. The remaining archers are not in good shape and I have no intention of stepping on any spike stones or anything else cast over there. By the time the last archer falls my party is fully healed thanks to my bard who is still singing LA!LA!LA!. Grab the Gem, Loot the room and off to Kuldahar.

[ 09-25-2002, 03:54 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

hey dundee? how does a multiplay work? do you use gamespy

<font color = mediumspringgreen>pritchke,
Hey! You reaally got my blood going with that Yux battle rendition!
The more I hear about this the more I get the feeling that I am missing out by not having a bard. My paladin is a good guy, nice vanilla tank; but so bo-o-oring! My only hesitation is that I hear the pally gets much more valuable later in the game. If I switch a bard in and kick the paladin out will I be sorry later?

Oh, you'll love this: I got so excited about the bard that I rolled a fighter to dual over to bard. on about the 30th re-roll I rolled the highest roll, by far, that I have ever rolled for any of my characters --> a 95. (95!!!!) I optimized the spread for a dual-class to bard and then played just long enough to level. Now I am sure you are ROTFL by now; but I didn't know that you can't dual class a bard (tears)! And my distribution is such that I can't dual to any other class either (many more tears)! And then I remembered that I have Dale Keeper (bright, wet smile)!
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I wouldn't even have tried a bard the first time I played the game. I would say "A bard you must be joking." The only reason I tried a bard was I had gotten through the game once and wanted to check out some of the classes that I had missed to see what they were like.

My favorite songs are:
The Tale of Curran Strongheart
obtained at 3rd level and can remove and prevent the effects of fear.

War chant of Sith
obtained at 11th level, gives -2 bonus to AC, +10%resistance to slashing, piercing, crushing, and missle attacks, and the ability to regenerate 2 hit points every round for every member of the party.

There are a couple other tunes that are worth having for a bard for as well. Bards gain levels so fast that it is no time before you reach level 11. That could be why they intended it so you can't duel class them.

As for kicking out the paladin I don't know. You may want to keep your party for now because you can always start a new game at some point to try different party combinations. If you have two or three fighters you may not need the paladin so it might be worth tossing the paladin for the bard. The Bard is at his best once he reaches level 11. Couple other good things about the bard is picpocketing, and he will likely reach higher level spells before a mage although I don't think he can learn past level 7 spells.

It is a good thing you had Dale Keeper or some bard would have to weave a song with and sad ending indeed. [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

keep the paladin so you can use the pale justice sword, VERY NICE