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I am in Chapter three, working for the Shadow thieves and trying to kill all the vampires in the lair. My problem is that I've ran into this one called Tanova and I CAN'T kill her. I've tried everything I can think of and she just won't die. I get confused, dominated and slaughtered within about 10 seconds.
Please help me, I've been trying to kill her for days and pretty soon the game will be connecting with the wall of my room, very hard.
Thanks in advance.

What class/level are your characters? I just did this one last night on the first try by summoning a few skeleton warriors and sending them ahead to take the brunt of the spells.

thats right, skeleton-warriors and elementals will do the trick

OK, very important when fighting a monster who casts protection spells is to get rid of them. a very good spell is pierce magic (level 6) or Breach (level 5), then whack her away. A good spell not to be level drained is negative plane protection, and summon creatures. now youre gonna make it...

You sure about that? I've been summoning everything and anything I can and the only bit of diffrence it makes is it makes sure I live about 5 seconds longer. I don't usually get level drained, although a few minutes ago I almost had her when she drained my main character down to level 3 and killed her with one hit. That doesn't usually happen to me though.
My characters are all level 10 or 11 apart from my amin character who is level 13.

The really annoying thing is that I did this about a week ago by pure luck, but my computer messed up and I lost the save. http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/no...iles/frown.gif

Oh well, thanks for the help, I'm off to try again.

I think, but I'm not sure, that you might be able to leave and level up a bit and then return again, if the battle turns out to be impossible, leave and complete a few side-quests.

I don't remember the exact level of when I did this, but your party seems a bit low. Try leveling up and then going back.

Well I was lower than this the last time and I got by okay. If I ever get out of here I'll go do some of the quests I missed before going onto the next bit.
Oh, on a related topic, how do vampires manage to charm half your characters without casting any spells? That is driving me up the wall. The fact that I'm not always in control of all my characters probably has something to do with my problem.

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I don't remember exactly the fight with Tanova, but I went through this with very low level characters and had no problem with any of the Vamps. Vamps cannot touch you AT ALL if you have cast a PROTECTION FROM UNDEAD scroll. If she is using magical protection, just use Breach or Secret Word to dispel and whack away. I don't remember having to do that though

Brilliant news, I did it! Finally. Don't ask me how, it involved fireballs and invisibility but I didn't really have a plan. I do remember having to cast hold person or command word: die on most of my characters to stop them murdering my main character who had had a serious case of level drain (from 13 to 3). If that hasn't taught me to memorise negative plane protection then I don't know what will. Is it a cleric or druid spell? If it's druid then I'm going to be in trouble. I really dislike Jaheira and I haven't found another druid yet.

Thank you everybody for your help (although I'm not out yet so I could be back here soon.) If anyone has an answer to my charm problem I'd be very happy. They always seem to get the same person too. GRRRR...

Many magic items will shield one's mind from attack. A Helmet of Charm Protection, Lilarcor +3 the Two-Handed Sword, Adjatha the Drinker +2 Longsword and the Staff of the Magi +5 can all be found within Athkatla, although the Staff is very difficult to get hold of indeed. Further afield, there are the Shield of Harmony +2 or the Spear of the Unicorn +2. All will protect one's mind.

As for more generalised defences, any item that grants you magic resistance will help a little. The Priest 5th level spell Chaotic Commands can render a person immune to mind attacks, and it lasts for ages! Negative Plane Protection only lasts for a few rounds, but it is both a Druid and Cleric spell - handy against vampires.
If you have someone who has an item that grants Negative Plane Protection - and there are only two in the game, ulp - then load that character with a mind shield spell or item and use them as a human shield while the rest of the party follow on behind. With luck, all of the Vampires' attacks and charms will fail against that character, leavng you with the relatively simple task of keeping that character alive and healing him or her afterward.

Other counter-tactics: if you've been charmed, there are several ways to get around it. You've already approached the 'incapacitate' solution, to immobilise a party member while they fight, and a spell I recommend is the level 4 Wizard spell Otiluke's Resilient Sphere - it will make the affected player not only immobile but immune to anything that tries to harm him. A handy way to 'stalemate' the vamps.
Another approach is simply to lob a Dispel Magic at the affected party member, and hope your wizard's dispel level is high enough to penetrate it. Another, perhaps preferable approach is to use Remove Magic, which traditionally works only on enemies; but since the charmed character is an enemy, it will dispel his charm, reverting him to your side, while preserving any enchantments you have placed on your own party.
A useful last-ditch tactic I often use is simply charm them back! Use the Wizard spells Charm, Dire Charm or Domination to try and bring them back to your side. Usually your charm will expire after theirs, so no harm done. A magic item of note is the Ring of Human Influence, which is easily obtainable and can cast Charm Person quickly and efficiently.
Lastly, remember such abilities as Bezerk. Bezerking may be dangerous, but it will render the bezerker immune to such mind attacks; Just stay out of his or her way and everythig will be fine...

Tancred

In addition to the great suggestions of chaotic commands and items that protect against charm like shield of harmony you may want to try stuff that specifically targets undead. False dawn is alright but sunray is insane on vampires. The daystar can cast that spell once per day and it is also a cleric spell. usually 1 casting of it kills alot of vampires but 2 people casting it at once can clear the room out pretty fast. I am not sure thats an option for you at your level but if you can get or already have the daystar that helps ALOT. Pierce magic might be a bit of a high level spell for you but don't forget about secret word followed by breach. if you have 2 mages have 1 cast secret word the other breach and get summoned creatures right up on tanova irst thing. without the protections hasted summoned creatures will do some nice damage. negative plane protection's duration is very short so its not as helpful as it could be.

Err travel in daylight if you can't handle night life.

Fire elementals can trash Tanova.
Or cast priest spells like Call Lighting. that will kill anyone!
You can cast any priest spell outside.
Use spells like Chaotic Commands and Neg Protection!

I remember this as being one of the hardest battles since I played BG1

Thank you for the help. I'm finished with the vampire lair for now (I hope). But I'm sure I'll meet some others again so I'll keep all your advice in mind.
Thanks again.