What is the best way to kill vampires? I keep getting waylayed by 3 vampires in Docks district trying to return to thieves guild to tell renal i have killed the guy that betrayed him, and keep getting killed by those 3 vampires! :(

Thats the thing there is no good way to kill a vampire something bad will always happen. All ways concentrate your power on the strongest one though, that is usually the female.

yes, their level drain is pretty formidable for a new party.... do you have any way to get negative plane protection? I.E. amulet of power, clerical spell, ect. If so, you can put negative plane protection(this will protect from level drain) on your best fighter, OR your mage(assuming you still have your warning from the cowled wizards remaining I.E. have never used magic in the city streets, because you will need it to throw up spells in combat, or if you know when the vampires will trigger, you can throw up arcane buffs indoors), and have your mage put up stoneskins (4th level spell), and mirror image (2nd level I believe)and have him absorb the vampires hits while your tanks hack away at the undead menace. There is also a very simple way to kill vampires of that level (or seriously wound them) and that is obtaining a weapon named Daystar and using its innate sunray ability, the daystar is obtained in
Spoiler
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
The inn in the city gates district (the name escapes me, something crane I think), go inside and eventually you will detect a secret door that leads to a battle with a lich. However, you can have a thief go invisible, go pick the lock on the chest and grab daystar before the lich starts blasting you (IIRC, not only is this weapon deadly to undead, one of its abilities is a once per day spell called sunray, which will SERIOUSLY hurt all undead creatures.

Barring these two options you really are fairly limited, you could try hasting your whole party and praying, or hasting your party and equiping everyone with ranged weapons and hope you get lucky.....

Or you could remember that vampires only come out at certain times of the day, and not travel during that time.

Using Negatve plane protection counts at as a spell and the cowled wizards will warn you for it. But that would be a good tactic out side of Athkatal.

Name of the building is crooked crane [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 11-09-2003, 01:12 AM: Message edited by: Dar'tanian ]

You can cast Negative Plane Protection a hundred times a day and no Cowled Wizard shall harrass you, for NPP is not an arcane spell.

Now don't go around frightening people, people [img]graemlins/idontagreeatall.gif[/img]
Of course vampires are tough, but there are some weapons and tactics that will take the "un" out of "undead" fairly early in the game:
</font>

• Daystar has already been mentioned. While the sword alone isn't that effective Sunray will put almost any undead creature to (Near) Death.</font>
• Azuredge, a throwing axe with the ability to slay undead if save is failed can be purchased at the CC once the slaver quests are finished</font>
• Negative Plane Protection on one tank and ranged support from all the others</font>
• A scroll of protection from undead will also do the trick</font>
• You're outdoor, so have your druid use "Call Lightning". It's a kickass spell andmost importantly party-and-neutral-friendly</font>
• To be able to cast arcane spells you can either purchase a magic license at the government district or just do one simple spell (preferably invisibility or Shadow Door) with your mage alone (keep the others away) and run out of sight when the Cowleds teleport in. Thus you don't need to fight them (yet)</font>

[ 11-09-2003, 02:44 AM: Message edited by: Faceman ]

to add to your list, Mace of Disruption +1(+2, with improved MoD) is considered to be the most effective undead-destroying weapon in the game, by some. The improved version even grants Negative Plane Protection when used! How nice is that? The downside is, its found in a rather annoying place, considering that its meant to kill undead(e.g vampires)...

The problem is, a hit from a vamp means automatic level drain, unless protected from magical weapons...they may not physically hurt you, but they WILL level drain your mage wether or not he has MI and SS...

I didn't mention MoD because he obviously has a low-level party and seems to be still in Chapter 2.
Mirror Image might not fully protect you, but if you're mirrored you got a good chance not YOU get hit, but just an image and the vampires level drain goes wasted. If you got 4 mirrors for example your chance to get hit is narrowed down by 80%, which is pretty decent.