I am trying to beat Improved Ilyich solo with my blade, and I seem to be having much more trouble than i did when I first played through it (v16, with a party). And I haven't even gotten to Ilyich yet.

Could anyone give me some advice on beating those 4 duergar that seem to spawn everywhere?

<font color=plum>Advice on beating the duergar - IGNORE as many of them as you can. I played through Chateau Irenicus with a solo Skald on Normal Difficulty (sounds like you're doing Insane). I was determined to defeat ALL those nasty duergar until I finally realized it was simply a futile effort. Each encounter would use up my best spells, so I would have to rest....which would cause 2-3 more duergar to spawn...which would cause me to use my best spells...which would cause me to rest...etc etc

I DID manage to kill MOST of them, but left the group guarding the corridors that lead from full of lab experiments to the library. As a sidenote, I took ALL the robes I gathered from killing the duergar and left them in the Sewer Room...then I allowed Yoshimo to join my party long enough to follow me back downstairs and loaded him down with the booty I couldn't carry. After that, I kicked him out and told him to meet me at a local inn. Once I got out of the Chateau, I went to the Copper Coronet and found my designated treasure carrier faithfully awaiting my arrival. LOTS of extra gp (snicker snicker).

OK, back to the task at hand. I created a thread that gave a detailed account of how I handled each encounter (including Improved Irenicus 2.0). Since you can no longer isolate members of his party by slamming doors behind them, my strategy centered around using <font color=red>Dire Charm</font> on Illyich and Karamazov. If it works, the party members will usually end up killing each other and you can just sit back and enjoy the show (although you will still have to deal with the Jailkeep Golem and the Glabrezu yourself). This option also allows you to force Karamazov to use her melee' weapons - thus saving many of her valuable +3 bolts for you to use later on (if you so choose).

Here is the thread that details how I handled the Chateau with a solo bard kit. (just keep in mind my Difficulty setting was lower than yours apparantly).</font>

My first solo attempt

I am playing on Core. Are less duergar supposed to spawn on Core that four?

rather than start another new thread i've just started my first improved illyich - oh my lordy its interesting isn't it?

i'm loving the fact that i feel the need to sneak around and avoid fights and i'm using all of the resources of my cleric/theif and all the NPCs - i'm still not making much of a dent in the main bunch of baddies though