Ok, so I went exploring in Dragons Eye and got a bit lost, but eventually I found the mechanism to open the door to the prison. Good, I thought, now we can get moving and find out what's going on. But alas, before I can talk to the helpful prisoner a mad mage turns up and kills me. So I reload and try something else: I talk to him nicely, I stab him in the back and most things in between, but the result is always bad. Either he kills my party or I get stuck in an infinite dialog loop. I checked in the forum and in a walkthrough but didn't find the answer.
So I am currently checking my installation and patches, but after that I think I'm going to have to find a battle plan to beat this ungreatful S.O.B. What spells do I need to counter his Non-detection & Improved Invisibility combination? I never appear to have the right spells memorised, nor high enough levels, when it comes to a fight against a magically defended opponent.

Thanks MG

Throw paralyzing spells at him. Chromatic Orb, Symbol of Stunning and the like. I always made this a pure fight. If you are having too much trouble just throw Destruction or Finger of Death at him. It would be a good idea to kill the troll first.

I played the original, unpatched version, and only had a problem with this once.

I think you need to get to the prison area as quickly as possible; time seems to be a factor here. Then I had my most intimidating character talk to the mage and tell him to leave with the others. Typically, it took two or three of those conversations, but then he left.

On one occasion, we did start fighting with him and killed him off before he could start in with the spells. Mostly, though, he could be talked (intimidated) into leaving.

When you're in the caves, watch the display carefully. He usually begins putting up his buffs before you even get to him. If you see that, well, you're in trouble and may want to restore.

So I suggest going back to an early save and getting over to the cells as quickly as you can, and try your most intimidating person on him. Good luck.

<center>Nightowl2</center>

hasten your pary, disrupt his spell casting with arrows and magic missle him to death. Works everytime.

Much as I would love to target this guy with an all-out assault, I have no idea where he is. His Improved Invisibility is so perfect that I cannot fight with him. Nor can I dispell it.
A look in the 'bugs' fixed by the latest patch suggests that this is the source of my problem. I didn't have Purge Invisibility memorised so I can't say if that would have helped, but it sure is hard to kill someone if you can't see them.

On the other hand I agree with Nightowl that it ought to be possible to talk him out of fighting, however when I tried that's when I got stuck in a dialog loop. Maybe I was too gentle with him - more intimidation and less diplomacy might work.

Thanks for your replies

Ok, with the latest patch correctly installed I can take on the Mage in a fair fight and progress with the game. So I'm off to root out the clues to the next puzzle. Hi-Ho Hi-Ho, adventuring we will go!