Wow! I can't win this fight for nothing. I had armorplate, magic shield, and Enchanted Blade on before I went into the Temple. I don't know if the monsters are set, but here's the list I faced:

* 1 Sorceress Queen
* 1 Death Lord
* 1 Death Lord
* 3 Cultists
* 3 Cultists

The cultists in themselves are no problem, but they have some heavy backup. I even tried releasing a canned elemental (I got a Major Air Elemental), using the Arresting Aria, and using acid bombs. The elemental took care of half of the Cultists OK, but even though I managed to kill the Sorceress Queen, the remaining cultists released two additional elementals, and I quickly lost all but my level 16 fighter. He finally died after the monsters managed to knock him unconscious. Phew! Any other suggestions on this fight? I was thinking of retreating now and coming back later after I level up a bit more (my party is currently at level 15/16). The funny thing was, I managed to take care of a Death Lord earlier in the Barrow Mound tomb of the Mountain Wilderness.

An additional note on the Lazurite Stone. I read somewhere that you could go into combat mode and run into the alcove opposite the monsters and take it before they go hostile on you. I found that if I inched my way to the edge of the wall at the entry where they still couldn't see me, I could just turn around and grab the stone without ever having to run anywhwere.

Thanks. I really do enjoy this game though :)

Those are fixed mobs.

The real trick in there with running in combat is to get to the spiral stairs and get the stuff off them before you actually engage the mobs in there. You can also start your fight from right under the stairs.


Another strategy is to push the combat button while you're still just out of line-of-sight (stand next to the entry), which gets you a free round in which you can:
Cast Soul/Element Shield and maybe Haste. Select those spells, and walk out to where at least one of the mobs can see you and press return (or the x on the end of the move bar). Next round, cast Eye For An Eye and Haste (or Super your tanks) and walk back behind the doorway, so they have to come to you. Usually Eye4Eye (potion or Locket if you can't cast at PL4) will kill the Cultists and their summonees when the Death Lords cast Death Wish. There are a few other strategies that work here; one is to run as soon as at least most of the Cultists are dead. You might end up having to fight one of the Death Lords and/or the Sorceress Queen on the way, but if you get down the path quickly, you'll have only one of them.

Another strtegy is to engage the 3 Siges outside and drag them up to the entry and then cast all your buffs in as many rounds as you need--then step into view of the other mobs...

If you have hypnotic lure.

Stand to the side of the door looking into one of the corners of the temple interior (which corner naturally depends on which side of the door your party is located).

Next cast Hypnotic Lure in the temple interior close enough to the "lackys" to get them "juiced", but far enough away to put them out of distance from the rest of the group. Then wax that group and make sure you have Soul Shield up - because chances are the Death Lords will start "screaming" at your party.

My trick is to do a combat walk by the front door a few times, this will lure the sorceress queen out. Then combat walk into the walkway just enough to lure her alone without any knights to assist her. Finish her off, then do the same for the knights, one at a time. After that the rest of the peons are easy and take them all at once.

Ive found that battle alot easier with mass "eye for eye" casting.

Put as many on and watch the death clouds and death wishes get reflected back.

THey have little chance of effecting the death lords or sorceress, but easily clear out the cultists.

Do it from a distance, then u can run, rest and return to fight the last 3 big baddies.

that's what i said.

I snuck in with Chamelion [OK I can't spell it], of course they saw me, but I had already grabbed the Lazurite stone, so I just did combat run down the trail - in 6 or 7 turns the whole bunch seemed to lose interest (which was good because I was dealing with some pesky Nightmares by then).

Well, what I actually ended up doing was this: first time I went to the Temple, I snuck up into the corner and grabbed the stone from the alcove. I was never spotted, so no fight. BUT, I wanted to get into the basement and get all the available goodies possible, so I made sure all my group had eye-for-eye on, I had my mage cast all the protection spells, and then I stepped into the door. I let them spot me and waited for a couple to advance to end round 1. Then I chose to run for round 2...not far, but just to the edge of the door out of sight of the baddies. Several of them cast summon elemental, but they are so big that within a round or two, they were coming out the door in a single file line. I took them on one at a time. I also had cast death cloud and some of the spellcasters had died before I ever had to fight them. After that, I just cleaned up the goodies on the main level and went for the basement. The mummies down there were not much of a challenge and the seord Fang turned out to be pretty decent.