[Cerek the Barbaric]

What are the best strategies against these things? I've been able to defeat a couple of them, but only after receiving a healthy dose of humiliation. And there is one in the Temple Ruins (in the hallway leading to the "Chessboard Floor") that I simply cannot defeat.

My party consists of -
Kelric Val'Caern - (PC Assassin)
Korgan
Valygar
Edwin
Viconia

I also had Jaheira originally, but I finally just left this area and headed for De'Arnise Keep and she was suddenly summoned to the Harper's Hold in Athkala.

My party is only around levels 10-11, so maybe I just need to wait till I'm a little stronger, but here are some of the strategies I tried.

My assassin had scouted down the hallway looking for traps when he spotted the lich, 2 skeleton warriors and 2 greater mummies lurking in the hallway waiting for us. We had just finished a very tough battle with a similar group a couple of rooms back. In that fight, we had eventually managed to lure most of the creatures out of the room one or two at a time. The fact that they were kind enough to walk through that big fire pit to get to us helped in defeating them. So using the lessons learned there, my assassin backed up the hallway he had just come down. The rest of the party was waiting in the room the bone golem had come out of, so we figured we were a safe distance away from these nasty beasts.

My assassin started to set his snares when the we suddenly found ourselves transported into the middle of hallway with all these undead monsters. How had the lich heard my character setting his traps? Stealth is his forte', as his chosen profession relies heavily on being silent and invisible. No matter how hard I tried, or how far away I set the traps, the lich noticed it right away. Time to change tactics.

I gave Valygar the Daystar sword we had found after defeating the first lich we met (in that tavern by the City Gates). He is quite stealthy himself, so he hid in the Shadows and snuck down the hallway until he could see the Queasy Quintet. He then use DayStar to blast them with a SunRay spell. This was pretty effective and did some serious injury to them, but it also resulted in his death more often than not...and my group was teleported from the safety of the Bone Golem Room right into the midst of battle before we were fully prepared.

OK...if that's how you want to play, I can do that too. I reloaded and sent Valygar back down the hallway again (since I'm an assassin, I wasn't sure about keeping Valygar around anyway). I have Edwin and Viconia buff the party before he casts Sunray...since I'm going to be thrust into battle anyway. A quick round of Haste and Bless (and a Repulse Undead from Vicky for good measure) and Valygar strikes again.

Well, all of my best efforts were for naught. I end up getting "teleported" onto that chessboard floor (in the wrong spot of course) so I get struck with Flamestrike and other unpleasant effects before I can work my way back to the lich (who is buffed to the max by now). After many many tries, I had to admit defeat (for now) and leave.

After completing De'Arnise Keep, Viconia had risen a level and gained some more powerful spells - including False Dawn. Aha, I thought....NOW that treacherous lich shall taste my wrath. The SunRay would sometimes knock him down to "Badly Injured" by itself...so if I could follow it with another, more powerful spell designed to fry the undead, then surely this would be his doom.

The plan looked great on paper, but wasn't nearly as successful in reality. In fact, even with two "Undead Zapper" spells being unleashed, the lich and his cohorts still managed to had us a humiliating defeat most of the time.

So what can I do to beat this guy. The False Dawn and Sunray will take the lich to "Near Death", but it also usually results in Valygar (at least) being killed. I can handle that, but a I can't lose Viconia. I've tried sending Korgan into his beserker rage, which prevents the Fear and Chaos spells from working on him, but I can't get around the lich's protection from magical weapons (even though Edwin is hitting him with Breach, Pierce Magic, etc). If I can ever kill the lich, the rest of the crowd shouldn't be too hard, but I can never manage to do it before losing 2-3 members of the party.

What can I do differently?