[SixOfSpades]

Originally posted by SpongeBobTheDestoyer: What do you think about the odds if 1) the challenging druid was able to keep his or her equipment during the fight,

That's a good way of allowing more variety into the fight--since Druids are stuck at Levels 13 and 14 for pretty much all of SoA, allowing items is pretty much the only way of taking past achivements into account. I see nothing wrong with Jaheira equipped with Armor of the Hart and the Sentinel Shield, or Cernd with Shadow Dragon Scale and the Ring of Gaxx.

2) you could say screw the laws of the ritual and have any member of your party fight Faldorn

Violating the ritual would mean that either
A) Good luck, Faldorn's immortal except against another Druid, or
B) She isn't immortal, which would trash a nice bit of roleplay that I wouldn't like to lose. I've always held all of the Druid Grove mumbo-jumbo to mean that Faldorn is tapping into the power of the ley lines to call forth the Earth Mother's power into the highest local Druid, thus making her invincible. It's only a challenge of Druid vs. Druid that can confuse the Mother, thus causing her to not bestow her power at all, thus making Faldorn....pretty much just another Druid. A Level 15 Druid, all right, but nothing otherwise special about her. (Which, of course, raises the question of what the hell Faldorn did to jump all the way up to ToB levels by the time the rest of the BG1 crew can even get to the Druid Grove, but we'll probably have to live with that.)

A high level Sorceror with 3 remove magics in a sequencer equipped with the Robe of Vecna could let them loose as soon as Faldorn goes red and have her dispelled while Jaheira is casting Insect Plague. Jaheira's Insects will hit her before she can cast and then you could run like hell with Jaheira while hitting the Arena with AoE spells.

True, but Jaheira will most likely die to friendly fire if you don't have her shielded with Otiluke's. And that means she won't be able to cast anything once she's in the arena. Don't disregard those Spirit Animals, either: The Wolves can Level Drain you, and the Bears can inflict Fear. (Weimer has steered clear of the Spirit Snakes, for some reason.)

Do remove magics and AoE spells make their way into the Arena BTW? I've never tried.

I obviously sure as hell hope they do.

Originally posted by Assassin: Or... Hardiness and Armor of Faith stack. Slap them on Jaheira, and all of the Green Protection scrolls you can get. Improved Haste, Haste, and the Boots of Speed. Regeneration, and IH will double-time Regeneration. Shapeshift to Fire Elemental, and Critical Hit HLA. Waste Faldorn.

A good starter idea, but when you realize that Faldorn's got 6 castings of Ironskins, immunity to Fire, the ability to cast Regeneration on her own account, and more attacks per round than Jaheira does....I think you'll begin to grasp the futility of the situation.