I had realised that I'm not really playing the characters properly in the game. Take my Mage Ashantyr (10Lvl) (Chaotic Good).
One ploy which has always worked to date is to get the thief to sneak ahead stab one member of group of enemies, then leggit back down the corridor. Meanwhile Mage webs the corridoor and then begins to play with the creatures...
Testing them out with Agonaar's Scorchers and small fry spells to weaken them and then get bored and wipe the lot out with Cloudkill...
Surely if I was a chaotic good, I'd kill them quickly and should derive no "enjoyment" out of it at all.... doesn't stop me doing it though!
Pity I can't retrospecitvely change to neutral evil