[Cerek the Barbaric]

This is an old thread of mine that I decided to revive. There are LOTS of good games and battles going on according to the various threads I've been reading and this thread already has a good collection of strategies against different enemies most members seem to have trouble with.

I was also asked to provide a more detailed account of how my solo Skald defeated Improved Ilyich and Company, so I decided to bring this thread back to life to give [b]everyone[/i] a chance to list their favorite exploits and heroics in BGII. So please feel free to add your own adventures here for all of us to enjoy.

Solo Bard (Skald) vs Improved Ilyich 2.0 and Company
Difficulty: Normal

The key to my strategy against Ilyich and Co. is to use Dire Charm.

After defeating several Duergar spellcasters and fighters (is there no end to the number of these dark dwarves running loose in here?) and clearing out all the other rooms I had encountered, I decided it was time to search the library. I expected more of the duergar guards, but the dryads I met had also warned me about a far more powerful dwarf named Ilyich. He was the head cook for my captor and had several powerful friends to back him up in the kitchen and in combat. I didn't relish the idea of facing such a powerful party so soon after escaping from my cage - and I really began the question of sending Imoen, Jaheira and Minsc off on their own after releasing them. Well, too late to worry about that now. Besides, any character as powerful as this dwarf is likely to have magical items that are equally powerful. The lure of acquiring new magical items (along with the request from the dryads asking me to recover some valuable acorns from this Ilyich) soon overcame my initial misgivings. I returned to the Sewage Room where I had fought the most disgusting creature I've ever had the displeasure to meet. He died quickly enough, but then a cloud of maggots sprang from his stenching corpse and swarmed all over me for several minutes (ugh...my skin still crawls at the very thought of them). But I digress.

Upon my return to the Sewage Room, I had only one door that was left unexplored - so that obviously had to be the direction I needed to take to find this Ilyich fellow and his band. I opened the door and crept slowly down a long hallway that led to a library. I was so concerned about Ilyich that I never even saw another of those damned mephits until he hit me with one of his attacks. I quickly retreated back down the hallway (hoping to avoid attracting the attention of this party I was searching for) and finished the bothersome creature off. Then I returned to the end of the hallway. My line of sight was limited by the bookshelves, but I didn't have to wait long. A large golem appeared from behind one of the bookshelves to my right and immediately came after me. I had planned to use one of my spells (along with my natural Charisma) to Charm this Ilyich fellow (or one of his companions) and I wasn't sure the spell would work on the golem. I also knew I needed magical weapons to harm him and so far, I had only found a mildly enchanted long sword. So I did the only thing I could - I ran. The golem was persistant. He followed me down the hallway, into the Sewage Room, and down the long hallway to my right (which led to the area I where I met the djinni shortly after my release). The golem followed me almost to the end of THIS hallway too, but eventually gave up the chase and returned to his patrol in the library. I followed at a discreet distance and very cautiously approached the library again. I resumed my post at the end of the hallway and waited again. I paid particular attention to the area where the golem appeared. Sure enough, I didn't have to wait long until a sturdy dwarf appeared with a big hammer in one hand and a club in the other. There was another dwarf with him - a female I believe - with a BIG crossbow. The first dwarf began speaking to me, but I didn't pay any attention to what he said. I immediately cast my Dire Charm on him. The luck of the gods were with me because I could tell the spell took effect - which was lucky for me. The female dwarf seemed to be able to fire her crossbow with amazing speed, and another party member came around the near side of the same bookshelf to attack me. I tried to retreat, but he was too fast and caught me before I was halfway down the hall. WHAM! He stunned me with one blow of his fist - obviously he must be one of those monks I had heard of. Thank goodness my new best friend Ilyich came to my aid. He smashed the monk from behind with his hammer and landed another devastating blow with his club. The monk forgot about me and turned to attack his former leader (since he obviously knew how powerful the dwarf was compared to me). The crossbow-wielder was also concentrating her attacks on Ilyich now rather than me...so I decided I shouldn't interrupt this little family squabble and retreated back to the Sewage Room. I desperately wanted to close the door to the hallway and set up an ambush for any survivors that came through - but the door was stuck fast and refuse to budge at all. So I backed away from the door a bit and waited until I could hear no more sounds of battle. I crept slowly back into the hallway. Ilyich and the monk both lay dead where I had left them and Little Ms. Crossbow was nowhere to be found. A search of the bodies yielded some wonderful items. I got a nice hammer and very heavily enchanted club and found the acorns the dryads had asked me to recover. To my surprise, I found they were also rather heavily enchanted. I found a nice Cloak of Protection on the monk and decided not to push my luck any farther. I retreated to the Sewage Room and took a short rest to regain my spells. After recovering my spells (especially the Dire Charm) I went back up the hallway (a little bolder this time) and ran into my old buddy - the golem. I hastily ran back to the Sewage Room and used one of my innate abilities to cast Draw Upon Holy Might. A surge of energy and power coursed through my body just as the golem approached me with his huge hands raised over his head. SMACK! One heavy fist crashed down on my shoulder. The pain was intense, but the monks Cloak absorbed some of the blow, so I was still able to function. I used my newfound club and began smashing away at the golem. My magically-enhanced strength gave extra force to my blows and I managed to defeat the golem fairly quickly - but still took a good pounding myself in the process. I was prepared to go in search of the rest of the party (since I hadn't used any of my spells on the golem) when the fight was suddenly brought to me. A new character I had not seen yet suddenly appeared in the doorway from the hall and started casting a spell. The female dwarf with the crossbow was right behind the spellcaster and lining me up in her sights again. Fortunately, her shot went wide and I immediately cast my Dire Charm spell on her. She shook her head in confusion, then turned and fired the crossbow at the spellcaster beside her - thankfully disrupting whatever spell he was trying to cast. Since I knew how powerful that crossbow was, I yelled at the dwarf to use the sword hanging from her side (so that there would be MORE crossbow bolts left for ME once they were both dead). She switched weapons and attacked. The cleric couldn't stand up to such a vicious assault at close range (especially after I cast an Acid Arrow to prevent any further spellcasting) and soon fell. In the meantime, I cast Mirror Image and a second Holy Might on myself. As soon as my Charm spell wore off, the dwarf turned to attack me again. I blasted her with my Magic Missiles and my last Acid Arrow. She still managed to advance to melee with me, but was badly injured by the time she got there. My enhanced strength and Ilyich's club took care of the rest.

WOW! Was I glad THAT fight was over. I removed her short sword (which was very nice) and also took her crossbow and bolts (both of which had very strong magic emanating from them). Confident with my newfound weapons, I headed back towards the library - and ran right into a DEMON!!! "Where the HELL had that thing come from?" (Uh...no pun intended). I fired my new crossbow at it, but it had little effect. I pulled my trusty new club and smashed at the beast, but it's claws ripped into me unmercifully. Blood ran freely, and I decided I had better do the same. I was very glad to see that the thing wouldn't follow me out of the hallway. For some reason, it kept turning around at the door and going back to the library. I didn't question my good luck. I drank two more healing potions and layed down for another rest.

I awoke feeling refreshed and headed back into the library to find that demon. I had decided to memorize Melf's Minute Meteors instead of Dire Charm since I didn't think I would have much luck charming the demon. I reached the library and found no immediate sign of the beast. Then I remembered the acorns and the enchantment I had detected on them. I didn't know what they would do, but figured this was a real good time to find out. I found a word inscribed on one of the acorns and read it aloud. A huge puff of smoke billowed around me, and I found myself accompanied by two nymphs and a large moose when the smoke cleared. Just in time to, because the commotion had attracted the demon and he renewed his attack. The moose charged at him and held him off for a few moments, but was soon killed by the demon. I cast my two spells of Melf's Acid Arrows since I knew demons were susceptible to acid damage. Then I cast my Minute Meteor spell. The nymphs were also casting spells of their own. The one closest to me hastily explained they were trying to magically Hold the demon, but his Magic Resistance kept the spells from taking effect. And soon one of the nymphs was dead at his hands. Still, he had taken a lot of damage from my arrows and meteors and was moving more slowly when he finally got into melee' range. I had already cast Mirror Image and Draw Upon Holy Might before we reached the end of the hallway. The extra images protected me from some of his attacks and my Holy Energy gave me the strength I needed to finally put this loathsome beast out of my memory.

Before we could celebrate our victory, though, another one of those insufferable Duergar fighters came charging from around another bookcase and we could hear his partner chanting in the background. I thought we were done for, because I was almost completely out of spells. But the last nymph had a Domination spell and she cast it on the fighter. He immediately turned around and went after the spellcaster. The fight was short, but brutal. The spellcaster died, but not before inflicting some heavy damage on the fighter. After that, the nymph and I managed to kill the fighter easily.

As exciting as the battle was, I have to admit that I only achieved this result after several reloads. Using this strategy, it is imperative that you Charm Ilyich FIRST. The monk - Rasputin - seems immune to Charm and he can also kill your character or party quicker than ANY of the other party members. Fortunately, Ilyich is strong enough to stand toe-to-toe with him. The reason it took several reloads is because Ilyich isn't always the first one to appear. If the golem or glabrezu show up first, you CAN run away from them. If Rasputin shows up first, he will follow you to the Gates of Hell if necessary. He NEVER gives up. You can kill him if you have some help, but the fight will attract the rest of the group and then you are fighting the entire party at one time (NOT a good scenario).

Even when Ilyich shows up first, it still took several tries before my Dire Charm actually worked (or before he killed Rasputin while charmed). Another reason you need to Charm Ilyich first is that, regardless of how well he does against his buddies, he WILL be killed by them also. And that is good because you NEED his hammer and club to attack the Jailkeep Golem and the Glabrezu. After getting rid of Ilyich and Rasputin, it really doesn't matter what order you kill the rest of the party in. Dire Charm or Mental Domination on Karamazov is a very important tactic, because she is a Wizard Slayer - which means she is going to wreak havoc with any spellcasters in your group. So the best idea is to Charm or Dominate her and let her wreak havoc on Zhivago - the cleric of the group. That is because his FIRST spell is to summon a Fallen Diva. You really want to avoid that if possible. But if you can't prevent the spell, you CAN also run away from the Deva. She won't follow you and then it's just a matter of waiting for her to be unsummoned. Karamozov will easily kill Zhivago, but she will take some damage herself, so she isn't too hard to kill after the Charm wears off.

The Golem and Glabrezy both have good Magic Resistance. Straight hack-n-slash works well on the Golem (especially if you have Ilyich's hammer and club). The Glabrezu is harder to beat in melee, so spells are a good strategy against him. He seems to be particularly affected by Melf's Acid Arrow and Lightning Bolts (just watch for the rebound on the Lightning). Magic Missiles are also very effective. Of course, ALL of these have to get past his MR first, but even my 10th level bard had enough spells to do considerably damage with the ones that did overcome the MR.

So that is how my solo bard (Skald) defeated Improved Ilyich 2.0. Now let's hear some exploits from the other adventurers out there.