Liches vary in power, so some are easier, some are harder.
What I have done so far: it is certainly a bonus to me that I have played through the BG2 already couple of times, so I generally still remember what to wait where and where something spawns. Mind though that this is not a "rule of thumb", some encounters the game adjusts )somewhat) to your level; i.e. you were some lvl 7 and ran in some spot into some lousy ghoul or ghast, but then you get to that same spot 'nother time around at lvl 17 and tadaa! there's some bloody skeleton warrior or lich.
Anyway, my main char is human berserker. I took berserker for 2 reasons: he's a fighter and I always have been a warrior in RPG's and berserker, when enraged, has some very handy immunities. Basically, go crazy and then charge and the big bad spells are to you like a water on the goose. From weapons I use mainly Blade of Roses (because it's +3 weapon and that aint bad at all) and Sword of Balduran (yeah just +2 sword, but I like it because of additional Magic Resistance). I also have the.. blah, forgot the name, the longsword which casts Sunfire (or something), from the lich in Gate area. What somewhat puzzles me is that the desc tells that the sword will act as a +4 sword against the evil, and I suppose the liches and such are evil, yet the sword cannot hit them through their spells heh. Or Greater Mummy's. Bug? I understood it wrong? What else? Liches are good but just with a permanent bad mood?
Anyway that was the first lich I fought and forgot the level, but it wasn't high at all. It was a difficult fight for that level, Minsc and Yoshimo died in the process. Lich went it's usual way with the Time Stop and so on, Yoshi was nuked down with the Meteor Swarm. Aerie and Jaheira were throwing debuff spells and heals, while my char and Minsc and Korgan were whacking away. To no avail of course, because of the protections. I did have the Boots of Speed on the main char though, also drank the Haste potion to get the double speed. Also had the Enrage and Draw Holy Might on. The Pit Fiend what the lich gated in was chopped down fast by my main char (sorry, forgot to mem Prot. from Evil heh). After that Minsc died to some spell, beats me what it was, but strong enough to kill Minsc with 70% HP. By that time the Aerie and Jaheira had slapped all their debuff and dispell spells on the lich and my main char was getting through with the Blade of the Roses. As soon as he could get thru to the lich, it went down fast.
The 2 liches who guard the remnants of Kangaxx were not that tough anymore. I had gained some more levels, and as I said, I knew where they spawned. So I set my chars up, also Yoshi put out ALL his snares to where the lich should spawn (dang I love 'em snares!). Then the main char does the usual buff (Enrage, Draw Holy Might, Boots of Speed), rest prepare (you will see that I aint much into the spells, spells just aint my area, I always preferred the steel hehe). Lich came out, gave his cryptic speech and... KABOOM! You know, the blast from 4 to 6 snares sure does hurt heh (3 special and 3 usual, sometimes some failed, sometimes not). At the same time Aerie and Jaheira let the debuffs fly and rest go at it. No one ever died in these encounters, no char was ever below 60% HP. Improvement
I went to Temple Ruins and by that time my char was lvl 18. Here I saw the game adjustment according to the level, as I used to run in few places into lich and 2-3 Greater Mummy's, and 2-3 Skeleton Warriors, at ONCE. Now the last 2 are not really my concern, good thing if they can even hit me. I did worry about the liches tad, mainly because I left the party at the entrance and was literally soloing the place. Shadows are funny and no challenge at all. So seeing the lich, I did again the usual (Enrage, Draw Holy Might, Oil of Speed, Boots of Speed), equipped the Blade of Roses and the sword-which-casts-the-Sun-spell-thingie, and waded in. I don't know if these liches are weaker or stupider, but while they did slap up the protections fast, I still was able to hit thru them. Got first down to 50% fast, then it shot up the Prot. from Magic Weapons. I couldn't hit it and it was shooting the spells at me - well, as soon as he did that Prot. I paused and grabbed the Sword of Balduran for the magic resistance. Good enough, the spells I got smacked with were either resisted, I rolled saving throws and got no damage (saw at one point like 4-5 different rolls and not a point of damage), some spells hit me and like lil' rocks were bouncing around me, but I got no damage. Some fire spell did damage me for 11 or 15 points, but with the 180 HP I had with the current buffs, it was nothing. Lich went down. Another one was near the Amaunator puzzle (tiles with letters), but he was no different. However, in that area I did get damaged to 50%! And not from the lich, but from his summon. Namely he summoned the djinni, darn bugger. Here I saw that buffs and prots are good, since I damaged MYSELF on the dang Fire Shield of the djinni. My attack speed and rate was enourmous and so was the fire damage return. Basically I had 95% HP, smacked the djinni, then was like wham! wham! wham! super fast for some time and I saw HP drop fast heh! I exited the room fast, got the Heal from Jaheira and Fire Resist from Aerie, went in and beated the floating blitering fool to oblivion.
Well, sorry for the too long post. I just wanted to show that the pure melee char, with his own buffs and own gear can handle the situations too. In some cases he will need some help, yes, but overall, when you do things carefully, you will be OK [img]smile.gif[/img] My main char is the one who always goes in first and out last. Basically I almost solo with him heheh.. I looked and he had under the Information Tab: Group XP per chapter 90%, XP per game 90% hehe..