Mind Flayers (mayhap a spoiler)

[Sir Mandorallen]

Now I've seen alot of post concerning mind flayers and how hard they are too beat, and almost everyone agrees that they are very hard to kill and I was wondering....

Are all of you guys okay???? I never have any trouble in fighting them. I just send everyone in with my mages casting lower resistance and Dai Abiazaims Horrid Wilting and fireball, while my fighters attack. I have one cleric stand outside to cast remove paralasis right after the pciconic blast they do and when one fighter gets hit I pull him out cause I know the next will kill him. I almost never lose and at the most I may lose one fighter but thats it.

So I was kinda curious....
Why does everyone have trouble in fighting them?

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

my guess would be the fighters; ppl send in the warroirs to deal with em, and get knocked down, well thats my guess.

[Sazerac]

My guesses would be:

a) bad battle strategies (yours are great, BTW)
b) people attempting it at too low a level and therefore do not have all the spells they need.

One other thing that's good, as long as you're out of the way...web or entangle the area, then cast in 7th level Priest spell "Firestorm"...it takes out most of the Illithids and the Ullithids (the mega ones) will be short work after that.

-Sazerac

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

Its more *fun* to charge them in a spearhead tho; minsc J, and the main pc if they dont end up dead, (the chars that is) they're lvl drained, and theres a mess on the floor... personally, I prefer to shot em full of arrows; ( a ranger thing..) then chrage whats left; I save the spells for the 'biggies'

[Sir Exxon]

Originally posted by Calaethis Dragonsbane: Its more *fun* to charge them in a spearhead tho; minsc J, and the main pc if they dont end up dead, (the chars that is) they're lvl drained, and theres a mess on the floor... personally, I prefer to shot em full of arrows; ( a ranger thing..) then chrage whats left; I save the spells for the 'biggies'

Actually, you get intelligence-drained...

Anyway, I find Mind Flayers easy to defeat, even if I just have my fighters bash 'em down. But that's maybe because I am usually very high-level when I fight them (Underdark, Sewers and WK), so they're dead after like two seconds... [img]tongue.gif[/img]
But it is much funnier killing them from distance, using bows and magic. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Sazerac]

Originally posted by Sir Exxon: Actually, you get intelligence-drained... Anyway, I find Mind Flayers easy to defeat, even if I just have my fighters bash 'em down. But that's maybe because I am usually very high-level when I fight them (Underdark, Sewers and WK), so they're dead after like two seconds... [img]tongue.gif[/img] But it is much funnier killing them from distance, using bows and magic. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Ranged attacks are always more fun...unless you can go invisible and backstab! [img]graemlins/laugh2.gif[/img]

And you are correct; it's intelligence-drained, not level-drained. Mind Flayers hit with a drain of -5 to intelligence for each successful hit. A dodo of a player is going to be dead within a couple of rounds (a la Minsc) so be careful! AFAIK, only negative plane creatures (vampires, wraiths, mists, etc.) can level drain.

-Sazerac

[Helspanth]

Backstab-potion of Invisibility-repeat is SO sweet!

[Sir Exxon]

Originally posted by Sazerac: quote: Originally posted by Sir Exxon: Actually, you get intelligence-drained... Anyway, I find Mind Flayers easy to defeat, even if I just have my fighters bash 'em down. But that's maybe because I am usually very high-level when I fight them (Underdark, Sewers and WK), so they're dead after like two seconds... [img]tongue.gif[/img] But it is much funnier killing them from distance, using bows and magic. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Ranged attacks are always more fun...unless you can go invisible and backstab! [img]graemlins/laugh2.gif[/img]

And you are correct; it's intelligence-drained, not level-drained. Mind Flayers hit with a drain of -5 to intelligence for each successful hit. A dodo of a player is going to be dead within a couple of rounds (a la Minsc) so be careful! AFAIK, only negative plane creatures (vampires, wraiths, mists, etc.) can level drain.

-Sazerac[/QUOTE]I thought that they drained 2 points of each successful hit, and the stronger ones, Ullithids or something, drains 5 per hit... Oh well, you probably know better then me. [img]smile.gif[/img]

And I think that the ones who level-drains are, as you said, negative plane creatures. But I know that Demon Knights, like the ones that you fight in the Underdark, also level drains.

[Radek]

I haven't any problems with mind flayers. Well, a bit of cheese is involved:
1. You can pickpocket Mordekainen Swords and get Greystone Amulets. These greystone amulets are special: they have only one charge but they are already active and their activity do not wear off! DO NOT activate the amulets at this moment! Equip them - that's all.
2. You can sell the amulets (yes, they aren't "stolen") and buy them back. Now, you have Greystone Amulets with 30 charges, which are still aready active and which do not wear off. The "no wear off" property is valid only for the special, already active, charge. If your protection is dispelled (beholders, for example) then you still have 30 short time protections (you have to activate the amulet now).
3. The Greystone amulets give you almost complete protection from mind flayers. They do not protect you from INT draining but they protect you from stunning, paralyzing, and mind control of all kind. Mind Flayers are unable to dispel your protection.
Therefore: cast Mordekainen Sword and pickpocket it repeatedly until you have 2 amulets for each of your guys. Sell the amulets and buy them back. Use one amulet when dispeling do not threat - the special charge gives you unlimited protection. Use the second amulet if mages or beholders are nearby - the special charge gets dispeled but you have enough short time protections still.
Now, mind flayers should begin to tremble. Equip the amulets and take mind flayers one by one. Note, you are protected from the always present umber hulks, too.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Mages/Sorcerers:

Skeleton Warriors or Mordenkainen's Swords. Yawn as Mind Flayers scratch their heads over why their psionics fail to work on them. As a fellow boardie once chanted to my amusement,

"They got no brains, no brainssss."

Bards:

Use the Mislead Exploit and clean house. A single Bard can wipe out an entire city of Mind Flayers without getting hit once. Just make sure he has a Ring of Free Action or has the spell, Chaotic Commands on him.

Thieves:

Traps. Enough said.