Question about gauth's beholders

[Boutte]

I'm really getting to hate that death screen!

What's the best way to handle gauths and beholders? If one of them see's me or one of my npcs that charachter is as good as dead. The only thing that has worked for me so far is to summon monsters and let them kill the nasty beasts while I hang back out of sight. (I let my hidden thief keep an eye on the battle.) How come the summoned monsters can mele' with them but when I try it I get machined gunned with killer spells and die? Obviously I'm doing something wrong here and the summoned monster thing seems kind of cheesey.

Thanks for any suggestions

[Pirengle]

Originally posted by Boutte: What's the best way to handle gauths and beholders? If one of them see's me or one of my npcs that charachter is as good as dead. The only thing that has worked for me so far is to summon monsters and let them kill the nasty beasts while I hang back out of sight. (I let my hidden thief keep an eye on the battle.) How come the summoned monsters can mele' with them but when I try it I get machined gunned with killer spells and die? Obviously I'm doing something wrong here and the summoned monster thing seems kind of cheesey.[/QB]

Highly cheesy ways to handle beholders:

• Shield of Balduran reflects beholder rays
• Cloak of Mirroring reflects spells back to caster
• Protection of Magic scroll will block all magic effects, whether cast by user or cast upon by enemy

Mildly cheesy ways to handle beholders:

• Potions of Invulnerability
• Potions of Magic Shielding/Blocking

Not very cheesy ways to handle beholders:

• The beholder rays are spells. So, get your tank's save vs. spells down, through gear or potions.
• Chaotic Commands can help against charm and domination spells, but if a beholder throws a Dispel Magic, well, it's not so helpful then. [img]tongue.gif[/img] Best to send out a cleric and a tank, send the tank out to fight and use the cleric to cast buffing spells on those two characters so if the effects get dispelled, the cleric can cast more.
• Minor Spell Turning, Minor Spell Deflection, Spell Turning, Spell Deflection, and Spell Trap can protect spellcasters.
• You might want to send your weak magi away to hide somewhere, but why? Mages can be just as important in Beholder battles as fighters. Not only can they cast magic dispelling spells, but spells like Magic Missile, Flame Arrow, Melf's Acid Arrow, Melf's Minute Meteors, and such can disrupt their spellcasting.
• (Most) Beholders don't carry treasure. It's pretty safe to use instant death spells like high level Chromatic Orbs, Disintegrate, Finger of Death, Flesh to Stone, etc, against Beholders. You might want to Lower Resistance first.

(EDIT: MUAHAHAHAHAHA! Drow Warrior beats Green Scalies! )

[ 04-17-2003, 10:58 PM: Message edited by: Pirengle the BNM ]

[Gangrell]

A high magic resistance also helps.

[Annatar]

Spell Immunity: Alteration, Evocation, Necromancy ect....

It takes some time, but no beholder will ever touch you with those vile spells they cast. But Pirengle already coverd all the tactics so... I'm not needed here [img]smile.gif[/img]

[dulouz]

Originally posted by Annatar: Spell Immunity: Alteration, Evocation, Necromancy ect.... It takes some time, but no beholder will ever touch you with those vile spells they cast. But Pirengle already coverd all the tactics so... I'm not needed here [img]smile.gif[/img]

I'll second Spell Immunity. The gauths cast Cause Damage or something like that which is Necromancy based i believe. And they cast it like it's going out of style.

Haste someone who can melee, buff them up with resists (free action also comes to mind) and send them in. Summoned monsters or animals are also good to take some damage. Or you could buff up the melee fighters fire or cold resistance and use Ice Storm or Fireball from afar.

dulouz.

[Gangrell]

Yes but you need every spell immunity cast to totally block out a beholders/gauths attacks I think.

[SixOfSpades]

Gauths/Beholders cast:
Cause Serious Wounds. Solution--Spell Immunity: Necromancy.
Lightning Bolt. Solution--Spell Immunity: Evocation or the Cloak of Reflection.
Dire Charm or Charm Person. Solution--SI: Enchantment or just decent Saves.
Death Spell. Solution--Forget about using summons. (Apparently, if you haven't BaldurDashed your game, Beholders aren't smart enough to react to your summons)
Slow. Solution--SI: Alteration or good Saves.

Note: No matter what Spell Immunities you're using, a single Beholder can Dispel them all instantly with their accursed Anti-Magic Ray. Happily, Spell Shield will protect you from Anti-Magic Rays for the full duration of the spell. (This seems to be the only worthwhile use for Spell Shield.)

All of the above Beholderkin attacks (except Death Spell and the Anti-Magic Ray) can be ignored by using the ToB Cloak of Cheese or 100% Magic Resistance, or downright reflected, with the SoA Cloak of Cheese or the Shield of Cheese.

SI: Evocation is also very handy for shielding yourself from your own spells: Even though Beholderkin do pitiful melee damage, they love to get close to you. In this situation, there's nothing more fun than to cast things like Death Fog, Ice Storm, and Incendiary Cloud on yourself!

[Boutte]

You guys are great! I love this place!

[Borg]

My phylosophy on Beholders is kill them FAST. While with many monsters it's ok to cast support spells in the middle of battle, use defense, and perhaps have ranged attacks which minimize the monster's ability to hit you, with Beholders, the faster you can bring them down, the better. It's all about offense with them, I think. So, rush in with your fighters (perhaps on speed), cast fast, impactful spells (flame arrow comes to mind), and try to eliminate them before you take too much damage.

That approach works well with one or two beholders. With many beholders waiting for you, I have to admit that my favorite method is a little on the cheese side -- I sneak in with a thief or someone invisible and then throw in a few fireballs from mages that cannot quite be seen by the beholders. That weakens them enough for me to take them out quickly with my fighters.

In a Beholder lair, I also think it's critical to keep one character invisible and on the outskirts of the battle to see if any other beholders are coming to join -- intelligence is key (a wizard eye works too, I think, but I don't use that much -- yet).

[Rataxes]

Beholders are not pitiful melee opponents!

They got THAC0 0! Low enough to regularely hit even the hardiest tanks. They deal 2D4 +5 damage with their melee attack (that's 14-26 per hit on Insane) and will also deliever a very powerful poison with each hit if the target fails it's save (I think there's even a save penalty attatched to this ability). On Insane it's 4hp/sec for 2-3 rounds, which will cause severe hp losses fast unless you remedy it quickly.

I've experienced, the hard way, that the Shield does not render Beholders harmless, at least not Improved ones [img]smile.gif[/img]

Also, maybe this only applies to Imp Beholders, but they can also cast Flesh to Stone, Hold Person, Paralyze, and a strange variant of the Death Spell that causes the target to drop dead if he fails his save. Like a Finger of death, but without the save penalty.

[ 04-17-2003, 05:57 PM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]