TWISTED RUNE! AGHHHHH!!!

[Volourn]

Just play it safe. Some more helpful? pointers. Haste, summons, and obvious spells help. You should also take great advantage of Minsc, and Korgan's berserk rage. This will make them immune to many spells like maze, and imprisonment. A rod of ressurection could be handy (there's one for sale from ribald), as there's a good chance a character will die. The rod gives them back max hp. Just pickup their equipment, but remember you can't do that for armour during a battle. Take out the fighter, vampire, and beholder first. Protection from Evil 10' Radius can help, as the mage will be attacked by her own demon first. Heheh! Good luck!

GO DWARVES GO!

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"That didn't hurt!" - Volourn Honourblade after the red dragon breathed on him for 75% of his hp.

[trux]

the twisted rune is tough...you need some specific spells like prot. from evil 10' radius, prot. from undead, sunray, false dawn, resist fear, death wards, hastes, summoning spells, mage defense breaching spells like breach, pierce magic, pierce shield, remove magic, etc. also, for your fighters protection from magical energy would be a good idea (stops abi dhazims and other spells from harming your characters.) have lots of summoned creatures and a few spell triggers wouldn't hurt either to pound down the lich defenses. get ready for quite a fight.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Before you enter.

• Get all mages, if possible, to cast Melf's Minute Meteors and Stoneskin.
• Get a Cleric to cast Protection from evil 10 radius.
• Enter- [/list]
  Once you enter, hang on, do some of these,
  
  • Summon creatures to appear inside the inner chamber, but don't move your party too near, otherwise you trigger the enemy's appearance.
  • Cast Haste.
  • Send melee fighters inside, this will trigger the fight.
  • Executed properly, the summoned creatures will distract the Beholder, Thief and the Vampire.
  • Kill the vampire ASAP, level drain now is not an option.
  • Don't worry too much about the Lich yet, he'll be too busy casting Spell Protection spells.
  • Thief should a non-issue.
  • Reserve the female mage for last, she has nasty spells, but she'll spend a lot of time casting Protection spells and a Pit Fiend.
  • Try to always maintain 5 summoned creatures, they will really help out a lot.[/list]
    Good luck.
    
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    If not a Sorcerer, then a Paladin.
    
    

[Nerull]

In correction to a previous post, you CAN petrify the beholder and still get out (you just have to shatter him, and they eye will be on the ground). At least it was when I did it...

[Tuor]

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I managed it first time but the party I had was all nearly maxed out on levels (and had LOTS of mage support)

I found it really helped to have a fighter take on the main mage on his own with a pro vs magic scroll while the rest of the party (undead hunter, two dual class kensai/mages, a fighter/thief dual class and a ranger/cleric dual class) took on the rest of the enemy.

I had them all invisible with potions/spells etc then hit the super vamp with the undead hunter (plus Carsomyr) while the other mage was backstabbed with the thief-do that first so he doe'nt react to the rest of the carnage going on with a string of protection spells on contingency/spell sequencers. then hit the vamp had the two fighter mages wallop the beholder and the cleric sort out the dwarf.

Having said all that I was lucky with the encounter the super vamp lost 100 odd hps in the first two attacks (two criticals) and the second mage died outright when he got backstabbed for 80 odd hp. What is important is you don't have all your pcs round the first mage because he'll rip you to shreds with a load of ninth level spells you can't save against.

Once a couple of the enemy are down you can concentrate your forces on the biggest remaining threats. I've been told by my mates that the vampire is extremely tough but as far as I'm concerned I don't ever want to find out what sort of damage he can cause a party.

Hope that helps

[Nerull]

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When I did it, I kept my party in the room you appear in (I lined them along the north wall, out of sight of the beholder).

The equipment I had included: Shield of Balduran (a must when dealing with beholders), Daystar (sunray ability is a lifesaver), lots of magical arrows and sling bullets, and a juiced-up wand of conjuration (sell one that still has charges to the shop, then buy it back; costs a lot, but you get 50 charges when you buy it back).

Spells included: Breach (need at least two, preferable to have 4), Conjure Animals (2 of them; the Mountain Bears are capable of dealing out a ton of damage, can soak up even more, and can hit creatures that can only be hit with magical weapons), Haste (2 of them; you end up fatigued at the end of the battle, but you'll need to rest anyway after this one!), Protection from Evil 10' radius (one: lasts a long time), Negative Plane Protection (I memorized 2, just in case the first ran out before I killed the vampire), Chaotic Commands (just one is enough), Magic Missiles (as many as you can spare), Wizard Eye (allows you to coordinate your summons, plus act as near-invulnerable decoys; 2 works well for this battle). Memorize lots of cloudkills, fireballs, etc. (I prefer to use wands of cloudkill and fire for this, to maximize on spells such as Melf's Minute Meteors and Breach).

I summoned a wizard eye and all of the mountain bears, cast my spells on them and the party (haste, etc.), then sent them along the south side of the room, to intercept the vampire and the thief. If you leave the wizard eye a little north of the bears, it will be targeted by the vampire, thief, and mage (leaving your mountain bears to tear it up on the vampire). I equipped Minsc (or the front-line fighter of your choice) with Daystar and the Shield of Balduran. I sent Minsc to the middle of the first room, then sent another character into the main room, causing the lich to appear. However, I immediately began moving him back to the first room before he appeared. He said his dialog, then teleports into the room with my party. As soon as he started to appear, I started Minsc using the sunray ability (you have to time it right, so you may have to reload to do right; I recommend saving the game right before you walk into the main room). The lich teleported right into the sunray blast (knocking him down to Injured as soon as he appeared). I made sure the character that I sent into the other room made it back along the north wall, so they would be out of the way. The lich's spell protections came up, so I then had to use Breach. Either way, I kept Minsc in melee combat with the lich. He was then targeted by the Beholder, but the Shield of Balduran reflected all of his rays back (he literally just sits there and blasts himself to death). Meanwhile, I had the wizard eye and the bears attack the vampire as soon as it appeared. The rest of my party targeted the lich with the magical ammunition, Magic Missiles, and/or Melf's Minute Meteors (as long as you keep bringing his spell protections down in a timely manner, you can completely disrupt his spell casting). I believe that I only had to use 2 Breaches in taking him down. Meanwhile, the mage in the other room brought up her spell protections, then cast Time Stop. She cast a Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting (targeting my wizard eye), and Gate (pit fiend time). She ended up killing the thief with the spell, and it hit and pissed off the pit fiend. She then spend several spells killing the pit fiend, keeping her out of my mountain bears' hair for a while. By the time the vampire killed off the bears, it was Near Death (it regenerates, but not fast enough that it was not knocked down a lot when it came time to kill it).

Once I had killed the lich and beholder, I cast Negative Plane Protection and Chaotic Commands on Minsc, and used the wand to summon some creatures. I sent the critters in the room first, then Minsc, then the rest of the party I left at the doorway. I used the summons to draw the attack from the vampire (luring it into sight, while keeping the mage out of it). I had to keep summoning creatures to back up Minsc (I remember it did quite a number on him damage-wise, even with Minsc trying to hide behind the creatures), but with a combination of Minsc using Daystar and the party unloading magical ammunition into it, it fell reasonably quick). This left the mage. I fired the wand of cloudkill to the northeast (keeping the mage out of sight, which I admit was cheesy, but this is a tough battle!); use at least 3 blasts to damage her well (helps in disrupting spell casting, too). I then moved in enough that she came on screen, cast Breach, then hit her with the wand of fire's fireballs, remaining Magic Missiles, etc. till she went down. Then I just shattered the beholder, got the eye, looted the bodies, and left.

All in all, a tough fight. I imagine it will be at least this bad (if not worse) in the Throne of Bhaal expansion.