Lich in the Crooked Crane

I went thru the secret door in the Crooked Crane and ran into the Lich that was there. I couldn't even do anything against him. He cast spell after spell and I did not even get a chance to hit him with anything. Can someone please help me with him? Any suggestions will be appreciated. He also cast some kind of a spell that stopped time or something like that and that really did me in.

Liches are tricky, but there's a lot of ways to beat them. What level are you? Be creative. Holy smite, insect plague. Melf's minute meteors work well to try and disrupt his casting, or the sling of everard +5. Summon a fire elemental. They'll always cast timestop at the start of the battle and use three symbol spells, so you can be expecting that and use chaotic commands to resist them.

I was playing a thief and I decided to change my character. I am now playing a fighter and he is level 8 right now. I tried casting spells but no one could cast anything. Where can I find that sling? I don't think any of the ppl I have right now can cast fire elemental. I think I might go back to my theif and try to beat him. My thief is a lvl 11. Thanks Armisael for your help. I will try that when I go back and see what happens. Is there anymore Liches that I have to fight in the game?

Yeah, there's several more around, tied up in quests or just hanging around certain other parts of Athkatla. Also, once your protagonist goes past a certain level, you begin to face liches in random locations (for example one will appear in the ghoul town in the unseeing eye quest, and another in the shade temple from the Umar Hills quest). I wouldn't recommend trying to tackle a lich until your characters are level ten or eleven. Druids are handy for fighting liches - they seem to get decimated by elementals.

Thanks Armisael, I will remember that about the elementals when I fight Liches. I guess I will wait until my fighter is at level 10. I am doing so much better with him than I was with my theif. So I guess I am off to fight trolls and the Lich will just have to wait for me to come back and hurt him. Thanks again Armisael.

No worries.

Spoilers !?

Well, Armisael, are you certain that area-effect attack spells like holy smite do go through "Spelltrap" ?

And Draconia, if you can, get Keldorn. His ability to cast disspell magic at double his current level and at breathtaking speed (casting time 1) have made him easily my most valuable npc. And you will be facing many more liches and powerful mages later on in the game that will all cast "Spelltrap" as their most important anti-magic protection.
The nice thing about "Disspell magic" is that it is not effected by "Spelltrap", so you can use it to strip the opponent of all its protection spells against physical damage amd then kill it with brute strength quickly. Against liches that is especially devastating
if you have a weapon that can slay Undead instantly (like the mace of disruption or the
azuredge axe). But beware: disspell magic does not effect/remove "Spelltrap" itself, so
you still cannot hurt the foe with spells, at least not with ones targeted directly at it (like, for instance, flamestrike, magic missile, etc). The jury is still out whether you can hurt an opponent protected by "spelltrap" with area-effect spells like fireball or holysmite. I say you cannot, Armisael seems to think that you can. Even if he is right, be careful with the otherwise very useful spell "insect plague". It is no true area-effect spell: while it effects more
than one opponent you still have to "aim" it at one foe when you cast it.

I hope the only effect of my reply isn't just to confuse you, Draconia. It might not sound very appealing to you, but maybe you should put some effort into "research" of the technicalities of the AD&D magic system (like the different categories of spells): it is a very complex system, but once you have mastered the basics, it can also be very much
fun. It also sure helps you a great deal when
figuring out new ways to beat mighty foes. And that is fun for certain, isn't it ?

Give it a try and enjoy the game !

So long,

Ramon

[Memnoch]

Spelltraps do NOT absorb area effect spells or spells that are not directly targeted at the wizard.

The easiest way to kill liches is as follows so long as there is a door near by to another area (most liches I have found have been tucked away like this):

Go in through the door and wait long enough for lich to start casting a spell and then leave the room. You get a report telling you the lich has just cast a very high level spell into the back of the door. Go back in and wait for the next spell to start and retreat once more.

Keep doing this until:

a. all the high level spells have been cast ineffectively
b. all his protections have timed out

Then enter and surround the lich and take him down in a matter of seconds.

(Sometimes the lich has the IQ to follow you through the door but you just wait that side of the door for the spell to cast and retreat into his lair (where you can plunder taking even more time for the lich's protections to time out))

NB: NOT all liches have a nearby door and then you have to fight properly.

I would like to thank everyone for their suggestions and help.
Ramon: I would love to take the time to research the technicalities of the AD&D magic system. My feelings are kind of hurt that I should put some effort in it. I am a mother of 3 kids, and my husband works out of the state and is gone for 5 days out of the week. I don't have much time to play Baldur's Gate 2 and when I do, I think it would be nice to be able to come here to ask for some help when I need it. It is nice to know that I can come here and ask any dumb question I need to and ppl will give me suggestions on how to fight someone without telling me to go research instead of just saying "Hey, why don't you try this." If I could devote my free time to researching, then I would but I devote that time with my kids and then I may spare some time to play BG2 for an hour. Then I may come here and try to learn as much as I can with everyone's help. I really do appreciate the time everyone takes to reply to my posts. I know I do not know all about AD&D games but I do want to learn and coming here has helped me learn.