Does Protection from NW protect you from mind flayers?

[Sir Kenyth]

Which protection spell works against the Illithids, protection from normal or magical weapons? Or do they work at all?

[fable]

quote:

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Originally posted by Sir Kenyth:
Which protection spell works against the Illithids, protection from normal or magical weapons? Or do they work at all?

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Neither. Illithi don't attack with weapons in general, but with their minds. You need spells that protect from charm, stunning, etc.

[Dundee Slaytern]

I think he is trying to avoid the Mind Flayer's melee attacks which inflicts the much dreaded INT Drain.

Do not quote me on this, but I think PfMW will protect you for 4 rounds, but then this is only for Mages who can cast the spell. Might be a good tactic for multiclassed/dualclassed Fighter/Mages.

[Ugaya]

I never found a useful protection from the INT-draining melee attacks. I hasted my party, so the drained ones can retreat while the others keep on fighting. Even if all of the frontline get drained they can retreat much faster than the Illithids can move. It is crucial to protect your party with chaotic commands from the ranged attacks.

[fable]

Another good approach is to summon cheap creatures, let them approach the illithi, then send in a well-protected (amulet of magical protection, boots of speed, etc) tank to administer lethal damage. Distract the illithi up close, and keep most of your party back far enough so the illithi can't mess with their minds. If you see one of those slow-moving effects coming from the illithi at a magically unprotected character, give 'em a pair of boots of speed and move 'em around as swiftly as possible to avoid being hit. In fact, you can use this as a tactical ploy, drawing the attention of illithi who cast at this party member.

[Magness]

I see that it is time for my patented anti-mindflayer techniques to be brought forth once more. These tactics are not cheesy in the least. They will also allow you to ATTACK mind-flayers, not fight a retreating battle.

1. Summons: Only Animate Dead and Mordenkainen's Sword are immune to mindflayer attacks. Morden's Sw. is AWESOME against mindflayers. In fact, send in a M.Sw. into any room with MF's first. The MF's attack the M.Sw.

2. Defenses: Priest spell (both cleric and druid) Chaotic Commands is a partial defense against most mind flayer attacks, except their INT drain. The Sheild of Harmony is good as well.

3. INT Drain defenses: Drink either a potion of genius or a potion of mind focusing. Both potions increase your INT. (Sort of like adding HP against INT drains.) If you begin losing INT, drink another one of these potions to ADD more INT. Do not let your INT go below 5. At zero, you die. If you get around 5-7, run away. INT drains are temporary... only a few rounds.

4. Combat tactics. Send in your summoned allies first. Let the MF's fire off their psi blasts at them. Have your 1 or 2 (2 is better) toughest tanks buffed up (as described above, as well as std buffing spells) and send them in behind your monster allies. Ignore any umber hulks. Focus on the illithinds and mind flayers. Have the remainder of your party sneak up to provide long-range missile support. A confusion spell can be useful here.

[ratchild]

Another useful thing for attacking mindflayers :spoiler:

There is a 2h sword out there that negates their effects... so no hold person or anything. Howoever, i do find that you can still randomly chunk with this sword equipped... never figured out how they were doing that

[Memnoch]

quote:

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Originally posted by ratchild:
Another useful thing for attacking mindflayers :spoiler:

There is a 2h sword out there that negates their effects... so no hold person or anything. Howoever, i do find that you can still randomly chunk with this sword equipped... never figured out how they were doing that

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This sword is only available in ToB, I'm afraid.

The priest spell Chaotic Commands is the only spell I know which will protect against the illithid's Psionic Whip stunning ability. As to the Psychic Drain, the only thing you can do is drink a lot of intelligence-increasing potions as the illithid will hit you on a to-hit roll of 1 or greater I think (last time I checked IE). Stoneskins/ironskins are useless against it (since the Psychic Drain attack does not do any physical damage).