I hath slain the mighty Shandalar *possible spoilers*

[Trau]

Yeah, yeah, I know plenty of people have done it before with barrages of cloudkill spells or magic missiles.

I'm pretty sure my way was a little different from others previously mentioned:

So looking at Shandalar's resistances, he is immune to natural and magical elemental attacks and highly resistance to physical damage. His saves are not all that great, however, and he has no resistance to magic.

Seeing that he was saving against most of my magical attacks, I decided that the easiest way to get an advantage over the nigh-invulnerable mage was to rapidly drop his saves to ridiculously low levels. The first spell he casts is minor globe of invulnerability, so we have to do this in less than 15 seconds or so.

Before attacking Shandalar, I had my two priests cast doom on him simultaneously; this will turn his circle red, allowing my fighter/mage to cast greater malison. During this time, Imoen and my two fighters are trying to hit him (Imoen with a wand of missiles), doing what little damage they can.

I have both of my priests again cast doom simultaneously, and then have my fighter use Algernon's cloak to charm Shandalar. Now, afte four doom spells and a casting of greater malison, this should be done easily enough. I make Shandalar walk a few steps to disrupt his spell while I direct the priests to again doom him and my fighter to charm him again before he can make another attempt at his protection spell.

My fighter/mage is at this point alternating between magic missile and different wands. I did try an emotion: fear scroll, but that was ineffective; eventually a wand of fear made him panic, and Shandalar was running around vulnerable as all heck. No need to charm him anymore. Eventually a wand of paralyzation took effect and my party pounded him until his inevitable death.

My fighter/mage did the most damage with eight magic missiles (I believe he is level five or six), but if Shandalar got his shield up, he never would have connected with all of them.

Now you might say to yourself, "What a cheesy way to win, especially attacking him while he was blue!" Well, my dear fellows, would you walk up to a powerful mage who has all but threatened your life and tell him you were about to end his? Not if you're pragmatic!

My moral justification is thus: When asked what the reward would be for helping him, Shandalar tells us, "your life and whatever you scourge." This says that until I "help" him, my life is not my own and he may kill me if I refuse to get his cloak. I'd rather not worry about a powerful mage stalking me on my adventures, so I stuck my sword in his fat mouth.

[ 08-16-2006, 06:52 AM: Message edited by: Trau ]

[Lord]

More like you spoon-fed him death [img]tongue.gif[/img] .

Just kidding. I would not have thought of casting doom and re-charming him over and over again. Cheesey, but tactical nevertheless. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Trau]

But is it really cheesey for this particular character? What I thought was silly was that all of his spells are scripted. When you gain control of him, he doesn't have a spellbook.

[Lord]

For a fighter/mage, yes, I would say that it makes it even more cheesey.
That's interesting that he has no spells memorized. But then again, do liches get any special 'privelages' when casting spells (as in, do they need to memorize spells like normal wizards)?

[Neo the Warrior Cat]

I'm willing to say they'd have some sort of concession buuuuut....

Anyone who manages to charm or otherwise subvert a lich should have access to their spellcasting (I mean, you can ORDER them to cast spells)

[Kyrvias]

I've Ctrl+q-ed a lich in BG II, and he does have a spell book. Though, he has much too many spells for his current level

[Cascade]

I've controlled a liche with a high-level Viconia using Turn Undead. You do indeed get full access to his spell book.

... Fun times.

[ 08-17-2006, 12:26 PM: Message edited by: Cascade ]

[Lord]

Now that I think about it, shouldn't a lich be immune to spells like MM and dire charm? I thought liches are immune to level 1-3 spells.

[Kyrvias]

The beginning of this thread dealth with Shandalar, which is not a lich [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Lord]

Shandalar is a lich in BG2.