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VI.5 > > > > Enemy Spellcasters
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Mages
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Mages have increased in power by LEAPS and BOUNDS since Baldur's Gate.
They're much more annoying now. Two spells in particular make them tough
to fight: Contingency and Sequencer. These allow mages to cast spells
almost INSTANTLY at almost any time. Then add in their new protective
magics -- Protection from Normal Weapons springs to mind -- and defeating
mages in Baldur's Gate II becomes much more difficult.
Mage does: Protection from Normal/Magical Weapons
Counter with: Breach (lvl 5)
Mage does: Shadow Door/ Invisibility AND Protection from Normal Weapons
Counter with: Purge Invisibility or Glitterdust or Remove Magic
THEN Breach
You cannot Breach anything that is invisible, so you have to get them
to be seen first.
Note: True Sight dispels any and ALL protections from the illusion school.
That's right, no more Mirror Images, Simulacrums or Invisibility!
(or thieves hiding in the shadows, for that matter)
Dispel Magic is more of a "clean up" dispeller to be used in sequence
with Breach. It usually takes care of whatever Breach doesn't,
leaving your enemy mage wide open. I like this spell for its
versatility (removing negative and positive status) but you're
better of using Remove Magic in sequence with Breach as you won't
end up removing your own protections, plus you'll want to save your
Dispel Magics when baddies start throwing out Maze spells.
Generally, Ruby Ray of Reversal gets rid of everything that protects
from spells while Breach takes care of anything that protects from
weapons and elements. (entire NOTE from John Winkleman)
I let my archers take care of mages most often, so countering their Globes
of Invulnerability is not a priority. A Spell Thrust could be used to cut
a Minor Globe out, however.
Summon Nishruu/Hakeashar
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Leo Wang recommends summoning Nishruu (and their higher level counterparts,
Hekaeshars) to deal with mages. Nishruu are mage-eaters for the most part,
as they are drawn to mages like bees to pollen. Magic attacks heal the
Nishruu and best of all, Nishruu cause mages to forget spells. Summoning
up these bad boys make the end game mages (such as Irenicus) pretty easy.
Nishruu are a 6th level spell, and Hakeashars are 7th.
Cyrille Artho doesn't think too highly of Nishruu's:
Just a comment about the usefulness of Nishruus and their "relatives": I
used them now and again vs. wizards, but did not like it very much when
one of my Imoen was charmed and turned against me (incidentally she had
summoned the Nishruu herself). What would the Nishruu do? After I killed
the enemy mage, it would "home" on Imoen. Until I had realized that and
disposed myself of the Nishruu, it had already eaten some magical items
(among them the Bracers of Protection!). That really pissed me off, and
I didn't use Nishruus anymore. Not to mention that they might also
degrade items that you would otherwise pick up after the battle.
Henning Roes has an interesting tip for fighting mages:
Normally the high-level mage casts heavy protections on himself and it
takes some time to take them down. In my second game I found a new
strategy to get rid of their protection-from-magical-weapons like mantle
etc: I used normal weapons in that case. I didn't do that in my first
game because I wanted enchanted weapons as much as anyone. So I never
thought about how useful non-magical weapons are.
Fighting the Cowled Wizards for Fun and Profit: (from JP)
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You can't cast spells in Athkatla unless you want to face the Cowled Wizards.
And if you want to get them off your back you must pay Corneil at the Council
of Six building. I finished the game as a paladin (I imported my character
from Baldur's Gate) and then played it again as an Invoker. I didn't want to
pay Corneil the 5,000 gp because I saw the cowled wizards as a potential
source of both gold and exp. If you want to face off with the Cowled
Wizards, here's what I recommend:
1. Isolate your mage from the rest of your party.
2. Go to a spot anywhere in Athkatla (I did this near the archway in the
bridge district) where there are only a few people, lessening the risk
of killing someone accidentally.
2B. Drop a bit of Junk on the ground to mark this spot.
3. Cast a summoning spell, preferably summon nishruu. The "spokesperson"
for the cowled wizard should appear shortly after the nishruu
materializes. Don't expect the nishruu to do heavy damage. His only
purpose is to distract the cowled wizards from attacking you.
4. Don't wait for him to appear! Quickly walk away from him and then
attack him using your nishruu.
5. He'll say something short and three or four other cowled wizards will
appear to attack you.
6. Walk away until you don't see them anymore (or until they're covered
by the fog of war). Your nishruu will attack them and they'll attack
your nishruu.
7. Look for your Junk. It marks their position.
8. Wait for a few moments to let some of their protective spells expire.
You don't have to wait that long anyway. Cast shadow door.
9. Cast area effect spells like death fog, cloudkill, web, ice storm,
skull trap, etc. On the ground near where you last saw them. You can't
see them and they can't see you, but you know where they are, so use
that to your advantage.
10. Use multiple web spells if you have to so that they don't approach
you. In time, they'll all die and you get around 14000 exp. Search
their corpses for potions, scrolls and gems.
I did this a lot times and it paid off rather well. It's not infinite.
You'll eventually face a high level wizard, who will cast time stop and
summon a pit fiend. Before I could beat him he cast dimension door and
vanished.
The final fight with the cowled wizards will occur when their spokesperson
tells you that the highest members of their order have come to fight you.
To beat them, simply repeat the process I said about defeating them. But be
careful! One of them (her name's Zalladora, I think) can (and probably
will) cast two time stop spells at the beginning of the battle! Keep your
distance from them. When Zalladora is near death, she'll attempt to cast
her third time stop spell. If she does, she'll cast gate and summon a pit
fiend and cast dimension gate to get out. It's up to you if you want to
prevent her from escaping or if you want to fight the pit fiend instead.
Either way, if you survive, the cowled wizards will never bother your
spellcasting in Athkatla again.
Matt Warner has an easier way to cast spells in Athkatla:
I've just found a neat little way to rid yourselves of the
interference of the Cowled Wizards without paying the hefty 5000
gold bribe, or going through the effort of killing wave after wave of
wizards until they give up on you, though that will probably yield a
bit more treasure than my method. If you just want to be done with
them quick and easy, do this:
Have a mage cast any spell that will attract the attention of the
wizards, stoneskin or mirror image work well. Of course, so does
everything else but those spells are nice and non-offense.
A lone wizard will dimension door in to yell at you before bringing in
several more wizards to kill you. He'll have some kind of hefty
enchantment up (stoneskin?).
The *instant* he actually shows up (i.e. has the blue ring around
him), pause. Employ the fake talk strategy: Have someone talk to him
and unpause. Pause again (before anyone actually walks over and
starts talking to him) and force-attack him while he still has the
blue circle around him. You probably won't be able to hit him due to
his powerful protection spells, but this doesn't matter. Every 5
seconds or so, back off and fake-talk him again. As long as you keep
doing this, he won't go hostile and his friends won't gate in.
Within a short period of time, his spell wears off and he returns to
a more normal-looking color. He will now fall easily.
After this, no more wizards will show up and attack you for
spellcasting. Apparently, since he never gets to speak, the game
never triggers any more attacks since the first attack was never
completed. Since more wizards won't show up in the middle of a wizard
attack if you cast spells, this catch gets applied for the rest of
the game. This doesn't appear to screw anything up (it's just a flag
not getting set to "true", shouldn't affect anything else. Hasn't yet
in my game, anyway.)
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