Hi,

as the game banshee forums seem rather inactive I have to copy a question I raised there:

I'm just in the middle of Watcher's Keep Level 3 and I really have trouble dealing with the Tanar'ri after the first "dead magic" room (where you can get the +4 bastard sword for paladins). The problem is I'm not able to cast any preparation spells in the room before as it is hardcoded to apply "spell failure" affects to all my party members. The fiends make short work of my party especially the backstabbing ones and it doesn't help that there is a succubus in the room that randomly charms Minsc.

I have a pretty default TOB party. The main pc is a level 25 fighter (dual wielding flail of the ages +4 and some other flail). The rest ist Minsc, Anomen, Jaheira, Aerie and Imoen. I only have one "Helm of charm protection" and I fail to make out what (quick to cast) spells could hurt the fiends at all. In a direct frontal approach I usually manage to take down two of them until all hell breaks loose.

So do you have any suggestions to ease this battle? As always I regret my decision to take Jaheira with me as she seems rather useless.

When you're prevented from casting spells, fall back on potions for buffs -- potions of clarity, speed, invisibility, etc. And if you don't have any potions of clarity, take the succubus out first with your best archers and use arrows of biting, if you have them. Keep the hard hitters away from your archers while they do their job, and use Jaheira as a healer and backup.

Oh, and use wands and scrolls, too, especially any scrolls that can summon fodder.

You could also cast your preparation spells two areas back, to avoid the null magic area. ;)

Yeah but up to my understanding the dead magic room will clear all buffs also. I thought about preparing a few minor sequencers but for that to work I would need some kind of magic that does a thing to these enemies.

I haven't played Watchers Keep in quite some time, so I don't remember how it works precisely. Maybe take a look for some Let's Plays on YouTube to get some ideas?

Good idea, thank you. I had already watched one but the guy went crazy with all kinds of potions, chain contingency, wish and of course simulacrum. I may have built my party bad as aerie can only cast level 7 mage spells yet and imoen can go up to level 9 but all spells I tried haven't made much difference.

If Imoen can cast lvl 9 spells, just use the improved alacrity (it's a HLA spell that removes the limit of only casting 1 spell per round for a few rounds) + time stop combo to let her wipe out all the tieflings. IIRC they're immune to fire, so just cast a lot of skull traps, horrid wilting and other spells that do magical damage in the middle of the pack. If you have items that reduce spellcasting time like the robe of Vecna or the amulet of power, then you should be able to cast enough spells to kill them all before the time stop ends.

If you have problems with Minsc being charmed, use his berserk special ability, it makes him immune to most status effects. Wait until he's in melee and keep your other party members away from him, since he'll attack whoever's nearest while berserk.

Do note the succubus can only charm male chars, I think, so using Jaheira as a decoy by making her rush the succubus can work too. She should have enough hp and ac to tank a while.

Personally, I'd say your main problem is that you have too many divine casters, they're not very useful in BG 2. They're nearly as bad at melee as wizards and their spells are very much inferior to wizard spells. They do have some decent buffs, but you only need 1 cleric or druid for them.
Maybe you should consider going back to the pocket plane, get rid of Anomen and/or Jaheira and take Sarevok and another good NPC like Keldorn or Edwin instead?

I thought about finally kicking jaheira out in favor of kelderon but wouldn't he be of very low level compared to the other party members? Maybe worth a try though...

Imoen has exactly one L9 spell slot open and I put improved alacrity there. Now to see how I could get time stop without casting it. With luck there could be a "Limited Wish" or even a "Time Stop" scroll somewhere in my inventory.

Regarding the succubus I would be glad to know whether those things have some weakness I could use to finish them off very quickly.

The succubus is a magic user, so use tactics to disrupt her casting -- arrows of biting (poison interrupts), summon insects (casting is virtually impossible to somebody inflicted with the swarm), Magic Missile, when timed right, is a great magic interrupter. Stuff like that.

Keldorn would probably be at around 2.5 million xp, so level 17. A level 17 Keldorn, especially with Carsomyr, is still more useful than a level 25 or higher Jaheira imo.
Not only are paladins pretty good (and Carsomyr is the best weapon in the game), his inquisitor kit makes him extremely useful against mages or any enemy with buffs.

Or you could pick Sarevok, but he's at his best when you can dual him to a wizard, and you probably won't have enough xp left in ToB to make that worth it.


As for dealing with the Succubus, making a character immune to her charm go straight at her and using Whirlwind should be enough. As Hickory said interrupting her casting should be easy enough.

Thanks for clearing these things up to me. There is a lot of useful information in your posts. The main game changer for me was to go back to "auto pause" gameplay with settings on "target gone" and "spell cast". This combined with two minor sequencers, one chain contingency and a lot of holy smites gave my fighters the time to go whirlwind on most of the enemies. I kept the succubus occupied through Jaheira until all other enemies were dead. This thing kept being annoying and going "ethereal" and charming Minsc for a few rounds but finally went down too.

That's why interrupting her magic is so important. But I'm glad you managed to get past this hurdle. Well done. :-)