I am getting stomped in the improved Sendai and Abazigial fights. I can get close, but someone seems to always be getting chunked, and it is too late in the game to import new NPCs to finish in the Throne.

My party:
PC: Fighter/Thief longsword and axe proficiencies
Sarevok: 2H sword and halberd
Soluafein: Longsword, katana and flail
Aerie: Heavy Warhammers, staff
Imoen: Staff
Jaheira: Clubs, Scimitar

I have most of Cespenar's upgrades, plus a couple of items from Weimer's Item Pack (pitchwife club, elemental mastery ring and staff). I did best against Sendai when I cast Immunity: Illusion to counter all her misleads, images, and immunity: divinations. I was able to save most my spells until the final fight (and luckily got in a quick save after the last statue, so I don't have to go through the whole thing again). However, I can't dispel her protections fast enough while trying to ignore the devas she summons, and the drow warriors in the improved version cut right through greater elementals and planetars. I have my F/T yield Carsomyr - hitting isn't an issue, so I can take advantage of it's dispel magic effect.

I'm toast against the two dragons. I can take down Abazigial, but can't stop both dragons, even trying to ignore the other creatures. I'd ignore Tamah too, IF the beast didn't keep casting Maze and Imprisonment. Just once, I'd like to see a failed save versus miscast magic.

Please share some tactics. I tried a search on this board and the WeiDU board, but didn't come up with much on tactics for the improved battles. If I just searched poorly, please point me in the right direction.

Thank you.

P.S. If I'm having this much trouble now, it will probably happen again at the Ascension battle, so tactics for that would help too.

What's the exact equipment both of them use? Improved Abazigal is nasty unless you use some pretty sneaky tricks.

Max out resistances and saves on all characters. I trust you have Jaheira use that Summon Greater Elemental ability. Mages must be buffed to the max. Don't just use 3 or 4 protection spells like you would in the original game. Both Aerie and Imoen should go into any of these fights with (minimum):

Stoneskin
Spell Trap
Spell Turning
Protection from Fire
Protection from Cold
Protection from Evil
Spell Immunity:Abjuration
Spell Immunity:Divination
Magic Resistance
Absolute Immunity
Protection from Petrification
Spell Shield
Mislead
Simulacrum
Put more than that on them if you can.

If I remember right, the enemies tend to be pretty close to the party in all of these fights. So, set up both Aerie and Imoen with a Chain Contigency (I like 3xHorrid Wilting set to cast upon see enemy for both of them.) Once that fires, have Aerie cast another Chain Contigency, in this one put Greater Restoration, Summon Deva, and Firestorm set to fire whenever her hitpoints go below 50%. Take down the weaker dragon first, while using a planetar and an Elemental Prince along with the simulacrums to distract Abby. Once the weaker dragon is dead, start unloading dispelling magics onto that mage. He'll fall pretty easily once his protections are gone. Then, 3xLower Resistance on Abby from both Imoen and Aerie, then start the beatdown with whatever you've got left. If your party starts getting badly hurt, have Aerie cast Greater Restoration (she should be the one with the Robe of Vecna for this fight).

For Sendai, take my preparty buffing advice to heart and try to formulate your own strategy.

I very nearly made it. Except Abazigal mazed my PC right before dying, the punk. The one spell he gets off, targeting the wrong person. After several other unsuccessful attempts, I decided to quit for the night after this defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory. And this was with a little simulacrum cheese to help. Simulacrum of main (F/T) used my one spare time stop scroll once I had Tamah's defenses down.

*sigh*, I'm not much of a tactical player; never was, might never be. I like the increased challenge and changing things up, but it may be too challenging for my limited skills. Hopefully I'll get time to try again on Friday.

Also, now that I know how to counter Sendai's illusions (spell immunity: illusion trumps spell immunity: divination's trumping of true sight), I just have to figure out how to keep her Deva's and drow off of my back long enough to stop her. Her drow elite guards can cut down a Planetar too fast.

Still looking for helpful suggestions, though :cool:

It took me about half a dozen attempts to beat the improved Abazigal and even then I lost everyone but my main character and I must have used half the healing potions in the game just to get through it in one piece.

One handy trick I discovered was that the wyrms can be killed outright with greater deathblow. While they're no big threat compared to Abazigal and Tamah, their breath weapons can cause you a few problems particularly as you have to fight the dragons at the same time. Concentrate on killing Tamah as soon as the wyrms are out of the way and whatever you do DON'T seriously wound Abazigal before Tamah is dead; Abazigal only turns into a dragon after you wound him bad enough and you really don't want to take on two dragons at the same time.

One thing you could try with Abazigal is to scatter snares around him right before he turns into a dragon. I never tried this tactic because I didn't have a high level thief in my party when I fought him but it might well give you the edge on him.

Snares won't work. No time to set them, because there are enemies about, and Abazigal's transformation is instant. If I hadn't been frustated from repeated failure, I might have tried the same tactic that nearly worked again (simulacrum f/t use time stop scroll to off Tamah; Jaheira and summons occupy drakes and salamanders). Thanks for the greater deathblow information. :D If I can find an old enough save, I'll have Sarevok pick it up, then use Jaheira to help bring down Tamah rather than task her with protecting Aerie and Imoen.

Update 10/03/2003:
Success. Found out something interesting. A Feebleminded-Abazigal will not die. After lowering his MR, Greater Malison and Doom, Imoen hit him with three feebleminds. I did over 400 damage to a nearly dead Abazigal, fearing the inevitable counter-attack Imprisonment on my main (his spell protections had worn off). Finally, I realized what was happening, and cast Remove Magic on his ugly blue plate hide, and he promptly fell.

Now on to Sendai, and how to keep her summons busy while playing Terminator 3 on her.

[ October 03, 2003, 16:11: Message edited by: D_Odds ]