MFs would be Mind Flayers. I'm in the underdark. I have helped the guys with the hard names Escape From Monkey Island™. Er.. that would be the Mind Flayer arena. They told me to kill the big brain and teleported out. I used a control circlet on one of the mind flayers, and opened the two doors, but the Exit door says I have to find the opening mechanism or something like that. Now I'm entering rooms with four+ mind flayers and an umber hulk or two. I usually summon something and sacrifice them on the stun spells or the mind flayers (they kill my Cavalier PC if I rush first), but isn't there any better way to get them?

And I'd really like some help with lighting up the north cave which I should enter to search for a mage and his treasure.

And where did the little guy I rescued from the soul-holding device run off to? The device which holds several insane persons and a lich (?). He said I should go and see his father in the village for a reward.

Please try to keep spoilers at a minimum, this *is* my first time playing after Chapter two. I really enjoy finding out things for myself, and I might figure out some of these things before checking, but they are not big spoilers, so my conscience is clean :)

[ March 04, 2005, 04:05: Message edited by: Beren ]

Two words: Chaotic Commands. That spell is your best friend against Mind Flayers.

Also, if you have thief, you can use traps.

Also, there is a potion you can drink that blocks your mind as well (can't remember what it is called)

Harbourboy has the top suggestion -- Chaotic Commands (the brine potion does the same thing but doesn't last as long). It will make you immune to both the mind flayer stun attack and the umber hulk confusion attack. Extremely low AC is also important here. This was the first (and only) place my Cavalier set aside Carsomyr in favor of a shield. With full plate, a magic ring, and a good shield you should be able to get your AC to at least -10 -- then you'll only be hit on critical hits. Watch for the ability drain icon (you may want a few potions of genius, but I didn't use any) be sure to run away when you're hit, the intelligence comes back after a minute or so.

Doors are also your friend. Run away and close the door.

The little guy went to the village in the NW portion of the underdark. Ask around and you'll find his father. You'll find out more about the dark cave from them. I believe the mage you're asking about is not in a cave but is imprisoned.

Elven archer with lots of animals summoned. Yup, T2 Bruno nailed it: close the friggin door.

Some may advise skeletons against mind flayers but I never had much succes with them. They are immune to their psionic whip attack, but their INT is till drained when hit, which means they still die pretty quickly. Spells like cloudkill when cast at an area (best is from wand as it ignores magic resistance) and then closing the door is cheesy but work very well. Backstabbing a lone MF with a thief kills it in one stroke since they do not have a lot of hitpoints. Chaotic commands with a low AC is always a good option, but I usually use the cloudkill trick or saccrifice a summon to the stun effect and pelt them with arrows, bolts, stones, darts, the kitchensink from a distance. Give more summons if needed. Kill the mind flayers first, the umber hulks can wait!

Best suggestions I have are...

1. Mordekainen's Sword (the ultimate MF killer)
2. Chaotic Commands (avoids being stunned)
3. Backstab/Potion of Invisibility (hit and fade; even if you get stunned, if you time it right, you'll still be invisible before you become immobile)
4. Missile weapons
5. "RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!" (the Monty Python advice), at least until you get your INT points back.
6. Death Spell - will automatically destroy the Umber Hulks, and you have a 1 in 10 or so chance of killing a Mind Flayer with one; shame that you can't fry them with magic like so much calamari...

I sympathise, Marvin... my first time through, I didn't know these things and felt like a god after I struggled through the squiddies. It took a hell of a long time, but it was almost worth it!

Ring of Free Action makes you immune to their stun. I've never had Chaotic Commands work at all.

Death Spell is useful. Prismatic Spray will work well too.

A couple good whacks with a sword will kill 'em. I usually just give Minsc the Ring of Free Action and two good swords and he chops them right up.


Please try to keep spoilers at a minimum, this *is* my first time playing after Chapter two.I'm going to assume you're in Chapter 5 because otherwise something is seriously wrong.

Well, Chaotic commands help you with control, but they still would kill Minsc, Valygar and Jae in two hits (some of them drain 5 int at a hit).
Your best bet is lots of potions of Mind Focusing, let your party drink them, till everyone gets 25 int
(and Dex, so their AC would improve), THEN cast Chaotic Commands and go ahead ;)

You can also gate in a Demon if you're really stuck.
A waste of XP but you can just kill the demon to make up for it, and since this is ToB the XP loss isn't much in the long run.

Those old days, I used the bottle-neck tactic alot, send one invisible char to block the door, other shots from a distant (with ring of free action or chaotic command of course - if not then Minsc gota switch between bow and Lilacor to advoid dominate and confusion - or Jaheira using sling + shield of harmony)

A potion of Invisibility saved Valygar's life once: he crept into the room full of Mind Flayers, backstabbed, became visible and got stunned, but a millisecond before he gulped a potion, so they didn't get him ! Other melee fighters had to finish the job, though.

To defeat mind flayers here's one simple trick - Mind Fayers can't see the invisible, so any invisible character can walk around their lair unmolested.


** Minor Spoiler **


if you keep going north you come to a cave with pools of brine in you can use to get potions that protect you from all psionics - doing this doesn't lose invisibility. Then make your best fighter immune to psi and attack with as many summons as possible!

Ingredients:
3-5 *hasted* skeleton warriors/mordy swords/aerial servants (yes, this spell actually has a use!).
1 chaotic-commands protected mage.

Recipe:
Open door. Send summonses in. Have mage immediately death spell umber hulks from doorway. Watch carnage. Run summonses to next room before the swords expire. Repeat.

Recipe #2:
Summon planetar. Protect from stun. Watch carnage.

quote:
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Please try to keep spoilers at a minimum, this *is* my first time playing after Chapter two.
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I'm going to assume you're in Chapter 5 because otherwise something is seriously wrong. Well of course, but what I meant was that I never played past chapter 2 before this game.

My Cavalier has -9AC with a twohanded sword, so that's nice. Weird that I never thought about chaotic commands before now. Aerie even have one memorized.

There's a lot of unique items I don't have, seeing as this is my first time really playing, I don't do all quests, kill all monsters etc. And most important, I'm one of the good guys, so I don't pickpocket. I'm probably missing a lot of gamecontent, but it's a part of my plan. It would be foolish to exhaust everything while playing through it just once, considering how this is the very best game I know about. I'm planning to play it a lot. And I'll probably get some mods after that :)

BTW, I wrote "***SPOILERS***" in the title for a reason. (seems to have been edited by a moderator perhaps?) Even if it's not much, I'd hate not being warned about spoilers when I was just reading a thread to get hints for fighting those monsters. Don't you think? I know caps are disturbing, but it's for a good cause (or insert some other noblesounding stuff here)

I just create a small amy of undead and let them take the heat and just blast away with arrows/stones/throwing daggers.

Works for me... :happy:

A standard strategy would be to equip 2 (or more if you have them) archers with boots of speed (or haste them), cast Chaotic Commands on them, and have them snipe the Mind Flayers. Haste is actually very good here because they get this extra attack. Chaotic Commands will protect them from the psionics, and if you keep running away when the MFs get close to you they'll never have the chance to drain INT.

If you must go melee with them, Improved Invisbility (the Baldurdash fixed) is a must because of the +4 AC. Anything that can give better AC is good to have.

Actually, cheesy as it might be, a combination of a wand of cloudkill (no magic resistance), a "sighting" invisible character and closing the door can work quite well.
By the way, the Slayer generally fares nice against the illithids too.

Two thoughts for you.
1. While cloudkill from a wand will affect MF's, the bug that allows it is patched in the Baldurdash fix-pack. If you have Baldurdash, this won't work.

2. The other thing to note is that they are not at all immune to poison. Arrows of Biting and Darts of Wounding are good choices. I have not tried Assassin's poison on them, but it may work as well.