I have been trying for a long time to get a party through the game without anyone dying. I find it to be remarkably hard. For instance, today Bohdi got me in that first battle you have with her, when you're trying to destroy her guild so Aran will send you to Spellhold. I can usually make her flee, although the process is often painful, but today she reduced Minsc to near death in a couple of blows, so I had him run out of the room. That gave her a little window to Dire Charm my lead charachter, who in this case was a fighter-mage. She usually doesn't get a chance to even try it, but today, despite the Ring of Prot. +2 and Prot. from Evil, I failed the save, and that, my friends, was that.

My problem now is this: I've pretty much decided what my optimum path through the game is, but playing it again and again is getting rather tiresome. Do you think I should:

a) Give BG2 a rest for a year or so and try again.

b) Drop the obsession with no one dying and just complete the game again - its been a long time since I've played the latter stages of SoA since I always seem to make a mistake or get unlucky somewhere. or

c) Suck it up and try again.

d) Nobody actually died; use Power Word: Reload.

It's rather unfair that if anything happens to your main character you're done. In BGI I'd take on the sirenes all by my lonesome whether I had a party or not. If they Dire Charmed me, everyone would just sit there until the spell ran out, and I was free to attack them again. You ought to be able to at least have the rest of your party act after a Dire Charm in BGII, but since you can't, I'd say a compromise is called for.

Spoilers Ahead!

Don't give up! I play without anyone dying and so can you. For the Bodhi fight:

1) Bodhi's affected by +2/+3 magical items! Protect your PC with the amulet of power, chaotic commands, stoneskin, blur, prot. from evil and a regeneration item if you have one. Use those strength, extra healing and whatever potions you've been saving for that big fight. This is one of them. For the dire charming, there are helms which can protect you from it.

2) Have Jaheira summon a fire elemental to fight with you. Anyone else who can summon should do so - you want Bodhi to focus her attacks on something other than you.

3) Reloading is not cheating! Neither is reading up on walkthroughs! These can be considered reconissence information for the party!

4) Turn the AI off. Unless the fight goes really badly, it's better to have the other party members act as cheerleaders.

As Fel said, no one realy died. So just reload the game.

@ Fellinoid: I've used the Power Word many a time - I've completed the game through ToB 4 times. What's keeping it interesting for me now is this idea of going through without a death. And I guess I wasn't completely clear - the rest of my party could still act after the Dire Charm, but with Minsc already fled, and my PC charmed, Bohdi concentrated her attacks on Jaheira, who I'd thrown into the fray once Misc was forced to flee. I hoped that she and Keldorn could get Bohdi to flee, and then perhaps Keldorn might have dispelled the charm, but Jaheira was killed before I could pull that off...

@kuemper - Yeah, I'm guilty of not preparing sufficiently. I have this little nagging doubt that "preparing to the max" - as Beren is fond of saying in his fine walkthrough - for *every* battle is quite fair, and I guess I'm also a bit lazy. I made preperations that I thought were sufficient, but it didn't work out that way. Maybe what I'll do is try again, and post my progress in a new thread - maybe that way I'd be careful enough to pull it off ;)

I had a lot tries of going through the game without a death, I can never do it with a party since one of the weaker members or one of the physical attackers always seems to die before my healer can do anything, but I did do it once with a solo sorcerer, although that's not really much of an accomplishment

I played SoA without dying and reloading once.

I've played this game more than a couple of times... No one died in my games. Of course, the Power Word: Load does wonders for me, too... However, I'm starting a new game with 6 characters (all pre-generated) and I intend to finish ToB without dying and reloading.

You do have to use a lot of cheese to actually get through the game without a character dying and without reloading. One tatic I liked to use is hide and seek. See your enemy go into the next room and wait till their buff spells wore off.

You don't have to beat her. You can flee.

Also, what does it matter if a party member dies? I'm sure you have enough money to raise them.

Sure, I could raise characters - but getting through without anyone dying is the challenge I've set myself.

On a slightly off topic, but related note...

I've started a party of 6 through BG2 and ToB...

Undead Hunter
Archer with GM in crossbows
Sorcerer
Wild Mage
Ranger (lv 13) dual-classed to Cleric
Haer'Dalis...(I love this guy...and all Blades!)

Anyway...I haven't challenged myself like the thread creator per se...but I've been breezing through the game on INSANE! That's with Tactics, Ascension...the works!

Bah...I am reminded very strongly of why I always solo...this game is too easy for a party!