As the title says, I'm playing a solo sorcerer (lvl 14 at the moment) and I really want to go through the Twisted Rune. I spent all evening trying to make any progress but the best I could do is kill the beholder using a bunch of preemptive skull traps. Whatever tactic I use, as soon as Shangalar casts his :mad: teleport field :mad: it's all over (every time I'm teleported back to him my protections all get dispelled instantly :confused: ).

Any tactics/advice?

A fairly cheesy way to do this is with the help of a scroll of protection from magic and the use of a wand of cloudkill. Use the scroll on yourself and the wand near the centre of the room. For some reason the wand of cloudkill goes through the protection from magic and ignores any magic resistance. Run around the room and keep using the wand untill everybody is dead.

Another way is to gain some levels and fight the twisted runes with the help of some mordekainens swords or higher level spells.

Well, at this point I'm not above using cheese...

However, using a scroll of prot. from magic would be a last resort kind of thing. BTW, would that be affected by dispel magic?

And I do have access to Mordenkainen's sword and other powerful summons (improved Khittix, nishruu and a few other scrolls), but they don't last long against death spell, wail of the banshee, etc.

The cloudkill wand trick deserves a shot, but I'm not sure it would act fast enough -- as I said, it's all over when Shangy casts his teleport field, which usually doesn't take long.

I don't know what your spell list is like, but it's worth throwing out a couple of low level summons to get them to waste their death spells on them. Then send in Mordy's Swords after that. Also, a Hackashar or Nishuru should rip Shadalar and the mage (whose name escapes me) apart.

If you give me the highlights of your spell list (especially from level 4+) I may be able to give you more suggestions.

Going by memory, here's my approximate spell list:

1- magic missile, burning hands, chromatic orb, shield, spook

2- web, melf's acid arrow, resist fear, blur, mirror image

3- slow, melf's minute meteors, skull trap, remove magic

4- spider spawn, minor sequencer, greater malison

5- lower resistance, sunfire, breach

6- project image, true sight

7- mordenkainen's sword

I don't think I forgot any. I also have three scrollcases full of goodies (spell trap, nishruu, prot. from magic, spell immunity, etc.)

Um... I'm not being sarcastic here, but if the problem is getting teleported back to him and having all of your proections dispelled, then would Spell Immunity towards whatever school Teleport Field belongs to stop that from happening?

Spider Spawn is a good 4th level spell that will take care of Death Spell/Wail of the Banshee and allow you to bring out your bigger summons.

would Spell Immunity towards whatever school Teleport Field belongs to stop that from happening?I don't know; since it's not targeted directly at me, I'm not sure how spell immunity will react. Certainly worth a shot, though. What school is teleport field? Alteration?

Yes, its alteration - I had to look it up. I know SI: Divination protects you from True Sight, which isn't targeted directly on you, so I don't see why it wouldn't work.

It's one of the harder battles of the game, so sacrificing one Prot. from Magic -scroll is well worth it. Also, the beholder might be the reason why your protections disappear -he has that anti-magic ray, remember?

Project Image, then six Skull Traps.
Do that over and over until you are sure all enemies will get creamed once they teleport in.

When "speed" soloing with a F/M/T I did the Twisted Rune at the end of the first day. Just kill the mage and the Beholder, then get out of there since you have what you came for. :)
It's a quick and easy option worth considering unless you want the satisfaction of killing them all.

Do you have Tactics installed?

If not, then Earl Grey's suggestion should be enough. Just pump out enough Skull Traps to vaporise anything that moves. Using Spell Immunity or a Protection From Magic scroll should cover you against most of the Rune. A couple of Mordekainen's Swords should handle everything that survives, and Shangalar goes down surprisingly easily for a guy worth 50,000 XP.