Does anyone know what are the resistances of this sweet puppies? A lot of spells doesn't work on them, including elementals spells (fireball e.g.).

Has they the ability to detect invisiblity? Edwin with Staff of the Magi is always detected.

What is the utility of Brine Potions? I use one of them, and a Mind Flyer sucked the brain of the warrior. It protect only against Psionic Blast? (What brain? My mighty cavalier has only 3 INT :D imagine that "me good, me help people"...)

Illithids have 90% magic resistance.

I don't know if they can detect invisibility, I belive they can't.

Int 3?!? Your noble knight is in big trouble when dealing with illithids. Try using intelligence boosting potions such as potion of genius or potion of mind focusing. P. of mind focusing also raises the dexterity.

If they can detect invisibility and you want to go past them without fighting use the cleric spell sanctuary, they sure can't detect that.

My brother also uses intelligence 3 to be able to boost everything else to maximum. I don´t think that that is roleplaying, so I always click up the numbers as high that I can. But then again, my cowardly brother plays a monk too... How can he enjoy the game anyway??
BTW, as I recall, intelligence deos not give you more talk options, bit wisdom does. My new fighter/cleric had 12 in int. and 18 in wis. and he speaks like a nobleman or something. Am I wrong? ;)

Again...

Thorr, take some nifty cleric with you and make him memorize Chaotic Commands. No more fear from Illithids then!

MMMHHMM...There is no protection against the illithid's intelligence drain ability. Be cautious, they're dangerous enough!

If you have a cleric give them one of the two protections mentioned above (chaotic commands or brine potion) and then cast Blade Barrier and let all those fools surround you, usually takes care of the Mind Flayers and Umberhulks giving you more time to concentrate on those nasty Illithids. Want to be even more nastier? Cast Blade Barrier and then Sanctuary. That nasty combo may sound cheap to some but I actually had a Drow cleric (in the tavern fighting pit) use that on me once.

Chaotic commands (just like the saltwater potion) is very valuable to protect a char from beeing charmed. To improve my survivability to intelligence drain I usually use one of the two potions the increase int by 3 to set my int to 21 or even 25 ... a brainsucker usually lowers int by 4 iirc so you have a little room to defend yourself. It is expensive, yes, but very effective.

:D my halfling cavalier has int-15 btw :D

Just use those skeleton warriors, I've always thought that brain sucking ability is their most powerful attack.

What does it matter if you're most powerful warrior gets stunned, unless it is in a fight against Illithids where he'll be dead in seconds, no matter his hp? In other fights he'd be able to take a lot of damage, especially if you heal him.

Mindflayers are probably the hardest opponent in the game, certainly in the top 5. The best defense against their intelligence drain is to avoid getting hit. AC is the ticket here...as someone pointed out chaotic commands is crucial to keep from getting dominated, but the int drain is the real threat from these guys...summoned creatures will buy you some time (not much). Get a good tank in there who has some purple intelligence potions on a quickslot and use missiles and melee with a hasted party...physical damage is gonna drop the flayers fast enough...but expect to do some resurrections when you fight these guys...that is what the spell is for afterall.

The brine potions never helped me out too much, they only last a second.

Darn Illithids are immune to virtually everything, but thieves traps hit them full on. And no they don't detect invisibility, so backstabbing is viable, but suicidal if there are groups of them. One thief with chaotic commands cast on him, and a bunch of invisibility potions or rings, can do a ton of damage to Illithids - or most anything for that matter.

For non-sneaky combat, the whole invisble stalker, skeleton warrior thing works great. Its just important to keep something between you and them. I've had a good deal of success with Arial Servants, they do get killed eventually, but they hit really hard.

Oh yeah, a couple of archers with boots of speed and chaotic commands will be unstoppable to illithids, the umber hulks could still be an issue though.

It wasn't quite a problem to beat them. Of course I use Skeleton Warriors, Fire elementals, Invisible Stalkers etc., but I didn't want to rest with tons of spells unused.
My strategy, maybe a cheap one, was simple: Edwin come close, cast Cloudkill (a wand sold and stolen again has 50 charges!), run like hell to the nearest door and close it.
Bad AI: they never open it. After the Cloudkill is over, my tanks with boot of speed rush and kill remaining Illithids from one blow.
The problem with my cavalier was that he actually drink a potion of genius, and he must have INT 25, but he has only INT 7. He is so supid that he didn't drink all the potion, I think ... :D

[This message has been edited by Thorr (edited July 17, 2001).]

I wouldn't really call any cloudkill tactics actually fighting... More like sitting and watching.

You should have noticed that Pit Fiends (and elementals methinks, but not lesser) are completely immune to flayers' physical attacks (therefore, protection from magical weapons should make you so, theoretically) so summon a powerful creature, cast chaotic commands on it (even on a pit fiend) and see it go :)

Pit Fiends and another demons are not yours allies, so you will not receive any exp. from them.
Besides, the spells wasn't the real problem (tons of protective artifacts and spells), but the nasty inteligence drain ability.

Ohh I did not know that about Pit Fiends, then again I've never worried about summoning one of those nasty creatures. No experience, that's not good because you can get a lot from those Illithids.