I just killed off the mindflayers in Atkathla and I protected both Donaldus and Keldorn with chaotic commands.

Despite that Keldorn died for the brainsuckers lowered his int below zero ... is it just that CC doesn´t help against that and just protects you from enemy "mind control" or does the protection wear off after a certain amount off attacks?

Seems to me as if intelligence boosting potionsa re a good backup for this purpose

[This message has been edited by Ragusa (edited April 21, 2001).]

Actually, Ragusa, intelligence drain is the innate ability of the flayers, like level draining ability of vampires.

Even if you are protected by stoneskin, the intelligence drain and the level drain come through (the same as the impaler spear, or any other weapon with additional damage).

The only way not to get drained is not get hit (doh...) meaning having an AC as low as to get hit only with a critical.

And btw. Chaotic Commands doesn't help you against psionics or holding. So still have to be careful when using it.

Thanks Mojahed - so I´ll try to avoid meleeing them from now ... bitter lesson for a cavalier ;)

Actually the potions seem to be indeed a good solution. So there is no other protective measure against them except saltwater potions and the necklaces of controls?

For me it alwas was this way: Potions of Magic Shielding in Athkatla and trying to fight one Flayer at a time, Greenstone amulet then Brine poyions for Underdark. Plus Skeletons DO help a lot. Especially after level 15 :D.

Just use a couple of hasted Invisible Stalkers.

They have the first ataack and their immune to psionic blast, about int. drain i'm not sure.

But they certainly worked for me, insane difficulty solo with a sorcerer.

I like Animate Dead and Mordenkainen's Sword for most anything you face.
Oh! Another Greenstome Amulet?! :D

Hey, Ragusa! Isn't your paladin too short for most enemies to hit without bending down? ;) One would think that'd be worth some kind of To Hit penalty...

Open a door, toss in a Cloudkill or Deathfog spell, close the door and smile as the flayers scream in agony! they never see it comming!

Have a thief go in the shadows and then shoot an arrow at one of the flayers. Run back and wait till one of 'em has passed through the door, where your party will be.
Close the door and kick the flayers butt.
Reapeat this until they're al gone. Worked for me, most of the time.
Some time the psionics did work on Yoshimo, so I rushed in with my whole party, but then I usualy got MY but kicked...

Chaotic Commands does protect against psionics, but it does not protect against the intelligence drain when you are hit by a Mind Flayer. IIRC the in-game description of Chaotic Commands indicates the protection from psionics, but the manual doesn't.

Have all your party members line up in the room next to the one where the flayers are.
Send in one guy to draw out a couple of flayers then hit them with every long range weapon you have, when that is done they'll be so redused it's no problem to kick their ass

Memorize a bunch of summoning spells, send in the fodder, and shoot the Illithids from a safe distance.

cloudkill be useless agains flayers because of their magic resistance...
good way to kill off lots of them is to summon a creature with normal weapon immunity and imbue it with chaotic commands
(air elemental should do, better make it some fiend)

The most reliable way (for me) is luring them little by little with a decoy then slaughtering them as they get ambushed :D