Tactical advice for Tarnor in the Sewers Options

[sturmvogel]

Having struggled mightily with Mencar Pebblecrusher's party (none of Keldorn's 3 Dispel Magics dropped Sorcerous Amon's protections (thank ghod for Emotion!)) I'm a bit concerned about trying to deal with Tarnor's crowd, which has always been more of a struggle for me in the regular game since I've never been a very tactically elegant player.
I gather than my normal tactic of invisibly sneaking up and letting off a double cloudkill has been deprecated by Sikret and would like some advice for my 1.2 million XP party consisting of:

Me R/C
Keldorn
Jahiera
Yoshio
Xan F/M
Kelsey

[leonidas]

You'll be glad to know this version is much much harder than the original.

I'd separate your sorcerer from the rest of your party and use him to absorb the greater commands from the two clerics (obv he needs chaotic commands up, and probably a death ward and protection from lightning and protection from magical energy(cast from a scroll)).

Before hand I would also buy 2 death spells scrolls to deal with the initial barrage of summons, freeing up all my level 6 spell slots for imp haste.

The idea is to have xan take on the bulk of the melee hitters, while kelsey absorbs spells from the casters (while hopefully the rest of your party is out of range). Remember, the meleeing npcs in IA will tend to switch targets a lot, but you stand the best chance of being hit if you are the closest character to that particular npc. Concentrate on the two dwarven fighters first, they are far weaker defensively.

The rest is just a question of whether or not you have enough melee power, personally I would drop yoshimo and get a decent fighter (korgan preferably, but go rescue mazzy if you are being good). Probably a good idea to stock up on strength potions from roger too.

Finally, the mage will last a lot lot longer than the rest of his grp. I made the mistake of not carrying normal weapons (he will start to spam pfmw towards the end of his life; real nuisance when he can hack apart fighters in melee). Carry normals weapons to hit him with when he goes into his cheese mode. He also has a triple chain lightning spell trigger he likes he cast when he is badly injured.

[Sikret]

Finally, the mage will last a lot lot longer than the rest of his grp. I made the mistake of not carrying normal weapons (he will start to spam pfmw towards the end of his life; real nuisance when he can hack apart fighters in melee). Carry normals weapons to hit him with when he goes into his cheese mode. He also has a triple chain lightning spell trigger he likes he cast when he is badly injured.

I think you have mistaken Gaius with some other mage, leonidas!

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Gaius doesn't cast any pfmw. He has 4 scrolls of Improved Mantle. So, normal weapons won't affect him. You should either successfully breach him (which is not easy because he has SI:abjuration) or have weapons with +4 enchantments with you. He also has 2 memorized Stoneskin spells and one other reserved in a contingency.

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End of spoilers