Having Trouble Fighting Mages Options

[Castle]

This is my first time playing through IA; great mod! Much more challenging than the original game (perhaps too much for me, I fear), which is a nice change.

Mages, though, are a problem. Their many-layered protections were annoying enough in the original; I'm finding them impossible now. Improved Invisibility + SI: Divination makes them impossible to target with breach, and my mages are too low level for dispel magic to do anything.

Furthermore, they seem to have ridiculous ACs: Korgan (with a THAC0 of 3) is missing on a 17! Melee enemies certainly don't have armor that effective.

Any advice?

[Sikret]

Invisble characters can't be targeted with spells which normally target an individual (rather than an area). This includes Breach, Ruby Ray of Reversal and any other similar spell. But it is intentional; this is the point of invisibility after all.

Spells which affect an area (rather than an individual) can be cast and can prove useful in such battles. The player needs to think and find alternate tactics in such cases when the good old "Breach and kill" tactics doesn't work. Since Castle asked for advice, an example which may work fine in many cases is to cast "Greater Malison" accompanied with "Emotion" or "Hold Monster" in the target's vicinity. Emotion is an area affecting spell and Hold monster can be cast on a different enemy who is probably standing near the invisible mage. Chain Lightning can also be cast on one of the invisible mage's allies and it will affect the mage as well (though it can't be cast directly at the mage himself because he is invisible). Examples of effective tactics to be used in such cases are many. My main advice is to "think" and to "practice" rather than becoming frustrated.

As for mages with decent AC, yes they exist but they are not very common. You may have run into battle with one ofthose powerful mages without knowing. If a particular battle is available at early stages of the game, it doesn't mean that it is necessarily doable with a low level party. This is IA's realism: The world is a dangerous place and powerful enemies can be found any where. For example, you can go for the Twisted Rune battle right after exiting Irenicus' dungeon, but the availability of this battle early in the game doesn't indicate that you will be able to win it with a low level party.

EDIT: Also, note that Improved Invisibility grants AC bonus and makes it harder to hit the mage.

This post has been edited by Sikret: May 5 2008, 08:18 AM