First of all, again I would like to highlight that this mod is amazing. It's the best time that I've had playing my favourite game of all time. It's amazingly balanced, works very well offers such a great fun developing an amazing and super powerful party. I've spent more hours on this than I care to count.

I posted a few notes when I started regarding my original party & composition and the tremendous troubles I had finishing, well, pretty much anything in the game. I started with dual classed Fighter/Thief, Cleric/Mage, Fighter/Druid with Barbarian and a Necro (PC). I had to make numerous alterations as this crew just wasn't going to make it.

Based on that incomplete run & my experience with the mod I took another swing at IA, this time being much wiser so my crew turned out to be: Necromancer (PC), Minsc, Valygar, Cernd, Jan Jansen and a custom made Riskbearer. I finished SoA with this crew but were in tremendous troubles by WK level 4 (especially the "orc"-encounter & Githyaki supreme leader). While it looks like a very powerful group, it sort of runs out of juice with some of the encounters, because it lacks pure melee-power.

So I made a few changes, re-imagined my approach to party composition (& took a few freedom's) but this is what I ended up with.

Protagonist: Vagrant (Inquisitor is the preferred & more powerful choice or at least for my playing style)
Sorcerer (I used Imoen)
Berserker(9)/Mage (We use Jan Jansen tweaked)
Kensal
Swashbuckler(5)/Cleric (We use Aerie for this, tweaked)
Berserker(9)/Druid (We use Jaheira, tweaked a bit)

^ This party is uber powerful. It has 4 outstanding kick-assers for melee with the possibility to add a 5th one in Swashbuckler/Cleric. We can get amazing amount of attacks per round, amazing Thac0's, we are extremely competent in spell casting having almost 4 full spell casters (2 arcane / 2 divine). If you want to have a thief in your party, this is probably "as strong as you can get". (Well, you could always make a Swashbuckler(3) -> Fighter but I like my cre as it is & I want to try a cleric).

My über-crew doesn't have a single IA kit. (or wouldn't if I play with the most powerful combination)

A note. I have an item pack installed giving me a few powerful items. I also bent the rules so in my game the S/C (turned to vampire) can use the cloak of the daywalker & she also got a powerful upgrade on her "symbol of deity" she got at level 25 (I think). She also can use thief specific gear, even if it's marked for "single class thief's only". By end of spellhold, we don't have single such item though and her usefulness just grows from there on.

Her "deity's holy symbol" gives her +2AC & Saves, +20HP, -2 Casting time & +10% physical resistance (but no +1 strength, no magic resistance, no extra spells) It's a powerful item, comparable perhaps to the "master of disciplines". While the casting time might seem like overkill, it doesn't come with "aura clensing" so she is limited to only 1 spell / rd . What it does do is make her low level spells even semi useful in combat because now they can be cast and sometimes even finish. I think this tweak works very well and isn't OP and makes Cleric more usable.

Jan (or Berserker / Mage) got an incarnated elven chain giving him -1 casting time, AC1 & 20% fire resistance. He also got a ring with an additional spell from levels 1-9. The ring is sort of optional, as I haven't run into a case where I would run out of spells with him. So, even though it's very potent I might just turn that item slot over to a ring of protection +2 later on.

For balance, we omitted a number of very powerful items from the game that would have been super useful incl. Jan's enhanced armour (it's very, very effective for a F/M), Githzeral Blade, (Enchanced) Armour of Stamina, Royal Elemental Staff, Noble Staff of Earth, Noble Staff of Air, Golem Slayer (it would be ridiculously effective with a berserker/druid), Sword of the Rashemi (we use Minsc for Kensai) & Might of the Avariel (Aerie is the T/C), Lord of the Underworld, Cloak of Arcane Immortality & Scarlet Ioun Stone, The Truth +5 and a few others.

Twisted Rune (on insane)

We prebuff a little in the entrance, not overly though.(PC with 5,2M exp).

PC (Vagrant or Inquisitor) - Protection from level drain
F/D - Shield of Archons
Kensai - barkskin (optional)
B/M - SI:D (would use trigger if possible for Spell Immunity, but I'm not even sure if this is necessary)
S/C - Holy Power + Foreknowledge (or righteous magic)
Sorcerer - n/a

**

Snapshot of the party when the fight starts:

Vagrant: AC -12, APR 6, Thaco -16 (under champions strength), 179 HP.
Weapons: FoA +3, Frostreaver +3, Short Sword +3
Other equipment: Red Coral Armor, Shield of Harmony +3, Helm of Balduran, Ring of Protection +2, Cloak +2, Boots of the Ranger Lord.

Berserker9/Druid: AC -20, APR 6 (with IH), Thaco -2, 150 HP.
Weapons: Treefolk's Fist +4, Spectral Brand +4,
Other equipment: Huskar Lord's armour, Paws of the furious cat, Circlet of Golden flowers, Harper's Ward, Supreme Shelter, 2xRing of prot. +2, Cloak +2, Bootf of speed

Kensai: AC -6, APR 10 (with IH), Thaco -22 / -15, 201 HP
Weapons: Quarterstaff, Staff of Rhynn +4, Dragon's Breath +4, Long Sword +4, off hand: Water's Edge +4
Other equipment: Indigo Ioun Stone, 2x Ring of prot. +2, Cloak +2, Amulet +1 (Belt giving him +2 Thaco, +2AC, +2damage, non IA item).

Berserker9/Mage: AC -19 (with TT), APR 9 (with IH), Thaco -15 / -6, 333 HP (with TT)
Weapons: Dagger +4, Crom Fayer, offhand: Belm +2
Other equipment: Incarnated elven chain, 2nd sword arm gauntlets, helm of the trusted defender (a non IA item giving any small folk +3 AC), necklace: Aegis of Torment (non IA item giving Jan +2AC, +2CON, +15HP), mage's ring (a non IA item that gives +1 spells per level), ring of protection +2, cloak +2, elves bane

Swashbuckler(5)/Cleric: AC -21 (Foreknowledge), APR 6 (with IH), Thaco -9 / -5 (with Holy Power), 174 HP.
Weapons: Sling of arvoreen, Club +5 (a non IA item, a +5 version of Gnasher) , off-hand: Heaven & Earth (non IA item morning start +4 that gives +2 STR)
Other equipment: Gorgon Plate +4, Crimson ioun stone, amulet of master harper, holy symbol (+2 AC, -2 Casting time, +10 Physical resistance, +20HP), Ring of Gaxx, Cloak of daywalker (my big cheat to make this character useful), Belt of inertial barrier

Sorceror: AC -15, APR (n/a), Thaco (n/a), 97 HP
Weapons: Cleric's staff +3, Sling of Everad +5
Other equipment: Memory of Apprenti, Bracers of icelandic pearl (a non IA item giving +50 cold resistance), circlet of nether, amulet of hades, 2x ring of protection +2, scholastic cloak, Tymora's gift (a non IA belt that gives +3 to Luck & +10% to MR)

'*'

Off we go.

Rd1 (part 1). S/C casts Champions Strength for Vagrant and moves towards the entrance for a bit. Vagrant moves a little bit away from S/C & summons a greater swanmay near S/C (towards the entrance) (or if inquisitor, a Deva). Kensai Hardiness. B/M's CC launches with MS8, Mordekainen's Sword and Limited Wish-> Goes Berserk and moves from the table in the middle of the corridor. Sorcerer's CC launches with PfMW, ST + Foreknowledge and she starts IA. F/D moves away from S/C and summons an anaconda on the entrance then attacks Vaxall. Genie appears and we choose "horde".

S/C is hit with grave silence and that's fine (since she can't cast spells anyway). Immediately after that Revanek gets attacked by Vagrant, Kensai + S/C. Vaxall gets F/D. Shyressa gets B/M (once rabbits are unblocked)+ summons. Shangalar gets greater swanmay & anaconda. (Shangalar doesn't attack either but goes after S/C).

Rd2. Vagrant Hardiness. F/D quaffs a potion of rejuvenation. Sorceror's IA is finished, comet & RRoR on Shangalar (to knock Shangalar to the entrance), IH x 3: kensai, Vagrant & S/C, Breach Shyressa, Summon planetar (away from Shyressa) between sorcerer & Vagrant then Wish (we get hardiness, completely optional and not needed). Walk a bit out of sight of Vaxall. MS8 near Shyressa.

Revanek is now pounded by: Kensai, Vagrant & S/C. Shangalar is battling greater swanmay & anaconda in the entrance (and out of sight). Shyressa is attacking rabbits. B/M finally reaches Shyressa through the rabbits.

Rd3. Revanek is dead. Vagrant quaffs a potion of Barbarian Essence. Planetar goes to heal vagrant, who is hit with about -50HP. Vagrant is hit with Vauxhall's ray's. B/M reaches Shyressa through rabbits & launches a spell trigger (TT + PfMW + IH). B/M now with 340hp, APR 9, Thaco -18/-11, AC -21, Laynne's can now be targeted.

Sorceror 3RRoR + Breach on Layenne. Kensai + S/C move to pound Layenne. F/D stays with Vaxall. Sorceror goes SI:Divination + Improved Invisibility and starts IA(#2). Vagrant attacks Shyressa, Planetar moves behind Vagrant and starts another "heal", even though Vagrant is at 100% health as a precaution.

Rd4 (or so). Layenne can't be killed because of scripting (at the end of the round she has taken about 50pt of damage at near death). Shyressa goes for Vagrant (who is followed by planetar just casting "heal" on him). Sorceror RRoR's Layenne (she got SI:Abjuration up), then 2x acid arrow Laynne (just to disrupt if there's anything), Breach Shyressa, MS8 near Shyressa.

Rd5. Laynne (now with 100pt damage near death) Wishes (magic rest), heals completely and gets pounded into oblivion by Kensai & S/C. S/C goes to sorcerer for PfME and then for Vaxall. Summons go for Vaxall. Kensai quaffs "potion of invulnerability" & goes for Shyressa. F/D quaffs another potion of rejuvenation. Sorceror breaches Shyressa & starts a round of PfME's for members pounding Shyressa so B/M, Vagrant & Kensai. Planetar joins in (if the situation allows it, so if it's not busy healing Vagrant)

(if Shyressa goes for Kensai the planetar can revive via lesser restoration)

Rd6. Or so. Shyressa is dead. Shangalar is still battling greater swanmay / anaconda. Trolls (were on Vaxall) are sent to battle Shangalar. Everyone moves to annihilate Vaxall, F/D comes by Sorceror to get her PfME and then goes for Vaxall. (Once Vaxall is at "injured", Kensai activates "magic resistance" HLA)

Rd7-11. Vaxall gets PfMW up (if it doesn't, it's killed in rd 7-8). We can't dispel. So we aimlessly pound Vaxall, while summoning Trolls & casting PfME's if it's dispelied on someone. F/D goes around casting regeneration on Kensai, Vagrant and herself.

Rd11-12. We can hit Vaxall. Vaxall dies quite fast. Everyone in pretty much full health. No 3xADHW(?), but our crew was pretty well protected with PfME's.

Once Vaxall is dead. The fight is won, there's only Shangalar left. We are very careful, we send summons (which we have left like ... a million) and every now and then B/M goes to whack it while under PfME. (I don't play this part as we can't dispel Shangalar & it's rather boring )

Alternatively we could have loaded B/M & S/C with "disrupt undead" 's and used them.

The Gambling Gambion (looks like vanilla content).

We are between 4,5-5,0Mexp.

We activate CC's for Imoen & B/M with 3xADHW.

We activate spell triggers with 1xGreater Malision & 2xChain lightning and another one with 3xChain lightning.

Fight starts. CC's are activated. We activate Spell Triggers.

Every enemy dies but Gambion. Kensai goes over to whack him. Gambion is dead.

Rd 0. Fight is over.

I don't think that Cambion was ever was improved much by the mod :-)

Didn't really get the vampire thing, though. Did you give Aerie the same race/kit combo that Hexxat has?

-

No probably not . It just makes for a nice comparison.

In my game we took the tweaked Aerie (So Swashbuckler 5th dual classed into Cleric with STR:17, DEX:19, CON:14, INT:10, WIS:17, CHA:12) and went to Dragomir's Tomb and turned her to Vampire after that.

( From role playing perspective, we think she was bitten in the Tomb. Funnily though, then Bodhi turns her to vampire again later in the game. )

Ancient Dragon

(played this through a number of times with approximately the following. I can't finish the fight on insane, as my game crashes every time but this worked on hard)

We prebuff a little before entering dragon's lair (skins of course everyone who has them). PfF's (Protection from Fire) & AoF's mostly (Armour of Faith).

Note. If you don't have an unsilenceable char who can breach, the fight will be completely different.

B/M - PfF
S/C - PfF, Foreknowledge, Shield of Archons (or holy power & righteous magic)
F/D - PfF, AoF, Shield of Archons
Vagrant - PfF, AoF
Sorcerer -
Kensai - Pff & Potion of Defence (or barkskin but we forgot).

And off we go. We divide into three "lanes". South lane is Vagrant & S/C. Midlane is for F/D & Kensai. North lane is for B/M & Sorceror.

We meet Ancient Dragon. It points out how magnificent it is. We don't focus on the message as we have our eyes on the price. If it would have been nice to us, we could have just taken the warrior's skull but ... no.

Rd 0. Sorceror's CC launches (Foreknowledge, Spell Turning + PfMW) & she goes for IA. B/M's CC launches (Foreknowledge, Spell Turning + IH) and he goes for IA. Kensai hardiness & and attacks Dragon. F/D summons a smilodon on the southern corridor (it will be needed in a while) and attacks the dragon. S/C moves further south on the lane, then does her "party trick" & casts "champions strength" on Vagrant. Vagrant summons s "swanmay queen" on the southern lane outside of Dragon's view.

Dragon greater silences S/C which is fine, since she can't cast spells anyway. Vagrant, Kensai & F/D go for Dragon and Kensai & Vagrant are wing buffeted away from dragon. Sorceror 2xRRoR Dragon. Salamander Prince & Nishruu go after S/C.

Rd 1. S/C moves to Swanmay Queen away from Dragon's sight. F/D defensive harmony, then attack the dragon. Vagrant Hardiness and attack dragon. Sorceror RRoR & Breach Dragon, then IH (x3): Kensai, F/D & S/C then RvE. Swanmay Queen goes for Salamander Prince. Smilodon goes for Salamander Prince. B/M starts MS9.

Force of Vitality appears. We get regeneration. (if we don't, try again).Then summon planetar near S/C.

Dragon casts greater silence on B/M. B/M instantly stops the current spell (MS9) and activates spell trigger with PfME, TT + PfMW before being silenced. Then attacks Dragon.

Rd 2-5 (or so). S/C & summons first take out Salamander Prince then focus on Nishruu (Salamander Prince can be taken down by the Swanmay Queen alone). Planetar goes to heal S/C & Swanmay Queen. Everyone else is after dragon. Noble Efreeti is there attacking us as well, but it's presence is pretty irrelevant. Sorceror breaches (total of 8 or so, while at some point refreshing IA). F/D renews skins every now and then. Vagrant / Kensai renews hardiness. We coordinate "critical strike" from Kensai with Breach for maximum effect.

Round 5(?). Dragon is dead. Nishruu remains. everyone goes to pound Nishruu. Nishruu dies soon after.

Spellhold / Kobolds / Crystal Shard encounter [Normal]

I hate this fight so I won't even try on Insane . Crew almost at 2,5Mexp (K/T just regain fighter class)

Switched Crew so I have (even more basher crew than the previous one).

Fighter(9)/Necromancer
Neera
Ranger(9)/Cleric
Inquisitor
Kensai(13)/Thief
Dwarfen Defender (unbuffed AC -10, 3,5 APR, Dishes 20-30pts / damage per hit with Thaco of -7 / -3 & reaches 45% physical resistance with defensive stance. Very, very good at this stage)

PreBuffs:

Skins, Improved Haste, Bless, Chant, Defensive Harmony, Protection from lightning / electricity, 3x Skeleton Warriors + Mordekainen's Sword. F/N has trigger with 3xRay Of Fragmentation. Fighters have potion's of insulation in quick item slots.

Fighter/Necromancer + Kensai/Thief take south part, so shaman + Spirit + Golem. Dwarfed Defender (DD) takes centre so Shaman + Spirit + Golem. Ranger/Cleric Takes northern part, so Spirit + Golem. Summons stay in the northern room.

Inquisitor + Neera between DD & R/C in the middle, out of range of dispel + horn of blasting.

Rd 0. Kobold shaman Appears. DD + F/N attack shaman's.

Rd 0. Spirit's spawn. Shaman's are dead. R/C attacks spirit, Inquisitor Dispels Witch Doctor then whacks Spirit with R/C, Neera uses horn of blasting on Witch Doctor and waits for aura to be cleansed. DD goes for Spirit, F/N & K/T go for their spirit (K/T is of course behind the F/N so F/N takes attacks). Lightning's hit us, luckily we are protected. DD Quaffs potion of rejuvenation.

Rd 0. Witch Doctor's defences are down, so Inquisitor goes for the Doc. Inquisitor is followed by a spirit. R/C goes for Doc. Summons move in to attack a spawning Amber (the northern one). Amber's spawn

Rd 1. (or so) Inquisitor & R/C are on doc. One spirit is attacking inquisitor. Northern Amber is surrounded by summons. DD finishes his spirit and activates defensive stance & attacks amber Golem. F/N & K/T finish Spirit and K/T goes for Doc. F/N starts to activate trigger to hit DD's amber. Neera summons a Sword, who goes for northern amber (which is where summons go).

Rd2. (or so). Doc is dead. Inquisitor + R/C + K/T go for Spirit (attacking Inquisitor) who dies fast. DD is already in trouble, so he quaffs potion of superior healing. R/C goes to cast regeneration on DD. Inquisitor & K/T quaffs potions of rejuvenation and go for DD's amber. F/N (tries to) casts RoF on DD's amber. Neera summons berserker warrior.

Rd3. Inquisitor, K/T + DD attack the middle amber. R/C casts regeneration on Inquisitor. (DD almost dies so he has to move a bit, which is hard since he has active defensive stance). R/C moves in to hug the amber so DD can get a breather and quaff another potion of rejuvenation. F/N renews skins. Neera summons.

Rd4. DD attacks Amber (with 2-3 potions of rejuvenation & regeneration he gains health fast). The middle Amber dies. Neera summons a Djinn near the Amber surround by summons (we don't attack that much with summons, they are just a distraction). We quaff potions of absorption / rejuvenation. DD attacks southern amber (it takes a while to get there with defensive stance).

Rd5 (or so). Inquisitor + DD + F/N + K/T attack southern Amber. R/C moves closer and starts mass cure. Amber goes for Inquisitor who almost dies (who uses cat figurine to regain health). Neera summons a sword, which attacks the northern Amber.

Rd6. (or so). R/C mass cures. We are in ok health, southern Amber is down to "near death", while northern Amber is surrounded by 3 summons.

Rd7. Southern Amber dies. Wo hoo!. R/C tart wondrous recall. We take a breather & quaff potions. since northern Amber is busy with summons. Neera summons.

Rd 8. Inquisitor + DD + F/N + K/T attack the last remaining Amber. R/C moves closer and starts mass cure. Last remaining Amber dies.

...

Demogorgon (after Yaga-Shura, PC at 9 M Exp.) on "Core Rules")

We prebuff to the max in the corridor + summon a deva, an elemental prince, Joolon & a noble troll. Bless & chant for everyone. My illegal PC (fighter/necromancer) plays just like a regular necromancer on the fight for most of the time. Her fighting prowesses are almost useless (because we can't TT at any point).

Inquisitor is pretty useless in this fight. The dispel doesn't work on the most important enemy in Rozvankee, so essentially the mighty dispeller plays just like an underdeveloped regular fighter but oh boy is the Dwarven Defender great in this fight!

F(9)/Necromancer - SI:Abjuration, Mental agility, GOI, Stoneskin (+ CC Foreknowledge, ST + PfMW)
Dwarven Defender - Defensive Harmony, potion of Barbarian Essence
Inquisitor - Defensive Harmony, potion of Barbarian Essence
K(13)/T - Defensive Harmony, Protection from level drain, Tenser's Transformation (from Royal Elemental Staff), Gian Strength, Potion of Barbarian Essence
F(9)/D - Defensive Harmony, Acid Shield, PfME, Giant Strength
Sorceror: SI:Abjuration, Mental agility, Stoneskin, PfMW (+ CC Foreknowledge, ST + GOI), potion of dexterity

**

Snapshot of the party when the fight starts (before foreknowledge & improved haste & hardinesses)

F/N: AC -13, APR 3,5, Thaco -5 / -3, 200 HP,
Weapons: Githzeral Blade, Crom Fayer (off-hand)
Other equipment: Memory of the Apparent, Cloak of arcane immortality, Lord of the underworld, Rings +2, Circlet of Netheril, Legacy of the masters

DD: AC -21, APR 3,5, Thaco -17 / -14, 266 HP, +45% phys resistance (with BE, without hardiness)
Weapons: Axe of the Unyyielding +5, Runehammer +4 (off-hand)
Other equipment: Great Wymr armour, Dread Bond (+1 strength / gauntlets), Helm of Balduran, Clas of Bron's cloak, Ring of Gaxx, +2 Ring, +2 Cloak, Gordle of Lordly might
+ in the storage we have Water's Edge (if we need more APR's + shield of Harmony (if we need immunity to hold)

Inquisitor: AC -18, APR 5, Thaco -16 / -11, 232 HP, +40% phys resistance (with BE, without hardiness)
Weapons: Judgement Day, Belm (off-hand)
Other equipment: Enchanced pride of legion, gauntlets of blessed might, imp. dragon helm, talisman of greater protection, rings +2, cloak +2, belt of cloud giant strength

K(13)/Thief: AC -24, APR 10, Thaco -22, 445 HP, +70% phys resistance (with BE, without hardiness)
Weapons: Holy Avenger +5, Staff of Ram +6 (mostly)
Other equipment: Jansen Advneture Wear improved, Paws of the furious cat, Necro Ioun Stone, Grandmaster of flowers, Ring +2, anti-venom ring, Cloak of the daywalker, imp. boots of the ranger lord, sash of the black raven

Berserker9/Druid: AC -24 (effective AC -28 without any buffs), APR 3, Thaco -9, 196 HP.
Weapons: Pitcwife +5, Spectral Brand +4
Other equipment: Huskar Lord's armour, gauntlets of ext. specialisation., Circlet of woods, aegis of torment, Supreme Shelter, 2xRing of prot. +2, Cloak +2, girdle of bluntness

Neera AC -11 , APR 1, Thaco 5, 109 HP
Weapons: Royal elemental staff +5, Cleric's Staff
Other equipment: Greater robe of invocation, Bracers AC3, Indigo Ioun stone, Black Wolf Talisman, Ring +4, Ring of Acuity, Cloak +2, Belt of Inertial Barrier


'*'

Off we go.

Rd1. F/N's & Sorceror's Chain Contigencies trigger. They both start IA's. DD (near Rozvankee) goes for demogorgon. Inquisitor goes to Nulonga. K/T moves between archpriest & st. Kargoth. F/D immediately gets pounded with MM's & gets a remove magic from Belchersk so she moves a bit away from inquisitor. F/D takes the remove magic alone and then starts moving to Nulonga. K/T moves to Nulonga. Summons for for Kazuyl.

F/N's IA is finished. Ahh.

F/N 3xRRoR + Breach Nulonga, IH on Inquisitor & F/D, active Critical strike from Inquisitor & kai from K/T and once Breach hits we attack Nulonga (the F/D just a little bit away doesn't even make to Nulonga at this stage yet)

F/N then casts 3xRRoR + Breach Belcheresk, 3xRRoR + Breach Kargoth. Then Breach Nulonga (since she get PfMW up), 4xLR on Belcheresk & Greater malision so it hits Nulonga, Belcheresk + Kargoth with Breach on Nulonga.

DD Activates Hardiness.

Neera's IA is finished. & she immediately comet's Vargouilles, to throw them north of the area & activates ST with 3x LR on Kargoth.

F/N & Neera coordinate 33 Acid Arrows (all level 2 spell slots from both + 2xMS + 1xSS) + 23 Chromatic Orbs on Belcehersk. F/N casts 3 Breaches in somewhere in between on Nulonga to drop the PfMW's it is casting every now and then and a greater malision to Vargouilles.

Belcheresk "near death" so F/N tries PW:S (not sure if it works) and inquisitor whacks it to get the killing blow and then moves back to whack Nulonga.

Nulonga falls soon after to K/T.

F/N & Neera cordinate 18 Flame Arrows to Kargoth with the occasional Breach from F/N. K/T attack Kargoth.

Rd2 (or so).

Inquisitor activates hardiness. F/D activates Berserking & attacks Kargoth. F/N Breach Kargoth.

Neera follows with 2x secret word on Demogorgon & 2 x LR on Vargouille, F/N launchs ST:3LR on vargouille and a SS:3xPolymorph Other turning a vargouille into a chicken then 2 x flame arrow on Vargouille to finish it. F/N follows by casting the rest of RRoR's on demogorgon & 5xPO on the 2nd vargouille.

All of our summons are dead. F/N has now used all of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and almost all of the 4th and 7th level spells. Neera has used all of 1st, 2nd, 3rd level spells and some 4th & 5th level spells).

We change our memorised spells and take resist fear's, ray of enfeeblement's, protection from fire's, remove magic's and a few more LR's and on level 7 we take swords, st's, protection from elements and a few PW:S's and leave 4 (or so) RRoR's)

Kargoth Dies and we didn't get drained too badly. DD + Inquisitor + K/T & F/D all attack Kazuyl with very careful positioning. (DD taking the aggro of Demogorgon, Rozvanee & Kazuyl. With 85% phys. resistance + regeneration + gaxx + axe of unyielding DD is safe & we can always use shield of harmony to drop our ac to -24 and gain immunity to hold effects).

F/N casts RvE. We get regeneration. We take it. F/N starts MS8 near vargouilles, then anther MS:8 and then moves to cast PfE on Inquisitor & K/T.

Neera casts Wish. We lose 10.000GP. Another Wish, we get MR for everyone in the area, Another Wish: REST (Yay!),

Neera: IA
F/N: IA

Rd3

Kazuyl is pounded by our fighters. DD is tanking everything.

FN's IA is finished. Immediate Breach on Kazuyl, 4xLR & Greater Malision on Kazyul then 3xLR on remaining Vargouille. Then 4xPO on Kazyul (it doesn't work)l, 4xRay of Enfeeblement on Kazyul(it doesn't work either), then 3xPO on remaining vargouille and turn it into a chicken and finish with Flame Arrows.

Neera's IA is finished. She mostly summons trolls & swords from this point onwards with remove magic's when abyssal escorts appear.

Kazyul falls before the first bombers hit us.

Status: We are almost in full health, K/T has ability scores drained. DD is tanking Demogorgon. K/T is tanking Rozvanee. K/T's -24AC with 70% pays resistance isn't enough so she is taking some damage, so we have to heal her once in a while.

DD lures demogorgon to the end of the stairs @ west corridor and drinks a few potions of regeneration, K/T lures rozvanee to south part of the prison and quaffs a few potions of regeneration (or we could just drink a BE, but we are saving those still).

Rd4-90

DD tanks demogorgon. K/T tanks Rozzvankee.

Bombers appear every 5 rounds(?) or so. They do fire damage so keep up fire resistances. Vargouilles appear every 5 rounds (or so). Kill those as fast as possible or in a pinch, we drop a comet on Vargouylles to buy 1 round for fighters. Abyssal Escorts & Noble mariliths appear, every now and then (5 rounds?) but with F/D natural immunity, DD's Gaxx, Inquisitor's talisman of greater protection and K/T's anti venom ring we are safe equipment wise and don't even need to use scrolls / potions. Naturally whack them as soon as possible.

To survive we use potions of fire resistance, PfF's, Resist fire & cold's & resist elements + protection from energy - spells. Keep regeneration on from F/D or RvE. Neera summons, F/N dispel's & breaches the endless waves ofvargouilles and mariliths while occasionally making chickens. DD is swimming in Barbarian Essence, altogether I think we use 6-7 potions on this fight.

At some point the DD tanking Demogorgon is surrounded by Demogorgon + 15 Mariliths or so. Thanks to regen + 95% - 100% resistance to physical damage, he survives though.

Once we can hit Rozvankee, we RRoR & secret word then breach (I'm not sure if this works). Lure Rozvankee near the mirrors while blocking demogorgon in the stairs (Neera with PfMW. SI:Abjuration + GOI) so DD can participate in whacking Rozvankee. WE protect from fire when pounding Rozvankee, otherwise it's fireballs would be lethal.

Rozvankee dies.

Demogorgon falls soon after.

A few notes and considerations on this fight.

On killing Vargouilles:

If you have a way of getting beyond a regular fighter ThacO (of -17 or so) this fight will be much easier, as Vargouilles are very hard to hit and they regenerate so fast you'll need concentrated effort from 2-3 proficient fighters to kill even 1 (and you have to kill 30 or so). I haven't figured out any other ways of getting uber ThacO than

1) having a Kensai (this is probably the best option),
2) Kensai/Thief who can use Royal Elemental Staff
3) Supercharging one of your fighters with Champions Strength (Cleric level 5 I think) and then Giant Strength (mage level 6) to get to 25 STR. If you have a cleric.

You can turn Vargouilles into chicken's with 3xLR, GM (+Doom) & 3xPolymorph other (that works 50% of the time). I tried confusions, contagions, emotions, chaos's, ray of enfeeblements but they don't really seem to stick. Electric damage works a little bit as well as magic damage, from MM's, ADhW's and Vampiric Touches but the damage heals so fast it probably isn't worth it.

Hold monster might work tough. The problem with it is that it's a 5th level spell and you'll need oodles of Breache's in the beginning and then LR's.

On mages:

Two competent arcane spellcasters are, well, very near a "must have" to deal with Nulango, Belcheresk & Kargoth. Minimize spellcasting times as having -5 & -3 instead of -4 and -2 makes an enormous difference in this fight.

You'll need probably at least 2 magical rest's though, even with two full arcane spellcasters, e.g. a necromancer & a sorcerer on board.

On equipment & wares used

- I ended up using 6-7 potions of Barbarian Essence. (The Inquisitor drank one as well, even though with Thac0 of -17 & JD I'm not sure if that was needed as he was mostly protected by JD almost 100% of the time. )
- a few scroll of protection from level drain (for demogorgon)
- a few scroll of protection from poison (for you arcane spellcasters for poison damage on them is terrible)
- 20 (or something like that) scrolls of Lower Resistances (or LR for short)
- a few scrolls of greater malision
- all of the polymorph other - scrolls you can find (I think I used 4 or so)
- a few potions of cloud giant strength (for F/D & K/T in the later stages)
- 10 potions of fire resistance
- 1 scroll of wish

Some equipment that's very, very useful:

- Runehammer on DD, so he's protected from level drain all the time (he was tanking Demogorgon)
- Boots of the North (very well spent 5 mithril tokens), for the 50% cold resistance for whoever is tanking Rozvankee.
- Rimed Club, for +50€ cold resistance (used in off-hand for a while)
- Ring of Gaxx, Talisman of greater protection & anti-venom ring; very, very useful as everything does poison damage
- Shield of Harmony, for tanking Demogorgon for the immunity to hold effects
- Cat Figurine, for ^ & instant heal if required to
- Methilda's Harp (you get it in the Illithid Compound @ Underdark, for it dispels "hold-like effects" so in a pinch you can use that to dispel "hold" in a pinch)
- Defender of Easthave for extra +10 phys. resistance


The Rewards

The blessing's of helm were a really nice. Especially Neera's.

Our dual classes blessing were a "meh", since getting exp for K/T is useless at this point. The warrior's blessing were really nice.

I would balance those out a bit, maybe something like:

1) +5% resistance to physical damage
2) 10% resistance to electricity, fire, acid & magic damage
3) +2 to Thac0, +2 to Hit
4) +15 HP's

or something like that. Even tough those would be powerful, they nowhere near getting another +0,5 APR (imho).


Overall

This fight is super nice. It forces the player use a variety of available powers & mechanisms on a huge scale. You'll need almost everything in your arsenal to win this from protection, to items, to coordinated attacks from mages & fighters.

Thanks

(Now I'll switch party composition to optimal and do this again !

I did some tinkering on the crew, switching the Inquisitor with a Kensai and voila, it's a lot easier. Also we optimize spellcasting by picking every spell with max 5 casting time for Necro in the start -> she basically unleashes her whole spell book (it's rather ridiculous), then we switch spells & take "rest" from wish.

Dumping the inquisitor means that we can use "paladon's bracers" on K(13)/T thus dropping her Thazo to -25 (with max buffs, but no champion's strength though) while Kensai is at -28. Also we take "the hammer of Thor" for Vargouilles swung by K(13)/T since they are vulnerable to electric damage.

We do the fight with using just 1 Barbarian Essence, few potions of extra healing and maybe 5-10 potions of protection from fire. No scrolls (well, besides the 2 scrolls of protection from poison) nor methilda's harp needed but we do get 1-2 very well timed RvE regen's & a magical rest.

This crew would probably work on insane as well.

So which crew in this are you running, seems you have chopped and changed it a bit as you've gone on, thanks.

I like to tinker & try different battles with different compositions.

The fights described were from two different runs, one with a Necro PC and one with a Vagrant PC.