Was the Tanar'ri Always This Tough?

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I started a game about a week ago. It's probably my first play through of BG1 in years. Everything was going fantastically well. Despite not remembering my tactics for specific battles, I only died once the entire game. The only time I died was actually out of stupidity, not poor battle tactics - in Durlag's Tower, I forgot the carpet laced with unremovable lightning bolt and fireball traps. I instructed the entire party to walk across it, with predictably disasterous results. I won the chess battle on my first try (I usually have trouble with that) and I even defeated the Demonknight on my first try, and while the party was beat up, everyone survived the battle.

So my inability to beat the Tanar'ri on my return to Ulgoth's Beard has left me flummoxed. I'm getting silenced to start the battle, which is annoying, although not devastating. I keep running out of dispel magic spells that will prevent my party from turning in to ghouls. Even without that though, the Tanar'ri is still mopping the floor with my party. So I'm taking suggestions.

I guess you'll need to know my party to provide some advice here. I think I have a fairly balanced party, although I have no mages. (Not to go on too big of a tangent, but I never take mages with me in BG1. Their most useful spells can be supplied with wands, so a bard gives you access to most of the spells you need, and provides a much more versatile overall character.) My party, in addition to my PC bard, consists of Jaheira, Khalid, Ajantis, Kivan, and Imoen (who has remained a theif). Each member in the party has somewhere around 130,000 XP, so they have all either reached their maximum level or will only receive one more level up.

I think the Tanar'ri can only be hit by +2 weapons or better, but that shouldn't be a problem for anyone in the party. Khalid uses the +2 longsword. Ajantis uses the +2 Battle Hammer. Jaheira can use +2 bullets or use the Dagger of Venom. Imoen can use +2 arrows or bolts. My PC and Kivan actually have two options. While they are both primarily missile users, it may be smart to move them into melee combat for this battle. I gave Kivan two proficiency points in large swords, and his melee weapon is the +3 two-handed sword from Durlag's Tower. Likewise, my PC usually has the Bow of Marksmanship, although with a proficiency point in blunt weapons I have both the Staff of Striking and the Martial Staff to use. I know that normally a bard isn't great in melee, with only one attack and a less than great THAC0. However, my bard is more battle worthy than most. I've used all the tomes in the game, so I have a 19 in strength, which can be raised to 22 with Draw Upon Holy Might. I have no idea offhand what the damage and THAC0 bonus is for a 22 in strength, but it has to be pretty good.

So with that trove of information, I'm taking suggestions. (I'd like to point out that I've done this battle before, numerous times in fact, making my inability to do it now that much more frustrating.)

 

It's, by an order of magnitude, the hardest battle in the game. Four words that will save you: Potions of Mirrored Eyes. Most of his nastiest attacks are gaze-based.

 

Use chromatic orb.

 

Hmm.. I played through this battle last month, and it took me around 3 tries or so to find a tactic that worked. Keep in mind that I used BgTutu, and my PC was a Berserker, but I don't think I relied so much on his berserker rage ability.

Basically what I did was: before going downstairs to interrupt the ritual that summons Aec'Letec, I buffed up my party - bless, haste, quaff potions of strength, invulnerability (there seem to be tons of this potion in BGTutu and they work a treat), etc. Equip one guy as your tank with a melee weapon, equip the rest with magical ranged weapons.

Go downstairs, when the female mage finishes talking and summons Aec'Letec, immediately move the ranged weapon party members to the back of the room. Space them out so the tanar'ri's gaze attack won't affect more than one of them at a time. Beat down the mage, let your tank engage Aec'Letec - make sure the demon targets the tank at all times. Now start killing the cult members, so Aec'Letec won't respawn.

If you do it right, there should be enough distance from the rest of your party members and the demon while they're shooting the cult members, so he won't gaze attack them and you don't have to worry about them turning into ghouls. Then when all the cult members are dead, you can happily chop the demon into itty bitty demon chunks.

Hope that helps!

 

Whenever I have a character get the 'ghoul' symbol on his character I have him continue as long as I can before killing them (except pc of course ), so as to not lose them. That way if I do finish it I don't lose a character forever... that's the easy part.

Defeating him, which is actually what you asked for, is a lot more difficult, and I don't remember how I last did it. If I remember I'll add more.

 

You don't have to kill the infected character - a dispel magic works just fine. Also, although I was unaware of this, since it's gaze attack, the potion of mirrorred eyes will reflect it.

I did finally take him down last night. I used several charges of a wand of monster summoning to keep him occupied while I killed the rest of the priests in the room, before taking him out. It seems like it's quite random who he attacks, so by keeping a good sized group of summoned creatures around him usually results in him taking out the summons instead of targeting your characters. I was surprised that kmonster's suggestion of using chromatic orb worked so well. Evidently, the tanar'ri doesn't have particularly great saving throws, as he failed the save on two of the three orbs I cast on him.

I actually finished everything last night - the whole game that is. I'm considering taking the character through BG2 as well. It's a female bard, with a 19 in strength and dexterity and 16 in everything else. I'll definitely take a kit, and given the high strength score, it would be senseless to pick anything besides a blade.

 

It's been a while obviously...

 

A potion/ring/spell of invisibility and a Cloudkill helps too. Cloudkill eradicates the Demon instantly. Sneaking around and killing the cultists first is a priority and making sure the Demon doesn´t spot you while you´re doing it, though. It´s maybe a bit cheesy and a somewhat dishonorable tactic, but hey, it works.

 

Chocking fireballs at things solves pretty much any problem, too.

I always dreaded this encounter whenever I did Durlag's Tower -- so on my latest SCS runthrough, I vastly overestimated the beast and went completely overboard with the combat preparations.

Having a Potion of Explosions/Fiery Burning Oil/Wand of Fire on every character helps as well -- the moment combat starts, chock all six fireballs unto the mass of Cultists. Voilà, no more guardians (or very wounded ones) to get in your way! Now all that's left is the demon himself.

First off, a full array of pre-buffing helps lots (Haste, Potions of Invulnerability, Bless, Draw Upon Holy Might, Resist Fear, Protection from Evil 10' Radius, Potions of Fire/Cloud Giant Strength, Improved Invisibility, and whatever else you can muster). Casting Vocalize on your casters should help you bypass his Silence spell. Don't be afraid to throw whatever you've got at him -- he won't last long in the light of your wrath.

When you're completely done buffing, have every party member drink a Potion of Freedom. As counterintuitive as it may sound, the Freedom effect, if applied AFTER buffs such as Haste, won't cancel it out -- which makes you essentially immune to his Hold effect AND let you remain supremely quick.

Alternatively, you can replace the Potions of Freedom with Potions of Magic Shielding (but I find the latter to be far more valuable) for a similar effect.

Good hunting!

 

OK, I already did the battle, but what? I how can you remain invisible while casting a cloudkill, and how can you kill the cultist without the demon spotting you? Every time I have played, the battle has commenced as soon as I went downstairs.

 

If I am thinking of the right battle .. and its been a long time since I played ...

The uber-cheese way:
Sneak one character downstairs while invisible, go to a far corner so that you are just within sight of a cultist but out of sight of everyone else. Kill him with a ranged weapon. Repeat with all other cultists you can kill while staying out of sight.
Then I forget what I did to kill the demon.

 

okay, weird bug.

i went down all buffed up and killed the tanar'ri while there was one cultist left so i killed it again and got 0xp and no items dropped. so i reloaded, killed all the cultists THEN killed the tanar'ri and still the same lack of xp or items dropped. Now, I'm all maxed out anyway so I could care less about the xp and since the mage says "the dagger is broken, i set you free" before you kill her, i assumed that's why there's no dagger drop. but when i go back to the dwarf in the inn, he keeps telling me to hurry before the cultists use the dagger, wtf?

has this happened to anyone else? I have the boxed set version with CDs 1-5 in 1 CD + the totsc cd.

 

I had a similar problem a few days ago. I found out that I didn't have the latest patch (5512) installed since that one wasn't listed on this site.

Edit:
Yup, I need to look better.