Beholden to Fight Beholders

[Leon]

Looking for Suggestions on Spells For a level 10 Cleric to use fighting a Unknown number of Beholders.

i Have Read the Lords of Madness entry for them and have some prior experience fighting one but not many.

Party is Currently 2 Fighters, 1 Monk, 1 Combat Alchemist, 1 Necromancer with a horde of Horse Archer NPCs.

My normal spell choices can help somewhat as i focus on Support but was wondering what could also be done outside of the small selection i rely on (Mass Shield of Faith & a PrC will give everyone a +6 to touch AC)



*Please quote book that things are in so i can know if i have it or not

[MesiDoomstalker]

Divine Agility (SpC) gives huge boost to Dex for 10 rounds so that boosts Touch AC up by 5 or max dex for the targets armor.

Resistence (SpC) gives a +3 to saves so various rays are easier to resist.

Downdraft (SpC) will knock most if not all of them in the area into melee range.

Inversly, Updraft (SpC) will give you height to attack but they are better at flying.

Cloak of Bravery and Mass Aid (SpC) will give your allies bonuses agianst the fear eyestalk and minor attack bonus and some temp HP.

Resurgence (SpC) grants your allies a new save so an unlucky save can be rerolled.

Girallon's Blessings + Fuse Arms (SpC) can give your melee ally a strong boost to Strength.

I only looked at SpC (could you tell?) but thats what I could find.

[Tvtyrant]

Beholders have two abilities worth noting; massive anti-magic cone and death rays. If you can convince the Beholder to use the cone you can beat it to death, if not you have to deal with rays (Beholders are a blasters dream in some regards). Summoning a Medium Air Elemental and having it raise a dust cloud around the pcs while the NPC archers shower the Beholders with arrows would be of some effect, or Insect Plague to nauseate the Beholders and keep them from firing at you.

[Zaq]

There aren't any shenanigans you can pull to get Ray Deflection (SpC), are there? It's on the Bard list and the Sor/Wiz list, but maybe you could pop a Guidance of the Avatar to UMD a scroll of it?

[Hazzardevil]

How are you having zombies horses using bows?

[Eldariel]

Beholders have pretty scary offense but they are quite vulnerable defensively. They lack immunities and only have modest saves; if you can get to one, Slay Living could be very efficient. They are also very slow flyers so it might not actually be that difficult with e.g. Air Walk and some speed boost. Though a Rod of Reach Spell could really help too.

The big thing indeed is the Anti-Magic Cone; an airborne Beholder can pin someone under the Cone and be safe from attacks of that particular target. The only real solution to the Cone itself is to break the line of effect with a Wall or something (and obviously splitting up), while something like Sign [Spell Compendium] to help win initiative could be very convenient.

[Leon]

Thanks for the suggestions i'll look into these and i have also seen a few that will be helpful to the massed archers.

[Runestar]

Spells like displacement and mirror images should help. Too bad none of them are available as potions. :smallfrown:

[Leon]

Mass Shield of Faith and mass Conviction were the two winners of the Beholder battle - Downdraft got a look in briefly but after that the lil ones spread out and the big ones played hard to get in a hole in the ground.

Had thought i'd wasted several slots on Cerulean Sigh for nothing and then we met the 15 assorted Mindflayers who kindly clumped up and were easily dealt with (by Cleric, Monk and Fighter - the only 3 of a party of 8 to make all the saves vs mind blast)