Tougher Sendai

[Anacron]

Is there some 'trick' to this fight that I can't find?

 

1. I can't dispel her protections because I can't dispel her invisibility.

 

2. About 20 drow warriors & wizards appear in the middle of the fight, completely overwhelming my planetar, hakeashars, magical swords, simulacrums and cannon fodder army. At the same time Sendai (or maybe her images? apprentices?) chain-casts Time Stop.

 

I'm now playing it on Easy, because on Normal the Elite Drow Guards that appear make mincemeat of my buffed fighters. Any tips would be very much appreciated.

 

+edit+ I should mention that all my characters have around 4.9 million XP at this point - this is the first of the "Tougher" battles that I have faced.

[Stalwart_Kurtz]

You need to remove Sendai's "Protection from Divination" spell immunity. I've learned this through experience with SCSII. High level mages love this crap. Cast Ruby Ray of Reversal or preferably Warding Whip if you have it (to remove other immunities, spell turning, etc). True sight/dispel magic should work, now. If spell turning still stops you, cast dispel magic NEAR Sendai but not ON her.

 

Then cast breach. Then have your warriors whack that pointy-hated gimp.

[Guest Silencer150]

Sendai was wreaking havoc on me and my party by having her Drow Elite Wizards cast Pierce Shield and Lower Reisistance on a single character, after which she casts Time Stop, Dimension Doors to the afflicted character, casts Harm, and then kills him/her in a single hit. So use the same strategy on her! Cram 3 Lower Resists into an 8th level sequencer to use on her the moment she appears for the final round. Have your other mage, if you've got one, memorize Warding Whip, also for use on the real Sendai when she reappears. Now equip Wands of Spell Striking on everyone who can use them.

 

Before the battle, you can actually fake talk to her and pickpocket a lot of nice loot off her, including her Armor of Thorns, her 2 Heal potions, and her wands of Cursing and Spell Striking (and when you kill her, you get another set). WAIT for her to initiate dialogue with you (otherwise you'll fight the statues twice) and then proceed to beat up the statues as normal. When the last statue comes to life, the thief in the southern alcove, have your party stop all their actions and turn the AI off. Turn everyone invisible, then have a single character lure Thief Sendai over to the eastern alcove. Turn your lure character invisible and move everyone to the left so that Thief Sendai is offscreen. Now you can save, rebuff, set traps, or even Pocket Plane and rest and prepare if you want.

 

When you're ready, string Exploding Traps (not Spike Traps) along the left side of the room, and set the game to auto-pause on enemy sighted. Cast True Sight and send a single warrior over to finish off Thief Sendai. The real Sendai will then appear with her invisible stalker escorts (hence the Exploding Traps). The moment the game auto-pauses, nail her with the 3x Lower Resist sequencer and cast Warding Whip on her. The traps should have weakened her, but if not, don't fret. Move your warriors to the north alcove, which is where she'll teleport first. As soon as she reappears, nail her with area-effect spells while your warriors Whirlwind and kill the Fallen Devas.

 

In my case, I had my (rebalanced) Shapeshifter Druid cast Nature's Beauty, which blinded Sendai, effectively removing any threat she posed. I used the wands to Breach her, since they can hit Improved Invisible targets, and my warriors and Shapeshifter messed her up so quickly that the swarm of Drow Elite Guards never had a chance to show up!

[Athos]

Well, here I come looking for some advice and there it is!

 

I'm just fighting her for the first time. Two tries so far, and I was completely obliterated when the elite wizards and priests swarmed in the room. It's really annoying since tougher Demogorgon and tougher Balthazar (I killed him before, Wheels of Prophecy mod) died relatively easy. I'm going for her without rest though, and I fought with Balthazar this same day, so it makes some sense... No more timestop for me.

 

What I didn't know is that you could Breach improved invisible creatures with wands. If this actually works, then thanks, this should be enough for this third try If not, I'll have to rest for the fourth try (even though this goes against my hardcore roleplayer nature )

 

Anyway, for me this is by far the hardest battle in the game until now. Gods, how I hate drow.

 

EDIT: Victory on the fourth try! And without rest. Third try failed 'cuz Jaheira died permantly with a comet in her head, but other than that everything run smoothely. Gods, how I love wands!

 

For the record, it's not a tough fight at all if you can dispel Sendai's protections with the wands. I just ignored the PI's, had a Solar and four Mordy's swords tanking the drows, with Korgan backing them up with a mean throwing axe (the one you buy from the smuglers in Amekthran) and when Sendai was visible I mobber her with my full melee power. This time the wizards and priests didn't have time to arrive.