Illithid City - Chapter 5 - Sword Coast Stratagems for Baldur's Gate 2 Walkthrough (2024)

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ILLITHID CITY

Illithid Arena

The entrance to the Illithid City is towards the southeast corner of the Underdark, on the east edge. Once I enter, I end up getting overwhelmed by Psionics and taken as unconscious prisoners.

When I come to, an Ogre comes by and informs me that I am to participate in arena combat for the entertainment of the Illithids. I can't save my game at this point, but I take the opportunity to do some buffing. My reason for this is that SCS Mind Flayers necessitate different tactics. Note that Anomen dedicated all of his fifth-level spell slots beforehand to Chaotic Commands, but he has only four of them available. He casts them on Avastrian, Jaheira, himself, and Minsc. The reason for this selection is that Illithids can drain 5 points of Intelligence if they connect with a critical hit. I obviously wanted Avastrian, my main character, protected against stunning. Note that Jaheira, Anomen, and Minsc, each have 10 or less Intelligence. This makes them more vulnerable as they can get killed in two shots. I thus want to avoid them getting stunned whenever possible. Keldorn, having a good armor class and higher saving throws, and Imoen, able to protect herself with Mirror Image, can hopefully get by in the meantime. Anomen also throws a Protection from Evil 10' Radius on top.

The Ogre comes by again, and my next fight is against a trio of Umber Hulks. The Chaotic Commands prove useful as well, as my party members are able to avoid getting confused.

I am then brought back to my cell. I then converse with my neighbouring prisoners, who happened to be the same Githyanki who attacked Saemon's ship. I reach a tentative alliance with their leader, Simyaz, in order to pursue escape from the city.

The Ogre comes by again. This time, the Githyanki use their own mental powers to keep the psionics of the Mind Flayers at bay. The party meanwhile kills off the kuo-toans in the arena. Once that's done, Imoen unlocks a door leading east.

I continue east and the Ogre attacks me. Jaheira pulls his teeth by casting a Doom spell on him. The party manages to overwhelm him. A nearby table has the Hilt of the Equalizer.

Illithid Slaves

My old tactic in vanilla BG2 was to have Avastrian, protected by Chaotic Commands, occupy the Mind Flayers while the rest of the party fired away at a distance. This doesn't work in SCS. Mind Flayers will often teleport right in the party's midst, with the objective of stunning as many party members as possible. Mind Flayers also now have many of the powers described in the 2nd ed. Psionic's Handbook. These include Disintegrate, and a Kinetic Blast that can damage multiple party members.

I use a different approach. Part of this different approach is to have multiple party members, the more vulnerable ones, protected by Chaotic Commands. I now have Anomen summon five Skeleton Warriors as well. The Skeleton Warriors will be immune to psionics as well as the Intelligence drain. These two set ups together makes overwhelming the Mind Flayers up close much easier.

First, I head over to a room to the east and kill a single Mind Flayer. I then click on the red pools in order to collect some Illithid Serums.

Now I come back to the room where I first killed the Ogre. I then head south, and kill a few more Mind Flayers.

I then go south, and then east. I then find several humans in a comatose state. I click on a machine in the center of the north wall to awaken the humans out of their comatose state, for which I get an xp bonus. I then click on the machine to the right to get a few Mind Flayer Control Circlets. These will come in handy later on.

Illithid Door

The party backtracks to where they found the Hilt of the Equalizer. Avastrian places a Mind Flayer Control Circlet in one of his quick-item slots, and then heads east to the room with the vats of crimson liquid. He uses the Circlet on a Mind Flayer in the room to get it under this control.

The entire party, and the enthralled Mind Flayer, now head to a room at the north edge of the city. There's a door that either requires great physical strength or great mental powers to open. I can get the enthralled Mind Flayer to open it for me, but it goes hostile afterwards and I kill it. Simyaz and the other Githyanki soon arrive and inform me that they'll leave, but I'm on my own.

A container on the north wall has Methild's Harp (can be used by a Bard to remove Hold Person effects).

Brine Potions

Now I continue west. There will be a few Mind Flayers, a more powerful Mind Flayer called an Ulitharid, and a few Umber Hulks. My party and the Skeleton Warriors rush in and overwhelm them. Note that True Seeing can make them easier to hit, as it will undo their invisibility effects.

I continue north and kill a bunch more of Mind Flayers. This room will have a few vats that you can use to create Brine Potions, which will protect characters against psionics.

Staff of Command

There will be another room westward, which will have the largest group of Mind Flayers and Umber Hulks yet. I start to refine my approach here. One refinement is I don't want to conduct this fight inside the narrow hallway since it risks a single character getting attacked by Mind Flayers. I instead have Avastrian go ahead to get their attention and then regroup with the party. The Mind Flayers teleport in their midst. This makes it easier for me to have multiple party members and Skeleton Warriors gang up on and kill the Mind Flayers one at a time. There's quite a few of them, so Avastrian adds Haste to them bring them down as quickly as possible. Defensive Harmony also doesn't hurt. I then rest up and summon more Skeleton Warriors.

I then continue on to the room at the west edge of the city. There will be three doorways, two at the north and one to the south. I open the one to the north and east. Again, I have Avastrian lead them back to the open space of the room. In the room on the other side is a Staff of Command +2 (Domination with limited charges).

Ring of Fire Control

Now I have the party on their own go through the south door. The room on the other side has three containers, each of which holds a prisoner that has gone insane. These include a kuo-toan Priest, and an Umber Hulk. The other is an Insane Dwarf Warrior. None of these is much trouble. The Dwarf leaves behind the Ring of Fire Control (charm Fire elemental with a +2 bonus to saving throw against, Burning Hands for 1d3+2 damage once a day, Flame Strike for 6d8 damage once a day), which Minsc wears for now. It's useful in its own right, but ultimately I will include it in the Ring of Elemental Command under the Item Upgrade mod.

The Elder Brain

The room in the northwest corner has the Elder Brain, which I need to defeat in order to escape from the Illithid City. The door to it is another one that requires godly strength or a powerful mind to open. Avastrian readies another Control Circlet, heads back to the room with the crimson vats to enthrall another Mind Flayer, and then leads it back to open the door. Naturally I have to kill the Mind Flayer afterwards. Imoen unlocks the next door.

Now the party rests up, and then prepares to the max. This includes Anomen summoning five Skeleton Warriors, and casting Chaotic Commands on Avastrian, Jaheira, himself, and Minsc. Keldorn and Imoen drink the Brine Potions I created earlier. I throw in Haste, and Mirror Images. Anomen drinks a Potion of Agility to improve his armor class.

A key difference in SCS, and one that makes the Elder Brain potentially much more dangerous, is that it has a Dispel Magic ability that can get rid of all my buffs. There's a workaround I have for this. Avastrian casts Spell Immunity: Abjuration on himself.

I open the door, and have Avastrian race ahead to harmlessly absorb psionics as well as the Dispel Magic. The rest of the party hangs back, and lets the closest Mind Flayers and Umber Hulks come to them. The Elder Brain can also summon Brain Golems as well. Eventually, the splitting of forces works. Avastrian and the Skeleton Warriors closest to him take out those monsters that go after him, and once that is cleared he goes after the Elder Brain itself. The rest of the party takes out the other monsters. Everyone in the party gets 40,000xp. The Elder Brain also leaves behind a lot of gemstones that can be sold off for gold (I already have enough Diamonds for the upgrades I'll be doing).

I then head back to the entrance. The Slave Leader thanks me for freeing his group, and the party gets another 40,000xp and +1 to reputation. I now leave the Illithid City, but there's one more loose end to tie up.

Simyaz

Now I head north and east through the central area of the Underdark. I come close to a pavilion that's a bit east of the Prison Globe. There I find the Githyanki who attacked Saemon's ship and their leader, Simyaz. They're still burned at me cause I had their Silver Sword Blade. It doesn't matter what I say, combat is inevitable.

The Githyanki are pretty easy to kill, partly because they have trouble 'going hostile' so to speak. Once they're dead I go after Simyaz, who keeps himself protected as a Fighter/Mage. Here I show a pretty standard procedure for bringing down a Mage. Keldorn uses True Seeing to get rid of the Improved Invisibility, and that means Imoen can target him with Breach. Killing him is easy after that.

If you did choose the dialogue option that offers to return the Silver Blade, remember to pick it up again after the battle.

Now I head for the Beholder Caves.