Ok, what am I doing wrong? I'm in the sewers under the temple area, I have solved the bridge puzzle, now there are 3 Gauths that shoot what looks like lightning at me and my whole team dies real quick. I have tried everything that I could think of with no luck. Can someone help? Thanks in advance.

Sort of a welcoming committee, that lot. When dealing with Beholders, the rule of thumb is to buy the Shield of Balduran and wield it. That's your best (some would say, your only) defense against the creatures. I sent across one party member with the Shield, as well as boots of speed, and let him literally turn the Gauths' spells against themselves before finishing them off.

The first thing you should probably do is leave the area and go do some other stuff first--the Unseeing Eye quest is a dang hard one for a Level 9-10 party! I had to Reload SO many times the first time I did it.

As for tactics, though, using traps can work wonders. Have your Thief set a few Traps, and use Skull Trap as well if you know it. Then use a Mage with some spell protections to draw the Gauths toward their (hopefully) deaths. Gauths are flesh and blood, so normal arrows will hurt them. You're right, they ARE a pain in the ass, though. And they've got some Shadows & Show Fiends that come running when the Gauths are attacked. Don't you love it? Also of note is the fact that Gauths are just as tough as full-sized Beholders: Kill a Gauth, get 9000 EXP. Kill a Beholder, get 9000 EXP. Oh, the joy. (NOT!!!)

When you patch SOA, new merchants appear--one of them sells a shield that reflects (not absorbs, reflects) Beholder rays.

Actually... regular Beholders give you 14,000 Xp. If you observe carefully, the 'Beholders' that only give you 9,000 Xp only utilises Gauth attacks, so essentially, they are just bloated Gaunts pretending to be Beholders.

protection from lightning might help a bit too, this was the first battle that I had to reload on my first jaunt through BG2.

aahhh memories.......

Also welcome to IW [img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img]

[ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: Downunda ]</p>

You could also try summoning a fire elemental and watching it wade through all of them. Or use polymorph self to turn into a mustard jelly - you are then 100% magic resistant and can kill them with no real threat to your health. The problem being that it takes ages to kill ANYTHING when in mustard jelly form and it is quite boring.

This area is extremely difficult if you don't cheese and use the shield of balduran, my first time through I decided the cost outweighed the benefits, for something i would likely only use once or twice.

I had Yoshi hide in shadows with celestial fury, and girdle of hill giant str, walk behind and attack, then i discovered black isle had done their homework and you couldn't backstab beholders, so many reloads later, the area was completed.
Basically just hit them hard and fast, and heal constantly