you dont need to use tactics like attacking first to beat him.. the best way ive found..


use magic missle from imeons wand, Locdons drain with xzar, and you attack with what ever.. that should drop his mirror image to nothing.. another quick drain should disrupt his cast of missle or imeon can cast another magic missle.. But if all went well with monty and getting around back.. a single backstab should drop him, as everyone else droped his mirror iimages. basically, a quick magic missle, quick drain, you attack once, and then follow up with monty back stab.. dead wizzard

Its a guaranteed hit, that never becomes useless (well till it runs out of charges)

Yeah, you're right of course. It's just that I usually play a mage/sorceror, so the wand seems so.. pathetic after a while. But it can be used by non-mages, so it does indeed actually have a use, I suppose.

i never consiter a magic missle wand useless, infact its one of the most usefull things in the game. Sure its not a big damage dealer, but its auto hit, and doesnt have to be used by a mage. It lets mages use other powers to help vrs just disrupting enemy mages.


FYI, the only way to see how many charges are left in a wand is to use it. save the game, and use it till it runs out, then just reload the game. (BG 2, they added wand use counts which is very nice ! ) most wands dont have many charges when you find them, But at least you will know. when it gets down to its last couple charges go sell it to the wizzard at the highhedge, and buy it back.. (it will cost a lotta gold to get it back) But then its recharged and you should get tons of use outta it.

even if i have 2 mages in my group, i always give a Magic missle wand to my theif.. fighters generally slashing away or using a bow is better, But theifs its very usefull.. use a wand at range, then stealth and move in for a back stab.. ahh good times !!

this lets my mage cast stuff like melfs arrow, chormatic orb, color spray, haste, slow, or any number of much better spells than just casting Magic missle to disrupt..

Aliasalpha's potion suggestion (3rd post from the top) was the way I beat him.

Somewhere in Candlekeep (I think) I picked up a Potion of Clarity. Just reloaded, popped the potion, approached the stairs and even with his mirror image spell he was no match for my war hammer. In fact I never took any damage from him on that second try.

Here's one tip. When he casts fear pause and move everyone away from the NPC he cast fear on and put him running away as fast and far away - eventually the spell will catch up with him but the others won't get affected - just don't have everyone meleeing him as then you won't have time to run away.

The above method will work with other spells too. You can even "dodge" fireballs with this tactic if you're fast enough (haste spell/boots of speed).

Ahhhh, Tarnesh the newbie killer (well my character was killed twice by him today). Actually you don't need to goto FA Inn first, and you really don't need to meet Jeheira and Khalid first. So my advice is to avoid him until you are level 2. If you do need to combat him, well, here are additional advices.

If your character is tough (e.g 10 hp), you might try tank him. It doesn't work everytime but eventually you will not be Horrored and you can interrupt his casting if you are lucky. This is not the best method, but I assure you it's doable. A better method is to attack him with ranged weapons before he talks to you. You can even lead him for a while and he won't turn to hostile. If you are a thief, try to lure in the shadow and backstab him. If you are a mage, simply cast MM before he does. The guards won't attack you even if you attack first.

I'm an old BG player, but just yesterday I tried beating Tarnesh with only Imoen and my PC. I took the default Thief-Mage multiclass character you can import (named Koriand, if you've play Tutu). I had armour and sleep memorized and even than it took some reloads untill I had the luck my sleep spell got him but I saved against him getting me and Immy unconsious (his Sword Coast Stratagem tactic, not sure which spell it is, but it ain't fear). With him asleep and the two of us on our feet, we finished him off with long sword and bow (2 attacks/round increases Immy's chance of actually hitting). The hard part was, I had to do it without disrupting spells (that's why I normally take Xzar, for the 2 minor drains, and Immy doesn't have a wand in my set-up - probably it's the Hard Times mod that removes it - it's way too cheesy to have a starting party with a magic wand right away :)).