tchntm43: The above tactic did not work. As soon as I started shooting arrows at the guards, they became hostile and attacked, which meant it was 4-on-1.

tchntm43: I am following the advice in this guide: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/75251-baldurs-gate/faqs/60538
I have tried this fight a couple times and I'm getting absolutely obliterated. There's supposed to be a "trick", outlined here at that link:

"...or, there is a sneaky way of doing this. Take our sneaking/invisible
character (or characters) and go down the stairs, leaving the rest of
your less stealthy party members above. Being undetectable, Tracea Carol
will not notice you, and hence, will not initiate dialogue or summon
Aec'Letec. Sneak to the corners of the room opposite the stairs so that
Tracea Carol is out of sight. Don't worry about sneaking again, or being
noticed by the Cult Guards - they won't move a muscle, even as you
gleefully shoot them to death at your leisure. Apparently, their
survival instincts aren't so good without Tracea to tell them they
should defend themselves. Once all the Cult Guards are dead, sneak back
upstairs, then spell-buff, and rush downstairs with your whole party.
Tracea Carol will then speak to your visible party, and everything will
go as normal - save she won't have any supporting Cult Members. Cut down
Tracea Carol (her being the only surviving hostile mortal, standing
right in front of your spell-buffed party means she'll die rather
quickly) then focus on Aec'Letec, who will have no support, and no
chance of reincarnation, fighting against an untouched, fully spell-
buffed party."

The above tactic did not work. As soon as I started shooting arrows at the guards, they became hostile and attacked, which meant it was 4-on-1.

I've tried this a couple times the "fair" way. My party is Imoen, Minsc, Dynaheir, Jaheira, and Khalid, and my character is a Fighter/Mage. Everyone's levels are maxed out at this point. I'm able to give each of the 4 fighter class characters a potion of frost giant strength (22) and potion of heroism. Minsc already has free action from his sword, and I use my 3 potions of freedom to give free action to Khalid, Jaheira, and myself. Since haste doesn't work with free action, I cast Haste on Imoen and Dynaheir just before descending the stairs, while Jaheira casts Defensive Harmony. Since those last spells are low duration, I descend immediately after they're cast.

As soon as the fight started, I had the melee characters target Tracea (since that's what the guide says to do). Almost immediately, While Imoen shot arrows at Tracea and Dynaheir used Monster Summoning III to try and get some meatbags to distract the enemies. The demon's first action was to paralyze both Imoen and Dynaheir. I knew there was nothing I could do to keep them alive at that point, but I figured if I moved around the room and killed all the guards with melee characters who had free action, maybe we could still win this and I could resurrect them after the battle was over. I did manage to kill all the guards, but Khalid got turned into a ghast, and after killing him the remaining 3 melee fighters took on the demon. Unfortunately, the main character was immediately targeted and killed quickly despite an armor class of 0.

I've read (in that guide) that you need Remove Paralysis, Remove Fear, and Protection from Evil 10 ft for this fight, but none of my characters have those spells. Jaheira is my healer and as a druid she doesn't have those types of cleric spells. I do have Dispel Magic but apparently that doesn't remove the Held status, so characters who become paralyzed have no way out.

So yeah, what do I do here?