In battle, if you turn ivisible, they totally ignore you. I suspect that they'd just stand there until you materialized then the fight icons would disappear if you were far enough. It's kind of flaky, though. I've retreated from battles and had the adversaries travel quite a distance to get to the teleporter site where I materialized. Other times, I wasn't all that far when the fight icons disappeared.

I'd imagine that they would resume their patrol on the same path, after you've fled. So it wouldn't be all that useful, since you could pass by them invisible outside of combat, too. The problems I had resulted from 3 out of 4 of my characters not being able to turn invisible (except by using a potion, of which I had only two), and that casting spells (e.g. to remove the minefield before someone with pathfinding issues walks right into it) cancels invisibility. I would have loved to be able to interrupt the death knights' patrolling by blocking their path, but it seems that this is impossible or at least very unreliable and can lead to worse situations.

Anyway, now that I know of multiple methods that can get you through this level, I still think this part is too restrictive and not much fun. Even if you know what to do, it takes a lot of time, patience and frustration tolerance to execute it (unless you already have what it takes, e.g. 4 characters with the invisibility spell or really good sneaking abilities, or at least 4 invisibility potions, and an idea where you need to go). And the freedom you have in what you can do can also get really restricting and confusing when the game expects you to do specific things without giving you any hints about it. I felt similar about that part where you can only reach Nick by teleporting a character across a gap, or by doing another quest first, which supposedly opens up the way to him later on, but you have no way of knowing that. Maybe a small thing like one character saying "This is a dead end, we need to find another path around it/let's return later" or similar could have eased the frustration a bit. Especially in co-op mode it's not very cool if you get stuck like that. We were able to think of teleporting ourselves, without checking a walkthrough first, but it felt a bit like cheating, and I wish there would have been better alternative solutions (this is like clever players finding an exploit, not something the game should expect everyone to do).

Since I explored the mine level a bit more after I gave our characters invisibility, I realized that there are a few warnings about the death knights and how to deal with them, but it's very easy to miss them depending on where you go first and what you do with the goblins (my co-op partner spontaneously decided to blow them up, thereby killing the imp that could have warned us; fortunately we seem to have reloaded at some point after that, so in the savegame I was using the imp was still alive and I managed to free him).

Maybe that part with the death knights would have been a bit less frustrating if you had better chances to get away from them without having to rely on specific abilities, e.g. if they would walk slower and/or ignore you at a certain distance even if they can still see you. The way it is, as soon as one spots you, you can just as well reload the game, because it's almost certain death. Just like in those stealth games where it's game over as soon as you're spotted, and that's not my idea of fun. At the very least, if I'm forced to play stealthy and observe patrolling paths, let me zoom out more so I can actually see them coming from off-screen. The walking sound alone is a bit too vague to know where they're coming from and how far away they still are.

Wait, another quest lets you get to Nick without teleporting? Really? I just have Teleport on my mage and Wolgraff has the rogue teleport, so I just sent him across with a pyramid and then teleported across with everyone else. As for using invisibility inside or outside of combat, I simply figured that in combat you'd have more time to get away and you don't have to worry about them engaging you in the first place. With that, you could probably get away with the 2-turn Aerothurge invisibility spell or scroll with a fast enough character. Also, you could teleport the Death Knight away, then turn invisible and move off at high speed. Ideas like this are why I love this game, by the way.

I don't know from experience, my co-op buddy read that on the internet. Apparantly if you first defeat that boss that Nicks wants to fight, too, afterwards it will be easier to get to Nick, but then the fight will be over already and Nick can't take part in it anymore.

But if you're invisible they won't engage you in the first place, so if you can turn invisible, why not do it outside of combat before they even spot you, why not just run past them in real time? I believe the duration should be the same. In combat, if you're unlucky they could win initiative and kill one of your party members within one round before you even get the chance to cast your spell ...

I love the versatility in the game as well, but I hate when it turns out to be an illusion, because after trying this and that great idea you realize that they don't really work and you still have to do it in a very specific way, as has happened to me in this section with the idea of blocking the death knights' patrolling paths. It only resulted in glitches, and every time the death knights spotted me ultimately lead to me having to reload, regardless of all the creative things I tried to escape from them unharmed.

The duration should technically be the same, but depending on your speed and the fact that the knights wouldn't be moving at all, it might be easier to get away than to prevent them from spotting you in the first place. Also, initiative is probably the most important thing to have craptons of. I always make sure I have as large an initiative boost from my gear as I can get while still having decent defenses and boosts to my primary offensive stat. Beyond reloading, by the way, I just tended to flee from combat and try again. It took less time and effort.

Ah, I see. Point taken.

Well what a pleasure suck the mines have turned out to be with these Death Knights...

Anyway, another solution to get past them is to go into the cell where Dreksis is imprisoned and go to over to the far side opposite the door. Separate your best fighter from the group and stand as close to edge as you can and teleport them across to behind the tent. A big fight (possibly) ensues but then it is an easy trek to the gate. Eventually the rest of your group will be teleported across whereby you can push on.

I really hope I can learn how to totally obliterate these damn Death Knights - I'm looking forward to going back and handing their backsides to them on a plate - that will be sweet revenge for the total frustration I've felt trying to get through these bloody mines!

Thanks for the heads up regarding the mine - now I need to decide whether to go back and investigate fully before going through the gate to try and get the few items/rummage through crates I left hoping I'd be back later. Not sure I can stand the frustration though... :)

Are you sure? I remember being pleasantly surprised when I forgot to grab the needed spell to kill death knights and was able to get back in via the teleport mirror one uses to get out (by the witch's cabin), follow the mirrors back to the blue bubble, then get out again. The team caught fire a bunch of times but weren't badly burned.

Ah, yes; Leandra's death knight workshop is not reachable so no going back through the door to te mine. I should have known that; my apologies.