SCS: 1st Battle in BG2 Chapter 10 is insane!

[fncruz]

You start without any protection spells though any potions you drank prior to leaving the pocket plane are still active.

 

Bhodi sends an insect swarm that prevents all spellcasters from casting any spell. I can't even cast the quick ones like Stoneskin.

 

I keep getting killed. How are people beating this fight?

[jmerry]

(Side note: this is Ascension content. SCS on its own doesn't change the fights in the Throne.)

You can absolutely buff up before leaving the pocket plane; the scene eats up a bit of time, but anything that isn't very short duration will work. No reason not to have those Stoneskins up already. If you have movement speed boosts, you can also move whoever gets targeted with that swarm away from the rest of the party so that the others aren't affected - the spread only activates once the projectile reaches its initial target. Entering with invisibility active might also prevent her from targeting you in the first place.

The last time I ran this fight (Insane difficulty), I had prebuffed Mass Invisibility and my two mages opened with triple Incendiary Cloud chain contingencies. Bodhi was near death before I took any conscious actions. She dodged the second tick enough to stay alive, but then Irenicus cast a Time Stop because my Remove Magic on him didn't pass the level check. Balthazar (on my side, of course) took that opportunity to finish her and slayer Imoen off. Bodhi did get off her swarm, but only Anomen suffered from it and indeed most of the party got through without any significant damage.

[fncruz]

Ok thanks for the advice!

[Endarire]

Blitzkrieg and "overkill" usually win.

[polytope]

Oho, this is the easy part of the Ascension finale (even with SCS, although Improved Bodhi is even more dangerous here than in default Ascension).

You should have just enough time to run your casters to the east of the map out of her LOS so she can't hit them with her cloud of bats ability, yes there's another Fallen Solar there, so make sure a melee character follows and starts hitting that one to prevent that Solar launching dispelling arrows and encourage them to use their action for that round to teleport (rather than another spell like ability which will almost certainly be worse) at which point you can have your mage cast Time Stop and Imprisonment on Bodhi, although if you have any scrolls of Freedom it's also probably worthwhile to use one and destroy her properly after the other enemies in the first round are dealt with (to avoid problems later in the real battle with Mel and the five...).