This guide is a collection of strategies for battling Kangaxx the Lich in Baldur’s Gate II. These tips were provided by GameBanshee users.
Protection From Magic
Simply buy a bunch of Protection from Magic scrolls. They grant complete immunity to all magic so just let Kangaxx hammer you uselessly until he exhausts all his spells, as he has no physical attack.
Submitted By: Azmodan
Use of Sunray (Level 7 Priest spell)
I was completing the Kangaxx the Lich quest, and I first paid a visit to the Shade Lich, near the Cult of the Unseeing Eye. While my strongest fighter occupied the Lich, I moved close enough to blast him with my priestess (which is my protagonist), using a sunray. Much to my surprise, I blasted the Lich for 1046 (!) damage! I was quite surprised, I might say …
Submitted By: Maurice
Slayer Transmutation
It took me some time to figure this one out, but it’s a very effective way to kill him, if not any monster in the game? Here’s what the problem with Kangaxx (as Demi Lich) is. It looks like he has unlimited imprisonments, and they work every time. So bye bye to all my men and monsters since they get imprisoned even before they’re spawned 🙁 I thought I could just use a protection from magic scroll, but no that didn’t work either. Then I came to think about the Slayer transmutation (so this strategy will only work if you have the ability to transmute into the Slayer), so I fought Kangaxx the Lich with one of my fighters and just when he was about to transmute into Kangaxx the Demi Lich, I took all my men out of the room, saved the game and went down again. Transmuting into the Slayer right away and attacking Kangaxx prevented him from casting any imprisonments, but I do believe that the Slayer is immune to those, too. So it was easy, even though I only hit him for 2 damage in every hit.
Submitted By: Stefan
Spell Immunity Is The Trick
Firstly, if you have trouble taking out Kangaxx’s initial form you can set up as many traps as are needed to wipe him out instantly (remember that you can place traps, rest, and then place more) . As the demi-lich is forming I have my mage cast the 5th level spell “Spell Immunity” and set it for Abjuration. Since imprisonment is an abjuration spell it can’t touch the mage. Then it’s just a matter of killing it. If you have a druid you can use fire elementals. The silver sword might actually kill it via its special 25% death ability (haven’t tried though). You can also use a +5 weapon such as Everard’s Sling +5 etc. I think some Elementally enchanced weapons (+1 fire etc) can occasionally do damage to him, as can Gesen’s bow. Or you can use Maurice’s suggestion of using sunfire. Just make sure that your mage is always the one standing closest to the demi-lich to ensure that all imprisonment spells are directed towards him/her.
Submitted By: Jason
Long Battle, But Effective
A very easy (and cheap) tactic to kill Kangaxx is to simply restore him to his normal form, then walk right back to the stairs. Leave the lich tomb and return. Kangaxx should walk towards you. Just wait until he’s right infront of you at the stairs and just hit him there. Once dead, he’s Demi-Lich form will start to target you with Imprisonment. I haven’t been able to counter the spell effect so far, so just run back to the stairs (since they’re right behind you and monsters can’t follow different area maps) when he starts the incarnation of the Imprionment spell. Come back down immediately after and hit him again.
Note: You will need a powerful weapon to hit him and you’ll only get one hit per run, but it’s the most safest way I’ve used so far. It is preferable if you have TWO or more weapons that can hit Kangaxx or it’ll be a VERY long night…
Submitted By: Fung Kam Wah
A Few Imprisonments
1st I didn’t do this quest till chapter 6 so some of this maybe considered a spoiler and you need to be fairly powerful. Before giving the Demi lich its body I cast the following spells on all party members:
Clerical
Magic resistance on every party member
Prot Evil 10 radius
I left the rest of the party near the door and sent one person with boots of speed to the coffin. I then handed over the body parts and the Demi lich gave its spiel and began to spawn to attack. I ran my man back to the rest of the party while the lich was rising.
The lich cast a variety of protection spells on its self straight away, so I left the area and went back to the Sea’s Bounty inn and rested so its spells would be gone.
When I returned I cast the following:
Magic resistance on all party members
True Seeing
I then entered the crypt again. The lich then casts Time Stop and variety of symbols including fear, death and stun. I reload the auto save if any pcs where killed or stunned (you’ll need them).
The lich then hobbles toward you ( I never moved from near the entrance) he will close for hand to hand and some more spells mainly illusionary (hence the true seeing). Before he got to the party I hit him with Sunray from my Cleric and Sunray from the sword Daystar in some cases that’s enough to kill the Lich outright.
As soon as the Lich dies a little spiel comes up and then the Demi lich starts to appear. I did a runner back up stairs and saved and did the following:
Made sure magic resistance was still up on all pcs and npcs. I told the mage holding the staff of magi to activate spell trap function (this seemed to stop imprisonment), cast haste on party and went back down.
The result at the end was half the party were Imprisoned but the Demi lich was history.. I then went to Adventure Mart and bought ONE FREEDOM scroll (they’re available in RIBALDS secret stash) and went back to the crypt and cast it. The one spell brought back all 3 NPCs.
The bad news was they lost alot of items each.. I’m not sure if this a result of an Imprisonment spell…adding NPCs back to the party when they’ve adventured before..or a bug in the game or all of the above. In this case they haven’t lost enough too be to serious
MOST Important make sure there’s a Mage available outside of your party who can release them if all your mages are Imprisoned
Submitted By: Warwick Rainbow
Wizard Eye as a Shield
I kept him occupied with a wizard eye which he promptly focused his arsenal of spells on while my three mages pelted him with melf’s minor meteors and my ranger and paladin whacked him. My whole team didn’t lose a sinle hit point.
Submitted By: Terry
Protection From Undead
To defeat Kangaxx, take any character that can hit him, I used Keldorn with the Holy Avenger and hid the rest of my party in a corner. I had Keldorn use a scroll of protection from undead on himself and then just watched him kill the first form of Kangaxx, then when it shows almost dead had my character walk in so he can give his death speech and then walk my character back off the screeen and had Keldorn finish him off. That easy never took a hit.
Submitted By: Brion
Staff of Rhynn
This is how I beat him: First I purchased the 2 protection from magic scrolls at the Adventur Mart. I used these on Jahiera and Minsc. Jhiera had the only +4 weapon, a staff of Rhynn, and so ended up being the only one able to deal damage once Kangaxx transformed. She only did 2 points a pop so the fight took a long time, but the protection never wore off and Kangaxx eventually went down. The rest of my party stayed well out of the way and was never targeted, all the death and imprisonment spells were wasted on the two fighters. It took a few minutes but I escaped with the ring and no scratches playing on the hard setting.
Submitted By: Joshua Forcefield
Immunity & Meteors
First: Cast two spell immunities and set them to Necromancy and Abjuration.
Second: Cast Melf’s Minute Meteors and Improved Haste.
Then walk down. First he will cast his demi-lich howl that will kill you instantly if you are unlucky. This spell takes some time to cast, so you should be able to run of with your other party members. Then move in your mage who should be immune to everything the lich does. After that, just throw the meteors on him and he should be dead after awhile.
Submitted By: David
Aerie is a Juggernaut?
First, I set a bunch of traps right where Kangaxx appears (around 9, I think — possible overkill). Then I set up Aerie (yes, Aerie!) with the Staff of Rhynn and Keldorn with Carsomyr (both hasted) right next to Kangie. Everyone else was on the other side of the room.
Immediately after I opened the sarcophagus, I had Aerie cast Holy Might and then Spell Immunity: Abjuration. She was a juggernaut of destruction. Kangie blew himself up on the traps, and the demi-lich kept trying to Imprison only Aerie. Keldorn and Aerie wailed on him until he died. I was hoping Aerie would get the kill shot so she could brag about it, but, alas, Keldorn got it instead.
Submitted By: Tulanian
Freedom!
I attempted Kangaxx when I was already fairly powerful (lvl 15 I think), it still took me a couple of tries. The main thing to remember is that if your main character is imprisoned, it is game over so keep him a fair distance away from the action once the demi-lich appears. Have your spell casters summon as many monsters as possible then have them sit back with freedom scrolls. The creatures nearest Kangaxx get imprisoned first, so once your fighters are gone just cast freedom and they reappear. They are no longer with your party but they will continue to attack Kangaxx and he seems to leave them alone. After he’s dead just talk to your NPCs to have them rejoin.
Submitted By: Ken
Magic Resistance and Magic Shielding
I found that a magic resistance spell and a potion of magic shielding (plus the Carmosyr) were enough to protect Keldorn while whacking away at Kangaxx. I had Aerie (protected by spell immunity) use the staff of Rynn on him just for good measure. I think it takes 50 plus hit points of damage so kill his demi-lichness.
Submitted By: Paul
A High Level Thief & The Ring of the Ram
For this trick to work, you’ll only need 2 things:
- a high enough level thief, lvl 12+ and
- the ‘Ring of the Ram’ found on the cowled wizard inside the Planar Sphere
Be sure to save before entering the final tomb. Before initiating dialogue with the sarcophagus, place 4 traps at the base of the coffin. If you have Yoshimo doing this, be sure his special traps still damage the enemy instead of trying to maze/trap them, or else just go with his normal traps. Now go rest up if you are out of traps or if you have a second capable thief in the party place another 4 traps in the west corner. Make sure this is far away enough to not be triggered at the base of the coffin. Place another character with the Ring of the Ram directly across from the line of traps (he should be near the entrance).
Now comes the moment of faith, talk to the coffin and do as Gaxx says. Once his Lich form appears he should be instantly killed by the traps. Be sure to wait until he becomes the demilich floating skull before you try this or else it is possible to bug the game and have both forms around (this is very bad). As soon as you see the floating skull cast his protection spells hit him with the Ring of the Ram. It seems to be one of the few magical effects that deals damage to the lich, but thats not why you are using it. The second effect of the ring is to fling anything it hits a distance back. Gaxx will be thrown right into the other four traps across the room and for some reason trap damage will not be resisted. The 4 traps plus the ring’s damage should be enough to kill him.
There you have it, one huge load of experience, the best ring in the game and not a scratch on the entire party. Cheap, but better than having half of the party imprisoned.
Submitted By: NamelessNumber
Minsc the Berserker
Have Minsc go berserk (with at least a +4 weapon of course) and Kangaxx’s imprisonment is useless. The immunities you get while enraged are awesome! Immunity to charm, hold, fear, maze, imprisonment, stun and sleep – that covers just about everything! The immunity to imprisonment makes Kangaxx ridiculously easy. If you think you are close to running out of enrage mode, you can always choose it again, even while enraged.
Submitted By: Warhead
Make Kangaxx Run
Have your mage (if you have one, I have a specialist Necromancer as my main character) memorise 2 spell immunities and 2 tenser’s transformation spells. Ensure that everyone in your party is relatively powerful (I recommend lvl 15 above , my party was almost maxed out). Have your 2 best fighters move near the sarcophagus. Leave the rest of your party behind, you won’t need them. I used Minsc and Korgan for this one. Once you activate the sarcophagus and go through the dialogues, simply use both of your fighters to kick the s**t out of his first form. You don’t need to set any traps or cast any spells, just use a +2 or better weapon to take him down.
Thanks to their levels, both Minsc and Korgan were unaffected by its Symbol spells during the unavoidable Time Stop. Regardless of how it’s first form is defeated, the second form is the one you have to worry about. As soon as his transformation begins, I immediately moved Minsc away and switched Korgan’s weapon from a battle axe +2 to a Boneblade dagger +4. I then quickly used his Enrage special ability (all done during Kangaxx’s transmogrification). I noticed that with Enrage on Korgan is completely immune to the near limitless Imprisonment spells used on him. Then I had my main character cast Spell Immunity, set to Abjuration, and Tenser’s Transformation. Using the Staff Of Rhynn, I had him join Korgan in battle.
Here’s the tricky part, because even with powerful weapons, you only do a maximum of 3 damage against its demi-lich form. Eventually, Korgan will become winded, and as soon as that happens, I took him out of the fight to recover. Kangaxx then starts attacking my main character, now a berserk warrior protected by Spell Immunity. If you time it just right, Korgan should recover just in time to use another Enrage , and draw fire from your other character, just before his spell runs out. With Kangaxx trying to imprison an immune Korgan, I simply recast the spells again, and returned to fight. Here’s when I noticed that after 5 minutes or so of using imprisonment, Kangaxx actually runs out of spells!! You can now attack it at leisure. Force it into morale failure and watch as the oh-so powerful demi-lich runs away from your party. Take your time to kick its butt.
If done correctly, you can take him out in 5 minutes flat, with a MAGE, without suffering any damage.
I’ve also used a similar technique fighting dragons. My main character has succesfully taken out both Firkraag and the Shadow Dragon at the temple ruins. Who says a mage can’t fight?
Submitted By: Fahim
You Can’t Confine What You Can’t See
Ridiculuously simple. Against a demi-lich (either Kangaxx or the demi-lich in Watcher’s Keep), you can cast group Improved Invisibility. Invisible creatures cannot be targeted with Imprisonment, and demi-liches are fairly weak otherwise.
Submitted By: Marino
Another Method for the Ring of the Ram
The best way I have found to defeat the Demi Lich is with Fire Elementals (6th level mage and cleric summoning spell), Carsomyr, and the Ring of the Ram. Because he is immune to basically every weapon, you’ll need Carsomyr’s +5 Magic Damage to hurt him. The Ring of the Ram is the most important piece of equipment. The Demi Lich only has about 40-50 HP, and he isn’t immune to the ring. It does 5-30 points of damage each time you use it, but on average you’ll do about 20.
So what you do is kill the first form, then get your paladin with Carsomyr and your Fire Elementals to run up to the top of the screen. Then get another character to use the Ring of the Ram to knock him up to them, and also take away half his HP. The elementals then have no worries killing him (haste them to make sure, if you’d like) and just be careful then that he doesn’t imprison your paladin.
Submitted By: Isiklich
The Key is… Reducing Your Party!
In its first stage, I just hid most of my party in a corner, and had my protaganist (a level 14 Human Conjurer) read a Protection from Undead scroll, thereby making him invisible to Kangaxx. He was the only character to go up to Kangaxx and trap in the “hallway” leading from his coffin so that his protections would run out. Once they did, I brought my whole party to whack at him with their various magical weapons while also leading him towards the stairs. When he “died” and started to transform, I escaped back up the stairs.
At this point I continued on to different quests and left Kangaxx for the time being. I first had to acquire some better weaponry. Once I had the Staff of the Magi, and Staff of Rynn +4, two weapons that can actually damage the Demi-Lich, I returned to his tomb. I temporarily reduced my party to only myself, Jaheira, and Korgan, thereby reducing the number of people who need to be protected. I equipped myself with Staff of the Magi, Korgan with Staff of Rynn and Jahiera with the Ring of the Ram. I then Protected myself and Korgan from Undead, and Jaheira from Magic.
When we went back down the stairs, I waited about 10 seconds for Kangaxx to use his Wail of the Banshee and then brought all 3 characters in to trap him in that hallway again. I used Oils of Speed on myself and Korgan to increase their attack speed as Kangaxx regenerates quickly. They slowly got him down to Badly Injured, at which point I had Jaheira, who up until now just stood there to prevent him from escaping if his morale broke, use the Ring of the Ram to finish him off. One of the hardest battles won without as much as a scratch.
Submitted By: Armageddon
