If a character gets hit with Massive Damage and is killed then they explode - this removes them forever from the game (along with any gear they are wearing or carrying) unless you reload a save.

That is why that party member disappeared - he got hit with Massive Damage.

(SPOILERS)

Who had no equipment? Your deceased party members, or the foes you killed?

I'm not sure what happend to your party members, but as for your foes, try Dispel Magic in the areas wherein you killed them, in order to remove potential invisibility effects. IIRC, the lich, the vampire, the human and the beholder all have little worth in equipment to recover, but the mage Layene drops one hell of an awsome quarterstaff which'll surely be useable by one of your party members.

And if you're gonna replay that area, make sure you have plenty of quick magical firepower, and plenty of magical defenses, specifically vs. the beholder and AoE spells from the spellcasters. It's one of the toughest fights in the game, and I usually do it last, shortly before leaving Athkatla for the last time.

I always go at the Shadow Dragon after I got Imoen back. Make sure you have Negative Plane Protection (either by spell or items equipped) for your frontliners in that fight. That'll render its breath weapon moot. In fact, w/NPP in use, that dragon may be the easiest one in the entire series. But make no mistake, its still a dragon, and thus still a very tough fight.

He could also be hit with Disintegration spell, which basically results in what carlosjuero posted.

Short of reloading, the only way to resurrect this member would be through the Wish spell (although I may be mistaken here)

carlosjuero

[i] If a character gets hit with Massive Damage and is killed then they explode
[/i]
Well that pretty much sucks!! I wasn't too concerned that he was dead, I had been thinking of getting a ranger anyway - but he had some GOOD stuff!

thnx for answer
MikeK

ps any defense against Massive damage??

You can lower difficulty setting for that particular fight. On lower diff. characters cannot permanently die.

Pretty much this ^^ - or "abuse" the quick save system :)

BG is of a lineage of games that, when played on the intended difficulty, were very unforgiving. As "hard core" as some modern gamers claim to be, they are used to the much simplified death "penalties" of modern games.

Best bet is to try different tactics with that fight if you don't want to lower the difficulty - or go do some other quests until you get some more levels and higher power gear (+2 armor and weapons really start making things go smooth, having trinkets that increase saving throws also helps [esp Save vs Death])

Okay, here's how I did it:

My hero (ranger) with the beholder reflect shield was placed on the Beholder's spawn (you can also just absolutely destroy the beholder in your first spawn to simplify this). Someone capable of splattering undead was ready to decimate the vampire. Magic missiles, khelben's whips, etc. were readied for the spell casters.

And right before I rushed into the room, and what I did was rush in, I summoned a bunch of animals/skeletons with the sole intent of drawing the lich further in towards the entrance. That way once all the others are defeated the lich can be dealt with last at leisure.

Your party member could of gotten hit with imprisonment. Some high level mages and liches like to use this spell which causes whoever get hits with it to disappear with gear included. Its a ninth level spell and you have to use another ninth level spell freedom to get them out of it then you have to talk to them to get them to rejoin your party. When you cast it it releases every imprisoned person on that map which is usefull since some liches will use imprisonment more than once. Your mages can use spell immunity: abjuration to protect themselves from it and i think berserkers are immune to it too when they rage.

An advice if you want to retry this battle:
"Mass invisibility" is an extremely powerful spell since characters under the effect of "improved invisibility" cannot be targeted with spells.

or use a projected image (does not trigger dialog) with farsight to put many, many skull traps into the spawn points for Shandy's friends. Traps where Shandy appears takes care of him. :)

If your level is not high enough, put traps where Shandy appears, and summon up Skeleton Warriors as fodder. Your priority is to kill Shandy, then rush your Skeleton warriors into the small room to absorb the other attacks. Mass invisible your party and your summons, and haste is good.

Doing the Illithium quest for the temple is recommended, as mace of disruption +2 can kill any undead, including the lich and vampire. Shield of Balduran for the beholder, and you're set. Don't forget true sight once battle begins, as one character is hiding in shadows and her backstab is nasty. (probably the cause of your "chunking")

^
I
SPOILER

In the illithium quest, if you want the Improved Mace of Disruption (IMoD, which gives Negative Plane Protection), keep the illithium for yourself, and use the substitute metal to give to the pretentious artist Sir Sarles. This as the illithium is needed w/the MoD, to give both to Cromwell to forge the IMoD.

And it juss goes to show, there are plenty ways to beat that powerful Twisted Rune party, but you & your party have to be prepared, and very high level.

other things to help are daystar (from the crooked crane) the sunray is deadly to undead, simmy and project image scrolls, azuredge, assassin poison, (slow) and melf's minute meteors. Using improved hasted, mace of disruption, true sight, and buffing your designated hitters extensively will help. a lot.

I prefer project image, skull traps, and spike traps to take them out.

Now Tactics Mod version...that's difficult!

btw..where you went to another plane? spell immunity abjuration.

Chunking (killing by massive damage) doesn't destroy equipment, I think. Then it should be either disintegration or inprisonment. No way to recover disintegrated character and only way to remove inprisonment is by casting freedom spell in place where it happened. And since you already left it's impossible too.

As mentioned spell immunity abjuration, berserker rage, will stop imprison cold.

easy way to kill the black dragon, any dragon except red is 3-4 mages with spell trigger 3xsunfire

position mages around dragon, overlapping area of effect. pause, use spell trigger on self. once ALL the mages are using spell trigger on self, unpause.

sunfire makes you immune to fire for 3 seconds or so. By triggering the spell trigger sunfire AT THE SAME TIME, each mage is immune to neighbor's fire damage. bypasses MAGIC IMMUNITY.

Remove robe of vecna and amulet of power, since the trick is to have the spell cast at the same instant. (sequential sunfires of doom...trademarked by me)

if you're low level, I think you can spell sequence malison. have multiple mages and clerics use malison and doom, and unleash a minor sequencer of chromatic orb. The slay effect is like a poorman's finger of death.