I was playing IWD1 but I couldn't do anything about Belhifet, so I decided to do Heart of Winter, hoping to acquire some groovy equipment to use upon him. And I played for ages, until I came to the confrontation with the Luremaster and all his spectral heroes.

It's possible to cast Mass Invisibility prior to arriving before the Luremaster, although there's nothing useful that can then be done. I thought having everyone take Oil of Speed would be a great idea, except it isn't possible to then go through the portal and face the Luremaster.

I can get my mage to blast the Luremaster with her Wand of Fire and have the others rain arrows upon him, but he then disappears (of which a number of people have complained). I can't imagine that I could get enough special arrows to kill him in such a short space of time. The way to proceed is to kill the Luremaster so the spectral heroes disappear, but mostly, he can't be seen from this point on. I know he's labeled as a spectral figure.

The spectral heroes are a nightmare. One keeps casting Dispel Magic (cue the complaints), which puts paid to Mass Invisibility cast after the Luremaster has spoken. The spectral heroes are all fearsome, exterminating my party in a very short space of time.

A walkthrough said to use the Web Spell, but that appears to have no effect. With spectral heroes to all sides, I don't see how Otiluke's Resilient Sphere can help. The heroes are resistant to cold but not acid, fire, or lightning, but my mage only gets one spell off. I can cast Stoneskin on my mage, which a walkthrough recommended although it seems to do no good at all.

So yet again I find myself in the most difficult fight ever. Who'd like to help?

This battle is extremely tough. Depends on what you have available for party characters, but what I find to be most effective is AoE spells like Web, Grease, and Entangle. They won't stop everything (and even if they do, it won't be for long) but it will buy you some time. Use summons - whatever you can. Animate Dead, Elementals, whatever you have. If you have a Bard with the Horn of Valhalla, use that too (don't forget your summoning limit though, so don't waste spells if you're at the limit). The summons won't last more than a round or so, but that buys you time to concentrate your fire on the spectrals and also to buff/heal. Otiluke's can be a good strategy on one of the summons if it's drawn the attention of a bunch of spectrals.

I tend to move my party down to the lower left of the room and try to hold position there. Haste everyone and use Oil of Speed when a character is debuffed. Having the extra attacks is invaluable, so try to maintain a hasted state. If you take out the spectral warriors you can deal with the Luremaster last. I believe there are a dozen or so warriors. If you chase the Luremaster around, you're likely just going to suffer a full party wipe that much faster, as the spectrals will all gather round you and beat the snot out of you. If one of your squishies gets targeted, you can use that to your advantage by running circles around the rest of your party. They can often get a lot of shots in before the spectral will switch targets (and sometimes they won't switch at all, stubbornly stalking the squishy mage).

If you have a Cleric and load him up with heals/buffs as well as Sanctuary, you may be able to keep your main tank alive to take on the spectrals. Dispels in this battle are super annoying though.

Without some knowledge about your party it's pretty difficult to help you Sarariman. The only thing you have written in your other thread is that you don't have a Cleric. That makes most common tactics impossible.
So you gotta give some more info to get tips tailored to your party. Classes and levels at least.

Well, there's some food for thought.

As I said, I have Web but not Entangle or Grease, and web doesn't seem to work. I can summon quite a few monsters, although I'm not sure I'll have the opportunity. I don't have a bard. Oil of Speed gives me more attacks, so I'll use that after going through the portal in the moment before the Luremaster starts to sound off.

Thanks for telling me to concentrate on the spectral heroes rather than the Luremaster. I wasn't doing that and yes, snot was being beaten out of me. Casting Otiluke's Resilient Sphere does result in a couple of spectrals concentrating on that person, but not enough to save me.

I didn't appreciate that you had to know about my party to give advice.

Level 15 fighter, fave weapon two-handed sword, has 1D12+3 axe, +1 bow.
Level 16 fighter, fave weapon two-handed sword, has 1D10+4 sword, +5 crossbow.
Level 16 fighter, fave weapon bow, has 1D10+3 axe, +3 bow.
Level 18 thief, fave weapon high quality longsword (with hindsight, a mistake), has 1D8+3 large sword, +3 bow.
Level 15 mage, fave weapon sling, has 1D6+2 dagger, +1 sling.
Level 16 fighter, fave weapon halberd (what?), has 1D10+3 axe, +1 bow.

I was starting to realize that. Bit late now. I preferred Baldur's Gate, where you could include people you met later on into your party. Ah, Baldur's Gate... But IWD is the only RPG I've found that comes close. I played Dungeon Quest, which someone recommended and was allegedly an RPG, except in reality it was almost all fighting monsters. I tried Planetscape Torment for a little while but didn't like it. One objection is that you only have one character. I was not at all keen on Dungeons & Dragons - Dragonshard. The characters are too big and I couldn't see how to defeat the jelly cube.

I know what you mean. BG is the boss. Have you tried Temple of Elemental Evil? It's not quite BG, and it's based on 3.5 rules -- not my favourite -- but it's a great game, nonetheless. For lulz I created a game with my favourite BG characters (class and stat-wise), even got the original portraits from somewhere. It was fun. :)

I'm interested. Gog sells Temple of Elemental Evil but says it's turn-based, which is hard to believe. Can you tell me what's going on? If it isn't really turn-based, I'll buy it.

Well, almost all the advice you have gotten in the other thread and here was predicated on the assumption that you have access to certain spells. Knowing your party makes it much easier to not waste time suggesting tactics you can't use. Which is almost all of them given your lack of spellcasters...

On the bright side, your options are limited enough to make advice kinda simple:

Thief: As a singleclass he can't hit much. Use as decoy, i.e. draw enemies and just run away.
Fighters: Let them all concentrate on 1 enemy at a time with melee weapons. Use any buff potion you have. Speed, Strength, anything that makes you hit more and be hit less.
Mage: Your best bet is constant casting of "Slow", "Chaos" and the best summons that you have. Maybe try out if "Domination" works.
Summons: Don't let them fight much. Use as decoy like your thief.

The key is to keep most enemies occupied chasing your thief and summons while keeping the mage out of trouble so he can cast "Slow" and "Chaos" to help your fighters. Constant pause is your friend.
If nothing else helps you could drop the difficulty to easy in the config if you are still playing on hard.
Oh, and how did you heal your party throughout the game if I may ask?

Regarding Temple of Elemental Evil: It's TB. Much better combat system than in IWD.

Yes, unfortunately it is turn based. :(

OK, so now I grok the important of describing my party if I want help. And I feel bad about not having a cleric.

I think casting Otiloke's Resilient Sphere on one person is easier to pull off than using one as a decoy. I don't have Slow. I've just tried Chaos and Domination once and they didn't work. Was that just bad luck?

I don't have much in the way of potions, and Lehland, Oswald, and the people at the Gnome Hideaway don't have anything, either. Is there anywhere else I can go?

I don't like the idea of dropping the difficulty level because it is, like, Cheating, but if the problem proves insuperable I'll swallow my pride. I always healed my party with potions, and it wasn't a problem.

True, Terror from the Deep, THE GREATEST GAME OF ALL TIME, was turn-based, but I don't see it working with an RPG.

I like rtwp better than turn based, but I have to admit that ToEE was a lot of fun and the combat was excellent. It's damned light on the role play side though, so that may be something to take into consideration. I actually highly recommend ToEE with the Circle of Eight mod installed.

I'm making progress. I had the absolutely revolutionary idea of casting Otiluke's Resilient Sphere on all three exposed sides and snuffing out the spectrals with magic and bows. I can do it once and get the remaining fighters to glug Oil of Speed before the Luremaster even starts gassing. The problem now is what to do when Otiluke finishes. There may not be enough time to cast it again before the recipient gets deaded.

Funnily enough, I can make the Luremaster badly wounded with bows and the Wand of Fire right at the start. Perhaps the gentleman could be extinguished that way if only I had more acid arrows, but nobody's selling them.

Regarding other RPGs, ToEE being turn-based is too much of a sticking point. I wonder if I should start a thread about this, because the talk here has been interesting.

Whoa! I did it using this strategy. It's a bit random because the spectrals' spells can mess everything up, but it works if tried sufficiently often. I have two dead and not enough cash to even resurrect one. I'll try again a few times and if that doesn't work, I could sell the crushing weapons I purchased to deal with stone nuisances.

Thanks to all who showed up.

Nah, my last playthrough had 5 figthers and 1 ftr/thief and this battle isn't too tough as long as your positioning is right, you splurged on healing potions before crossing the point of no return and have plenty of ammo for each character. I didn't bother with buff potions at all cos of them getting dispelled all the time. Personally, I thought that battle was more about how you positioned your men more than what buffs you had active. When the lore masters flunkies are all dead, switch to missile weapons, target the luremaster and go grab a sandwich. heh heh, I'm guessing you had trouble finding a decent halbard too. My figher proficient with halberds kept the one I got in Easthaven till I met the blind dwarf in HOW ;)

Your equipment seems a little weak at this point in the game too. Are any of your fighters proficient in maces or hammers? The white dove mace and "inconsequence" (a warhammer) are very spiffy weapons, you can buy both from the temple in Lonelywood (though obviously that doesn't help you now until you beat the luremaster). I don't think I was using any +3 gear at this point in the game.