Ooh...a scary Marilith.
Delayed Blast Fireballs mop up Kalistes' minions, or at least disrupt/prevent their spellcasting. This step is crucial, but I dislike how central it is to the fight and how pivotal random initiative rolls are to success. Even though my mages were protected by Globes of Invulnerability, it still helped to act first, if only so the party Cleric could actually cast a spell and set in motion the second phase of my tactics instead of being interrupted by mass Ice Storms.
And this is what the Cleric was doing, laying down a Blade Barrier, and then another one to impede the movement of Kalistes. The Marilith may not have much in the way of magical abilities, but she can easily shred a character in melee combat.
Once the Blade Barriers are in place, Kalistes easily falls to a hail of arrows. Somewhat anticlimactic given that she belongs to one of the most powerful species of demon, but I suppose there isn't really much that could be done to toughen her up without making the fight a slog or unfair. Heavily scripted encounters, a la the Infinity Engine games, simply aren't happening here and it would seem that SSI had to stick within the bounds of the Monster Manual when implementing creatures (many have exactly the same AC and their HP numbers are well within the listed hit dice).
Ah well, Kalistes can still take solace in knowing she isn't the most disappointing cRPG take on the Marilith...that dishonor belongs solely to Yxunomei.
A challenger appears!
Well, minus the "challenge"...I suppose that makes Tanetal's spy simply an "r". A couple well aimed Cones of Cold (hit tip to octavius) and the encounter is all but over.
:dwarffist: