Wizard Slayer question

LordRumfish

I had a character idea recently for a wizard slayer by the name of Jenny Quickhand, a halfling with a chip on her shoulder when it comes to magic. I was wondering if the 10% stacking spell loss per hit affected ranged weapons, because my concept was to use darts to interrupt casters as much as possible and get in a bunch of attacks to cause their spells to fail. Does this work?

2nd question: Are wizard slayers equally effective against divine casters, both for resistance and for spell failure chance?

Feel free to hijack the thread for an open discussion of wizard slayer after this if you want. They seem like a weak kit to me due to their inability to use magic items when there are SO many good items in the game. Monks eventually outpace them on magic resistance per level, so the big selling point is the 10% spell failure stacking per hit. They seem bad, but how bad? Do they actually slay mages and clerics and druids with ease? I'm sure you can get through the game with a full party to help them, but I'm curious how good they are at their niche.

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ZanathKariashi

And no. A plain fighter kills casters more easily then a wizard slayer does. You need to hit a caster about 5 times before you see any noticeable effect, and ANY fighter worth their salt will kill a caster outright in 2-3, especially if they have a weapon that deals extra elemental damage (ashideena or Varscona eat mages with stoneskin up, and the FoA in the sequel is just unfair). Their MR gets capped at an extremely low amount, making it worthless. And they can't use any boots, necklaces, rings, belts, or bracers, most potions and misc magic items. Just armor, shields and helms, aside from healing potions, stat manuals, the deck of many things, and weapons.

The interrupt doesn't pierce PfMW, and as soon as that drops a mage is dead if the fighter isn't anyway.


Yes, you could solo the whole saga as one if you want (I have done it personally), but it is HORRIBLY boring. And caster battles are, Ironically, MUCH harder then for a plain fighter, since you can't use any of the fancy toys to mitigate their spell casting and most pop PfMW immediately so they have several rounds of raping you with magic before you can do anything to them). And your starting stats are essential, since you have almost no options for increasing your stats after creation.


The Wizard Slayer would've been much better if they have him a 25% chance on any melee hit to dispel the target (Cl=character level), and the ability to cast breach 1/day per 8 levels, Spell turning 1/day per 5 levels, Spellstrike 1/day at 17, 23, 29, and Spell Trap 1/day at 26. Same penalties, remove the MR and current on hit.

leeho730

Wizard Slayer (WZ) shines in TOB where WZ can reach 83% magic resistance at level 40 and whirlwind attack can disable an enemy mage in essentially one round. But in BGEE, not that useful. Max MR bonus WZ can reach in BGEE is measly 10% and THAC0 is not that high enough to guarantee that every attack will hit, number of attacks are not frequent enough in a single round, and mages are not the biggest threat.

Aegir_Fellwood

I wonder how good or bad a wizardslayer/druid would be when shapechanged, has anyone done this?

PugPug

I've read that the spell disruption stacks apply through protections like Stoneskin, but I guess @ZanathKariashi says it doesn't apply through Protection from Magical Weapons. That seems an easy fix, though. Switch to a normal weapon until it is dispelled.

I have a dual-wielding WZ using flail/morningstar. I was inclined to go with daggers to attack earlier in the round, but that becomes less important as you gain more attacks per round, and I wanted him to be able to damage things.

As for the spell failure working against clerics, I certainly hope so, but can not yet confirm. I have heard it does not work against the end bosses of BG2 and TOB, which I think is a mistake, if true.

ZanathKariashi

Which doesn't work on liches, dragons, demons since they require some form of magical weapon to hit.

It works against everything except a handful of bosses..basically the stuff you'd think it wouldn't work on (but DOES work against Demi-liches which is pretty funny). But as always, the RNG favors the computer, so unless you've got 100% on them, they'll likely ignore it.

HunterOfBounty

They would be perfectly decent if they could use the Greenstone Amulet. As it stands they are very weak against mages. There are not enough status immunities on weapons and armour for them to be reliable.

@ZanathKariashi Are you sure that they can't use boots? None of the boots I have on my current character have class restrictions against Wizard Slayers.

ZanathKariashi

Most items don't list kits. Full plate doesn't say Kensai can't wear it, but they can't. Not sure BG;EE will handle them, but in BG2 they can't wear ANY boots, belts, rings, necklaces (except the amulet of the Seraldine), cloaks, or bracers. Can't use most item slot magic items, except healing potions, stat manuals, and the Deck of many things. If they could that would've made my WS solo a heck of a lot easier. No boots of speed, rings of regen, or str belts suck.

And since you can't just stuff like the ring of spell turning, the cloak of mirroring, rings of air control, green scrolls and other such items, Wizard slayers are actually less effective at killing mages then a plain fighter would be.

HunterOfBounty

@ZanathKariashi
In BG:EE most items do list kits. I don't have a Full Plate Mail at hand, but normal Plate Mail does mention Kensai, Archer, Shapeshiter, etc. I also just tested it, and Wizard Slayers certainly can use boots. Gauntlets, not so much. I didn't test belts. I don't have a BG:2 installation to test at the moment, so I can't comment on that.