Death Spell?

MrGoodkat

The description says it kills 'creatures'. Does that mean humanoids are excluded?

It also lists a number of randomly chosen monsters. What about those that are more powerful than a troll for example?

Basically what I'm asking is how does this spell work exactly? Is one character, humanoid OR monster, guaranteed to die or are there exceptions? I assume Magic Resistance can stop it, but other than that?

BelgarathMTH

I think the word "creature" in D&D jargon means "anything that moves" - so, any monster or humanoid in the game.

Death spell automatically dismisses summons, and anything under sixth level dies, no save. Over sixth level gets a save.

The Death Ward and Spell Immunity:Necromancy spells can counter it. Some creatures might have scripted immunity to it.

I always thought the spell description was pretty clear about what it does, except maybe if you didn't know about the D&D jargon "creature". I've never used it much. I think it's most useful as a way to clear the board of all summoned creatures. (It will kill your own summoned creatures as well, including your familiar, so be careful.)

MrGoodkat

The spell description - at least in IWD:EE - is in fact not clear at all. For example it doesn't mention that creatures above sixth level get a save. In the spell description it says "no save" so it sounds like something is bound to die when you cast Death Spell unless it has magic resistance.

Thus the spell seemed pretty overpowered to me and I figured there must be some restriction on it, like not affecting humanoids for example.

Death Spell(Necromancy)
Level: 6
Range: Visual range of the caster
Duration: Instant
Casting Time: 6
Area of Effect: 35-ft. radius
Saving Throw: None
This spell snuffs out the lives of creatures in the area of effect. The weaker
the creatures, the more are affected. For example, this spell could kill 4-80
goblins within the area of effect, 2-40 lizard men, 2-8 ogres, or 1d4 trolls.
This spell does not affect undead creatures. Characters slain by a Death
Spell cannot be resurrected—they are gone forever.

lunar

Here is the full description of the spell, according to pnp lore. It seems iwd tries to stay as close as possible to pnp in spells, but the spell description lacks detail as you mentioned. I believe the spell in the game works roughly as written in the book. Undead and extraplanar are unaffected, etc.

Tomarctus

I just got the spell myself today and I was wondering the same thing. In BG its pretty clear what it does, but the IWD version keeps it vague enough to not know what creatures it would exclude if any. I've tried it on a pack of elementals I think but it seemed to have no effect.

Would be very interested in its actual effect.

MrGoodkat

@lunar: Thanks, this description makes things a bit more clear. Unfortunately there is no documentation in the game itself when you cast the spell, so often times it just seems like nothing happened at all.

In retrospect I shouldn't haven taken Death Spell I think... but then again I entered ToL way too early and I can't expect anything there to fall to it. Maybe once I get back to HoW and then the regular campaign I will have some fun with it.

BelgarathMTH

Oh, sorry, I hadn't seen the Death Spell in IWD yet. I didn't realize that it had been changed from Baldur's Gate. Mea culpa.

Abel

I believe the Death Spell kills everything that has 8 or less HD. So, any creature with 8 or less levels should die. This spell would mostly be useful in the first chapters.