[Q] Dealing with enemy's high magic resistance and saving throws?

sollinton

Hey everyone! I have a question about high level combat in BG2. It seems every other enemy I come across has crazy high magic resistance and saving throws. Even with Greater Malison and spells like Lower Resistance, Pierce Magic, and Spellstrike I still find that my spells are ineffective at least half the time. Aside from the above spells, is there any other way to increase the chances of my magic affecting an enemy?

Sampiero

wich enemies ? usually lower resistance and remove magic or dispel magic works fine (at least for me)

Sampiero

i know that there's swords that lower's enemies save throws but i don't remember wich ones

semiticgoddess

The Answerer lowers enemy MR. No vanilla weapons lower enemy saves. EE may have one, though. Spellstrike shouldn't lower resistance, and dispel magic and remove magic should only remove enemy spells, not innate MR or their saving throws.

If you've got a lot of enemies with high MR, then Lower Resistance won't really cut it, since it only hits one critter. You may just have to use spells which aren't blocked by MR--namely, summoning spells, Imprisonment, Sunfire (may have been fixed), and the mage HLAs, Comet and Dragon's Breath.

moody_mage

SWORDS NOT WORDS!

Lord_Tansheron

How to deal with enemies that have high magical resistance: don't use spells against them, or only use spells that bypass MR.

How to deal with enemies that have good saving throws: don't use spells against them that allow saves, or only use spells that are good even on a failed save.

Generally speaking it's not very efficient to use spells just so you can use other spells. I really don't like having to do that, and that's why I tend to include a lot of physical damage in my parties. That way I can clobber as well as cast, and do one when the other isn't such a great option.

Of course there are parties that aren't like that. I suppose in that case you could fall back on something like summons etc., as @semiticgod suggested. A better and probably faster option than trying to cast Lower Resistance on every little thing.

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Jarrakul

Personally, I'd say the answer against such enemies is usually summons and buffs (possibly on the summons, depending on the buff in question and your party composition). There is very little a couple Improved Hasted fighters and a planatar can't kill.

JohannesN

A spell triggered Lower resistance/pierce magic are usually enough to have their resistance lowered. Then just use nice spells like ADHW/skull trap.
Dragons Breath is also an easy way, but there are ways enemies can protect themselves against it.