In bg2, if you have 3xflesh to stone or disintegrates in a sequencer, only one succesful save negated all three spells. Maybe this was an engine bug? I remember this as scs enemies enjoy sticking 3x flesh to stones (or, IIRC, if you use spell revisions that change disintegrate to do damage, 3 of disintegrate) and often my characters just made one succesful save and survived.
Is an engine bug. It has been exploited putting as first spell one that has -4 to save and then 2 more powerfull but whithout penalty so if the first save is failed also the other 2 have effect. I don't know if EE has fixed the bug.
Frankly, all these about MR spell etc, did anyone realise that spell is only commonly used on dragons with a blue circle? ^^. Other than that, that MR spell is very hard to really use as an active offensive spell (takes kind of long to cast). By the time MR has been successfully cast in active combat, the enemy is probably dead or your party quite dead ^^.
Maybe you are right, I never used it as offensive spell and since is a touch spell I don't know how it work in a sequencer. But Aerie or another C/M whith RoV and AoP has reduced cast time and can cast it while protected by stoneskin so, if is not interrupted by a wing buffett I see some potential.
By the time we face enemies that are very powerful, first thing in our mind is to down it with the fastest method. Thus Piercing Magic will be foremost on our minds rather than trying to reduce enemy's MR. Once enemy protection and shields are down, our missiles and dog-fighters will swarm them and diced them for the platter while our casters are busy trying to dispel or neutralize any ill-effects inflicted upon our whole party. I wonder who has the time and leisure to peel the enemy like an onion in such situations. ^^ (I prefer them to end up like meshed potatoes rather than onion rings xD)
Frankly, all these about MR spell etc, did anyone realise that spell is only commonly used on dragons with a blue circle? ^^. Other than that, that MR spell is very hard to really use as an active offensive spell (takes kind of long to cast). By the time MR has been successfully cast in active combat, the enemy is probably dead or your party quite dead ^^.
That's plainly not true. For example, when I soloed with my totemic druid in ToB with the SCS, that spell was the thing that helped me to defeat Ogremoch.
"Ogremoch constantly spams Stoneskins so the only way of dealing damage to him is managing to wait till exatly 10 skins of him are over and then hope to roll a high number to hit him - only to see a new Stoneskin spell casted a second later. Add to this huge damage that Ogremoch deals in melee, so that the Deva can survive maybe 4-5 blows while the spirit bears only 1-2 blows, and you get a picture.
Magic Resistance blocked every attempt of Yahiko to kill Ogremoch with magic. And in order to inflict a damage to Stoneskinned Ogremoch, Yahiko could only attack him with the Spear of Withering (+4 poison weapon). But you know how low the amount of APR of a druid is.
So, for several real days Yahiko tried various combinations to deal with Ogremoch. I almost gave up. To flee from the battlefield was easy - just exit through a door and then teleport to the Pocket Plane, but while it kept Yahiko alive it didn't help to overcome Ogremoch.
Then I began studing each and every druid spell and HLA closely. And then I FOUND IT! The solution! Do you know it? Try to guess and only then open the spoiler to check if you're right.
The Magic Resistance spell. Yeah, that's right. The level 5 of divine spells. Completely overlooked for all this playthough, up until now.
I was so happy when I understood how to deal with Ogremoch.
Maybe this thing (that I managed to find a solution) gave me the biggest pleasure I've ever felt from BG... It alone shows how awesome a solo playthough with a druid is.
So, I summoned a pack of friends (which became usual though all those 30+ attempts of fighting with Ogremoch), casted the glorious spell and then both Yahiko and his Simulacrum spammed Ogremoch with the Creeping Doom spells. About 6 of this spells inflicted severe damage to Ogremoch in seconds. It was over in less than 2 minutes."
I don't know why, but spells that are considered "magic energy" such as magic missiles, skull trap and horrid wilting have a greater chance of bypassing magic resistance.
Sorry but this is a completely false claim. Highly subjective observation i.e. 'It seems like that's the case in my experience' aside, examining the spl files via NI should make that evident.
List so far:
Imprisonment Implosion Firestorm Dragon's Breath Bolt of Glory Dragon Disciple breath weapon Dispel/Remove Magic Various spells that lower/set MR (Pierce Magic, Lower Resistance, Pierce Shield, Magic Resistance, etc) Melf's Minute Meteors Breach (Sunfire in vanilla BG2)
I'm not 100% certain if all the spell protection removal spells ignore MR.
Its annoying some of the description isn't clear. Ignoring MR makes Firestorm way better than other AoE! btw does anyone know if the spit acid ability you get with that Mask from Dorn's quest ignore's MR?
@biffyclanger , Ignoring MR makes Firestorm different than other AoE, not way better. Compared to ADHW, same level, is not party frendly and the effect last a lot longer, so is not an "istant kill" AoE, you have to protect your mlee fighters if you want to use them in the AoE and your casters, even if protected, can be disrupted if casting in the AoE. Both if you cast it in the mlee area or if you want to go in the AoE after a preventive cast. There are tactical situations where Firestorm is way better, and others when ADOW is the winner.
Incendiary Cloud is probably the better point of comparison for Firestorm. IC does more damage and lasts longer, but allows a save for half damage and MR. Firestorm is great against enemies with MR, but IC is a good caster-killer (for casters without MR).
...btw does anyone know if the spit acid ability you get with that Mask from Dorn's quest ignore's MR?
Yes, I believe the spit acid does bypass MR.
I think the following also all bypass MR: Imprisonment Energy Drain Breach and all other spell protection removers iirc Timestop in a way bypasses MR, it still effects a 100% MR character
Party-friendly buffs also bypass MR, though the only one besides Magic Resistance that I can imagine using offensively is Improved Haste, which doubles poison damage.
Last time I decked Minsc with pro from magic scroll and he went to hunt some beholders. All rays were ineffective but, Death Ray killed him. Pro from magic scroll was veryfresh, too! Does this ray ignore spell protections and/or mr? Why?
It also caused a weird ee engine quirk. As Minsc died the pro from magic faded, and by the time he fell to the ground a flesh to stone fired a second after the death ray hit his 'corpse' and petrified it mid air. Removing him from the party. But he was both dead and petrified so unselectable by stone to flesh scrolls. He was permanently gone-in a weird fashion.
@lunar, are you using SR or SCS? I think that one of those has nerfed the green scroll so is possible that a ray has dispelled him and another killed him. I don't use them so I'm not shure about. But with vanilla green scroll is impossible that a spell hit the protectecd character. Even so the pietrification of a dead toon sounds like a bug.
Death Ray strikes as a level 0 spell in my install (I have SCS but I don't think this is an SCS change) and therefore bypasses the scroll. The scroll blocks spell levels 1 to 9; spell levels of 0 (like Death Ray or most weapon on-hit effects), 10 (only in Mimic attacks), and 15 (only in celestials' dispel on hit effects) all bypass the scroll. Same immunities a vanilla demilich gets.
Beholders' Death Ray is an innate ability with spell power 0. Therefore it bypasses PfMagic as per the green scroll. Strangely it MR does prorect against Beholder Rays.
Handy reference with details regarding which spells bypass MR. Note this is based on vanilla bg2 however; with mods or EE there are some changes like Sunfire
I only have scs installed, no sr. Okay so death ray does not ignore mr, just pro from magic scroll. Clarified. Still weird. Oh well. I gotta use Korgan at least. Then only to lose him in hell to beholder flesh to stone again, this time it petrified him and disbanded from the party and then he just..died. No exploding stony death, he just died once outside of the party, and I was able to loot his corpse. (was playing with gore on, if he was struck after petrification he should have shattered.)
Also I don't use scs's 'prevent chunking-irreversible death' component as it makes minimal reloads more challenging. I permanently lost Aerie (green slime melted her face off), Jaheira (weird, can't recall), Minsc (beholder), Keldorn (suddenly Illasera backstabbed for 140 damage with the aptly named black blade of disaster!), Rasaad (backstabbers from the random deck), Sarevok(comet from an enemy mage), Korgan(beholder), Mazzy(enemy triple flesh to stone trigger petrified her and my miscast cone of cold chunked), and lately Viconia (drow kensais in Sendai's room cut her to ribbons-for 31 damage non critical.) in my current game-about to face Abazigal. Underlevelled, underequipped (item randomiser mod was not kind to me) WK was inaccesible after lvl 3 cos I lost a key item, and I still march on.
Anyway, In ee or at least in my install, something is fishy with beholder rays. I have editted the flesh to stone ray to use save vs petrification, but I don't think just changing the save makes it buggy.
"Death Ray strikes as a level 0 spell in my install (I have SCS but I don't think this is an SCS change) and therefore bypasses the scroll. The scroll blocks spell levels 1 to 9"
"Beholders' Death Ray is an innate ability with spell power 0. Therefore it bypasses PfMagic as per the green scroll. Strangely it MR does prorect against Beholder Rays."
I was convinced that the green scroll make immune from every magic, seems that I was wrong But I am not the kind of person that look often in spells and items with modding tools, I like more to guess from ingame experience. And is a long time since I used that green scroll in my game since I have other ways to deal with Beholders and Demiliches.
Party-friendly buffs also bypass MR, though the only one besides Magic Resistance that I can imagine using offensively is Improved Haste, which doubles poison damage.
Necroing this very useful thread to mention that I just used Spirit Armor offensively on a Lesser Clay Golem. I'm playing a F/M/C who fights with his fists and only kills with touch spells, and I don't have any spells to reduce magic resistance yet.
I don’t know if this still holds true but there used to be an exploit with sequencers. To keep MR from resisting your own buffs, spells that that you target on yourself always ignored magic resistance. Stack three Skull Traps in a sequencer, buff yourself with Pro Magic Energy and Pro Magic Weapons, walk into a room full of 100% MR enemies and target yourself with the sequencer. Any aoe spells would work, targeting yourself makes all of the aoe damage ignore MR, you just had to make your character immune to the damage you wanted to use. I haven’t tried it in a very long time so I don’t know if it still works.
Comments
Not tested in ee.
I don't know if EE has fixed the bug.
By the time MR has been successfully cast in active combat, the enemy is probably dead or your party quite dead ^^.
Once enemy protection and shields are down, our missiles and dog-fighters will swarm them and diced them for the platter while our casters are busy trying to dispel or neutralize any ill-effects inflicted upon our whole party. I wonder who has the time and leisure to peel the enemy like an onion in such situations. ^^ (I prefer them to end up like meshed potatoes rather than onion rings xD)
"Ogremoch constantly spams Stoneskins so the only way of dealing damage to him is managing to wait till exatly 10 skins of him are over and then hope to roll a high number to hit him - only to see a new Stoneskin spell casted a second later. Add to this huge damage that Ogremoch deals in melee, so that the Deva can survive maybe 4-5 blows while the spirit bears only 1-2 blows, and you get a picture.
Magic Resistance blocked every attempt of Yahiko to kill Ogremoch with magic. And in order to inflict a damage to Stoneskinned Ogremoch, Yahiko could only attack him with the Spear of Withering (+4 poison weapon). But you know how low the amount of APR of a druid is.
So, for several real days Yahiko tried various combinations to deal with Ogremoch. I almost gave up. To flee from the battlefield was easy - just exit through a door and then teleport to the Pocket Plane, but while it kept Yahiko alive it didn't help to overcome Ogremoch.
Then I began studing each and every druid spell and HLA closely. And then I FOUND IT! The solution! Do you know it? Try to guess and only then open the spoiler to check if you're right.
The Magic Resistance spell. Yeah, that's right. The level 5 of divine spells. Completely overlooked for all this playthough, up until now.
I was so happy when I understood how to deal with Ogremoch.
Maybe this thing (that I managed to find a solution) gave me the biggest pleasure I've ever felt from BG... It alone shows how awesome a solo playthough with a druid is.
So, I summoned a pack of friends (which became usual though all those 30+ attempts of fighting with Ogremoch), casted the glorious spell and then both Yahiko and his Simulacrum spammed Ogremoch with the Creeping Doom spells. About 6 of this spells inflicted severe damage to Ogremoch in seconds. It was over in less than 2 minutes."
List so far:
Imprisonment
Implosion
Firestorm
Dragon's Breath
Bolt of Glory
Dragon Disciple breath weapon
Dispel/Remove Magic
Various spells that lower/set MR (Pierce Magic, Lower Resistance, Pierce Shield, Magic Resistance, etc)
Melf's Minute Meteors
Breach
(Sunfire in vanilla BG2)
I'm not 100% certain if all the spell protection removal spells ignore MR.
Compared to ADHW, same level, is not party frendly and the effect last a lot longer, so is not an "istant kill" AoE, you have to protect your mlee fighters if you want to use them in the AoE and your casters, even if protected, can be disrupted if casting in the AoE. Both if you cast it in the mlee area or if you want to go in the AoE after a preventive cast.
There are tactical situations where Firestorm is way better, and others when ADOW is the winner.
I think the following also all bypass MR:
Imprisonment
Energy Drain
Breach and all other spell protection removers iirc
Timestop in a way bypasses MR, it still effects a 100% MR character
Edited 2 times to remove grammar errors.
Why?
It also caused a weird ee engine quirk. As Minsc died the pro from magic faded, and by the time he fell to the ground a flesh to stone fired a second after the death ray hit his 'corpse' and petrified it mid air. Removing him from the party. But he was both dead and petrified so unselectable by stone to flesh scrolls. He was permanently gone-in a weird fashion.
I think that one of those has nerfed the green scroll so is possible that a ray has dispelled him and another killed him. I don't use them so I'm not shure about. But with vanilla green scroll is impossible that a spell hit the protectecd character.
Even so the pietrification of a dead toon sounds like a bug.
Handy reference with details regarding which spells bypass MR. Note this is based on vanilla bg2 however; with mods or EE there are some changes like Sunfire
Then only to lose him in hell to beholder flesh to stone again, this time it petrified him and disbanded from the party and then he just..died. No exploding stony death, he just died once outside of the party, and I was able to loot his corpse. (was playing with gore on, if he was struck after petrification he should have shattered.)
Also I don't use scs's 'prevent chunking-irreversible death' component as it makes minimal reloads more challenging. I permanently lost Aerie (green slime melted her face off), Jaheira (weird, can't recall), Minsc (beholder), Keldorn (suddenly Illasera backstabbed for 140 damage with the aptly named black blade of disaster!), Rasaad (backstabbers from the random deck), Sarevok(comet from an enemy mage), Korgan(beholder), Mazzy(enemy triple flesh to stone trigger petrified her and my miscast cone of cold chunked), and lately Viconia (drow kensais in Sendai's room cut her to ribbons-for 31 damage non critical.) in my current game-about to face Abazigal. Underlevelled, underequipped (item randomiser mod was not kind to me) WK was inaccesible after lvl 3 cos I lost a key item, and I still march on.
Anyway, In ee or at least in my install, something is fishy with beholder rays. I have editted the flesh to stone ray to use save vs petrification, but I don't think just changing the save makes it buggy.
"Death Ray strikes as a level 0 spell in my install (I have SCS but I don't think this is an SCS change) and therefore bypasses the scroll. The scroll blocks spell levels 1 to 9"
"Beholders' Death Ray is an innate ability with spell power 0. Therefore it bypasses PfMagic as per the green scroll. Strangely it MR does prorect against Beholder Rays."
I was convinced that the green scroll make immune from every magic, seems that I was wrong
But I am not the kind of person that look often in spells and items with modding tools, I like more to guess from ingame experience. And is a long time since I used that green scroll in my game since I have other ways to deal with Beholders and Demiliches.
Necroing this very useful thread to mention that I just used Spirit Armor offensively on a Lesser Clay Golem. I'm playing a F/M/C who fights with his fists and only kills with touch spells, and I don't have any spells to reduce magic resistance yet.