Kangaxx the Demilich and Daystar +2
Maick90
Member Posts: 52
During the fight with Kangaxx in his demilich form, is immune to Daystar, though shouldn't it be +4 against him since he's evil alignment? No matter what spells i throw at him, nothing seems to work. I think that the limit to Kangaxx's immunity is +4 weapons? Is this working as intended?
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and when it comes to spell casting on his demilich form:
I finally beat him unexpectedly, by using the "Sun Ray" ability of Daystar after i had brought down his defenses. It was quite a shock to see him so easily killed by that ability, after i had been fighting him for hours.
Although it isn't documented, the 5th level spell Breach will remove a creature's combat protections (such as Stoneskin) even if that creature is protected by Spell Deflection, Spell Turning or Spell Trap; it will not, however, affect creatures like liches or rakshasas, because they are immune to spells of level 5 or below. This component removes both features: Breach now bounces off Spell Turning (etc.), but it affects even those creatures immune to "normal" 5th level spells.
On the other hand, demiliches are now by-the-book 35th level wizards with significantly accelerated casting times (and the ability to use their Imprisonment ability in the same round that they cast a spell). (Only the demilich in WK has access to HLAs.) The net effect should be to make demiliches quite significantly more dangerous.
Then again, they are supposed to be just about the most dangerous enemy you can face. Short of divine or quasi-divine beings, a demilich is about as powerful as it gets for spellcasting, and the vanilla versions did not really reflect that. Instead of being incredibly cunning and intelligent, they were mindless Imprisonment-turrets that got folded over sideways by a single cast of Spell Immunity.
As for Kangaax, he was imprisoned and surely the mages guarding him took steps to keep his powers in check so it makes sense that he's weaker than the average demi-lich when you encounter him. The other demi-lich, AFAIK, was probably not supposed to die at all. The fact that he/she/it does is either an act or something the devs didn't expect would happen. Granted, you can kill Drizzt and suck Elminster's brains out so meh.
At least the imprisoned Lich (not in Drow City) is higher level than Kangaxx, since it's fear affects higher level charnames
Kangaax is actually very hard to beat if you don't use metaknowledge.
I thought I already gave it away. Most BG players know her as Zallanora. FR fans and people who've been playing this game for too long know her as Shoon VII, "one of the most wicked rulers and one of the most powerful spellcasters to ever have lived in Faerûn".
That's harder due to other reasons than the Lich alone. ;P
Considering how much easier it is to simply pay for the license to use magic than having to deal with seemingly endless waves of Cowled Wizards dropping by at the worst possible moments, and how overpowering the Zallanora encounter is, it's probably safe to say that devs back then didn't expect many players to even encounter her, let alone kill her. SCS reflects this by making her one of the few select Mages that get HLAs in SoA. Fun times...
It's worth noting that the real Zallanora was actually a low/mid level wizard. The fact that she's casting high level spells implies that she's intentionally gone extremely-ancient-and-powerful-spellcaster mode.
Insect Plague/Creeping Doom was a death sentence for any spellcasters outside of Rakshasas and liches because it imposed casting failure on a failed save, and short of a SI: Conjuration, there was no defense against it whatsoever. Casters by default used Spell Turning/Mantle/Stoneskin/Fire Shield regardless of player tactics. Stoneskin, Mantle and especially Fire Shield might all reasonably protect from bugs, but in vanilla, they don't.
Essentially all enemies in vanilla have one strategy or item they just can't defend against, regardless of their supposed power. Zallanora/Shoon VII isn't an exception in this regard, but that's more a result of the limitations they worked under back then than anything. As someone said before, you can devour Elminster's brains, and we know just how much of a special snowflake he is.