Absolute Immunity confusion

TheFrostNova

Hi everyone,

I've been playing this game for quite some time now and I've been quite confused about something in regards to Absolute Immunity because I'm getting conflicting information.

Does Absolute Immunity protect against +5 weapons or only above +5? Will weapons like Crom Faeyr go through it?

I took a look at a BG2 wiki and it said that Crom Faeyr won't go through... and yet it also says that the upgraded Rune Hammer will. Aren't they both +5? What gives here?

Thanks guys!

sarevok57

absolute immunity makes you immune to all weapons that are +5 and less for 4 rounds, the only way the upgraded rune hammer could get passed it would be if it were a bug ( perhaps in the original game)

so the only thing that gets passed absolute immunity in terms of weapons is a weapon that is +6 or better

Tresset

The only +6 weapons in the game (aside from spell created weapons) are all 2-handed and made by Cespenar.

semiticgoddess

In vanilla, weapon immunity spells block the following:

Protection from Normal Missiles: any nonmagical missile weapon
Protection from Normal Weapons: any weapon flagged as nonmagical
Protection from Magical Weapons: any weapon flagged as magical
Mantle: nonmagical, +0, +1, and +2 weapons
Improved Mantle: nonmagical, +0, +1, +2, and +3 weapons
Absolute Immunity: nonmagical, +0, +1, +2, +3, and 4 weapons

So +5 weapons will bypass Absolute Immunity in an unmodded game. Unless EE changed that for some reason.

Note that some weapons have an enchantment value of 0 but are still flagged as magical. These weapons count as magical weapons and are effectively +1 weapons.

In SCS , weapon immunity spells block the following:

Protection from Normal Missiles: any nonmagical missile weapon and high-quality normal arrows (an SCS component makes +1 arrows, bolts, bullets, and darts nonmagical)
Protection from Normal Weapons: any weapon flagged as nonmagical
Protection from Magical Weapons: any weapon flagged as magical
Mantle: nonmagical, +0, +1, +2, and +3 weapons
Improved Mantle: nonmagical, +0, +1, +2, +3, and +4 weapons
Absolute Immunity: ALL weapons

Note that Protection from Normal Missiles doesn't block weapons based on their enchantment values; it blocks the projectiles that certain weapons use. Although Arrows +1 and normal arrows look the same mid-flight, they actually use two different projectiles, and Protection from Normal Missiles only blocks the latter.

lroumen

Some weapon spells strike as +6 right? Things like shocking grasp I recall?
Would they be a good alternative to get past absolute immunity?

semiticgoddess

The following magically created weapons are +6:

Shocking Grasp
Chill Touch
Minute Meteors (+2 with SCS installed)
Black Blade of Disaster
Fire Seeds
Cause Serious/Critical Wounds
Harm
Slay Living
Ghoul Touch (previous versions were nonmagical)
Sol's Searing Orb

Energy Blades are +5 and will bypass vanilla Absolute Immunity and SCS Improved Mantle.

However, some of the on-hit effects of these spells won't bypass spell protections. For instance, Minute Meteors' fire damage strikes as a level 3 spell and MGOI can therefore block it. Spell protections can also block or reflect Harm entirely.

Black Blade of Disaster's Disintegrate effect strikes as a level 9 spell and can restore level 9 spells in a Spell Trap.

lroumen

Now that is interesting!

gorgonzola

semiticgod said:

Black Blade of Disaster's Disintegrate effect strikes as a level 9 spell and can restore level 9 spells in a Spell Trap.

Really interesting, I must work on some new infinite spell strategy using the feature, a simulacrum using BBoD has the potential to recharge the whole spellbooks of 3-4 mages with at least 1 lev 9 spell, including the bard using the SoTM
Unequipping any item that give AC and ST bonuses and using stoneskins to avoid physical damage it should work like a charm.

semiticgod said:

Absolute Immunity: nonmagical, +0, +1, +2, +3, and 5 weapons

So +5 weapons will bypass Absolute Immunity in an unmodded game. Unless EE changed that for some reason.

I suppose that "and 5" is a typo and you intended and 4.

semiticgoddess

@gorgonzola: Just fixed the typo.

Also, the Disintegrate effect bypasses Stoneskin and a saving throw will not prevent a Spell Trap from absorbing it.

gorgonzola

So each hit with it will recharge a lev9 or less spell if the mage you hit has spell trap active and stoneskin to avoid physical damage, no need to worry about ST.
Is the best infinite spell strategy that I can think about, strange that I never did find it anywhere, A F/M or F/T with UAI combining MMM and BBoD can recharge all the spellbooks of the party using a simulacrum or the one of the helm in 2-4 rounds, if a spell simulacrum is used completely for free.
Without rhe randomness of Whish, better than using dwehomers and with much more speed and efficiency than the traditional spell trap trick.

karnor00

According to the baldurs gate wiki, absolute immunity protects against +5 weapons. I can't check the in game text at the moment but I'm pretty sure it's correct.

Assuming I'm correct then if absolute immunity doesn't protect against +5 weapons then that is a bug. Either the spell should be corrected or the spell description should be.

Arunsun

I never checked that in depth since the enemies that use absolute immunity are very few and there's no reason you'd use it yourself, for by the time you get level 9 spells your enemies won't use normal weapons so PfMW is simply better. However the description is confusing.
Both mantle spells say "except +X or greater" while absolute immunity says "except for those greater than +5"