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Is sanctuary considered a form of invisibility?

NightmareWraithNightmareWraith Member Posts: 77
in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
As things that naturally see invisibility still attack you when you're under effect of sanctuary such as demons, runed assassins etc, along with some bosses such as the first test irenicus and bohdi in ToB.

So yeah is it invisibility or is this a bug or some other reason?

Comments

  • MacHurtoMacHurto Member Posts: 731
    I think true sight dispels it as well, so I think you are right.
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    For most purposes, yes, Sanctuary is treated as a form of invisibility.

    I think the theory is that it's more like a Somebody Else's Problem field (Douglas Adams™) than true invisibility, but in any case True Sight (and various other anti-invisibility effects) will dispel it.
  • FrancoisFrancois Member Posts: 452
    edited November 2016
    I think it's supposed to cause people to ignore you or make them unable to acknowledge you presence, as opposed to invisibility whereby people can know you are there but just can't see you. In PnP they can actively use other means to detect where you are when invisible, such as footprints and sound.

    For instance if you were to walk in a crowded street with sancturay people would walk around you, but without consciously acknowledging your presence. With Invisibility, they would just bump into something invisible and be really confused.

    Does the thief skill detect illusion dispells sanctuary? I would guess not. Sanctuary is not an illusion but True Sight divines things that are hidden by various means, not only illusions.
  • gorgonzolagorgonzola Member Posts: 3,864
    A cleric thief using sanctuary can backstab from it, an other clue that is a form of invisibility.
    The only difference from other invisibility spells is that casting not offensive spells does not dispel it.

    If the sanctuary would have been different, making who see trough invisibility ignore the char and TS not able to reveal the hidden cleric, it would have been a broken spell, a cleric, ranged weapons and a choke point and every battle would become easy...
  • KuronaKurona Member Posts: 881
    gorgonzola said:

    A cleric thief using sanctuary can backstab from it, an other clue that is a form of invisibility.

    I keep reading that but never managed to make it work.
  • TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    edited November 2016
    @Kurona Actually you're right, you can't backstab off Sanctuary. Also, you can open chests and doors without breaking Sanctuary. It's a weird spell.
  • RelSundanRelSundan Member Posts: 918
    Artemius_I said:

    My favorite is the 'invisible blender', where a sanctuaried cleric casts Blade Barrier then walks next to his hapless foes who are unaware of the ring of blades that proceed to explode them into gory, bloody pieces.

    Thank you for this insightful advice. I will consider using this in My cleric/fighter run.
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    RelSundan said:

    Thank you for this insightful advice. I will consider using this in My cleric/fighter run.

    Also worth bearing in mind that Sanctuary is compatible with Turn Undead, so a Sanctuaried Cleric can activate Turn Undead and walk unharmed through a mob of undead for an easy win.
  • RelSundanRelSundan Member Posts: 918
    edited November 2016
    Yeah I know that haha. I assume you'll have to cast Blade barrier first? And cloak of Fear would work too.
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    Yes, cast Blade Barrier, then cast Sanctuary, then (if relevant) activate Turn Undead, in that order.
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,459
    The two effects are not really good companions. Sanctuary + turn undead can see you progressing through exploding chunks of undead if you're high enough level. If not high enough then sanctuary + blade barrier can produce a nice puree (even better if you're hasted to speed up the activation of the blades). However, if you add turn undead to blade barrier than the undead will tend to run away from your blades and where's the fun in that B) .
  • GallowglassGallowglass Member Posts: 3,356
    Grond0 said:

    However, if you add turn undead to blade barrier than the undead will tend to run away from your blades and where's the fun in that B).

    Indoors, that's not usually a problem because they can't run far. Outdoors, however, I agree that (if the Cleric isn't high-enough level to kill the undead outright) merely frightening them away may be unhelpful.

    I don't usually use both effects at once, but sometimes, when facing a mixed mob of low-level and high-level undead, using both effects at once causes the low-level undead to be instantly killed by the Turn Undead while the high-level undead resist the Turn Undead entirely, and therefore stand still to get shredded by the blades. In such cases, the combination attack works beautifully!
  • NightmareWraithNightmareWraith Member Posts: 77
    Grond0 said:

    (even better if you're hasted to speed up the activation of the blades).

    Haste increases ticking of blade barrier? That means a Stalker->Cleric would be awesome
  • UOLegacyUOLegacy Member Posts: 153
    I always had a problem casting Sanctuary on my character. It would always say "So and so is unaffected from the effects of Sanctuary" right on my own Shaman. It's strange.
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,459
    edited September 2018
    @UOLegacy in the unmodded game shamans don't get access to sanctuary. I guess therefore you're using a mod and it's not working properly.
  • UOLegacyUOLegacy Member Posts: 153
    Grond0 said:

    @UOLegacy in the unmodded game shamans don't get access to sanctuary. I guess therefore you're using a mod and it's not working properly.

    Thank you. That would explain it. I was always confused about that.
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