Understanding the combat log
Alonso
Member Posts: 806
Sometimes I find it difficult to understand the meaning of the messages in the combat log. I create this thread to clarify those messages with a less obvious meaning.
I start with "One of the spells has failed". I get that message about twenty or thirty times when fighting the Balor in the svirfneblin settlement in the Underdark (BG2). It appears every time I hit the Balor with anything, either weapons or spells. It seems similar to the messages about disrupted casting, but AFAIK spells don't get disrupted when you're hit by a spell like Breach.
So what does it mean?
In case it's relevant, I have several mods installed, including SCS.
Messages explained so far
I start with "One of the spells has failed". I get that message about twenty or thirty times when fighting the Balor in the svirfneblin settlement in the Underdark (BG2). It appears every time I hit the Balor with anything, either weapons or spells. It seems similar to the messages about disrupted casting, but AFAIK spells don't get disrupted when you're hit by a spell like Breach.
So what does it mean?
In case it's relevant, I have several mods installed, including SCS.
Messages explained so far
- One of the spells has failed: A contingency or sequencer was fired out of range of the spells it contains.
- <creature1>: Casts <spell>: <creature2>. For example: Ulitharid: Casts Dimension Door: Ulitharid. Creature 1 has cast a spell on creature 2.
- <creature1>: <spell or ability>: <creature2>. Same as above, but without the word "Casts". For example: Ulitharid: Psionic domination: Haer' Dalis. This can have several meanings:
- An Innate ability was used.
- A spell was cast using a contingency or sequencer.
- The AI cheated, forcing a spell without memorization or interruption.
- Weapon ineffective: Your target is immune to the weapon you're using. There can be two reasons for this:
- Your target is naturally immune to the weapon you're using. This is common in magical monsters.
- Your target is protected by a spell that protects against some kinds of weapon, like Protection from magic weapons or Mantle.
- <creature> was immune to my damage. The creature is immune to the type of damage you're using against it. Example: You attack a clay golem with a magical sword. Clay golems are immune to the slashing damage of swords, so you get the message Clay golem was immune to my damage.
- <creature>: unaffected by effects from <item>: The creature is immune to some or all the effects of the item or spell that was used against it.
- <creature>: Dispel effects: The creature was in the area of effect of a Dispel Magic or Remove Magic spell. Note that this message doesn't mean that anything was dispelled, it is displayed even when the dispelling fails to dispel anything.
Post edited by Alonso on
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Ulitharid: Psionic domination: Haer' Dalis
Ulitharid: Casts Dimension Door: Ulitharid
Why one says "casts" and the other one doesn't?
Otherwise it was:
I'll try to explain it as I understand it:
Some items / spells use certain prerequisites to check if a creature should be affected. In the Arrow of Biting's case, the arrow itself checks if the hit creature has 100 or more poison resistance - if it does, then the arrow does not pass along its effects, (and displays the message in the log). This resistance check seems really common regarding poison sources.
Note that this is a very specific mechanism that some spells / items use - not all immunities will be displayed in this way. Usually when you see this message it means that all of the item's / spell's effects have been resisted.
What would be the difference between this and "<creature> was immune to my damage"?
How do you deal less than zero damage?
If the critter you're smacking has greater than 100% resistance to the damage type you're trying to use, then you deal "negative" damage, i.e., you heal the creature. The message displayed is still "Critter was immune to my damage".
In fact enemies don't ever have >100% resistance (that I'm aware of, can anybody give a counter-example?), but it's a classic power-gaming tactic: get, e.g., your fire resistance above 100% (by combining various protective items/spells/scrolls/potions) and let loose next to you with all the fireballs/fire AoE spells you like; the damage won't affect you, and in fact will heal any HP you lose otherwise.
Or a Barbarian can combine their physical resistance, Hardiness HLA, Defender of Easthaven and Roranach's Horn to achieve 127% crushing damage resistance. A lot of late-game enemies use crushing damage, so the Barbarian will be healed by their physical attacks.
DAMAGER: Creature A
DAMAGEE: Creature B
TYPE: crushing, slashing, piercing, nonlethal, fire, cold, acid, poison, magic, electricity, magic fire, magic cold, missile
Percentage Modifiers: Damage Resistance, Game Difficulty, op332 (Kontik's Ring of Wizardry, Kossuth's Blood, Belt of the Skillful Blade, Robe of Red Flames)
Damage dealt to set health to a specific amount. (Harm deals damage to set the target's health to 1.)
Damage dealt with BIT5 of special field set (not used outside mods AFAIK).
The same Spell ineffective message is used regardless of whether the spell was aimed directly at its target or it was an AoE spell.
Is that right? Is there anything else I might have missed?
The string is also manually specified semi-frequently by op206 (Immunity to effects, by resource) for a variety of uses.
One of the Spells has Failed: this also happens when a character out of melee range makes an autoattack against a creature with a damage reflection-on-hit spell. A thief hitting a mage with fireshield with a bow, for example, would trigger this message.
The op206 effects are on items or creatures, and cannot be removed either, blocking specific spells (Buckler of the Fist +2 blocks Hold Person and it's variants, Nymph and Gargantuan Spider block Entangle and it's variants, etc...)
Spell ineffective is displayed in these cases:
1. The target of the spell is immune to spells of that level, like a lich or a rakshasa.
2. The target is protected by a spell protection that has blocked the incoming spell. This includes Spell Deflection, Spell Immunity, (Minor) Globe of Invulnerability, potions of Magic Blocking and Protection from Magic scrolls. It does not include Spell Turning or Spell Trap, there is no combat log feedback for spells blocked by those.
3. Dominate Person was cast on someone with charm immunity.
The Spell ineffective message is used regardless of whether the offensive spell was aimed directly at a target or it was an AoE spell.
Is this correct now?
The Dominate Person example was most likely "Unaffected by effects (from <RESOURCE>)", rather than "Spell Ineffective", at least in the current game version.
There are occasions with specific spell immunity (op206) on items/spells/creatures that are setup to generate the message "Spell Ineffective", but that specific string must be manually specified in these cases. by default there is no feedback, and any string can be set to display.
While an effect coming from an AoE projectile will influence whether it can be blocked by one of those mechanics, it will not further influence whether or not the message is displayed once the effect is blocked. The message will trigger if the spell was blocked by those mechanics. If the spell gets blocked by other mechanics before these are checked, it will prevent the feedback from being displayed.