Mindflayer psionic attacks vs. greater divine protection in SCS
KorbenDallas
Member Posts: 29
With SCS I have the IWD spells component installed, and the description for greater divine protection is 100% magic resistance and immunity to damage for 3 rounds. In the Underdark, I buffed Anomen with greater divine protection and sent him in solo to fight three mindflayers. I tested this with reloads: Anomen got Mazed once, Stunned once, and dire charmed once. When he got stunned, they walked right up to him and devoured his brain and killed him. Greater divine protection is #1 supposed to give 100% magic resistance and #2 provide immunity to damage; the spell does neither.
So I tested chaotic commands and the regular divine protection spell; chaotic commands protected him from the psionic attacks, but divine protection did nothing against their devour brain attack. Divine protection is supposed to provide the caster immunity from damage, but it did not.
As I understand it, devour brain is a magical weapon attack, so why doesn't divine protection provide the immunity it is supposed to? And why does greater divine protection not provide protection versus psionic attacks since greater divine protection is supposed to provide 100% magic resistance? Can someone help explain what is going on?
So I tested chaotic commands and the regular divine protection spell; chaotic commands protected him from the psionic attacks, but divine protection did nothing against their devour brain attack. Divine protection is supposed to provide the caster immunity from damage, but it did not.
As I understand it, devour brain is a magical weapon attack, so why doesn't divine protection provide the immunity it is supposed to? And why does greater divine protection not provide protection versus psionic attacks since greater divine protection is supposed to provide 100% magic resistance? Can someone help explain what is going on?
2
Comments
In other words, working as intended. Your defense isn't perfect, and illithids are well placed to exploit the gaps.
Your greater divine protection will provide immunity to the psionic damage spells (Detonate, Ballistic Attack) that mindflayers use and from the 1d2 damage their melee attacks deal. That's it. If you want immunity to the stun, either crank up your saves or use something with that specific immunity like Chaotic Commands, Cloak of the Sewers troll form, or the Sword of Arvoreen. If you want immunity to the intelligence drain, the only player-accessible way to do it is with immunity to +2 weapons - any of the Mantle line, or Iron Golem form from Shapechange.
... All right, Hexxat doesn't die from the Int drain. And certain summons (shaman spirits, magical swords) are immune.
Quake in fear mindflayers, my fighter/mage is coming for you!
Without that EBS, I would have fed them some potions of invulnerability. Chaotic Commands wasn't an option due to the party's theme, but that's a turn/level duration - two or three times as long as the potions. And remember, CC isn't a self-only buff. Your priests can cast it on everybody.
If you're going for saving throws - a save of 1 protects from mind flayer blasts, a save of -3 protects from ulitharid blasts and all of the other non-damaging psionic attacks. Everything runs off the save vs spells.
Illithid melee attacks do have a key weakness: their THAC0 isn't very good (11 for both regular mind flayers and ulitharids). It's not hard to AC tank them and reduce the threat.
Splitting the party and sending some protected characters ahead isn't the best strategy because of how the illithids teleport. If they target your unprotected back lines ... bad. You're much better off protecting the whole party from the mind blasts and sending them in. And the faster you kill the enemies, the better.
Warriors with lower Int, like Anomen, Dorn, Jaheira, Mazzy, Minsc, or Valygar, can drink a potion of genius or mind focusing. The difference between dying in two hits and dying in three is a big deal. More potions allows you to survive even longer.
I didn't feed Mazzy any intelligence potions on that run, but she wasn't getting targeted anyway; apparently, her slightly better AC from using a shield discouraged their melee attacks on her.
Oh, and may I suggest a spell for Anomen? Fire Storm. It ignores magic resistance and deals a lot of damage. Illithids have no fire resistance. And spending a few 3rd level spell slots (round/level divine or turn/level arcane) to protect your party from fire is cheap.
For your tanking needs - magical swords. Immune to all psionics and to brain-sucking. They do decent damage, too. Skeletons are immune to the disablers, but can die to the brain-sucking and the damage spells.
As for resting after every encounter ... I use the tactical challenge component that makes resting in there impossible. Not even an option.
This always puzzled me - skeletons clearly do not have a brain. Not having any tissue is pretty much a job requirement for being a skeleton.
My guess is that this was a coding oversight originally that was left in for balance reasons.