Is Foebane +5 working correctly now?

Klorox

I play on an android tablet.

I’m thinking about a solo berserker with Foebane and the defender of Easthaven so that I can rage to nullify all status effects and get hp back when I attack.

I know the weapon didn’t work for a while but I heard it might be getting fixed.

TIA.

wuke

Foebane's larloch's minor drain is just like the lv.1 spell, it can be reflected, deflected, resisted by MR and negated by immunity to low level spells, it's way worse than a simple 4hp drain and is very unreliable in ToB.

jmerry

... but it actually heals you now. With every hit.

Back in 2.5, the "Drain to max HP of caster" damage mode didn't work properly, and wasn't set for the BG2EE versions of LMD anyway. You could swing with the sword, and get 4 extra magic damage with every hit, but no healing ever. Now, it works as intended.

wuke

But does it bypass those immunities? I only played 2.5 and even then the damage wasn't reliable, only consistent when facing enemies that didn't really need the damage to get killed. Fire Giants are good targets though

jmerry

No, it doesn't bypass those immunities. But it shouldn't, so that's fine. You seem to have unrealistic expectations here. Foebane is an excellent endgame weapon, and available very early - just Saradush and level 1 of Watcher's Keep needed.

Oh, and some of those immunities you're worrying about, like undead (immune to the necromantic drain spells) or demons (substantial magic resistance)? Foebane gets bonus "bane" damage against those types anyway. Not really a hardship.

lollers

The larlochs minor drain wouldn't matter much any well made fighter because they should be able to do over 100 damage per round anyway, and that is before any type damage enhancements such as haste, critical strike and potions bring it to more like 300-400 damage per round

Klorox

lollers wrote: »

The larlochs minor drain wouldn't matter much any well made fighter because they should be able to do over 100 damage per round anyway, and that is before any type damage enhancements such as haste, critical strike and potions bring it to more like 300-400 damage per round

Healing the user is much more critical than a little extra damage.

jmerry

Two points.
- It's "per hit" damage that the LMD adds, not "per round". You're getting a lot of attacks in, and that +4 damage on every hit adds up.
- Magic damage resistance is pretty rare, and there are some enemies that extra damage is particularly effective against. Ever feel like taking down magical swords with melee attacks? Now you can.

Foebane is one of the best weapons in the game for sheer damage, and it's available quite early in ToB. All you have to clear is Saradush and the first level of Watcher's Keep. Even without the healing, it was worth using.

Incidentally, on the issues LMD had in 2.5 ... I'll demonstrate with an example. Say we have a mage - call them X - with several instances of LMD memorized. Start at 3/8 HP with three copies, and cast them at helpless foes in quick succession.
BGEE 2.5: 7/12 HP after one cast, 7/12 after two, 7/12 after three. The healing only works once.
BG2EE 2.5: 3/8 HP after one cast, 3/8 after two, 3/8 after three. The healing isn't there at all.
All 2.6: 7/8 after one cast, 11/11 after two, 12/12 after three. The healing works as intended.

That "only heal once" issue in 2.5 was the death knell for truly fixing the spell cast by Foebane. Once you heal once, that's it until the bonus HP wear off. The widely distributed "fix" gave the spell a bonus HP effect instead of that drain ... which meant you got the healing even if you didn't get the bonus damage, and the increased maximum HP stacked arbitrarily high. Way too good. I tried to build my own fix; the best I could do was to make the healing equal to the spell damage dealt, but remove any bonus maximum hit points.

JuliusBorisov

Yes, it's working correctly now. We have extensively discussed the LMD and Foebane topic. We have concluded that the current fix implemented in v2.6 is the most appropriate solution for how this spell should function. In summary, since LMD is a Level 1 spell, the effect should not stack. As a comparison, Cure Light Wounds heals 8 HP, so LMD doing 4 damage + 4 healing + up to 4 points of max HP increase doesn't seem underpowered for a level 1 spell.