Kangaxx spell vs spell combat

Kernel

I'm playing BG2 EE 2.6.6 with SCS mod, difficulty set to Tactical. My party is level 13-14, trying to kill Kangaxx without exploits.
Googling and searching it is looking like most people killing him using some item or exploit a spell to kill him avoiding his immunity.

I've found that following is not working in Demilich form:
- Melf's Minute Meteors - zero damage, no combat log entries
- Ring of the Ram - zero damage, no combat log entries
- Potion of Fire breath - zero damage, no combat log entries

Tried some +4 weapons, they hit him sometimes for 1 damage in like 1 minute, not possible to overdamage his regen.


So I wonder is there a real proper way to kill him dispelling his immunities?
Using this table:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1y7r2Z3FfZk74NdAVHuZuiNmWh14y1tAytNrsFMSY7zc/edit#gid=0
I have issues that spells aren't doing what they should be doing - not actually dispelling the immunity.
Also trying to find info what if he is protected by several spell immunities? In what order they go away?

Is the combat log reliable way to determine exact buff the boss has at this moment?
It's my first playthrough may be I'm missing something?
May be it's a cheese-only boss? Or I need to get level 25+ before approaching him?
Currently my highest dispelling spell is Edwin Pierce Magic (a level 6 spell) - is it not enough?

Were you able to use this dispell table in practice in Kangaxx fight?
How do you use it in practice?

Humanoid_Taifun

With SCS, I think the enchantment level of Melf's Minute Meteors has been lowered to +2. So they should not work against Kangaxx.
Ring of the Ram deals nonmagical magic damage. (nonmagical in regards to magic resistance, magic in regards to damage resistance). If it doesn't work, Kangaxx probably has Protection from Magic Energy.
Potion of Fire Breath on the other hand does not ignore magic resistance. Kangaxx has 100% magic resistance. The potion has a 0% chance of working.
What you need is spells of level 5+ that ignore magic resistance. (this includes all spells that center on the caster)

As for weapons, Kangaxx has a 90% resistance to physical damage, so only 1 in 10 points of damage will get through. Because of the way the engine does this though, if you hit him for 1 point of damage, you will deal the full 1 point. If you want to physically beat him to death, the trick is not to raise the damage, but the number of attacks that you hit him with. Besides improving your THAC0 (through various means), try using weapons like Daystar +2 and Mace of Disruption +2. His AC is not so incredible that you should not be able to hit him. So you are probably struggling against his defensive spells.

Yes, the combat log should tell you what spells Kangaxx is casting. However it does not tell you when spells run out (though sometimes you can hear the fizzling out). Again, keep in mind that when you try to dispel his protections, no spell below level 5 will work (other than Dispel Magic, which will not be very effective because of his much higher level).

jmerry

Kangaxx is not innately immune to fire, acid, or magic damage. The "DEMILICH" item grants him immunity to cold, electricity, poison, and weapons up to +3.
However, with the SCS "spellcasting liches" component, he will inherit any protections that the lich form cast that you haven't removed - and the lich form always casts Protection from Acid, Protection from Fire, and Protection from Magic Energy as prebuffs. In addition, there's a subtle engine bug (at least in 2.5; I haven't tested it in 2.6) - any protections inherited this way become impossible to remove with effects such as Dispel Magic and Breach. If the elemental protections are still up when he transforms, you're pretty much out of luck given their turn/level durations.

The SCS component removes his blanket high-level spell immunity, but there are a lot of specific spell immunities still on that item for some reason - Meteor Swarm, Incendiary Cloud, Fire Storm, Delayed Blast Fireball, Death Fog ... there aren't many damage spells that get through, and there aren't many non-damage spells that beat his status immunities. Cleric anti-undead spells and mage high-level abilities are your best bet there, if you've taken down his elemental protections.

Also, the patch 2.6 update added a new flag to stop self-targeted spells from ignoring magic resistance, and gave it to the offensive spells you'd like to use that way. I loved my self-targeted incendiary clouds in my 2.5 "Kill it With Fire" run, but that's off the table now.

Your best bet is to actually drop the spell protections on lich form Kangaxx and Breach him to lower those elemental defenses. He won't recast any of them. And look for +4 weapons that also do fire or magic damage - Daystar, fire elementals, even The Burning Earth in a pinch.

It's not all bad news, though. The current version of the component is missing the script that would allow him to use Trap The Soul; Imprisonment is only as likely as it would be for any other high-level mage. Or less, since it gets preempted by HLA use.

MrBaquan

You can't remove Spell Trap without Ruby Ray or better. So no, Pierce Magic won't do the trick. Spells absorbed by Spell Trap also don't show up in the combat log, to my knowledge.

jmerry

Spell Trap may or may not be active; SCS randomly chooses spells for mages at install time. It's a 50% chance to have it, with Spell Turning otherwise.

Incidentally, Secret Word will work at taking down anything short of a Spell Trap. It hits as a level 5 spell, so he's not immune. Spell Thrust won't do anything except trade with a Spell Shield.