Frustrated by God-mode enemy NPC mages on SC tactics in BG1
randomhero890
Member Posts: 86
So far I am greatly enjoying the mod SC tactics for BG:EE, and am currently playing it on insane mode. However, one thing bothers me, and that is how the mod turns every single spellcasting NPC into an invulnerable God.
So far I have tried the following counters: Dispel magic (priest), dispel magic (mage), spell thrust (mage), secret word (mage), and malison (mage) to try to remove the bubble around NPC named casters during storyline fights. None of it ever works. For every single storyline fight, there is at least one caster who is a complete God, and cannot be touched by weapons or spells. No dispel of any type works; it doesn't give a "failed" message, the dispels just do nothing. Usually, no magic weapons (not even +2) can hit, no normal weapons can hit. Any time I try to target the mage with any spell or ability it says something to the effect of "you cannot cast on a target that is in a sanctuary". Yet the enemy mage can still fire offensive spells indefinitely, and never run out. My melee chars are able to swing, yet the swings do no damage. The screen will still shake during a crit, but it wont give a damage message. It also won't give a "weapon ineffective" message either
Whatever spell or item they are using, I've seen the same thing for the last 3 major fights in a row. It's getting really annoying seeing the same "you cannot target an enemy in a sanctuary" message for every single spell and ability in the game....
...Basically, the way I've had to deal has been to ignore the God-mode NPC mage that is flinging spells at me, and kill everyone else in the room, then retreat. Then leave the floor, then rest for 8 hours. At this point the mage's God-mode spell will have worn off, and it will be possible to damage him. Whatever the spell(s) are, they take a long time to fade, generally resting is the only way...
Really frustrating to have to use this tactic, I am hoping there is something that I am missing here...
So far I have tried the following counters: Dispel magic (priest), dispel magic (mage), spell thrust (mage), secret word (mage), and malison (mage) to try to remove the bubble around NPC named casters during storyline fights. None of it ever works. For every single storyline fight, there is at least one caster who is a complete God, and cannot be touched by weapons or spells. No dispel of any type works; it doesn't give a "failed" message, the dispels just do nothing. Usually, no magic weapons (not even +2) can hit, no normal weapons can hit. Any time I try to target the mage with any spell or ability it says something to the effect of "you cannot cast on a target that is in a sanctuary". Yet the enemy mage can still fire offensive spells indefinitely, and never run out. My melee chars are able to swing, yet the swings do no damage. The screen will still shake during a crit, but it wont give a damage message. It also won't give a "weapon ineffective" message either
Whatever spell or item they are using, I've seen the same thing for the last 3 major fights in a row. It's getting really annoying seeing the same "you cannot target an enemy in a sanctuary" message for every single spell and ability in the game....
...Basically, the way I've had to deal has been to ignore the God-mode NPC mage that is flinging spells at me, and kill everyone else in the room, then retreat. Then leave the floor, then rest for 8 hours. At this point the mage's God-mode spell will have worn off, and it will be possible to damage him. Whatever the spell(s) are, they take a long time to fade, generally resting is the only way...
Really frustrating to have to use this tactic, I am hoping there is something that I am missing here...
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Comments
A decent archer can also be an effective anti-mage. SCS-mages cast Protection from Normal Missiles, but Arrows of Biting can penetrate it. Someone like Imoen is unlikely to land any shots through illusion magic but I've found that Kivan, Coran and even Khalid can land a poison arrow within a decent amount of time. A solid dart-thrower is also great as darts of stunning and wounding also go through PfNM and are effectively guaranteed death if they land.
I hope this helps, good luck and I hope you'll find SCS much less frustrating with practice. That's how it was for me.
I've tried enchanted arrows +1, +2 (of cold or of fire as well), being fired from a hasted archer with 19 dex, nothing touches the mage NPC. My melees have a THAC0 of like 7 now at level 6-7 and are swinging away in rapid-fire with haste and +2 weapons. Their swings shake the screen on crits, yet no damage happens. Sometimes, I can kill the npc just from the magical damage procs of 1-2 damage (procs of cold or electricity from weapons) being spammed when a hasted melee is swinging at their face, but nothing else hurts them
Generally this is all happening while 3-5 summoned undead and monsters are all swarming around the God-like mage and holding it in place. It really kills the realism and is sad to have to clump an army on top of a Godlike mage and then have 1-2 damage weapon procs bring him down. Or else running and resting....
I believe there's an SCS component which gives PfNW immunity to fire/cold arrows and another which turns +1 arrows into unenchanted masterwork arrows, which makes them ineffective as well. Arrows of Biting still work.
The alternative is stacking on Potions of Magic Blocking which provides immunity to level 5 spells and below since only one enemy in the game casts spells above that level... but they're expensive and limited in quantity.
You're not supposed to play fair against mages.
In a different recent fight....I was fighting that named ogre mage that comes when you try to get the jar from that possessed woman, and it used a different tactic. It used invisibility and vanished, then dimension door teleported around. When it appeared, it had protection from magical weapons, protection from normal weapons, protection from missles, and the spell sanctuary thing. It was visible on the screen (in a blue bubble and mirrored) but I couldn't cast any targetting spells or abilities on it. I could tell that it had a different type of protection, because we got the message "weapon ineffective" when we damaged it with +2 melee weapons
In the case vs him, we ran, slept, and came back. He refreshed all the buffs. So we ran again. Slept again, came back. He refreshed all the buffs. Ran again, slept again. He still kept refreshing the buffs (I'm assuming he could do it infinitely, unlike the storyline mages). Finally I just saved it from outside range, and kept re-engaging over and over and over until a dispel magic finally landed. He could do 80+ damage a melee swing, so I'd need blur, haste, etc on my melees when we finally took the protection from magical weapons off. Finally killed him and got the 3,500xp
The storyline mages have a different type of protection, because it doesn't say "weapon ineffective", the weapon just does nothing. And at least for them, running and resting removes the invulns
Also, keep note that Improved Invisibility only makes one totally invisible until they do something, at which point the mage becomes translucent but STILL can't be targeted.
I guess I can try to find some kind of dispel illusion/dispel invis effect just in case it's invis. But considering that dispel magic doesn't do anything, I bet the dispel invis/reveal won't work well either. But it's better than retreating and resting I guess. I regret having turned this "smarter mages" feature on, I was assuming it was going to operate within the framework of having some kind of a dispel magic/other counter. But too late now, already in chapter 5...
When all else fails, Wands of Fireball and of Monster Summoning will do the job. Wands are plentiful.
Summoned monsters won't be able to hit the invincible mage, but at least they can somewhat slow the mage down by getting in his way. Like I mentioned before, I had some storyline fights end with a mage in a blue bubble literally surrounded by my 4 characters and 3 summons all sitting on top of him in a circle, all swinging away with haste doing no damage
I remember fireballs didn't ever hurt the boss Mage of the cloakwood mines. Even his own fireballs didn't hurt him, he would drop fireballs on his own feet and wipe the guards that came to defend him lol. So fireball won't help me
a) the improved invisibility effect - for that use either True Sight (from a PC inquisitor or priest of Helm), invisibility purge (lvl 3 spell), or detect illusions by a sufficiently skilled thief (this is one of the most important skills for SCS in BG1). This will have the bonus effect of dispelling mirror images and blur.
b) The spell protections (globe of invulnerability - minor or otherwise). You can take care of this with spell thrust or secret word. If it doesn't go down on the first cast it is because the mage will have cast spell shield, then you need to cast again.
c) the combat protections (stoneskin, protection from missiles/normal weapons/magical weapons, shield). In BG2 you'd go to breach for this, but it is not an option in BG1, so one would have to go with Remove Magic by a higher leveled arcane caster (bard's fast leveling helps) or a dispel by a high level priest and pray that it works. Or just kill the mage with magic since it won't be immune anymore, but NOT magic missiles since almost all SCS mages will have shield up and will be immune to magic missiles, and shield is a combat protection. One can also use weapons with elemental effects (bassilus hammer, ashidena, priest flaming swords).
Or you can just deinstall the "smarter mages" part of SCS, if it is too frustrating (and for BG1 it can be).
I found the best way to deal with the mages is to get weapons with effects that bypass the combat protection, you're looking at elemental weapons(ashideena and varscona) as well as poison weapons like the dagger of venom, arrows of biting and poison weapon(the spell).
You can gather an infinite amount of arrows of biting by sleeping in the lighthouse area where sirines interrupt your sleep.
If you haven't played BG in its entirety though, SCS will reveal difficult and confusing I think because the enemies will get access to abilities before you so you don't have the knowledge to identify what you need to do.
Sooner or later you'll meet mages with a blue circle at their feet and your archers will be dead in no time because it's a spell that throw arrows back at their origin.
And there'll be others like that so, either take a while to look through every spell online or do a "normal" playthrough with a strong mage of your own and take notes.
I honestly know nothing of a Secret Cow Simulator.
Honestly, I don't recommend it.
Basically, it's just too annoying to be enjoyable.
LoB and SCS/SR work in opposite directions from the get go.