how do you fight tough enemies/ spell order

Remove all ads!

whenever i run across really tough enemies, usually ones with magic resistance, I'm always confused at the order in which i should cast the following spells: greater malison, remove magic, breach, pierce magic. Is there a certain effective order? also, when I cast remove magic and it lists the targets name and says dispel effect, does that mean i removed a effect from that creature? thanks!

jim

 

Spell triggers and the other spells that allow you to store up to 3 spells at once are good for fights like these.

Cast spell trigger before the fight and put three pierce magics, or three lower resistance; or put a lower resistance, a pierce magic and a greater malison into it. Then shoot that at the dragon, lich or whatever first thing.

 

The order is important, in that Greater Malison is stopped by magic resistance (and so on). The effective order would be:
1. Lower Resistance
2. Greater Malison / Doom (these two stack with each other, and Doom stacks with itself)
3. Whichever spell you want to use
If I have, say, Edwin, Jaheira, Viconia and Imoen in a party, I usually put 3 Lower Resistance in Edwin's Spell Trigger and unleash that first, then immediately have Imoen cast Greater Malison, while Viconia and Jaheira cast Doom at the same time. On the next round I have all four of them casting offensive/disabling spells at the target. Works wonders.

Breach and the like are a bit different. Those will remove specific SPELLS that are protecting a target, rather than MR or saving throws (although Pierce Magic and Pierce Shield remove a spell effect AND lower MR simultaneously).

Remove Magic will dispel any effect your enemies are under, but it will not always work (depends on caster level and target level).

 

Remove Magic depends on caster level and generally removes any magical effects on enemies. It does remove some effects, but not all and I wish the game would list what got taken away! I hate having to memorize what a certain spell does to the sprite in order to find out if it's still on them. Breech gets rid of certain effects on one target and the higher spells (Pierce Shield, Pierce Magic, Khelban's Warding Whip) do it better or add more things they lower. Lower Resistence is good for enemies you know have MR (drow, dragons, demons, Irenicus, etc).

For a group, I try Remove Magic, Greater Malison and Slow from my main mage (Imoen, Kelsey, etc.) and Greater Malison, Flame Arrow and Ice Storm from a back-up mage (Jan, HD, etc) in their spell sequencers. I change them when I need something different against a dragon. Then I would have Pierce Magic and Lower ResistenceX2 from my main mage and Lower ResistenceX3 from my back-up.

 

Lower Resistance is a must to have for MR foes, and cast it before everything else, alternatively Pierce Magic is good as it also dispels one spell protection, (not a very powerful one like SpellTrap) but it lowers MR less. Pierce Shield is exceptionally good as it dispels any level of spell protection (only one, able to dispel SpellTrap that tactics liches enjoy casting) and lowers MR as good as Lower Resistance. If a critter has Immunity to Abjuration, (in tactics mod smarter mages/liches etc.) you need Pierce Shield, which is abjuration but so powerful that it will rip through it, or Ruby Ray of Reversal which is alteration. SpellStrike is awesome, it dispels all spell protections, but can not be put in triggers/contingencies and does not lower MR so not as good IMHO. Khelben's Warding Whip is good if the opponent has more than one spell protection and likes to re-cast them. Breach is absolutely needed for taking down combat protections like Stoneskin, and any buff/protection spell. Remove Magic, if succesful, will remove everything EXCEPT spell protections and SI:Abjuration will stop it cold. Also, note that Liches are immune up to spell level 5 so dispel, remove magic, breach, etc. will have no effect. Secret Word worths mentioning, it is lvl 4 but will rip ONE spell protection upto lvl 8. Useful early.