Spells And Effects On NPC's?

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Just a few days back I made a new game where I edited Charname with the shadowkeeper program to give him some 20 spells of each priest, druid and mage level. Just to try out what you can do with as much magic as you might ever wish. Of course it comes as obvious that I gave him incredibly good saves to everything as well.

So as I proceeded with the gaming and went to all the mages I could for some nice spellbattles with Greater Malison making the foundation for my new discoveries, I found out a few interesting things I didn't remember or hadn't even encountered before. Those things are what this topic is about.

Some spells such as Power Word Sleep and Power Word Silence work very strangely. Namely, they both seem to go through (the log shows no mention of them being resisted, saved against etc, the effect shows as it should), yet nothing happens. Silence can seemingly *never* work against NPC mages. The best I've seen silence do is that the mage finishes their current spell normally, then proceeds with casting Vocalize next (although they should be silenced at this point to begin with), and then proceed with the normal spellcasting.

Polymorph just changes their skin to a different colour but doesn't actually change their shape as per BG where you could make rabbits out of people (or they out of you, IIRC). Some mages can even proceed casting in this form, it seems.

Luckily Feeblemind can render any mage useless, and Power Word Blind also roots them to the spot unable to make action before you move into close proximity.

Still the saves in general seem quite overtaken with NPCs. Considering how often Charname and other playables are affected by a simple stun / sleep / death spell, NPC opponents (and I'm not talking about the dragons and liches here) save so often that it's no wonder most "to save" spells are almost completely useless.

Now work calls again. There are a few more interesting cases as well, where the NPC's react differently to how a player might. What are your experiences of this? I'd like to get some more light the situations I brought up, as well as hear of new ones.

 

The log never shows that Power Word Sleep is resisted. If the target has lower HP than 20, it will be uneffected.
As for Power Word Silence, I suppose your target had immunity against it.

Casting Vocalise does not need any verbal component, silenced mages can still cast vocalise. (Lichs typically use it immediately after they have been magically silenced by an enemy)

 

I think the description of Vocalize is wrong in the manual. I have used vocalize to remove Silence from my own mages in the way that you describe. As opposed to what the spell description says ("removes the vocal components of a spell"), the spell Vocalize itself can be casted when silenced to remove that effect, IIRC. Also, if you cast it BEFORE being silenced, it does not protect you as the description says.

Power Word: Sleep requires the enemy's current HP to be 20 or less. If that wasn't the case, the spell will do nothing. If the enemy's HP are 20 or less, there shouldn't be any saving.

I haven't tried Polymorph, I have to check that one.


What I have noticed is how Spook affects enemies for a very short time only. In fact, I used it against the Ogre Mage at the beginning of Chateau Irenicus and he only ran away for about two seconds, then came back and started slashing at my mage while that Saturn-like animation was still on top of his head.

EDIT: ach, Baronius was faster on this one, I shouldn't stay on the full reply page that long...

 

Gah. I hadn't even re-read the Power Word Sleep description, hehe.

But I really didn't know at all that BG made a difference between different spell components. Are there other spells you can cast than vocalize while silenced as well? At least I don't think there are *any* spells that don't require motions (ie. casting with armor on). Anyway, that certainly was an interesting bit of information. Next time I'll back it up with Miscast Magic then.

Also, what I wasn't aware of was that remove magic actually kills a Hakeashar (and probably Nishruu too). Though it seems logical enough, considering they are magical creatures that live on magical energies alone. I find it an interesting bit of information though that a Hakeashar that has immunity to Death Spell etc can still be killed with a mere dispell (I assume that would do the same thing).

 

I'm not going to fire up BG2 to double check this, but unless Hakeashar is different from Nishruu in this regard, it is not immune to death spell. Death spell (and dispel, as you found) is the only spell that DOES work. If I actually had to pound away on every Hak in the game, I'd go crazy.

 

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Summon Hakeashar (Conjuration/Summoning)
Level: 7
Range: 40 yards
Duration: 8 rounds + 1 round/level
Casting Time: 1 round
Area of Effect: Special
Saving Throw: None

This spell is similar to the 6th level wizard spell, Summon Nishruu. The Hakeashar is a more powerful version of the Nishruu, having more hit points, better attacks, and immunity to normal weapons.
By casting the Summon Hakeashar spell the wizard calls into being a magical being of considerable power, the Hakeashar. At first glance this appears to be some sort of mist but upon closer examination this boiling churning grey mass of vapors and shapes moves with a life of its own. Drawn towards magic like a moth to the flame, this creature feeds on the energies surrounding and used by wizards (and other spellcasters). Luckily, there is no question as to the loyalty of the creature and it will not attack its summoner even though it would like nothing better. The Hakeashar has no physical attacks at all. However, it can be hurt by physical attacks. Each time the creature touches a target wizard and wraps its tendrils around him there are two major effects. First, all magical items with charges that the target possesses will be drained by one charge, destroying them if only one remains. The second is that it causes the wizard to lose one memorized spell. This is chosen at random, however it will consume the highest level possible. Excluding Death Spell, Death Fog or Dispel Magic, the Hakeashar is completely immune to magic, and not only that, but magic will actually heal this creature. The creature will remain under the wizard's control until reduced to 0 hit points, dispelled, or the spell duration expires.

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Seems you're right. I actually remembered Hakeashar would be immune to the conventional anti-summon magics.

I wonder what would happen if you had a mage read a scroll of Protection from Magic (if that's what the full antimagic globe thing was), just when he was about to be attacked by a Hakeashar?

 

About silence, how many vocalizes do enemy wizards get before they run out?