soul slay / mr spells questions
 

according to manual : for soulslay
penetration is 11 + (lvls in astral - 3 ) :2 ( rounded down ) + 2d6
are the 2d6 open ended or not ? the manual doesn't write open ended .

now the magic resistence of the target is :

MR + half the skill in the spell ( here astral / 2 ) + 2d6

you can get additional penetration through :
+2 runesmasher
+2 spell focus
+1 ring of sorcery / wizardy
(+2 from the unique the green eye )

so in general +5 maximum

are the boni cumultative ? +4 for 2 spell foci or only +2 ?

while there are many mr-increasing items
around +10 should be very possible


a pretender has a base mr of 18 . if he doesn't have any astral skill and no mrincreasing equipment but the astrologer doesn't have too :

mr of the pretender of 18+2d6

the astrologer would have 11+2d6 penetration

if both values are equal is it considered a hit or not ?
if yes the astrologer could only hit if he has a 7 higher dice throw
if no only with a 8 higher dice throw

if the pretender uses very good mr equipment :
amulet of antimagic +4 , rainbow armor +3 , starshine skullcap +2 ,lead shield + 4 = 13

without open ended 2d6 throws the astrologer would never hit , with +6 penetration +7 in astral magic the values would be :
19 +2d6 for the astrologer

18+13 for the pretender so the astrologer would never hit right ?

but even with open ended dice rolls i think it is stochastically very rare he hits the pretender , 1 time out of at least 10000 or so .

the pretender should not go astral magic because of magic duel normally .

so conclusion : your normal advantage is 7 or 8 depends on the rules .

lets assume 7 . then you normally only need to get + 10 mr to be only hit successful via soul slay even if the attacker has astral lvl 5 + penetration bonus of 4 via a lucky open ended dice roll .

much more he will not have expect in the very late game .


is this quite true or did i forget something ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: soul slay / mr spells questions
 

Almost all 2d6 rolls in D2 are open-ended, so I'd expect so here too.

Two spell foci probably don't add (few misc items of any kind add).

I expect attacker needs to win to succeed, not just tie, but don't know.

Astral 6+ is a reasonable approach for pretenders, in my book.

I think you're more or less right AFAIK, for the limited case you're considering.

It'd be pretty lame/uber if Soul Slay always had a good chance to kill anything with a soul. Soul Slay is hugely powerful as it is, if not against very high MR targets.

PvK

Re: soul slay / mr spells questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">what means AFAIK i always forget this http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

yep you are right a almost always hitting soul slay would be lame http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif i don't want that either i just wanted to know if i did understand the spell right http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

does a staff of storm prevent all missile fire or just makes it very hard to hit with them ?
does it prevent the use of javelins too ?
the hurled stones from the jotun hurlers ?
in general all physical ranged attacks ?

are there other similiar spells like mind burn / soul slay which have infinite range and always hit (after MRcheck fails )?

i know the drain life spell which has not infinite range but in exchange always hit without MR-check are there any other spells like this ?

Re: soul slay / mr spells questions
 

Storm, from staff or when cast, negates half of the missiles fired. I think this includes all non-magical missiles that can be fired, maybe even missiles fired from magical items like Bow of War and by Sprites/Banefire Archers etc. troops with magical, natural ranged weapons.

Re: soul slay / mr spells questions
 

Also, storm reduces precision on all troops. (either halves it, or -5, cant remeber)

Re: soul slay / mr spells questions
 

Since I play Abysya, similar to Soul Slay there:
F3 Incinerate (don't recall the range)
S2 Paralyze and Mind Burn
S4 Enslave mind.

Re: soul slay / mr spells questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Incinerate cannot be negated by magic resistance. It is fire damage however, and fire resistance works against it. It gives 18+ points of armor-negating! damage, enough to kill most natural units except for Giants and special monsters some nations have.

Available as Very Powerful magical item as Rod of the Phoenix (Fire 3 => 20 gems). Quess what Abysian uber-slayer wants? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: soul slay / mr spells questions
 

incinerate looks very nice to me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
i found leech in the manual .
you need 1 blood slave to cast it but it does 25+ armor negating damage and affects an area of 1 .
fatigue is 100 but it is only blood 1 and you should get removed some fatigue from the leech effect .
all in all it seems quite useful to me does anyone use this spell ?

Re: soul slay / mr spells questions
 

I uses very little Blood Magic in battle, very easy to lose slaves quickly due to burnout, arrowing, or other stuff.

However I'll try ^^

Re: soul slay / mr spells questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">hm with 25 range for the spell you are very right .
perhaps a stormstaff helps there much. could perhaps be worth a tryout for vanheim .

Re: soul slay / mr spells questions
 

AFAIK = As Far As I Know,

There are some other somewhat similar spells, I believe, though I don't remember which ones are quite like that. Deadly stuff.

Blood slaves are easier to use in battle when your units don't set them on fire with their heat auras... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif I have had good results with battlefield blood as Mictlan. Some of the spells are quite potent but can be tricky to use properly.

PvK

Re: soul slay / mr spells questions
 

im kinda surprised im getting to add these two in... they happen to be two of my very Favorites.

At alteration 5 you get drain life which is range 25 but awesome for many many reasons. Apparently so long as your not shooting an inanimate target it fatigues the target even if you miss, while doing 14+ armor negating damage when you hit. Also the fatigue and damage(?) you do get given to the caster, or some fraction of it.

At alteration 6 you get petrify which is also range 25, and while magic resistance negates, a failed MR means instant death, and even if you make your MR you get paralyzed. Very good for anti-SC fire.

alteration 6 is probably my favorite magical research level to hit. Theres just so many magical goodies in alteration 5-6 (and the first few for that matter). I guess my other two would be construction 6 and conjuration 9 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ July 06, 2004, 18:15: Message edited by: Cheezeninja ]

Re: soul slay / mr spells questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Drain life never misses. What you are thinking about is life draining weapons, which apply fatigue damage to the target when it is only a mirror image that is hit.

Re: soul slay / mr spells questions
 

silly me, you are correct.