Maggots
 

Recently my ghost king pretender had the spell maggots casted on him while in battle, and it almost killed him. Does the spell maggots assign poison damage to its target or is it another type of damage?

Re: Maggots
 

Good question. I was considering using this spell on several Bane Lords in a game, but then I read it was a poison attack and I believe Banes are immune to poison.

Re: Maggots
 

I'd be surprised if it weren't purely physical damage, considering that it's purely an anti-undead spell and almost all undead (if not all) laugh at poison.

Re: Maggots
 

Well its an anti-undead spell and most undead are immune to poison so im going to guess another type.

edit: damn, beaten to the punch by two people.

Re: Maggots
 

It does poison-like damage that isn't poison. As in, it's damage over time, but isn't poison. Otherwise it'd be pointless!

Re: Maggots
 

A very deadly counter to undead thugs by the way. Tyrant killed a beloved wraithlord of mine like that once.

Re: Maggots
 

But on a ghost king? Shouldn't maggots have a hard time chewing through something that is incorporeal?

Re: Maggots
 

Hmm, strange, I answered this a while ago, but I guess something went wrong.

Llama is right. Poison effect (over time dmg) without poison attribute (not resistable).

Ethereality gives a bit of protection IIRC. Can't remember if it is the normal 1/4 chance or if it is something else.

Re: Maggots
 

Well it says the spell is mundane, so against etheral that should be the standard 1/4 chance.

Seems to be a powerful, easy nature spell (vs undead, that is.)

Re: Maggots
 

Short range and one gem IIRC, a bit hard to pull off unless your enemy charges into your lines (like SC's like to do)!

Re: Maggots
 

The problem is, as with all non-100 range anti-SC battle spells (especially those costing gems) is that the enemy can easily script to stay out of your way until your script runs out, at which point the AI will try to cast something else entirely.

Re: Maggots
 

I've already used the trick of attack one turn to get into range, and then cast.

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Is it confirmed that ethereality gives an undead 1 in 4 only to be subject by maggots? Would Luck also offer its usual 50% layer of protection on top of this?

Re: Maggots
 

I tried using this spell for the first time recently, and was baffled. It seemed to cause a curse and a curse of stones and nothing else. So I tested it in a test game, on some commanding Soulless and such, which I dressed in heavy armor and commanded to stand still for as long as possible, so as to see what the spell might do to them without interference from other attacks. And... it caused a curse, and a curse of stones. The commanders were not damaged.

This may have been under CBM... did CBM completely change the spell? Or do I just live in a totally different universe from the rest of you?

Re: Maggots
 

No, I've just tried it without CBM. There's a third effect I forgot: It feels like something is missing.

I cast it on a Mound King. He survived nine rounds of battle, and he won the battle so he presumably went through several post-victory rounds as well. He suffered much fatigue but no damage (other than the curse). The mysterious affliction and curse of stones are temporary.

On what are y'all basing your claims of poisonlike damage? It sounds like you know this spell better than I do; I've only cast it like four times ever. But shouldn't it remove at least one hit point after 9+ rounds, if it does poisonlike damage and isn't total crap? Irresistible curse of stones plus curse is good enough for me, but it's not what you guys are saying the spell does. And also, it doesn't have a lot to do with what the spell's description says the spell does....

Re: Maggots
 

...Whoa, I just noticed that KO is among those claiming it does poisonlike damage.

Okay, well... how long does it take to do that? Twenty rounds? 1000 rounds?

Re: Maggots
 

Haven't tested it recently, but, IIRC, it should show up immediately as poison damage. Little green bar underneath, little green numbers floating up, etc.

Re: Maggots
 

I have used it but when I last used it the damage was caped at 110. Which would be 11 damage per turn if you cast it every turn. Which makes tarts with regen almost immune.

I reported that as a bug, do not know if it was fixed.

Re: Maggots
 

Ohhhhkay, well, maybe somebody else could test it now? So I know whether I should totally reinstall my game or something...

Re: Maggots
 

Incidentally, I think there is room in this game for an irresistible, short-range, single-target curse-plus-curse-of-stones spell--albeit not one that every N1 mage can cast. :)

Also I rather like the mysterious, temporary "It feels like something is missing" affliction I'm seeing, on top of everything else. I bet I could come up with a spell description that'd make that seem sensical!

Re: Maggots
 

@Bananadine: This may be silly, but... isn't a Mound King skeletal? Not much for the maggots to eat, perhaps. Does it do the same effect to soulless, Banes etc?

Re: Maggots
 

I've seen the effect on a Tartarian Titan (during a recent turn of a multiplayer game) and I've tested on a Mound King today and on a couple of Soulless a few weeks ago. I guess that covers most of the spectrum of basic undead types--lifeless-mindless-never-healing, lifeless-never-healing, and none-of-the-above.

Re: Maggots
 

Fair enough.

Re: Maggots
 

Maybe Im missing something, or cant understand what you guys are saying. The effect of maggots to undead starts with something like 10HP poison dammage the first turn, 9 the second, 8 the 3rd etc, not sure what is the starting exact number but you get the idea. For a total of around 50 HP dammage, no MR roll no nothing. The dammage is represented by the ususal green number showing the poison HP dammage plus the green bar below the unit (this is not natural poison dammage so undeads are not immune). So not sure what you talking about curse of stones or afflictions.

Re: Maggots
 

I am talking about what I said: When I cast Maggots, the target receives a curse of stones, a curse, an affliction, and no poison damage or poison-like damage.

Has anybody cast this spell very recently, other than me? Maybe I'll test some more but it'd be nice if somebody could help me out. I've seen the weird effect in games that were started before the latest patch, one with some mods and one with no mods. Maybe if I started a fresh, mod-free game under the latest patch, the discrepancy would disappear? Or maybe everybody's Maggots is broken and only I have noticed (because it's just that unpopular a spell).

Re: Maggots
 

Anyone know if it stacks? Being "remaggoted" by 5 or so N mages in a short time.
Ssj

Re: Maggots
 

I have used Maggots in spell testing and seen it work. I have even modded spells that deal non-elematal damage over time. The bug you are having really sounds like a something a mod could accidentally do.

Do you have *any* mods enabled? Remember that some mods don't have banners so be sure to check your mod preferences to be sure.

Re: Maggots
 

It should stack. It's just non-elemental damage that is dealt over time. Other than that it works just like any other poison effect and should stack.

Re: Maggots
 

I started a new game with no mods enabled. When I press Escape in this game, the menu doesn't provide the option to see what mods are active, which according to my understanding means that no mods are active. I quickly researched Maggots and had an empoisoner cast it on a mound king. The result was a curse, a curse of stones, and a feeling like something was missing.

What in the world!

Re: Maggots
 

I can confirm this. No mods.
Curse of Stones effect, curse and the weird affliction.

I've attached a saved test game.

The relevant chunk of the debug log shows casting of Maggots:

Re: Maggots
 

Hrm...well, the latest patch did indicate that there was a change to the *description* of Maggots...perhaps an unintended change crept in alongside?

Re: Maggots
 

True, there were a bunch of visual and other changes to spells in that patch.

That's it. I just tried it with the previous patch, which I still had lying around.
Did with the Debug mod to avoid research time. Maggots worked as I remembered it.
Opened it with the new version and the battle replay showed the weirdness.
Definite 3.24 bug.

Re: Maggots
 

Heyyy. I guess this means Maggots is actually a new spell (for now), and I can use it as such on my next turns!

Thanks for checking.

Re: Maggots
 

This is a pretty odd bug and could really be a nasty suprise to someone who *really* needs to counter that Prince of Death or something.

The following mod code fixes the spell to work like it used to and I have tested it. (I'll be sure to add it to CPCS):

Re: Maggots
 

Nice. I was wondering if a fix could be modded in, but I don't know enough about spell effect modding.

I'd like to see this added to the current version of CBM, since that's the most used mod.

Re: Maggots
 

Hrm...wouldn't it be better to make it a standalone "maggot fix" mod, rather than rolling it into either of the aforementioned omnibus mods? The reasoning being that if the effect does get officially fixed by Illwinter, then the change would be at best redundant.

Also, no offense Burnsaber, but the CPCS would be a lot to add if all you were looking for was a maggot spell fix.

Re: Maggots
 

I was hoping a CBM change could be added to the existing version, so that the fix could be applied to ongoing games.

You can't add a new mod to an existing game, but changes to mods that are already in use will work.

Re: Maggots
 

Well, the best part would be to add it to CBM, but I think that CBM 1.7 is likely at least 6 months away.

I'll make it a stand-alone quickfix mod sometime this evening to the modding subforum.

Re: Maggots
 

It would be better to have a new stand alone mod than to include it in CBM 1.7.

I was suggesting a quick fix to CBM 1.6 to provide a fix for existing games.
I'll suggest it in the CBM thread.

Re: Maggots