Questions on the Wizard Slayer

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I have two questions on the Wizard Slayer. Some of these issues have been brought up in various posts, but I was wondering if anyone knew for sure.

1. Does the 10% cumulative spell failure work on all magic-using enemies? Like dragons, liches, etc., or just enemy mages?

2. Does the 10% cumulative spell failure take effect even if the creature is immune to the damage? For example, if I hit a dragon who has cast absolute immunity on itself, so that the attack does no damage to him, does he still get a 10% chance of failing in his next spell attempt?

The reason I'm asking is if the answer to both of these questions is "yes" then it completely changes my opinion on this character and how he can be effectively implemented. When you're facing an enemy spellcaster, you almost always have to use your own spellcaster to counter their measures. However, with this guy, even if you don't have a mage, you should be able to wear them down. Let's face it, if a dragon can't cast spells to heal itself or pretect itself, it's just a matter of time before you wear it down.

The demi-lich would be even funnier. It would just stand there all day - improsonment, spell failure, improsonment, spell failure...

 

The answer to number 2 is yes.

Not sure about number 1.

I'm not sure you get the way the spell failure works. The 10% isn't just for his next spell attempt, it's for all following attempts. And it stacks, so 1 hit = 10% 2=20%, etc.

 

I get the way it works - that's the definition of "cumulative". I simply used an example of one attack. I understand that if I hit him five times it would be 50% and if I hit him 10 times it would always fail.

If it works on all magic-using enemies, I would give him a point in short bows, keep tuigan and use it exclusively in those battles. I don't care if it does damage or not if it keeps taking down his casting ability by 10% per hit.

 

It works against liches - and dragons too I suppose though I haven't tried it out. I took on the lich in the City Gates district with a wizard slayer pretty early in the game once and he would sometimes fail...
And it goes through some spell protections, Stoneskin fx, but still in the lich fight he didn't fail quite as often as I would have thought which makes me think that spells like Mantle and Imp. Mantle probably counters the cumulative spell faliure

 

If it works on all magic-using enemies, I would give him a point in short bows, keep tuigan and use it exclusively in those battles. I don't care if it does damage or not if it keeps taking down his casting ability by 10% per hit.

I kind of hope that won't work. I mean, that would be extremely cheasy. And I think a arrowshooting wizardslayer isn't much like roleplaying. When I hear 'slayer' I tend to think of a 'butcher' of a sort. Up close and personal if you know what I mean.

But I think the miscast magic ability would work against dragons and demons and such. I think it works against everything. Not sure though. Gonna try and test this.

 

Isn't that like effects on weapons? If a mage is stoneskinned and you hit him with, let's say a flaming longsword +1, it will do its firedamage when it hits the mage because it hit him. The stoneskin only prevented the physical damage, but the weapon hit. But if the mage has mantle, the mantle will not avoid the physical damage. It will avoid being hit. It's the same liking failing your attack roll: No hit, no fire damage, and also no spell failure.

Because of that i don't think that with tuigan you can make kangaxx fail his spells cause you won't have +4 arrows that hit him and so you won't make him fail.

 

I think, so long as your weapon hit(touch) the spell caster, it will works, No matter what protections he has.

 

Well, I tried to test it, so I had my wiz slayer attack my sorcerer first. After 3 hits I stopped, because otherwise the sorcerer would have died. The problem is, there is no icon showing up that says the sorcerer has spell disruption. After that I tried to cast haste 6 times (I should fail about two times, since I should have 30% failure), but I succeeded every time.

So appearantly, it doesn't work against allies, so now I really don't know any effective way of testing. But this is from the game (kit description):
- For each succesful hit on an opponent, 10% cumulative spell failure penalty is applied.

If this description can be taken literally, it would mean that you'd actually have to hit your opponent for this to work. And that it works against everybody, because the description says opponent. There is no limiting factor to that.

 

Hmmm... Perhaps you're right. However, then there really is no advantage to playing a wizard slayer at all. I mean, if all hits don't count, what good are they? Generally speaking the hardest part about an enemy spell caster is hitting him in the first place. If your wizard slayer can do it, chances are others can as well. If you can hit it, then the battle isn't hard. Pretty disappointing if true.

 

I've never played a wizard-slayer. However, one thing to consider is that, if an enemy mage is protected by Stoneskin, a "successful hit" will remove a skin and, presumably in the case of the W/S, add to the spell failure chance, without actually doing any damage. So there is some advantage.

 

@ Splunge

That's exactly my question. Do you have to hit AND inflict damage to get the bonus? If a caster uses absolute immunity, I still can "hit" him, I just can't do any damage to him. So does that mean he get's the 10% penalty? Same thing if I'm attacking a lich that is immune to +1 weapons. I still can "hit" with a +1 weapon, it's just that it doesn't do any damage. Does this count?

 

I don't really know, but as I said, it's hard to test, maybe someone else can do it?

But even if you have to hit and hurt to inflict the spellcasting failure, there is still an advantage. First of all, the wizardslayer may not have been able to get close enough to hit (OK, I know you can practically always reach a spellcaster, but anyway, the WS has MR). Second: you may be able to hit the wizard with your other fighters, but a dragon for instance, has a lot of hitpoints and can still cast a hell of a lot of spells if you are hurting him (but not if his spells fail).

 

You have to hit, but do not have to do damage.

It should work if you're hitting against stoneskin, mantles, whatever.

Actually, the fire damage will be inflicted through mantle, so I'm pretty sure that the spell disruption will punch through as well.

 

It hits through mantle? IIrc mantle makes immune to all weapons below +3, like a dragon for example who is only hit by weapons +2 or stronger or the protection from magical/normal weapons spells. Your characters say something like "My weapon is to bad".

 

I have never played with wizardslayer, but i am sure, that the hit is enough. Just think on the Cansomyr or what. The powerful weapon of a paladin. I can dispell magic. When i used it on a mage who was protected by stoneskin, the skins were removed immediately. No damage, but the magical abilities applied. This is the same with the assassin. The poison always works!

Wizardslayer can be an intresting character, i am realy thinking of playing with one. Maybe dualing to mage, or thief. Wizardslayer/mage sounds stupid, but...

 

Wizard Slayer+Mage=Cowled Wizards.

 

Wizardslayer(15)/Thief(38) is very strong. It allows the wizardslayer to wear the human flesh armor and wield the carsomyr. That's a full 100% magic resistance + you can backstab. The only downside to this is that you don't get the Fighter HLA's.

 

@dmc
Well, the wizardslayer/thief has the ability to a) use Carsomyr and b) backstab - but obviously not with Carsomyr equipped. I think he's talking about the character as a whole...

 

A wizard slayer/thief wielding the Carsomyr and human flesh...
I know it can happen, but it is just so wrong. Anyway, I've played a wizard slayer a few times and have really no complaints. I've had a few enemy mages fail at key moments ina fight and then explode into chunks of stuffing. I think they should work on dragons and liches, but I could be wrong. I'm playing one right now but he's only just out of the first dungeon so I'll see what comes about.