This can't be right...

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I just hit the demi-lich (or is Kangaxx the proper term?) for 24 points of damage using a character with a 21 in strength armed with the Sling of Seeking and Sunstones. It was a critical hit, but isn't this guy supposed to be damage resistant? Honestly once changing to the demi-lich he lasted two rounds. I felt like I wasted my protection from magic scroll because he didn't have time to cast imprisonment. The second round the sling did 16 on a non-critical hit, and with the damage from Carsomyr added on, we delt enough damage to kill him in 2 rounds. I know he only has 50 hitpoints, but his damage resistance usually causes the battle to go much, much longer.

 

Have you got any mods installed?

I know when I played with the Improved Kitthix mod he managed to poison half the enemies in the game, even the ones who should be immune to poison. Maybe what you're experiencing is something similar.

 

I do have the multiple stronghold mod installed, the Kelsey mod, and the Solaufein mod, but I don't have anything that would change the damage on the sling of seeking or the sunstones. In fact, I never knew sunstones counted as +4 weapons until I read an Kangaxx thread here recently, so this is the first time that I attempted to beat him with one of my characters using the sling of seeking and sunstones. Needless to say, I was very impressed with the results.

 

Could sunstone bullets be coded to deal more damage to undead? I don't think so myself but maybe someone knows for sure?

 

It must be a bug caused by conflicting mods somewhere along the way. The most damage I've ever got Kangaxx for was either 3 or 4 points, although once the Dragon's Breath Halberd got him for 3 points of basic damage then 3 extra points for 3 of its special damage abilities.

I'll certainly try the sling the next time I fight Kangaxx though.

 

Sunstone bullets do cause more damage to the Undead thats' probably why it worked out that way.

 

Yes, they do cause more, but 24? Keldorn was hitting him with Carsomyr at the same time, and doing around 4-5 points of damage. Granted, the 24 was a critical hit, so it wasn't "normal damage" but the 2nd round I got a non-critical hit for 16 points. I wouldn't be surprised if I got 16 on a regular creature, because my strength bonus alone is probably adding about 10 points of damage to the bullet - so against someone who is not damage resistant, 16 would certainly be in the realm of a possibility. But seeing as how the only time I've seen double-digit damage on Kangaxx was using the Ring of the Ram, 16 seemed really high for a sling stone.

 

I'm sure it's a bug, since if you are doing 16 damage/hit, it's 160 damage with a sling (Kangaxx has 90% resistant to weapon) - a bit too high IMO, the sun stones only has +2 fire damage.

(Well, next time I will surely try this strategy )

 

Since slings don't normally add the strength bonus to the normal damage, perhaps the game treats it as magic damage. Although Kangaxx is resistant to magic, his resistance to magic damage is 0% (I just checked the monster encyclopedia on this site). This is why the Ring of the Ram can do so much damage.

 

Well that certainly is a possible reason - if the strength enhancement is considered magic damage. As a question, if he isn't immune to magic damage, then why don't area affect spells, such as fireball and cloudkill affect him? What's the difference between being resistant/immune to magic, but not to magic damage? It seems like they would go hand-in-hand for a great number of spells.

In the case of the demi-lich, I think he is immune to all spells level 1-9, and I obviously don't have level 10 spells yet (which are strangely, still level 9 spells). For something that looks like the Ring of the Ram attack - say something like Flamestrike - what's the difference between how that damage is coded? Is it considered fire damage instead of magic damage and is that why it doesn't affect him?

 

I think the Ring of the Ram does blunt damage, not magic. The sling of seeking adds a normal strength bonus (there is a setting for weapons called "allow strength bonus" that is the same for the Sling of Seeking as for melee weapons), not magic. Sunstone bullets have +4 attribute for enchantment purposes, which is why they can hit most things even with only +1 to hit. Sunstone bullets do "missile" damage as opposed to "piercing" damage (different setting in the game, despite descriptions). I'm not at home to check the details, but perhaps Kangaxx has resistance to piercing but not to missile damage? There is also a setting for "bypass resistance." Any of the items in question might have this feature -- again, can't check now.

 

Magic resistance stops the effects of any given spell. Someone with 50% magic resistance will not be affected by 50% of the spells that target them. If a player with 50% magic resistance has two Chromatic orbs (that both happen to do 4 damage) cast at him, one will hit for 4 damage and one will not hit.

Magic damage resistance is like physical, cold, fire, etc. damage resistance. If the character above had 50% magic damage resistance instead, both orbs would hit, but each would only do 2 damage.

Things that do magic damage are spells such as Chromatic Orb, Vampric Touch, Skull Trap.

 

OK, so any elemental damage that is not the direct result of a spell will hurt him is what you're saying...

 

Surely if this wasn't a bug someone would have discovered it before now. And it's certainly not mentioned in "Fifty Ways To Kill Your Kangaxx" so it must be a bug.

 

It might also be a weakness in a file in one of the mods he has installed.

 

That is what I would assume. He has no resistance to elemental damage and magic damage. So damage from some sword with +20 fire damage should do whatever low amount from the sword due to his high physical resistances but the full 20 from the fire. This assumes that he doesn't cast things that protect him from those damage types such as: Protection from Magic Energy, Protection from the Elements, Protection from Energy, etc.

 

@CUE: the problem is that the bullet only give you +2 fire damage, there's still 14 damage left.

@Bombur: Actually, Ring of the Ram does Magic damage, but it ignores magic resistance (not magic damage resistance though)