Me and My Ineffective Spells

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Gorsh, I feel pretty stupid asking this, but:

Are some of my spells not supposed to work against certain enemies with Tactics Mod? For instance, I am facing one of the Liches in the Docks (the one next to Renal's place, probably a Tactics Mod Lich). I thought something was amiss when none of my anti-spell protection spells worked (something I've noticed many other times), so I went off to experiment. Using the talk bug and ctrl+Y'ing all the henchies, I cast Magic Missile. Okay, she's magic resistant. So I tried to Lower Resistance next. "Lich - Spell Ineffective." Very odd. And while Minute Meteors manage to do damage to her, I still get the 'spell ineffective' message. I can also damage her with Celestial Fury while she is ready to talk. So I then let the Lich do her 8-spell contingency cocktail, and now she's resistant to fire/damage/acid/energy, etc. Celestial Fury and Meteors no longer do damage. I then cast Breach. I get no feedback as to whether it works or not. I should have no doubts, however, since she doesn't have any spell turnings/deflections, etc., on. No dice. Both attacks are still ineffective. Spell Thrust? Nope. Warding Whip says that it eliminates spell protections, but I think it's lying. Dispel with a 34th level Inquisitor doesn't seem to do the trick either.

I don't want to blame it on what can be, perhaps, a very contrived method of improving difficulty, without knowing that's what it is. Maybe I'm just not doing something right or could something like this be cause by some kind of mod conflict or something?


I'm probably just terrible at this game.

 

Some enemies can be immune to certain spell levels and lower. Meteors work because they are an actual weapon (with +5 enchantment IIRC) rather than a spell. I ran into a similar encounter with liches in the Trademeet Tomb with my solo level 13 sorcerer. Having stumbled upon them (yes, there are two) without expecting it, I was forced into some unorthodox fighting methods. They follow you out of doors and teleport you to them and dispell all your protections if you run, although I believe they only do this once. I could breach one but not the other and it seems it is this latter type of lich you have met. See if you can lure him outside and then get a guard to attack him. Just get away one way or another and then sleep. A lot of his protections will be gone and, though he will still have some contingencies, he should be easy enough.

 

Short answer : in the earlier stage where you have no ruby ray, your best bet is to drop some of death fog on the lich. Being a lvl 6 spell liches are not immune to them. And most of them do not protect themselves right away against it.

Long Answer:
Liches even in original game IIRC is immune to spells lvl 5 or lower, meaning breach will not work. Dispel and remove magic is an exception as these spells still work. However in tactics, as with most other mages they cast Spell Immunity : Abjuration (its called tattoo of power for liches) at the beginning of the fight , meaning you first have to dispel that before you can begin taking down its other protections. Which bring me to one of the most important spell in tactics, ruby ray. Its one of the only 2 protection remover that is not abjuration, and unlike spellstrike it removes spelltrap. If you want to fight the lich (and other difficult enemies) fairly, your best bet is to ruby ray it twice or thrice and then mass dispel and beat him to the ground. Spell sequencer of 3 dispel/remove magic is invaluable here to save time since it has ALOT of protections.

 

abel:

Thanks bro, that explains everything. Forgive my ignorance, but 2e is all but forgotten to me and I tend to think in terms of 3.5 all the time.

 

Actually. Breach does work on Kangaxx if you can catch him without one of his several mislead type spells on him in the core game. It only works against some protections though. There are some it just doesn't seem to work on.

 

Death fog is way to go. Liches are immune to Breach, and low level spells. (1-5) They are immune to dispel magic AND remove magic spells, or your Inquisitor's abilities but SoM or similar item can still dispel them I haven'T tried yet. If they have SI:Abjuration too this is another matter. You will need Ruby Ray of Reversal, a 7th level alteration spell to negate that. (and as such it is a wise pick for those who love tactics)

You need 6th+ level spells to touch a lich, or Melf's minute meteors which are considered weapon. Ofcourse pfrom Magic weapons, fire and stoneskin will render them useless. And Demiliches are even immune to every magical spell available, except Dragon Breath, which simulates an actual dragon breathing and can KO one Demilich in one hit! (nice trick!)

Death Fog is nice, it is rare taht liches get PfromAcid, and even they do their more dangerous spells will still be disrupted each round. If you release multiple clouds they won't be able to cast a single spell at all!

Be sure to take care of their tricky illusions, either by True Sight or if they have SIivination, use Detedt Illusions skill by a thief. The release a lot of Death Fogs and watch as they die fast or waste their deadly spells. Delayed blast fireball and Fire storm should hit them but they get PfromFire often. Incendiary cloud kills the in few round on the rare occasion they forget to put PfromFire or somehow you managed to dispel it.

Some smarter mages even get SpellShield, which nullifies one removal spell effect. If he has both SI.abjuration and Spellshield, you roll a Ruby ray, but Spellshield deflects it and is gone. You need another Ruby Ray to strip SI. Agh!

 

Or you could just uninstall Tactics. It cheats.

 

^But it is so much fun I don'T care!