[Alson]

The big brother is listening!

I refered Xyx to your feedback, guys.
Here is his reply:

Xyx's Email to Alson: OK, could read it now. Lessee... Good feedback! I've included my comments here. Relay to them what you wish. This was from Jim: "It seems that you've mentioned the saving throw bonus/penalty that some spells give, but not all of them. In order to make the guide consistent, I'd suggest mentioning all the saving throw modifiers for applicable spells." Won't do. That would be totally redundant since it merely duplicates the manual. The reason SOME saves ARE mentioned is to emphasize the use[ful/less]ness of particular spells. "There was a comment about the use any item ability, to allow a thief to use Carsomyr, Human Flesh, Ring of Gaxx, Amulet of Seradine to provide 90% MR. I know these items were only given as examples, but Carsomyr grants 50% MR, not +50% MR, so you can see the MR stack only if you equip the Carsomyr first, then the other items, but the first time you actually use Carsomyr, its 50% MR will be applied and override any other bonuses (apart from innate MR), so this combination won't actually give 90% MR." This I don't get. If you start off with Carsomyr, you get 90%, right? So what is he talking about? "The above comment about Charisma is a little vague. This discount depends entirely on the actual CHA value. Discounts stop advancing after a CHA of 20, with 20 giving the maximum discount of 25%. Example (prices in brackets reflect percentage discount): Staff of Rynn +4, Base cost: 22275 16 CHA = 21060 (5%) 17 CHA = 19980 (10%) 18 CHA= 18900 (15%) 19 CHA= 17820 (20%) 20 CHA= 16605 (25%)" Is this true? I've never been able to get another discount than 10%, even with 24 Charisma. "Sword Spiders have 5 attacks per round, not 4 as was referenced by the spider spawn spell (as creatures they have 4 APR base, but have permament haste)." Good point. In it goes. "Cone of Cold was referenced as above, but name another spell that deals upto 20D4+20 damage for level 5" Skull Trap. Same average, only level 3. "It was suggested to take skull trap over sunfire, but sunfire is available by level 9 (so a skull trap would do 9D6 at this equivalent level) and deals 50% more damage than a fireball dealing 15D6 damage! I think sunfire is a very capable spell. There's also no danger of harming the caster like there is for a fireball or skull trap spell." What's this "9D6 is 50% more than 15d6" business? "I wouldn't refer to Protection from Acid as "Worthless" since it makes one particular engagement in the game much easier and it lasts an age (upto 20 turns)." Noted. Plus a spoiler disclaimer on the home page. =D "This is a tiny nitpick, but it's not possible to have rep of less than 1." Noted. Xyx hates typos indeed. =D "There was also a comment about the Aerial Servant being about as touch as a mountain bear. In fact, the AS is much tougher with 128 HP compared to 70 HP." Indeed, hit points aren't everything. In my admittedly limited testing, the mountain bear kicked the crap out of the Aerial Servant about half the time. Now that I check them out with Near Infinity, I do indeed get the clear impression that the bears were just lucky. The Servant is WAY better. "I've also never understood the fascination with Natures Beauty. They get a +3 bonus to the save or die, and the blindness only affects a tiny 5 foot radius around the caster, so I'm not sure how you disable half the battlefield with this one. It's a good spell, but there are much better 7th level divine spells IMO." The possibility of this being true shocked me so much that I went ahead and verified it. Lined up a dozen hobgoblin archers and cast Nature's Beauty. Half was killed, and those that were in the "kill range" that lived were ALL blinded. This is from Dundee: "A little nitpick about Spike Traps. They do not affect everybody. The blue guardians in Watcher's Keep level 5 are immuned to them." Noted. "Liches can and will cast on you with direct-damage spells even if you are totally invisible. This applies to other enemies that can see through invisibility." This kind of figures, but I made a tiny mention about it. "ADD] The website seems leery of having high resistances, judging from the way it described the various Protection from ~~ spells, but resistances should not be underestimated, and should be highly embraced at all times. Healing from the enemy is a wonderful power tactic, and there is no problem with spell disruption because you can just choose to cast when the enemy is not casting. Remember, if they cannot hurt you, they cannot kill you." Enemies that totally depend on one type of elemental damage are pretty rare... Stuff like dragons does elemental damage and physical damage, spellcasters do a wide variety of elemental damages, and you never know which one comes first. Then Alson says this: "me and Xyx are quite heavy on the offensive playing style." I'm not too heavy on the offensive style, I just think that there are better ways to spend a level 8 spell slot than PARTIAL protection against SOME of your opponents attacks. FULL protection is great, I give you that, but full protection is hard to get since it usually requires physical protections as well. OK, maybe if you have a stack of Protections from Magical Weapons lined up... Will reword slightly (again). "Pierce Shield was a bit of misinformation as well. It is not a RRoR+Weaker Lower Resistance, but a Secret Word+Lower Resistance. At level 20, both LR and PS lowers the enemy's Magic Resistance by 30%. 3 of these in a Chain Contingency is extremely scary to an enemy Mage. Take out one and throw in a RRoR if the target has Spell Trap." This I don't get. Besides wondering why you'd need to remove an enemy Spell Trap or lower a mage's resistance, why Secret Word instead of Ruby Ray of Reversal? "[about Protection from Energy] I wholely disagree with this. 75% resistance to Fire/Cold/Electricity/Acid/Magic Damage is not to be sniffed at. Combine with the Belt of Inertial Barrier and you heal from Magic Missile/Skull Trap/ADHW. Combine with other equipment, and you gain immunity and healing when possible. This spell should not be underestimated." Let's just say I like Simulacrum and Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting a LOT better. If you really need to buff up before a fight, use several of the lower level ones. "[about Finger of Death] He's kidding right? I was slaying Fire Giants and Dragons in ToB with this spell. They key here is Greater Malison." No, he's not kidding. Compare this to the payload of a Project Image and the difference should be obvious. Besides, Polymorph Other is a pretty viable and MUCH cheaper alternative if you're going to use Greater Malison. "[about Raise Dead] Your friend does know that "even if your summon does not get hurt, it will go hostile", right?" No, he doesn't. In fact, he was so shocked by the possibility this could be so that he decided to verify it on the spot. Skull Trapped two Skeleton Warriors. One got hit and turned hostile, the other was unaffected and stayed friendly. "[about Feeblemind] Mediocre my a**. Feeblemind is the reason why I managed to kill Abazigal with a Dispel Magic. It has a -2 save penalty, combine with Greater Malison for a -6 penalty. Throw in Doom for a -8 penalty." Mediocre because one spell at a lower level does about the same, and one spell at the same level does something better. Some people seem to think that every spell is good "since you can combine with Greater Malison". Does that make every spell good, or just Greater Malison? "[about Protection from Acid] Level 5 you mean." Oops. Good catch. Xyx hates typos. [img]smile.gif[/img] "[about Spell Immunity] Urm... rightttt... SI is one of the best protection spells in the game. I laugh at Kangaxx and all other Liches because of this spell." Well, how many Kangaxxes do you meet? And what's so useful against other liches? Protecting against their Symbol, Symbol, Symbol sequence? Back to Jim... "[about Shield] it was stated that this spell does not protect from MM in IWD. I was merely saying that it does" Ah. Noted. I don't have IWD, alas. "a level 9 skull trap will deal 9D6 damage. A sunfire cast at the same level will deal 15D6" Where'd he get that idea? A level 9 Sunfire does 9d6 damage. "The divine version grants +80% resistance to *magic* fire, the arcane version grants +50% resistance to *magic* fire. Both grant 100% resistance to normal fire. The durations are different, as are the casting times, so these spells are definatley not identical." Ah, noted. Certainly not identical. There's no magic fire damage that I know of, though. =D Great feedback! These guys have my thanks. [img]smile.gif[/img] Xyx

[ 11-04-2002, 11:31 AM: Message edited by: Alson ]