Gah, imprisonment!

[TheHellion]

Well, I'm making an attempt to solo ToB as a monk. Currently, I'm on level four of Watcher's Keep, and I'm having a hell of a time with that demi-lich. I can and will beat him, but I'd like to express some displeasure with the way Imprisonment was implemented into the game. Surprisingly, I had never paid much attention to it up until now.

According to 2nd edition AD&D, which the BG series is based off of, the Imprisonment spell should behave quite differently than it does in the game. For one, it's a touch attack; that is, you must actually reach out and touch the victim in order for the spell to take effect. In BG2 and ToB, you need only cast it, and voila, they're history. That makes this spell ridiculously powerful. In fact, once you start casting it, the result is final; even if the victim runs completely off the screen, your Imprisonment spell will actually follow them! Nutty.

I couldn't say whether or not this is true for BG2, but in ToB, magic resistance apparently has no bearing on Imprisonment whatsoever; which is bizarre, considering that it's a directly targeted spell. My monk has 103% magic resistance, and that demi-lich tagged him every time. My sorcerer could also imprison virtually anything, regardless of strong natural resistance to magic. This aspect I can assume is a bug, though it may have been intended to behave that way. I certainly hope not.

Anyway, I was frustrated, so I decided to b!tch to all of you about it. I feel much better now. Have a nice day.

[Pebz]

I HATE Imprisonment

As for the Demi-lich; Scroll of protection from undead will do you fine

[fable]

It is ridiculously powerful, @Hellion, but keep in mind that it was deliberately intended in BG2 to provide a challenge to parties who were used to opponents with poor AI. If you can't give 'em good AI, give 'em better spells, I suppose; and since you couldn't cast those spells in SoA, and the demi-liches could, you were faced with a strategic challenge.

[fable]

@Underdog, I wouldn't call it cheating in this particular case, since it's not a strategy game, and the sides are in no way supposedly balanced. And I can understand setting party size and spell variety against AI-driven enemies who have more levels.

But I do have to wonder if it would have taken a lot more programming to write in greater spell, targetting, and movement flexibility for opponents in combat.

[Saruman]

The BG2 rule book lists the imprisonment spell as range touch. If you cast it on oponents does it behave as a touch spell?

[Meerlight]

The Imprisonment for DemiLiches is ranged so that is a BIG rules tweak. When my sorcerer casts imprisonment on a creature he has to get right up next to it. But if the creature moves away while the spell is being cast, the imprisonment will follow him anywhere. I've had this experience with insect swarms. I had my character running around with boots of speed just ahead of the swarm. It was pretty funny....

[Pebz]

Some of the Elder Orbs (Beholders) use imprisonment... and they actully have to touch you.

[Catcher]

The difference between the "normal" Imprisonment and the demi-lich's Imprisonment is actually caused by a little "fudging" on the part of the programmers. In PnP DnD the demi-lich actually uses a form of a spell called Trap the Soul. This places the soul/spirit of the target creature into a gem (usually found in the place of eyes and teeth on the demi-lich skull) and the body crumbles to dust in a few rounds Since BIS/Bio didn't have a Trap the Soul spell, they just had to give demi-liches the closest BG equivalent. This DOESN'T excuse the homing Imprisons from other critters, but at least it gives you an idea as to why demi-liches can do the blatently impossible

[Xyx]

Does Kangaxx's version of Imprisonment ignore magic resistance? Judging by the amount of tips on Protection from Magic Scrolls I would guess it does not. Have to check...

BTW, I have an Elder Orb script that uses Imprisonment quite efficiently (check my sig). I was also thinking about improving high level Mage scripts (they sure need it). The developers did a sad job on those.