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Attention, cheese ahead!

Every spell, that is not party friendly can be made to ignore magic resistance .

I'll explain how. First I'd like to give an example. Perhaps you have noticed, that spells you cast at yourself will always affect you. Equip Viconia to raise her magic resistance to 100%. Have Aerie cast Flamestrike at Viconia - Viconia will resist. Then let Viconia cast Flamestrike at herself - she will get hurt.

Thesis I: Spells, that you cast at yourself ignore your magic resistance.

Now let us look a peculiar spell. You will probably know, that Sunfire will ignore magic resistance (if used by the party). What makes this spell so special. The spell will do the following:
-It produces a fireball with a damage cap of 15d6.
-It sets your resistance to fire and magic fire to 100% for a short time.
-It is automatically aimed at the caster.
-It will as a matter of fact ignore magic resistance.

Thesis II: Spells that you cast at yourself will not only ignore your own magic resistance, they will completely ignore magic resistance.

Now let me give another example. Let Aerie cast Holy Smite at Viconia - Viconia will resist. Now let Viconia cast Holy Smite at herself - Viconia will still resist. What has happened? Viconia will not have cast really at herself, but instead at the ground beneath her feet. Every spell that lets you target the ground doesn't let you target a person. Be it that you aim at the portrait or the avatar, you will still hit the ground. [To clarify this I will give another example: Everyone will probably have experienced the following situation: A party member is affected by fear and runs wildly around; You cast Resist Fear at his portrait , but once you have finished casting, the panicked character is far, far away, and your spells travels unselessly at the place, where the character has been at the beginning of the casting.] In order to be able to target a person, and thus yourself with a spell it mustn't allow you to target the ground.

So we are looking for spells that fulfill the following conditions:

-They must not be party friendly
-They must not let you target the ground. (In order to be able to target yourself)
-They should affect more than one person. (Well that is not really a necessity, but we are trying to [ab]use the fact, that spells targeted at yourself will ignore magic resistance, by letting others (preferably enemies) share in the effect.)
Most area spells are targeted at the ground (e.g. Fireball, Holy Smite), and those that are not, are usually party friendly (e.g. Hold Person, Insect Plague).

So, are there any such spells?

There is one such spell, Lightning Bolt. Unfortunately it is far to unpredictable (even more unpredictable than it is already) if you cast it at yourself. Move Viconia and Aerie to a small room. Let Aerie cast Protection from Lightning at herself, then let her fire a Lightning Bolt, again at herself – Viconia will get fried by the rebounds. Magic resistance will not help her.

Is this really the only spell that can be used in this fashion?

It is, but there are ways.
1)Triggers don't let you target the ground.
2)Contingencies can be set to target: self.
3)There are some items, that cast area spells, which don't let you target the ground.(e.g. the Fireball of the Book of Infinite Spells, the Wand of Frost)

Move Aerie next to Viconia. Let Aerie prepare a Spell Sequencer with three Holy Smites, then let her fire it at herself – Viconia will get blasted. Magic resistance will not help her.

There are many more examples , what to do to magic resistant foes. Protect yourself from magic damage. Fill a Sequencer with three skulltraps and visit some mindflayers. Fill a Minor Sequencer with two Stinking Clouds and see that Firkraag is not immune to the sleep effect. Protect yourself from fire, then show those drow what a Chain Contingency filled with three Fire Clouds can do. See some Golems stuck by your Sequencer of Web, Web, Web. And much more. Courtesy to UU: Sequencer with Mirror Image, Skull Trap, Skull Trap, Chain Contingency with Sun Fire, Delayed Blast Fireball, Delayed Blast Fire Ball. Of course, all of the above targeted on self.

But only spells, that are not party friendly will work this way.Move Aerie next to a hostile Mindflayer. Let Aerie load a Chain Contingency with three ADHWs, set to target: self. Trigger the Chain Contingency – The Mindflayer will be unscathed.

Conclusion: Any spell, that is not party friendly, will ignore magic resistance, if you target it at yourself.

There are some oddities as well: If you fill a contingency with Call Lightning set to target: self (via potion swap) it will not ignore magic resistance.

Prize question: Knowing all this, how do you make a Meteor Swarm ignore magic resistance?


Best regards,
Lark.

P.S.: Comments are welcome.
P.P.S.: I have nothing against Viconia, she is just the only available character with sufficient magic resistance.

excellent research!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and quite evil...:mischief:

meteor swarm...make yourself immune to fire, then run into a room full of mindflayers, and cast it at yourself...run out...(imroved haste would help):mischief:

me likee!!!

Amazing stuff, I've always though that all the game tricks and advantages had been found but that's two really cool one's you've discovered.

Prize question: Knowing all this, how do you make a Meteor Swarm ignore magic resistance?

meteor swarm...make yourself immune to fire, then run into a room full of mindflayers, and cast it at yourself...run out...(imroved haste would help)

But the point is: How do you manage to cast it at yourself, and not just at the ground beneath your feet? Since Meteor Swarm is of level 9, it will not fit in a Chain Contingency. So how do you make a Meteor Swarm ignore magic resistance, i.e. how do you aim it at yourself? (If I'm asking like this, there is a way, although it is not completely reliable, there is in fact a second way, but it is even more unreliable than the first one.)

Best regards,
Lark.

I don't have a Baldur's Gate install to test this, but how about Wild Magic?

Pretty Incredible

Nice work indeed Lark. Bioware should offer you a job.
So it doesn't matter whether spells are arcane or divine then, yes?

I don't have a Baldur's Gate install to test this, but how about Wild Magic?

That's the second way. If a wild mage casts Meteor Swarm by Nahal's Reckless Dweomer and happens to get the wild surge #31 - Spell centered on caster, then Meteor Swarm will ignore magic resistance. But what's about the first way?

So it doesn't matter whether spells are arcane or divine then, yes?

Both types of spells, arcane as well as divine, can be made unaffected by magic resistance.

Lark

Lark wrote:But the point is: How do you manage to cast it at yourself, and not just at the ground beneath your feet? Since Meteor Swarm is of level 9, it will not fit in a Chain Contingency. So how do you make a Meteor Swarm ignore magic resistance, i.e. how do you aim it at yourself? (If I'm asking like this, there is a way, although it is not completely reliable, there is in fact a second way, but it is even more unreliable than the first one.)

Best regards,
Lark.

not sure...

but you can put ninth level spells into chain contingency...if you edit the spell using near infinity...

isn't there a wish spell (greater wish) backfire with insufficient wis or int where you get meteor swarmed?

Have you got a list of the spells that can be used in this combo? What confused me in particular is that it's possible to use Greater Malison on Golems, Greater Malison is party friendly though.

What of elemental resistances too? Do inate/spell/ability resistances to Fire/Lightning/etc provide protection against spells or get ignored like magic resistance?

@UserUnfriendly
You're right. One of the bad wish options is calling a Meteor Swarm down upon the caster. Perhaps I made it too easy and revealed too much in my question. On a sidenote, it was because of this wish option, that I began to suspect a bug: Viconia got burned, although she had 100% magic resistance, and the Genie got burned as well. A thing that shouldn't have been possible.

@Deadalready
You're correct, Deadalready. My mistake. I already corrected the error. Thank you for being attentive. The rest however will work. This technique will only work against magic resistance. Elemental resistances will not get ignored, and neither enemy Lich immunity (immunity to spell level x), neither enemy Spell Immunity (immunity to spell school) and neither immunity to effects.

Lark wrote:@UserUnfriendly
You're right. One of the bad wish options is calling a Meteor Swarm down upon the caster. Perhaps I made it too easy and revealed too much in my question. On a sidenote, it was because of this wish option, that I began to suspect a bug: Viconia got burned, although she had 100% magic resistance, and the Genie got burned as well. A thing that shouldn't have been possible.

@Deadalready
You're correct, Deadalready. My mistake. I already corrected the error. Thank you for being attentive. The rest however will work. This technique will only work against magic resistance. Elemental resistances will not get ignored, and neither Lich immunity .

lich immunity works on everything...as a lark, I gave a kensai-sorceress lich immunity, and tried casting stone skin...nothing...lich immunity even bypasses the law about beneficial spells cast on a character with high level magic resistance...This is why they script-cast protection from normal weapons and protection from magic weapons...

btw...this is an evil idea...but using shadowkeeper, you can give yourself the various greater wish spell results as buttons on your special bar...hmmm...a meteor swarm that bypasses magic resistance...that would be fun...improv haste, run into room, click, and run out...

lich immunity works on everything...as a lark, I gave a kensai-sorceress lich immunity, and tried casting stone skin...nothing...

That is strange. I usually found the Lich immunity(and Rakshasa immunity as well as Demilich immunity) to be nothing else than an improved Globe of invulnerability that protects against spells of up to 5th (resp. 7th and 9th) level. To be sure I tested it again and gave a character the "lich" item (resp. "rakring" and "demilich") and found Stoneskin to work just fine. The Lich immunity worked as I expected.

An oddity:
-Liches cast Sunfire not at themselves, but at their enemies. They are affected by their own Sunfire. That is doubly astounding, as it seems they don't benefit from the fire resistance granted by Sunfire, and their Lich immunity, that should protect them from spells up to 5th level does not stop this spell, if they cast it themselves.

Some more oddities, than I unfortunately can't explain with the above stated theory:

-I already mentioned, that Call Lightning does not pierce magic resistance, when you fire it at yourself with a contingency, although Call Lightning is not party friendly. It may have something to do with the fact that it is an unusual spell, the only (damaging) one that strikes repeatedly at hostile targets.

-the Wish option to cast 'Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting' on everyone in the area, including the party will not ignore magic resistance, although it is not party friendly, not even the the ADHW that is fired at yourself will. Again, it is a special case, so it is difficult to make any comparisions.

-If you set the surge number to #31- Caster target of spell, even spells that are not party friendly ignore magic resistance. In fact, party friendly spells will become non party friendly. (So ADHW will ignore magic resistance, but will hurt your party as well)

Best regards,
Lark.