Improved mages problem

[big_bad_mother_board]

Hello forums,

 

I recently switched from Tactics to SCS II and I am on my first playtrough. So far I am impressed but today I encountered my first medium level mage and I don't know if there is a bug in my installation or I'm just used to tactics' way of life. I am trying to kill Mekrath from Haer'Dalis mission. I tried backstabbing, but he apparently has stoneskin although it doesn't show up when I load the map (I'm used to tactics actually telling me what protections wizards use) is it a bug or a feature?

So i tried breach just before back-stab, nope. Apparently he also has spell shield. I tried 3 breaches, nope. I SK-d Spellstrike and ruby ray and used them and then breach, didn't work. It says combat protections dispelled but I do no damage. I Ctrl+R him, doesn't work either. It also seems like his spell shield absorbs more than 1 attack. Is it normal that no matter what spells I use I just have to survive first 5 or so rounds? Can I also somehow enable the information on the buffs that the mage already has when I enter the map? It would be helpful considering I have stoneskin and spell trap animations disabled...

[kreso]

Can I also somehow enable the information on the buffs that the mage already has when I enter the map? It would be helpful considering I have stoneskin and spell trap animations disabled...

Isn't this information auto-enabled per default? Maybe you could post your Weidu log, iirc Mekrath has stoneskin in place when you enter his hideout (in vanilla it can't be breached) but you should be able to read what buffs he uses.

Have you also Tactics installed?

As for "animations disabled" - I'm highly against that. Being able to see when stoneskins are breached/depleted is very important. I agree that it looks awful seeing you character grey 90% of the game, but it's invaluable.

[Wisp]

IIRC, vanilla Mekrath has an item that grants unbreachable Stoneskin. Depending on what mods you have and what they do, this Stoneskin may or may not be susceptible to Breach. With SCS, I don't know if Mekrath retains this item or if the Stoneskin is Breachable, but if he does and it isn't, that would explain your problems. aTweaks has a component for making this kind of Stoneskin Breachable.

 

As kreso says, being unable to see if they have Stoneskins or spell protections is a major handicap. If you don't like the vanilla animation for Spell Trap et al., the 1PP mod has a replacement animation that is just great.

[big_bad_mother_board]

Ah unbreachable Stoneskin would explain that... Well I had this animations disabled with tactics and never had any problem with that, as I try to pay a lot of attention to battle log. I do use 1PP but had disabled Spell Trap because I thought 1PP makes everything just look prettier but not very different. Are you telling me that spell trap is no longer a big blob around a character?

 

EDIT: Okay, 1PP version of spell trap does look much much better. Thanks for the suggestion! I will also consider restoring stoneskin... So it turns out that SCS may have not been at fault here, I just saturated him with magic missiles, so he couldn't have many more buffs aside from stoneskin. Case closed.

[Wisp]

There is a screenshot featuring the replacement animation here.

[kreso]

I think there is just one mage aside Mekrath that uses that item, Conster in Windspear Hills...I've been using the abovementioned aTweaks component for so long I forgot if there are any more. You can install it over SCS, it won't break anything.