Question about Dark Planetar on-hit-dispel effect

[Christian]

Ok, I am trying to understand how it works. Right now the only way to protect against it seems to be PFMW. Is this correct?

In my installation BG2EE with SCS 34.3 the on-hit-dispel bypasses SI:Abjuration and vorpal effect on hit triggers after the dispel on the same hit. So, main character goes from fully protected to death in one hit. Is there a saving throw against the on hit dispel? Carsomyr allows one, so it would only be fair.

 

edit: If there is a saving throw it seems not to be affected by a potion of magic shielding. So I guess the dispelling chance is determined by the level mechanic.

Edited November 17, 2021 by Christian

[jmerry]

No saving throw against the dispel; I'm pretty sure no dispel effects in the game use that.

Carsomyr's on-hit dispel is level 30, as is the Staff of the Magi. Arrows of dispelling always dispel with no level check.

The planetar weapon dispels with "use caster level", with a 26% chance coinciding with the vorpal effect. This is not changed by SCS. Planetars are level 25 mages. There's a parameter where the level goes for "use specific level"; zero in vanilla, 15 in my old SCS install. (Edit: that's not a mod change, that's a 2.6 change. SCS does not modify the weapon at all.)

Testing it (cast Death Ward on the Jailkeep Golem, tell planetar to attack it)... in vanilla, a level 12 Death Ward stands up to the planetar's dispels for a while, but not forever. Seven dispel/vorpal hits, three failed saves, and it went down. The SCS version was about the same.

Further testing, using a party member on my SCS install: The first vorpal hit fails to dispel either a level 8 Stoneskin or a level 12 Death Ward. The second kills the target.

So ... the ordering doesn't let Death Ward protect against the vorpal effect if the dispel check succeeds (I'd change this, and move that dispel effect to the last spot). But on the flip side, it's definitely not a level 25 dispel; the dispel check fails way too often for that. I don't know what level of dispel it is, but I suspect around 10 (with or without SCS).

Edited November 27, 2021 by jmerry

[Christian]

Thanks for the examination!

Ok so the readme on SCS is wrong on adjusting the Carsomyr dispel on hit to allow a saving throw?

I am not sure if the dispel and vorpal hit need to coincide. I guess those could be checked against separately. That would make examination quite difficult though.

Level 15 dispel seems quite weak later on given the praise this spell gets.

 

[jmerry]

Carsomyr's dispel requiring a saving throw ... oh, that must be a component I never installed. Why nerf an item I hardly ever use anyway? Looking at the file for it, it should work.

Planetars are good at lots of things. Dispelling isn't one of them. The weapon dispel is something like level 10, a quarter of the time. Their Dispel Magic spell is level 0 or 1 (it's the divine spell, and they're single-class mages). Since I'm coding up a tweak mod right now, there goes another component - fix it so all of their spells have high caster level and the weapon actually dispels at their (base) level. I do throw the defender a bone and move the dispel effect to the end of the list - that way, Death Ward will keep you alive before it gets dispelled.