House of Knowledge

[Charles I]

Arcane Trickster casts a negative energy burst. Combat log shows I make my save then sometimes I resist the spell and sometimes my resistance is overcome. Shouldn't spell resistance be checked first? Coding typo maybe? Save attempt should only be needed when resistance is overcome. Just seems wrong that I make save yet still take effect.

[Nyeleni]

I think you always take some damage. It just gets halved if you don't save against. Not sure if SR helps at all.

[Amoenotep]

save vs the str drain

resistance check vs the neg direct damage

[cRaZy8or5e]

save vs the str drain

resistance check vs the neg direct damage

*warily raises hand*

Uhh common sense would dictate that the resistance check against a spell would happen first, so why doesn't that happen here. Why does it do the str drain Check before the resistance check.

*prepares to pull out a Bud Dry*

[mgrjebbo]

Intresting question.

[Amoenotep]

because you can always take the str drain


just like a drow is blinded if he still passes the resist for flame

[Korr]

ie. Neg Burst is SR = half (not yes or no), always str not always damage

[cRaZy8or5e]

Ahh ok, still doesn't seem right, but I can see the reasoning.

*puts away Bud Dry*

I guess it was okay to ask why this time!

[Tsavong]

I did some tests with negative energy burst.

1st I think the will save is for half damage. Str loss has no save I think

2nd if you have SR and resist the spell you don't suffer str loss or damage even if the log shows the SR check after the save.

At least that's how it seemed to work to me and the poor guy I tested it on.

[Blystos Re]

Good to know.

I can't be certain, but I think that's exactly the opposite of how I thought it worked.

[LinuxPup]

I think Flailer talked about the custom SR check we have, but anyway...

NPCs can have spells (Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, etc.) or "special abilities". Among special abilites there are two type: spells and monster abilities. Special ability spells are not the same as normal spells: we can give special ability spells to any class (notice Ragnar who's a fighter/wm I believe can cast Heal). The problem with special ability spells is that they max out at caster level 15, which makes them worthless for epic areas... So our solution is the ability to set caster levels on NPCs to whatever we want, and when we do SR checks, assuming the bioware one succeeds, we do another SR check to verify whether or not our custom spellcaster level check passes or not. The message you sometime see "The creature has overcome your spell resistance" or something like that appears when our custom SR check deems the artificial spellcaster level + d20 is greater than or equal to your SR. Without this custom check 36 SR would be enough to resist any special ability spell since 15 + 20 = 35.

For example the Arcane Tricksters in House of Knowledge as far as I remember actuallly have no sorc/wiz/bard/druid/cleric levels at all, yet they cast ice storm as a special ability spell... so we set their custom spellcaster level to something decent (because level 15 would be too easily resistable, and wouldn't do enough damage). Also, any 1 round/caster level buffs would only last 15 rounds max without a custom spellcaster level.