Q: Necro scrolls

[Joram Lionheart]

According to the manual, "to use a scroll, you have to have 20 points below the magery required to cast them, or more." Is this true for necromancy scrolls as well? I.E., would you be able to cast plague or liche (100 necromancy skillcheck) if you had necromancy as secondary but were using a scroll?

[Agata]

Official response based on an actual intensive review of the scripts (45 minute review of scroll.src, necroscroll.src, liche.src, plague.src and magic.inc).

Liche and Plague are 8th circle spells, so they require a MAGERY check of 100. This means at 100 Magery you have a 50% success chance at this check. Internally, the Liche spell does a check for 90 Necromancy, this means at 90 Necromancy you have a 50% chance of success at this second check. The actual chance of succeeding at both checks if you have 100 Magery and 90 Necromancy would be the 50% of 50% (that's 25% chance). If you fail the Magery check, nothing happens; if you pass the Magery check but fail the Necromancy check, you consume mana but fail the spellcast. If you pass both checks, there is an 1 in 12 chance to die.

Plague has no internal Necromancy check, its success chance is based solely the Magery check. Its power is based on both Magery and Necromancy.

About the scrolls, the scroll and necroscroll scripts are different, but the bonus of 20 points in the Magery check is applied on the necroscroll code too.

[Joram Lionheart]

Thank you so much for taking the time to review this information. Maybe it should be added to the manual.

Since we're on the topic of the Liche spell, the manual says that it works like Polymorph. But does it work in addition to Polymorph? Do the buffs stack, I guess is what I'm asking. If not, is it a better buff than Polymorph or is it just the necro version of that buff? If I'm going risk dying each time I use it, I want to know if it's worth it.

[Agata]

It's better than polymorph by 4 points, and it lasts for several hours. If you have 110 Magery, 110 Meditation and 110 Necromancy, the highest Liche bonus you can get is 29, and it lasts for 3 hours and 33 minutes, compared to Polymorph with a bonus of 25 and a duration of 41 minutes.

All buff spells have a type, and buffs of the same type don't stack. The Liche spell is of type "poly". Spectre's Touch is a "triple bonus spell" in that it adds bonuses of type "str", "dex" and "int", corresponding to Strength, Agility and Cunning spells respectively. The Bless spell is of type "all".

[Joram Lionheart]

Thank you, Agata. Once again, this information is gold. By the way, I think you mean 110 Invocation, not Meditation.

I never thought of Spectre's Touch as a buff spell. I'm assuming that if I use that spell on a titan I would get much better results than if I used it on an orc. Does it work like a buff in that I need to wait for the effect to wear off before I can "reset" it? What I mean is, I couldn't cast it on a troll and get a measly bonus and then cast it on a troll chieftain 5 minutes later and get a new bonus, could I?

Seriously, this information should be added to the manual. Zoram? Xan?

[Agata]

I am not mistaken, Liche and Polymorph use Meditation as well. For buff spells, Invocation, Necromancy and Animal Lore are compared, and the highest of the three is used, so if you have 110 Necromancy, your Invocation is irrelevant for buffs.

As for Spectre's Touch, it's some sort of weaken, clumsy and feeblemind woven together into a single spell, and as such, it's subject to magic resistance. This means if your target has a high magic resist skill, it reduces the effect, and a low magic resist amplifies it. You get a bonus equal to the debuff applied to your target. If you want the best buffs, aim for targets with 0 magic resistance.

In the golden days of WoD there were the funny comments about Azzo and Rederick (Roderick's necro, I think, my memory is fuzzy) "sacrificing" chickens before going into battle.

And yes, all buffs need to wear off before you can reset them, including Spectre's Touch. So if your liche spell has only 5 minutes remaining and you want to keep your high bonus without risking your life, you can cast polymorph to extend it. You can check the remaining time with the .status command.

[Zoram]

I'm in the middle of a PC meltdown. I'm going to install linux. That also means I'll be loosing all of my informations relating to WoD. this is the 3rd time in as many months that Win7 has asploded on me! I'm not happy!

BTW, will you send me a PM so I can get this added? otherwise I will forget!

[Azzo_Ranar]

::chuckles:: I had forgotten about the sacrificial chickens....