Soiler alert (sic)
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This item earns its name! (You can get it in AP).

I avoided giving it to the Bishop because I knew she would "wrap-around" her points once she got over the invisible 255 limit. This cool-looking garment has a +90 divinity resistance. So I gave it to my Ranger thinking "he doesn't have enough div resistance to worry about crossing the limit". Wrong. He must had over 100 already, but you cannot check out anything above 100 from the menu.

We were in this big battle in Ascension Peak against the arrayed Rapax in all their force. Ok, maybe 20. I wanted to keep it to low numbers and some of those Templars can be tough, with casting Elementals and such. Ran up to Al-whateverhernameis to melee and realized the Soul Shield was not working for the Ranger. He ended up dead twice. Checked out his Div Res during battle. It was 21! This gown armor looks great in stats, despite the -2 HP drain, but I'm recommending people to choose carefully before using it. The Soul Shield can take it over the top (it was a lev 5 cast by the Monk, the Bishop knew to cast a lev 7 Element Shield). I ended up not renewing Soul in battle and had to unparalyze a few peoples. The party is lev 21-23. Won anyway, but it was slightly annoying because I have fallen for this before. End of minor rant. Or warning. Or whatever.

Edit: I first called it a dark gown

[ 11-08-2003, 03:16 PM: Message edited by: Ziggurat ]

yeah i got this once, but i was afraid of the -2 hp so i never used it. i guess this ended up being a good idea.

Yeh, good instinct. I also was allured by the +12 armor protection. BTW, you can negate HP drains with +HP items. They are additive.

an interesting thing about the lord is that their natural hit point regeneration increases with their level (and/or maybe vitality too). so, the BGD is actually a perfect item for them - high AC, low weight, and they can still accessorise as they need!

unfortunately, the only lord i ever developed to fruition never got it :(

Zig:
I'm a little fuzzy on this concept of 'over the top' in stats that the Gown seems to trigger. Are you saying that by adding +80 to the stats, that it starts the numbers back at zero? Can you explain?

The "over the top" problem happens any time a resistance goes past 255; it doesn't have anything to do with a particular item. You could be wearing a couple of resistance items, then between, say, Magic Screen and SoulShield (or Element Shield), your resistances add up to much more than usual. Sloppy programming causes this to wrap around and subtract instead of add in. You can end up with low or even negative resistance.

It's a good idea to check this now and then, especially as you get deeper into the game and you find or buy more items that improve resistance. Just open the magic screen and look at each person's numbers.

<cenetr>Nightowl2</center>

Yes, and check them again during battle when the resistance spells are working. Oh, forgot, then it's too late!

Well, not necessarily too late, just use the Equip option to remove whatever pushes you over. It happened to me once because i had two Amulets of Healing and Divinemail on a Rawulf (+15 Divine). I noticed it because i was looking to see what spell i wanted the round after Soul Shield, and i quickly changed to Equip for that round...Lucky i had heard about the problem, i'da been freakin!

better late than never!

it can happen with any resistance, not just divine. i recall eew telling a story about a fighter (or was it a bard) who had the light shield and experienced the wrapping problem on fire. yikes, that's gotta sting!