Party Buff spells.

[MasterPooBaa]

looking at spells like platearmour, magic screen and enchanted
blade.

got the following questions...
with creatures such as plants that squirt burning pollen, are their blinding
squirt attacks negated in any way by magic screen? is the squirt
considered a physical or magical attack?

is the platearmour spell stronger at higher magic level, or does
the magic level just determine its dutation?

and lastly, does enchated blade effect hands/feet, thrown or fired
weapons?

[otter]

i can only answer your first question with any certainty: Missile Shield applies to any physical ranged attack. In fact, it really helps against blinding ink-sprays.
To the others, it seems like caster level has an effect on the power of the various spells, but i don't know how to tell; it doesn't reflect on your armor class stat, but i swear i get more stuff deflected as i level up.

[MasterPooBaa]

nods
well ive managed to develope my magic enough that i can cast all the spells at 7th level.

i save, cast all the spells, and if a couple fail and i run out of points i reload.

so i only go adventuring now with 7th level in light, missile shield, detect secrets, magic shield, platearmour, enchanted weapon and the odd bless within big battles.
makes life much happeir [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Wolfie]

If you right-click on the spell name, you'll get a description of the spell. Generally, you'll find that power level will either up the duration or increase the damage factor (depending on what the spell is).

[img]smile.gif[/img]

[MasterPooBaa]

yeah i know of that, but even the descriptions in the manual are too vague.
what im looking for are specifics
e.g.
armourplate gives you +20% AC + 5% per skill level (or something like that)

oh yeah... one other thing... what is defined as a ranged attack thats resistable
via missile shield?
standard projectiles yes
energy bolts from savant drones yes
squirts from plants maybe
spider silk maybe

[ 05-06-2002, 01:10 AM: Message edited by: MasterPooBaa ]

[milotin]

Squirts from plants/squids/spiders, anything, as long as its a status effect attack, is resisted with magic screen. If you have earth resistance of 100 your chance of getting webbed either by a spider or a spellcaster is really slim. (It could still happen tho)

[armakh]

Just have them all up all the time and don't worry about it *grin*

I don't know if it's missile shield or magic screen that make you resist the effects like webbing and sprays and squirts, but if you have both up at all times, then you don't have to worry about which is which. I just kept armorplate, enchanted blade, missile shield (which is a must against the plants anyway), and magic screen going at all times. It was a little trying on the mana for my bishop, but not as bad as all of the damage that you'd have to heal without them up. With all of those up, I very rarely had to worry about my party from arnika on to the end of the game. And hey, if you have a gadgeteer, you get x-ray, armorplate, and detect secrets (if you want it) for free.

[MasterPooBaa]

okies.

ive actually found myself getting retrebutional and vindictive now that my party is buffed up with spells!

i keep going back onto the monastary - anrika road, and beating the snot outta those bandits and plants i had so much trouble with earlier on in the game!

buckets of fun. get em back for all the trouble they cauzed me!

[Xantor]

Missile shield protects against webbing and the missiles that the plants shoot. It has no effect on breath attacks from the plants or any other monster. It increases in duration with power level but also increases in effect of resisting missiles to some extent. High level monsters can still penetrate the shield occasionally irregardless of your spellcasters level. There is no exact formula for the amount of protection beyond the duration of effect and power level cast.

Magic shield protects mainly from non-psionic spells. Soul shield protects mainly from psionic/mental type spells. Elemental shield protects from anything composed of earth (e.g.whipping rocks), fire (e.g. fireball), water (e.g. blizzard) and air (e.g. whirlwind).

Armorplate increases the parties armor class +2 and absorbs some damage from physical blows. There is a post on one of the official Wizardry 8 board threads that covers the exact numerical damage absorbed if you really want to check it out.

So to be fully protected against any magic attacks as well as physical combat it is best to cast armorplate, missile shield, magic shield, soul shield and elemental shield. If the monsters you are fighting are strictly melee types then don't waste spell points on soul shield or elemental shield.

Hope this helps.