Lower Resistance or Pierce Shield?

[Kaleban]

I've seen references that in ToB LR can either be resisted or certain creatures are immune, but not to Pierce Shield.

Is this true? Because if it is, then solo sorcerers at least may want to replace LR with something else. I mean, if soloing why double up on spells that perform the same function? At level 19, the sorcerer can cast the same number of Pierce Shields as LRs, so does it make sense (use wand of cloudkill for mage battles, the cloud can usually bite through most protections, and even high MR is not always counteracted) to select both spells for the long term ToB solo sorc?

[Dundee Slaytern]

Some things to note, Pierce Shield is a level 8 spell. Even with Robe of Vecna and the Amulet of Power, you still need to spend some time casting it. Lower Resistance is casted instantaneously. In fact, I only have Pierce Shield specifically for 3 enemies in mind( all bosses and where Cloudkill is out of the question).

For most purposes, Lower Resistance is all you need.

I like speed casting( Improved Alacrity), so Lower Resistance is my spell of choice among the two.

[Kaleban]

But my main concern is the rumour that Lower Resistance is somehow inneffective or resistable? If true, then I'm just wondering about other tactical alternatives. Nowhere in the spell description does it say that LR is resistable by any means, but is there a point in SoA or ToB where LR just flat out doesn't work?

[Dundee Slaytern]

The bosses are immuned to level 5-6 levels spells, and this includes Lower Resistance.

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Demogorgan is a confirmed case, Melissan and the Ravager are supposedly have this immunity to Lower Resistance as well.

[LennonCook]

Arent there some monsters who can cast things like Spell Shield, Spell Immunity, Spell Trap and Absolute Immunity...
These can grant u protectin from LR AND Pierce Shield, so its no use getting rid of one for the other...
And I think that these 2 Spells do different things...
LR- Lowers the Targets Magic Resistance- Meaning that it deonst get rid of Spell Protections. It only Lowers the MR of the target.
Peirce Sheild: Does the above plus cancels out one spell Protection..

So LR is useful on things like Firkraag, whereas Peirce Sheild is useful moreso on mages who cast big defensive spells.
Therefore u should have both

[250]

the way they calculate lower resis is cut monster's magic resistance by half, then that number is your chance of success.

this is what they did in Ice Wind Dale: Heart of Winter
I am not sure about ToB

[Dundee Slaytern]

To the best of my knowledge, most Mages do not need their magic resistances lowered, so liberal use of Ruby Rays of Reversal and Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wiltings will kill them.

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Just defeated the Ravager, and it is confirmed. It is immuned to Lower Resistance. Thanks to 3 Pierce Shields though, it fell to a barrage of Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting.

And it was immuned to Comet/Dragon's Breath... ...

250: Lower Resistance will always work on the target in SoA-ToB, so long as it is not immuned to it. Otherwise there would be reports of Lower Resistance sometimes not working on Golems.

[Lucre]

Dundee: Did you kill Improved Demogorgon with Odin eventually? Someone said on a ToB forum thread that you can use Peirce Shield to lower its resistance, does that work?

[Dundee Slaytern]

quote:

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Originally posted by Lucre:
Dundee: Did you kill Improved Demogorgon with Odin eventually? Someone said on a ToB forum thread that you can use Peirce Shield to lower its resistance, does that work?

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Yup, thanks to that info, I did kill Improved Demogorgan with Odin Magnus in seven rounds, here is the relevent thread.

ToB Spoiler