question about a certain staff (spoilers ahoy)

[shamrock_uk]

Lots of juicy spoilers
#
#
#
#
#
#
Evening all, i'm doing a solo run-through with a mage and have just picked up the Staff of the Magi from our favourite evil organisation [img]smile.gif[/img]

I just have a question about its innate abilities - it's supposed to make you invisible whilst equipped but i'm not sure how to check if this is working. (i know this sounds silly, please bear with me ) When i first picked it up, i could walk in front of Shangalar with impunity (thanks to the trusty cloak of non-detection negating his true sight) but when i ran into the Elemental Lich who lives in the neighbourhood he can see me and cast spells at me (and he didn't even cast any divination spells.)

I note that when I equip the staff, I only get the message 'protected from evil' and not one about invisibility, and also when i look at my character portrait there's no sign of invisibilty there. However, i tried casting 'normal' invisibilty from my spellbook, and I still don't get a portrait icon so that's not too helpful.

So my questions are:

1) Is not receiving an invisibility message normal when equipping the staff of the magi?
2) Do different liches have different powers when it comes to seeing invisible characters? Since Shangalar bit the dust for twice as much XP, it seems bizarre he's lacking in this department as he's clearly the more powerful Lich...

Thanks in advance [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Pirengle]

The staff provides Improved Invisibility when you equip it, and without an icon on your portrait. If you hit something with the staff while you're invisible, you become visible until you re-equip the staff.

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

Fortunately for you, re-equipping the staff means clicking on it.

[shamrock_uk]

Heh, thank you both for the reply, and yes i did realise you have to re-equip it [img]tongue.gif[/img]

The elemental liche was just able to see through it, no matter how many times i re-equipped whilst the other more powerful liche was not which made me wonder if it was working.

But tried it on some more normal enemies today and no problems there so i guess my elemental friend must be an exception.

[Gangrell]

Shamrock, the reason for that is, any lich is able to see through invisibility. They are the exception when it comes to that, there are other creatures too I think, but they slip my mind now.

[SixOfSpades]

Pirengle, the SotM provides regular Invisibility, not Improved Invisibility. Unequip or hit something, and you're 100% visible.

Liches, Dragons, and Kou-Toa are all able to see right through all forms of illusions. Why Shangalar is lacking in this respect is beyond me.

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

Kuo-Toans are the most obnoxious enemies in the game, I feel. They're not HARD, just obnoxious. They have no small amount of hit points, have that ANNOYING perpetual true-sight going on, have a degree of MR... And yet they're not terribly powerful. They're just incredibly irritating.
Of course, in BG1 the award is split between kobold commandos and, naturally, mustard jellies, which I despise.

Edit- Powerful demons can also see through invisibility, as can HLA summons from ToB.

[ 02-04-2004, 03:54 PM: Message edited by: Illumina Drathiran'ar ]

[Assassin]

Another Lich, IIRC that can't see invisble is the Lich in the Bridge.

[shamrock_uk]

Yeah, it looks like the one common denominator is that all the liches guarding pieces of body can see through it (eg shade, elemental, Kangaxx himself), but all the others can't (eg Shangalar).

I've just played the generic bridge one, and can confirm he's completely stumped by it as well. Must be an arbitrary thing i guess. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thanks for all the replies folks

[Pirengle]

This is going to be an odd question, Shamrock, but have you patched and Baldurdashed your game? I'm not quite sure on this, but I think Baldurdash fixes that ability on liches, or will fix it in the upcoming version. (See, it would be really helpful if Kevin Dorner saw this post and offered his opinion, because I know he as an Ironworks account. [img]tongue.gif[/img] )