kentos
10-14-2022, 11:20 AM
Hello,
I was testing cleric spells on both live and on the preview server, and looked at what is the caster level displayed in the combat log for different spells.
It turns out, several effects that are supposed to boost caster level of certain spells do not work or work partially.
TLDR:
1. Divine Disciple Light Cores 5 and 6 do not boost caster level of alignment spells
2. Divine Disciple Tier 5 enhancement Power Balance makes some neutral monsters immune to chosen spell's damage
3. Majority of (non-healing) cleric spells are not classified as divine for Divine Augmentation items.
Full description:
1. Cleric Divine Disciple Light Cores 5 and 6 (Sunburst and Priest of Endless Light)
Both of these state they boost caster level and max caster level of light and alignment spells.
Both correctly add +1 caster level each to all light spells, however they do not add any caster levels to alignment spells at all.
Of course, max caster level is not displayed in the combat log, so I can't easily test that part without comparing a lot of numbers (which would take too long).
Spells that I found to be affected are:
Holy Smite
Chaos Hammer
Order's Wrath
Unholy Blight
Deific Vengeance (no one is using it at level 18, but it is an alignment spell)
Side note: Negative cores 5 and 6 work correctly on negative spells.
2. Cleric Divine Disciple Tier 5 enhancement Power Balance
It seems taking any of Power Balance enhancements has in some cases the opposite effect of what is expected basing on text.
Some neutral monsters take zero damage from the chosen alignment spell with the matching enhancement.
I have tested it with Holy Smite and Holy Power enhancement on Mephits (fire and ice ones, in Spies in the House and in some quests in Barovia for example).
These mephits are neutral - Word of Balance does zero damage to them, and they usually take half damage from alignment spells.
Without the enhancement, Mephits take half damage from Holy Smite.
With the enhancement, Mephits take zero damage - I've casted it many times, Mephits are never affected.
The exact same issue applies to Chaos Hammer, Order's Wrath and Unholy Blight - with a matching enhancement zero damage to Mephits, without it (or with another of the three) half damage as expected.
I've observed the same issue on some Djinni, but I don't know if they were good or neutral (and had only holy smite enhancement at that point).
Unfortunately I don't recall any Djinnis at start of a quest to test it quickly, so I focused my tests on Mephits.
Just to be sure, I ran Order's Wrath and Unholy Blight agains kobolds (lawful evil) in Test Dojo - they were unaffected by these spells without correct enhancement.
But with matching enhancement, kobolds took full damage from these spells. Kobolds always were getting full damage from Holy Smite and Chaos Hammer due to their alignment.
This bug either manifests only on some types of enemies or only on neutral ones, I am unsure at this point.
3. Divine Augmentation IX (and Lesser Divine Augmentation IX) items
I have tested heroic Conduit of the Soul and Ik'thanor's Signet Ring on level 20 cleric, as well as Legendary Ik'thanor's Signet Ring on level 30 favored soul.
All had identical results regarding which spells are boosted and which aren't.
This item mod states it boosts caster level of divine spells by 1 or 2 (lesser or normal respectively) - I would assume all spells cast by cleric and favored soul should be classified as divine, but it turns out only a half of the useful spells are.
Spells that do not get their caster level boosted:
Level 1:
nimbus of light
Level 2:
find traps
soundburst (also bard spell)
deific vengeance
Level 3:
searing light
prayer (also paladin spell)
sun bolt (FvS SLA or from cleric DD core)
Level 4:
holy smite
order's wrath
unholy blight
Level 5:
flame strike (also druid spell)
slay living
spell resistance
greater command
Level 6:
blade barrier (also artificer spell)
heroes' feast (also bard spell)
Level 7:
destruction
spell resistance mass
Level 8:
firestorm (also druid spell)
Level 9:
divine wrath
celestial bombardment
implosion
Spells that work correctly and get caster level boosted by 1 or 2 depending on the item:
all healing spells (close wounds, all cure, all mass cure, panacea, heal, mass heal)
all inflict spells (single target, mass, harm)
bless /aid / aid mass
chaos hammer
divine punishment
cometfall
All spells shared between divines and arcanes did not get the caster level boosted as well (for these it is not obvious if they can be classified as divine or not), even though the ring has both Arcane and Divine Augmentation:
resist / protection from energy / elements
all dispels, dismissal, banishment
all symbols and glyphs
undeath to death
energy drain
Side note: I have tested only the spells that depend on the caster level in some way (either damage or spell resistance check).
It turns out, for a typical light/fire cleric, only damage spells that get often used and are boosted are cometfall and chaos hammer (which is very strange, because other 3 alignment spells did not get boosted), and that makes these items nearly useless as of now.
I was testing cleric spells on both live and on the preview server, and looked at what is the caster level displayed in the combat log for different spells.
It turns out, several effects that are supposed to boost caster level of certain spells do not work or work partially.
TLDR:
1. Divine Disciple Light Cores 5 and 6 do not boost caster level of alignment spells
2. Divine Disciple Tier 5 enhancement Power Balance makes some neutral monsters immune to chosen spell's damage
3. Majority of (non-healing) cleric spells are not classified as divine for Divine Augmentation items.
Full description:
1. Cleric Divine Disciple Light Cores 5 and 6 (Sunburst and Priest of Endless Light)
Both of these state they boost caster level and max caster level of light and alignment spells.
Both correctly add +1 caster level each to all light spells, however they do not add any caster levels to alignment spells at all.
Of course, max caster level is not displayed in the combat log, so I can't easily test that part without comparing a lot of numbers (which would take too long).
Spells that I found to be affected are:
Holy Smite
Chaos Hammer
Order's Wrath
Unholy Blight
Deific Vengeance (no one is using it at level 18, but it is an alignment spell)
Side note: Negative cores 5 and 6 work correctly on negative spells.
2. Cleric Divine Disciple Tier 5 enhancement Power Balance
It seems taking any of Power Balance enhancements has in some cases the opposite effect of what is expected basing on text.
Some neutral monsters take zero damage from the chosen alignment spell with the matching enhancement.
I have tested it with Holy Smite and Holy Power enhancement on Mephits (fire and ice ones, in Spies in the House and in some quests in Barovia for example).
These mephits are neutral - Word of Balance does zero damage to them, and they usually take half damage from alignment spells.
Without the enhancement, Mephits take half damage from Holy Smite.
With the enhancement, Mephits take zero damage - I've casted it many times, Mephits are never affected.
The exact same issue applies to Chaos Hammer, Order's Wrath and Unholy Blight - with a matching enhancement zero damage to Mephits, without it (or with another of the three) half damage as expected.
I've observed the same issue on some Djinni, but I don't know if they were good or neutral (and had only holy smite enhancement at that point).
Unfortunately I don't recall any Djinnis at start of a quest to test it quickly, so I focused my tests on Mephits.
Just to be sure, I ran Order's Wrath and Unholy Blight agains kobolds (lawful evil) in Test Dojo - they were unaffected by these spells without correct enhancement.
But with matching enhancement, kobolds took full damage from these spells. Kobolds always were getting full damage from Holy Smite and Chaos Hammer due to their alignment.
This bug either manifests only on some types of enemies or only on neutral ones, I am unsure at this point.
3. Divine Augmentation IX (and Lesser Divine Augmentation IX) items
I have tested heroic Conduit of the Soul and Ik'thanor's Signet Ring on level 20 cleric, as well as Legendary Ik'thanor's Signet Ring on level 30 favored soul.
All had identical results regarding which spells are boosted and which aren't.
This item mod states it boosts caster level of divine spells by 1 or 2 (lesser or normal respectively) - I would assume all spells cast by cleric and favored soul should be classified as divine, but it turns out only a half of the useful spells are.
Spells that do not get their caster level boosted:
Level 1:
nimbus of light
Level 2:
find traps
soundburst (also bard spell)
deific vengeance
Level 3:
searing light
prayer (also paladin spell)
sun bolt (FvS SLA or from cleric DD core)
Level 4:
holy smite
order's wrath
unholy blight
Level 5:
flame strike (also druid spell)
slay living
spell resistance
greater command
Level 6:
blade barrier (also artificer spell)
heroes' feast (also bard spell)
Level 7:
destruction
spell resistance mass
Level 8:
firestorm (also druid spell)
Level 9:
divine wrath
celestial bombardment
implosion
Spells that work correctly and get caster level boosted by 1 or 2 depending on the item:
all healing spells (close wounds, all cure, all mass cure, panacea, heal, mass heal)
all inflict spells (single target, mass, harm)
bless /aid / aid mass
chaos hammer
divine punishment
cometfall
All spells shared between divines and arcanes did not get the caster level boosted as well (for these it is not obvious if they can be classified as divine or not), even though the ring has both Arcane and Divine Augmentation:
resist / protection from energy / elements
all dispels, dismissal, banishment
all symbols and glyphs
undeath to death
energy drain
Side note: I have tested only the spells that depend on the caster level in some way (either damage or spell resistance check).
It turns out, for a typical light/fire cleric, only damage spells that get often used and are boosted are cometfall and chaos hammer (which is very strange, because other 3 alignment spells did not get boosted), and that makes these items nearly useless as of now.