Noticed Something Odd About Living Spells

[Ganolyn]

I picked up a Coruscating Longbow of the Destroyer (Absolute Chaos, Evil Blast) and was going to vendor it when I said to myself, "Hmm, I can bypass 26 UMD and this thing would absolutely shred neutrals", so I said what the hey and jumped into the Subterrane to try it on the living spells there. I got some interesting results.

All the types of spells took the full damage from the bow, which pin-cushioned them nicely, with the exception of Destruction, Harm and Finger of Death, which all were immune to the Evil Blast effect. I was a bit surprised, since Evil Blast is supposed to hit anything that isn't evil, so I took out my Holy Burst of Pure Good bow and took a few shots with that. As expected the Holy was procing immune and the PG was hitting fine.

I can't even imagine what mess of classifications would allow for them to be not good and not evil, but immune to one type of alignment damage that was an inclusive one and not immune to another type that is also inclusive in the same intersection.

[Kilbar]

I picked up a Coruscating Longbow of the Destroyer (Absolute Chaos, Evil Blast) and was going to vendor it when I said to myself, "Hmm, I can bypass 26 UMD and this thing would absolutely shred neutrals", so I said what the hey and jumped into the Subterrane to try it on the living spells there. I got some interesting results.

All the types of spells took the full damage from the bow, which pin-cushioned them nicely, with the exception of Destruction, Harm and Finger of Death, which all were immune to the Evil Blast effect. I was a bit surprised, since Evil Blast is supposed to hit anything that isn't evil, so I took out my Holy Burst of Pure Good bow and took a few shots with that. As expected the Holy was procing immune and the PG was hitting fine.

I can't even imagine what mess of classifications would allow for them to be not good and not evil, but immune to one type of alignment damage that was an inclusive one and not immune to another type that is also inclusive in the same intersection.

Please don't vendor that bow. I beg of you to wreak the People's Vengeance upon any and all Mephits you encounter with it. Bloody little bastards are the most hateful things in the game!

[Munkenmo]

did you bug report it?

[Ganolyn]

did you bug report it?

Not yet. Since it was only the negative energy spells that were immune I was waiting to see if someone knew something I didn't. I should really go out and try it on more neutrals.

[Kilbar]

Not yet. Since it was only the negative energy spells that were immune I was waiting to see if someone knew something I didn't. I should really go out and try it on more neutrals.

Mephits are neutrals...

[Ganolyn]

Mephits are neutrals...

I think you might find something you like over here in our Banishing Department...

[Kilbar]

I think you might find something you like over here in our Banishing Department...

Doubt it. You banish one mephit, they just summon another as a going away present. Mephits are the only creature in the game that can kill you fifteen minutes after you killed them due to constant death spawns.

[Ganolyn]

I'm beginning to think that this is WAI. I went to the Vale and started killing all the neutrals I could find and they all took the evil damage. I did notice that when they died they either scintillated (I assume with light damage) or had that dark mist that you see when negative energy effects are applied during their death animation (the main damage icon is the same as the Evil Blast icon suggesting that the bow counts as evil for purposes of base DR bypassing).

If Evil Blast is considered a negative energy effect, then it makes sense that those three living spells would be immune to it. After all, Firestorm, Delayed Blast Fireball and Meteor Swarm are immune to fire and vunerable to cold, Chain Lightning is immune to electrical and Disintegrate is immune to force damage. Cold and acid seem to work great on all of them though, as well as light and any True or Absolute alignment damage. Pure, Greater and Superior Good are effective as well.