Essence shield

[mok]

Anyone else have a problem with the essence armor spell?

According to the description, it's supposed to boost your health a bit in addition to giving you some protection. Now I can't say one way or another about the protection (so tough to tell), but I don't get any health boost. When I got to essence armor, I got a real nice boost, but nothing for the essence shield.

 

Anyone get this to work properly, or is it a bug?

[The1Kobra]

Essence armor makes you harder to hit and you take less damage. If you want to boost your max Hp temporarilty, cast augmentation.

[mok]

I know about augmentation. The point is that according to the spell description I should get a bump in HP. The description for essence armor is "like essence shield, but stronger" and I DO get HPs for that spell.

 

So what gives? Is ess shield glitched, or am I reading something wrong. "Shields a single target and increases its health..." seems pretty straightforward to me.

[Lilith]

This was the case in Geneforge 2 as well. So I'm guessing it's a feature, not a bug.

[Mea Tulpa]

Heal also says "increase health," whereas augmentation says "increase maximum health." Does essence shield heal you? I can't remember.

[MacProject]

Quote:

Originally written by Slartucker:
Does essence shield heal you? I can't remember.

Just tried it. No, it doesn't heal you.

[Hume]

Is the spell utter useless?

It doent even reduce damage taken.

I only tested physical damage though.

Stone skin seems give a minor damage reduction,

but not even as good as protection.

Essence shield doent give hp bonus as it supposed to do either.

So it seems completely worthless.

[Walter]

Maybe it makes you more likely to dodge attacks?

[Icshi]

I don't use Essence Armor or Essence Shield very much becaues I've found them to be completely useless, and it just sucks away essence needed for bigger and better spells. Steel Skin I've found to be very handy, usually coupled with Augmentation and just regular Shield.

 

Oh, and trying to avoid being damaged as much as possible. That always seems to help!

[Contra]

In G2 Essence Shield did increase your maximum health. In G3 I think they just forgot to adjust the description of the spell. In G3 Essence Shield works like protection but better.

[Schrodinger]

Did a quick bit of testing with some of the spells-

 

Essence shield and armor both increase your dodging ability, but do not reduce the amount of damage taken. Steel skin and protection both drop the amount of damage taken from a hit by 20%.

[Hume]

Then it is useless unless you already have very high dex.

I have never seen my creations with a dex near 30 successfully dodged blows from a rotgroth or a drakon.

So if I have a dex less than 10, it does perfectly nothing.

[mok]

I think the stats for creations work differently than for the player. At least, the base stats seem to.

 

Think about this: a Battle Alpha is considered to be a pretty dumb creation. Yet my lvl 24 alpha with only the basic 2 points into INT and no gained levels, is as inteligent as my lvl 40 shaper. So essentially, all of my high level creations ought to be able to shape and cast spells better than I can.

 

But adding a point of strength still gives my alpha a 5% better shot at hitting something. And a point into dex makes it harder for rogues to it. Similarly, a point into your shaper's dex will make harder for you to get hit. In GF3, this progression seems to be pretty linear until you get to pretty high levels in things -- i.e., if the point into a creation's dex gives it a 5% better shot at dodge, a point into your dex will do the same.... now, if your dex is a 2, then you're going to get hit a lot. But if you even increase it to a 3, you'd get hit 5% less.

 

(note: I don't know how much the percentage chance to get hit changes with each point of dex, 5% is just an example.)

[Ald]

When I had Alwan in the party, I found essence shield very useful. It worked as +4 bounus to his dexterity. And there is a big difference between 80

% dodge chance and 99%.

[Icshi]

Quote:

Originally written by Schrodinger:
Essence shield and armor both increase your dodging ability, but do not reduce the amount of damage taken.

This is a nice bit of information. Now that I know what it does, I'll have to use it accordingly. Using it on Alwan also sounds like a good strategy, as I notice he gets hit an awful lot.

[Hume]

Those found it useful are not playing on torment, right? Difficulty level has much to do with chance to dodge. On torment I can not dodge any worthy opponent.

[Contra]

I find it useful on Torment. My Guardian got a Dex of 10, so he can dodge a few attacks.

[Drakefyre]

Quote:

Originally written by Hume:
Those found it useful are not playing on torment, right? Difficulty level has much to do with chance to dodge. On torment I can not dodge any worthy opponent.

And that's why an Essence Shield would help.

[Thralni]

Quote:

Originally written by Icshi:
Using it on Alwan also sounds like a good strategy, as I notice he gets hit an awful lot.[/QB]

i made him rather strong, so he is good fighter, but he gets scared quickly. That's a thing a really hate about him.

[Walter]

I had a problem with alwan getting scared, so I quickly maxed out his int which solved the problem. As for essence shield I suppose it would be most useful if you are using the strategy of a maxed dex thahd shade.