Penetration and cast level. Also, blood vengeance.

[UncleYee]

I seek the wisdom of the forums. I have two questions. First, is the spell penetration bonus you get from an item the same as the bonus you get from having a higher level? For ex, are these equally hard to resist?

B4 mage casts hellbind heart
B3 mage with spell forcus casts hellbind heart
B2 mage with eye of void casts hellbind heart

I just got a little less lazy and looked up magic in the manual (p.86), so now I see that what I'm asking is: is the penetration bonus (from items) added to the caster's roll BEFORE it gets divided by 2 (like the spell level bonus) or AFTER?

Second, does either or both spell penetration bonus and higher level make for a more effective (each reflection less likely to be resisted) blood vengeance?

[PvK]

I don't know for sure, but my assumptions until told otherwise are that your three examples are all equally hard to resist, and that Blood Vengeance is just a state that doesn't remember what power level of magic caused it. But I have no special knowledge.

[Wish]

i would also believe that all three examples have the same penetration.

blood vengance has a rating (like awe and fear) which shows how difficult it is to overcome for the attacker. someone casting the spell gets blood vengeance 0, angel of fury has blood vengeance +2. this rating does not go up when cast by a powerful blood mage, so i am guessing the answer is no.

[llamabeast]

No, they won't all have the same penetration I think, because the bonus from extra magic levels is (number of extra levels / 2).

So: B4 mage casts hellbind heart - MR roll against penetration 11 (the default 10 + 1 for two extra levels)
B3 mage with spell focus: penetration 11 again (10 + 1 for spell focus, +0 for extra magic levels, since they're rounded down)
B2 mage with eye of the void: penetration 12 (10 + 2 for eye of the void)

[mivayan]

UncleYee said:
For ex, are these equally hard to resist?

Yes.

edit: oops. Llamabeast is right. erm. I seem to have failed very basic math here. It's +1, +1, +2 penetration. (/edit)

Second, does either or both spell penetration bonus and higher level make for a more effective (each reflection less likely to be resisted) blood vengeance?

Penetration does't affect blood vengeance.

[UncleYee]

Thanks for your wisdom. I see I was reading the formula incorrectly. So eye of the void really is worth the hassle...

[Jazzepi]

I would just like to say something funny. I gave one eye of perception (whatever the +8 to perception eye is) and then my commander lost an eye as an affliction. So alright, I give him another eye of perception, and unfortunately that made him BLIND, and he couldn't fire the ethereal crossbow I had given him to shoot.

Geeze, I guess you live and learn. Never replace both eye sockets with magical rubies. Only one. I ended up redoing a extra 15 minutes of my turn because of that.

Jazzepi

[MaxWilson]

Shouldn't he have a precision of 5? Two Eyes of Aiming don't stack bonuses, so you'll have a base 0 precision with +5 for magic.

So he can still use the crossbow...

-Max

[Jazzepi]

You get the "blindness" affliction, which I believes prevents you from even attacking with a ranged item.

It was awful.

Jazzepi

[PvK]

I don't think two crystal coins stack, and I doubt two eyes of the void stack, but you could stack a bunch of other stuff and get something just as wicked.