Saying "No" to spells?

[RndmNumGen]

Anyone know what ability the MBD was using here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0627.html) when she said "No" to V's Prismatic Spray? Even if she made all the saves, she should have still taken significant damage, and I don't see any sort of magical immunities that black dragons have other than for acid.

[Flickerdart]

Only the Yellow portion actually affected her, and even 80 damage isn't much to a ~300HP monster.

[shadowkiller]

I would assume spell resistance.

[Telasi]

She's not using any ability. The dragon is just denying V's spell as part of her initial psychological attack. Such is my opinion, anyway.

I suppose, if you insist on there being some ability involved, that the dragon was probably using a spell to protect herself. The same comic shows her to be a fairly powerful mage, since she can cast Anti-magic Field.

[cho_j]

She's not using any ability. The dragon is just denying V's spell as part of her initial psychological attack. Such is my opinion, anyway.

I suppose, if you insist on there being some ability involved, that the dragon was probably using a spell to protect herself. The same comic shows her to be a fairly powerful mage, since she can cast Anti-magic Field.

Yeah, I'm gonna agree with Telasi. I've just barely started playing DnD, so I don't know much about various protective abilities, but I always read that very flat, strong "No" as the ABD just showing her utter lack of fear in facing V. It's sort of a boast mixed with a threat: "No, you can't hurt me, no, you won't get out of this with magic." And as she proves a few panels later, magic is all that V has.

[RndmNumGen]

Only the Yellow portion actually affected her, and even 80 damage isn't much to a ~300HP monster.

Oh I see, she is only effected by one of the colors(yellow because it's largest?) and not all of them?

[Forum Explorer]

Generally thats how the spell works. Everything in the spray gets hit by one random ray. If your really lucky gets hit by two rays.

[Cerlis]

The strongest effects of the spray she probably just saved, since she is such a large creature she prob has great saves.

Furthermore. there is no evidence as such, but since she has been watching V for months, and is great at magic too. she's probably relearned spells to perfectly match V. I.E. got the right dispells, antimagic, and energy resistance and anti death effects.

Boosts her will for and ref saves, then gave herself energy resistance and probably at least a one time anti death effect.


Also its good to remember than Rich just uses the rules for jokes. She is a big ass scary dragon that would probably be able to kick V's ass even in an even fight (merely cus V has little HP) and The dragon thinks little of one of V's puny remaining spells (I think V could take her in a best case scenario, but it would require luck and all of V's wits and BEST spells)

[Dr.Epic]

The damage just isn't that much or she found away around it.

[Morquard]

They get hit by one of 7 random effects from the spell, or 2 if you roll lucky with a 12.5% chance.
2 of them are "will negates", 1 is "fort negates" and 1 is acid damage which black dragons are immune against.
So over 50% of the possible outcomes she has the possibility to be completely unaffected by.

To be able to cast Antimagic Field she needs to be able to cast 6th level spells, that means a caster level of 12. Which means she'd have to be of the "Wyrm" age/size category. However she said she's more adapt at the arcane than other dragons, so maybe she was simply "Ancient" or even just "Very old", which still gives her a Spell Resistance of 23 or 25, which V might simply not have passed. Even Darth V couldn't get past Xykon's SR at one point.
at level 15 V has about a 50/50 chance of failing a SR 25 caster check.

And even if V got past her SR and she didn't safe (considering her lowest safe is +16 as Very Old or +19 if she's a Wyrm that's rather unlikely, but lets assume so), she has 350-459 HP on average, those 80 HP she got hit with then aren't that bad. And it's quite possible she has cast some +con buffs on herself before going in.

The only dangerous thing would be missing her save against the green beam, as thats a kill effect, but fort is her best safe, so thats unlikely, and she probably had a ward spell against death spells too as someone already said.

So I'd say there's about 75% chance (just a guess now, was to lazy to calculate it) the spell didn't affect her at all, and the rest only did low damage.

[King of Nowhere]

My understanding of that is that the yellow beam is for acid, and she was immune to acid.

By the way, as far as I know the greater consensus stands for said dragon to be an ancient black dragon with extra sorceror level. Just because creatures are statted in a certain way in the monster manual, it would be unfair to deny them the chance to level up a bit.

[Morquard]

According to the D20 SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/prismaticSpray.htm) the yellow one is Electricity which she's not immune against. Acid would be the orange one.

Yeah I can go with Ancient and some extra levels, thats why I mentioned Anciend or Very Old as possibilities, where she'd need at least 1 or 3 sorcerer levels to be able to cast it.
As Wyrm she'd not need any extra levels any more.

[Gift Jeraff]

However she said she's more adapt at the arcane than other dragons, so maybe she was simply "Ancient" or even just "Very old", which still gives her a Spell Resistance of 23 or 25, which V might simply not have passed.

Qarr specifically said she was an ancient black dragon in the strip in question.

[Mr. Snuggles]

I always viewed "no" as making a saving throw or otherwise being unaffected by a spell. The younger dragon did this with the Suggestion spell.

[cho_j]

I always viewed "no" as making a saving throw or otherwise being unaffected by a spell. The younger dragon did this with the Suggestion spell.

Ooh, good catch! I hadn't noticed that! It doubles as a hint to who the ABD is when she first shows up, too. Man, the Giant's a genius with foreshadowing...

[Souhiro]

First of all, I don't really mind.

It could be that V rolled less than 1/10 of BMD Hit Points. Or Vaarsivius couldn't pass the Spell Resistance, Or Mamma Dragon come with all kind of protection spells already casted (You know, when your average mage is going to start dungeoning, he always cast Mage Armor, protection from energy, and if he can prepare before start blasting, protection from evil)


But it is just a narrative trick "You can't do anything to me with that pitiful Lvl-7 spell. Next time try Epic"

[Niveus Candidus]

Anyone know what ability the MBD was using here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0627.html) when she said "No" to V's Prismatic Spray? Even if she made all the saves, she should have still taken significant damage, and I don't see any sort of magical immunities that black dragons have other than for acid.

Though it has been stated already, in a round about way, Prismatic Spray does hit its targets with each possible rays. The caster rolls randomly to determine which color beam hits the target in the area of effect, and the target saves against that individual beam. Whatever hit Mommy-Dragon was either a save vs. negate beam or one she was already immune to.

That a prismatic spray causes every possible affect is a common misconception about the spell. Roughly half of first time users are surprised how it actually works, in my experience. I ass/u/me V made the misconception--otherwise he/she might have prepared more Forcecages ... or a Delayed Blast Fireball ... Or possibly a spell from a better school than Evocation :smallwink: