Sleeping/Unaware enemies.

[Hunter]

Having decided to do an alchemist spoiler guide because some people seem to struggle with the class, I'm currently running through the game with an alchemist and have noticed a strange quirk that I'd forgotten about. Certain enemies, when sleeping/unaware of me, are immune to damage, either from my bombs or from a controlled golem. This is most noticeable in pits, i.e. animal/insect/snake pits in the Old Forest or undead pits in Dreadfall. I'll fire a bomb into an area and enemies that aren't aware of me (usually ones the furthest away from me around corners) will be completely unharmed. They're getting hit. The log just shows them suffer 0 points of whatever damage type affecting them. I can confirm they're being hit because I'm using telepathy/ I assumed it was some sort of nerf of powerful AoE spells (I don't recall if it happens with the archmage spells or not) but I'm currently cleaning out the last of the Overpowered Greater Multi-hued Wyrms in that special room we all know and love and noticed an even odder quirk. Since the two in the far corners don't respond to my bombs even though there's a direct LoS despite them being just out of visual range (which doesn't matter when enemies are active and aware), I took control of my golem and walked right up to them to lure them toward the door so I wouldn't be facing crossfire breath attacks with my soft, barely-armored alchemist. The golem attacked. O points of damage, the wyrm slept on. He tried various attack spells and talents. Same result -- the log showed them working but they did no damage. Finally, he tried Arcane Pull, which actually did work...presumably because it doesn't do damage in the first place. It was odd watching one of the most dangerous monsters in the game being dragged across the room like a narcoleptic puppy, just dozing. It woke up when it came into sight range, of course, and then the fight was on.

Is this a feature? Is there some sort of known rationalization for it? I have no idea if it's a alchemist-specific problem or not...it's just easiest to test on alchemists because of the enormous range and area of their bombs and the fact that they can take direct control of a creature other than themselves. I can see it as a nerf for alchemists (and archmages, to a lesser extent) but it doesn't really seem necessary, given the other drawbacks to playing an alchemist will eventually catch up to you.

[Frumple]

Probably a quirk of the change to vault code to keep crap from getting out of vaults. If you can check their tooltip, I think there's some kind of buff/debuff effect telling you they're frozen or whatev'. If not, well. Until you see them/they see you or... something... they'll be invincible and immobile. I think.

I guess there's not a check for the golem or something? Dunno. S'probably somewhat wonky behavior.

[Hunter]

Oddly enough, while there's no indication of their vulnerability or mobility status, it does list my golem as its current target despite the fact that it's completely ignoring everything.

I haven't yet noticed it in actual vaults, possibly because the monsters there always seem to be quite aware of me and determined to end my sad existence.

[Nivrax]

They should have buff 'in vault'. Snakes/animal rooms in Old Forest act similar, I guess it is to prevent lag. Sometimes rarely it breaks with doors still closed, mobs start shuffling around, porting away, killing each other, phantoms leaving area etc. causing extreme slowdown.

[R_D]

Yeah, as soon as the enemies become aware of you, they'll be able to be damaged by anything. However, there was an odd bug I was encountered that's very similar, but it's different. I fought a dread for a bit, and after a few turns I noticed I was doing no damage. Then I noticed it wasn't doing anything. I was a Paradox Mage, so I tried all sorts of things--I could pull it around, knock it back, etc. Nothing caused it to do anything, and I couldn't damage it. Finally, as I was about to give up, I used time skip on it. It went into the standard 3 turn stasis, and when it came out, it started attacking me, and then died in the next two turns to my spells as if nothing odd had ever happened. Never seen the bug since then, though it was only a few days ago.

[Hunter]

Interesting. Invulnerable enemies are the ultimate game-killer. Another one that I'm certain this is a known bug, not quite the same but still in the theme of "not damaging" -- Emperor wights (presumably anywhere, but I've only encountered it in Dreadfall, maybe 5 or 6 times) that you can neither see nor hurt. The only way you know they're there is that they are hitting you for magical (never physical attacks that I've seen) damage repeatedly until you leave the area. You can scour the entire area, blanket it with AoE spells, remove all obstacles, and never once come in actual contact with the monster or even detect where the magic is originating. It's actually quite frustrating. The only saving grace is that they apparently don't follow you around.

[HousePet]

Nonsense! Corrupted save files are the ultimate game killer.

As for the unfindable wights, there is a bug with Thunderstorm not ending when the caster dies.

[Hunter]

Nonsense! Corrupted save files are the ultimate game killer.

As for the unfindable wights, there is a bug with Thunderstorm not ending when the caster dies.

Aaaah. Gotcha. That makes sense.

And stop being such a bigot against corrupters. Their save files are just as good as those of any other class.