Super Mega Meta Magic Abuse

Dear fellow arcanum fans. This most replayable of games has been my bread and butter for ten years and more. Only after reading this site did I discover Meta Abuse. This is a bug which allows you to make spells permanent with no ongoing fatigue cost using the reflection spell. Cool, eh?

After a few weeks Hexperimenting with this, I discovered a way to delete the overlapping animations, making the game run faster and now, after many years of Hexperimental magicks, I am proud to announce the discovery of Super Mega Meta Abuse.

That's right, boys and girls, it is possible to layer permanent spells onto yourself, not just your followers. This includes, Body of Fire and Invisibilty, as well the old favourites, Energy Shield and Hasten. Cool, eh?

So here's the instructions with a quick refresher for regular, everyday meta abuse.

Meta-Abuse:
(I) followers galore! (i) summon a beastie or control one with a spell; (ii) cast Reflection Shield on said beastie (iii) cancel the beastie spell, the 'dropping spell' animation reflects onto you, while the spell stays up. Now cancel the reflection shield and the beastie is yours forever.
(II) superdog! (i) cast a buff spell on your follower, like Energy Shield; (ii) cast Reflection Shield; (iii) Cancel the buff spell, THEN the reflection shield. Your follower now has a shield forever. Add more spells to taste.

Super Mega Meta Abuse:
The trick here is to start with a summoned creature with a reflection shield upon it. DO NOT make it a permanent follower. (i) Cast a spell at the reflection shield, eg, Body Of Fire. The spell will rebound upon you and you will be maintaining a Body of Fire. (ii)Cancel the reflection shield. (iii) cancel the summoning spell. Your creature will disappear. So too will the Body Of Fire spell. But you will still be a fire elemental!!! At no cost for as long as you want!!! The summoned creature is carrying the maintained spell while you have the effects, so when the creature goes, it takes the cost while you keep the benefits. It works for anything, so get hexperimenting. If you need to undo a permanent spell (like invisibility) on yourself, just cast it again (bouncing it off a reflection shield) and then cancel it. You will reappear. Yay.

I sure hope this helps you all continue to enjoy this really most excellently replayable game for many more years to come.

BTW it may entertain you to learn that I discovered this technique by accidentally morphing my wizard into a sheep permanently. The next thing to discover was how to undo it!

 

That is quite the tidbit of information. The real question is: can you accidentally morph yourself into a blue bunny permanently?

 

You know this game has been released something about nine and a half year ago, right?

Hey! It actually works!

Good show, old chap, good show! A most excellent, impressing and useful find it is.

 

I wonder if I will ever tire of Muro's pics.

 

Recognition! Yay! They said I was mad... Mad, I tell you. Well, who's mad now?! MWHAHAHAHA!

 

Beautiful thread. This is what I love about Arcanum.

 

Using this trick for a solo run, it'll be legendary.

 

I've been experimenting with this just now, it seems that some effects actually *stack* so that you can end up with 20 in strength/constitution/beauty/dexterity, or very high magic & damage resistance or an insanely high speed for example. All you need to do is repeat the process another time or seven with a given spell until you're happy with the result.

Spells I've stacked successfully, though there are no doubt others:
-Hasten (Speed seems to cap at 75)
-All the first degree elemental spells (stats cap at 20)
-Resist Magick which caps at 50.
-Protection Shield which caps at 95 DR.

It almost makes the game too easy, right now I'm practically immune to all forms of damage, can run insanely fast and have practically unlimited AP's in combat. Yet to reflect any spells onto followers as I'm running around with a horde of demons and have not needed to (though I think that'll be next).

Haven't tried casting multiple spells onto or under a reflection shield yet but I can't see why it wouldn't work. Might try that next.

If you're annoyed by the sound effects as I was, try saving and reloading the game - sound effects will stop but effects will persist.

 

Nice hexperimenting.

For the record, I can cap out speed at 100, and Resist Magic is a waste as it makes MR 50% the maximum even with other bonuses. Furthermore, putting Shrink or Body of Air on yourself permanently will screw up your damage bonus FOR EVER, no escape clause there.

Deleting the overlapping animations is the only way I can enjoy this process, but the exact technique is elusive. Essentially, you ought to start by stacking five energy shields, then layer the other spells. The five shields are the only animation that appears while the subsequent ones do not show up. Once your character has transcended to supercheating status, you can un wrap the shield animations by adding and subtracting a shield, again and again.

The technique is a bit tricky though, sometimes needing reloading or sleeping to get the animations under control; sometimes you need to throw four animations on top, bounce a shield off a reflection shield then cancel it again, then cancel the others. More hexperimenting is needed here!

One caution, meta-abusing your followers AND yourself can cause extreme inefficiency as you can cancel your own spells as you layer spells onto your followers.

Also, meta abusing yourself too much can cause blindness.

 

How, exactly, did you get your speed to 100? Hasten will only ever let me reach 75.

Can confirm that it's partially possible to cast multiple spells under a single reflection shield. Requirement is that you must be able to cast the spell on a given target more than once. You will need to use the conventional method for shield of protection etc., however for agility of fire and it's counterparts (and no doubt others) you can cast it up to three times before completing the process. Using that method I was able to max each possible stat in one casting of reflection shield instead of multiple.

Perhaps the most useful use of this 'abuse' system is the recruitment of NPC's/Creatures permenently. If you have either Dominate Will or Control Beast (depending on the nature of the individual) you are able to create a versatile army without depending on summoning spells. Simply cast the control spell on said creature, followed by a reflection shield and cancel the control spell before removing the shield.

Providing they do not resist the initial spell, you now have a follower whom will follow you to the ends of Arcanum despite hating your guts. Want to play a member of the Molochean hand? How about an Ogre Chieftain? Perhaps an Orc Shaman uniting the scum of Tarant under a single banner? Or are you really are the reincarnation of Nasrudin and wish to reassert elvish dominance?

Spells like Charm work equally well - using a combination of above techniques I was able to have a rather pleasant conversation with an elemental snake, brief though it may have been.

I'm yet to stun in permenence though - I think it'd be rather hilarious to keep your enemies around alive as trophies, unable to move or attack.

Yet to encounter the blindness issue, either. I've hacked *a lot* of spells onto myself though, so perhaps it's related to trying to overlap the animations?

 

The blindness reference was a masturbation joke, please excuse me.

Well done for the detailed records of hexperimental magicks; it would be great to see this thread live on as a journal of hexperimental results.

As for speed 100, I don't know what I've done differently, but I start with the three Agility of Fire spells to get agility 20, then I add three Hasten spells. Speed 25=>50=>75=>100. Works every time.

Try a permanent Stasis spell if you're starting a gallery of enemies! If its a spellcaster, throw on a Bonds of Magick while you're at it. I always keep the Gnome Who Kicks Dogs standing on the corner for the Dog to use as a toilet. Ah, justice!

BTW When using Control Animal, simply cast Charm Animal and they won't hate your guts. With Mental Domination, tell them all to Back Off and they usually revert to a neutral disposition toward you. Unrelated to Meta Abuse, when you Dominate someone then tell them to back off, then drop the spell, they will never ever attack you again. It's heartwarming to see your enemies walking away while simmering with hate. This is a great trick for shopkeepers so you can walk in and rob them every single day and they won't lift a finger, or if you don't want to kill someone for any other reason. Note that this won't work on spellcasters; they can still attack with magick, UNLESS your beauty is so high that their 'neutral disposition' is crazy love for you. A beautiful hypnotist can get away with murder.

 

Wow, I didn't know about that dominate/backoff trick!

Can you move stasised enemies like corpses? Or dominate will + stasis works right? Then it's certainly possible to start a literal gallery of enemies or bystanders, preserved for the following generations of course!

As for speed, there are potions of haste (IIRC stackable) and tempus fuguit as well; it's nice to slaughter your enemies even before they can lift a finger.

Could you explain this a little bit more?

 

Well, you can move stasied corpses. So what you do is move the selected creature to a desired location, resurrect it (enable turn-based combat first so they don't run away) followed by stasis+reflection shield. No dominate will required.

If you ever wish to move it, simply kill them and move the corpse and resurrect. Stasis will still be in effect so they can't move. You can use dominate will/control creature to move beings from all over Arcanum into your gallery.

Note that you cannot talk to stasied NPC's (or their spirits), nor will the majority of spells have any effect and I'm yet to discover a way to remove stasis (though I have been trying) so be sure not to do it on anyone important.

Dominate will + back off seems to have it's limits too, each time you kill someone and resurrect them their attitude towards you is lowered - right now I have an enraged Gilbert Bates roaming around my new mansion, unable to attack beyond throwing insults my way (some new form of insult sword fighting??). Ironically keeping him alive means the remaining guards will no longer attack me.

In any case, my sickly half orc mage has taken residence in Tarant and will be pursuing further uses of the reflection shield & meta college in general.

 

To expain further about the damage bonus: When you have cast a permanent spell on yourself thereby lowering your damage bonus, then your damage bonus is never restored to normal even when you remove the other effects of that spell.

 

Still struggling to find a way to remove effects from creatures (particularly stasis, as mentioned) - disperse magick seems useless and not even create undead will release them from stasis.

I did, however, discover a way to permenently lock/unlock doors without maintaining a magelock spell. The process is as follows:

-Cast Magelock on any lockable door or container
-Cast reflection shield on same container or door
-Cancel Magelock
-Cancel Shield.
-To unlock, simply cast disperse magick on said object
-Repeat the first four steps to re-lock the object.

That cranky Gilbert Bates is now confined to a small room in my mansion - no more insults now, I say!

Also been attempting to permenently conjure the spirit of an npc; standard methods don't seem to work so perhaps it isn't possible.

Edit: Found a partial, rather complicated solution that'll let you talk to the spirits of the undead whilst still preserving them for your gallery. You will need somewhere to lock them away and five sustainable spell slots, however.

-Kill desired NPC.
-Drag their corpse into a lockable room.
-Cast 'create undead' on the corpse
-Cast 'Entangle' on the walking corpse
-Cast 'Reflection Shield' on the walking corpse
-Leave the room and lock the door (see above for technique)
-Cancel Entangle, Create Undead and Relfection Shield in that order.

With any luck, that'll give you a permenent, frozen, 'living' individual - they are hostile, however, which is why they're locked in a room. If this wasn't the case then you're followers would simply kill them and defeat the purpose of the exercise.

Everytime you wish to 'speak' with the NPC, you need to tell *all* your followers to wait (and perhaps lock them up) before unlocking the door, killing the NPC and casting Conjure Spirit on the corpse. Then you need to cast create undead & reflection shield again, get out of the room, lock the door and cancel Create Undead & Reflection Shield to preserve them. Like I said, it's complicated and it won't work with NPC's that are always loaded in a specific place (such as Gilbert Bates) - when loading the area, these individuals will spawn in their original position which often results in their prompt slaughter by over-zealous followers.

It's a shame that Create Undead doesn't work with Charm Beast or Dominate Will (or any other similar spells, so far as I'm aware). If we could get them to calm down, locking them up would no longer be required which would let you store them as desired (basically). If you were talking in terms of lore, their hostility would be sort of pointless as it's assumed that's it's due to their mindlessness, though they quite clearly aren't mindless if you can conjure their spirit from an undead corpse.

Anyway, I think I've had enough for now but I'll let you know if I can come up with a better solution.

 

There's a much simpler way to have those permanently conjured spirits:

1. Cast Conjure Spirit on dead NPC
2. Cast Dweomer Shield on the same NPC
3. Cancel Dwoemer Shield

 

Just press F5 to order them to back off after the battle begins. Multiple times if necessary. (By the way, I miss the full party controls of Dragon Age; even there my followers behaved annoying a lot of times)

Edit: On a side note, I've just tried Dweomer shield on Delores Beston before giving her the crystal ball. The Quench Life animation does not show up, but she still takes 40 damage and dies with the appropriate timing. Same with Reflection Shield. Conjure Spirit gives the standard floats, Resurrection fails with "This life cannot be replenished".

Edit2: Super mega meta magic abuse does not seem to work on Stillwater Blade summons; you simply can't cast Reflection Shield on them.

 

Depending on your game version and mods installed, that may have something to do with Drog's doing. I don't remember what exactly did he do, but I do recall that he considered the spell permanency trick a bug and did his best to prevent it from happening by making it impossible to cast some spells from the Meta college on summoned creatures and/or undead creatures and/or mind controlled NPCs.

As I said, I don't recall what exactly was it, nor do I remember how many of those changes did rroyo nullify in A:WIP.

 

Yes, I'm playing this character with UAP, and this causes quite a few complications since I was planning to play an elven god with limitless power.

Any chance he did miss some way to do this particular super mega meta trick? I'm pretty sure he couldn't solve the normal meta trick, I already have Virgil at 100 speed by stacking Hasten.

Edit: I made Conjure Spirit permanent with Dweomer Shield then casted Resurrect; the target apparently started dragging his spirit with him: