Turn Undead

[Janice]

Can somebody explain to me what "turn undead" is exactly. I have referred to
the manual but it seemed a bit vague. I have never used it before but
clicked on it accidentally when I was fighting a phase spider and it seemed
to kill it. Is this a feature of PnP AD&D as I have never played it?

[Rich C. Velay]

RCV: The death of the phase spider was a coincidence...
Turn undead is a clerical ability that effects undead [in BG skeletons,
zombies, ghasts and ghouls, etc]. Basically the undead have to roll
versus the clerics level, and if they fail, they run away. The ability
is based upon the level of the cleric, and the strength of the undead.
So a 4th lvl cleric turns better than a 1st level one, and it is easier
to turn a skeleton [at any level] than it is to turn a ghast, for
example.
The cleric performing the turning has to give up his combat and spell
casting abilities for that round - they can do nothing but walking and
turning - if the AI is on or if you give a clumsy group command, then
the turning will end without any effect.
In most situations, simply attacking the undead is better than turning
them, but in some cases, turning them can be better, say against a
reasonable number of bow armed skeletons... At higher clerical levels,
the weaker undead are automatically turned, and at higher levels,
skeletons and zombies can be destroyed by turning alone.
Rich

[Evilb]

In shrort, a clerics turn undead ability forces undead to flee in
fear. At higher levels, the cleric can destroy certain undead
instantly using this ability.

[Avalanche]

Paladin's turn undead two levels below their real level. (a level 3 pally
turns undead at level 1 priest, 4-2, level 5 -3 etc)

Daniël

Rich C. Velay <vel...@sprint.ca> schreef in berichtnieuws
3906955D...@sprint.ca...

>
>
> Janice wrote:
> >
> > Can somebody explain to me what "turn undead" is exactly. I have
referred to
> > the manual but it seemed a bit vague. I have never used it before but
> > clicked on it accidentally when I was fighting a phase spider and it
seemed
> > to kill it. Is this a feature of PnP AD&D as I have never played it?
>

[Rob Holland]

"Avalanche" <van.la...@planet.nl> wrote in message
news:8e6hp8$74bdc$1...@reader2.wxs.nl...

An important note here is that if you have an Evil Cleric, for example
Viconia, then instead of turning the undead they can actually gain control
of them - similar effects to a charm spell except that you can't normally
charm the undead. Obviously this would come in very handy in IWD when
you're being swamped by legions of skeletons, poison zombies, cold wights
etc. It's not such a big deal in BG because you never really run into that
many undead at a time. The only advantage that turning has is that it might
make a few of the undead run away long enough that you are fighting at 1 to
1 instead of the odds being 2 to 1 against.

The one thing you need to watch out for is that turning doesn't work really
well in a confined space - for example fighting the ghasts in Razimuth's
tower. With 6 party members present the half dozen or so ghasts have
nowhere to run and so don't really turn very well. Certainly the fact that
Branwen was successfully turning a couple each round didn't make a big
difference. Still, it wasn't like they were all that hard to kill anyway
...

Hope this helps,

Rob

[Adam Cameron]

> The cleric performing the turning has to give up his combat and spell
> casting abilities for that round - they can do nothing but walking and
> turning - if the AI is on or if you give a clumsy group command, then
> the turning will end without any effect.

I find if you set the cleric to attack something *then* switch on TURN
UNDEAD, then both actions take place.

Adam

[Loketar]

I remember that tower. With the stupid movement AI in BG (the worst part of
this fine game I might add), my mages kept coming out in front and my
fighters in back every time I went up a flight of stairs. Finally I just
cast haste on my two tanks and sent them in to clear it out. I left everyone
else outside. I don't think they took a hit between them.

"Rob Holland" <chi...@mediaone.net> wrote in message
news:HINN4.18775$QX1.8...@typhoon.ne.mediaone.net...

> > > The cleric performing the turning has to give up his combat and spell
> > > casting abilities for that round - they can do nothing but walking and
> > > turning - if the AI is on or if you give a clumsy group command, then
> > > the turning will end without any effect.