Fireshield (Blue) partially protects a wizard from cold damage by surrounding himself with a shield of ice flame. It also provides magical cold damage resistance, for those playing mods which use that damage type.
Description[]
| “ | Fireshield (Blue) The blue Fireshield protects the user from cold damage by surrounding the caster with a shield of ice flame. This shield not only grants the user 50% Cold Resistance, but also protects the caster from attacks made within a 5-ft. radius around the caster. An opponent that hits the caster with any weapon or spells within this radius suffers 1d8+2 cold damage. |
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Gameplay[]
The caster applies this spell to oneself only.
When the spell is finished, the spell roars to life and renders a 3D graphic effect upon the caster's sprite - a flaming ring of fire, for the spell's duration.
When the spell ends, there is also a sound effect that audibles indicating the expiration of the spell.
A party member who casts this spell will display an icon (No. 69) titled "Fire Shield Blue" on their portrait.
The flaming ice shield provides +50% Cold damage resistance, which is cumulative with most other spells, abilities or items that also provide cold damage resistance - the exception being that this spell doesn't "stack" with another fireshield blue.
Most attackers that strike a creature with an active ice shield will trigger the spell's retaliatory ability to inflict 1d8+2 cold damage upon the attacker - this damage is applied to the attacker for any and all successful hits (weapon or spell) - for example, a warrior who strikes and hits three times in a single round against the shield will suffer 1d8+2 cold damage three times.
For this retaliatory damage effect to occur, the attacker must be close enough to the shield to trigger it - the spell's description indicates this is a 5 feet range, but in actual practice it is difficult to really see that distance playout exactly during gameplay.
Attacks that are "touch" range, or with melee weapons with a 1-foot range seem to trigger the effect almost always - while attacks with a weapon with a longer reach might not do so reliably.
Spells and missile weapons launched at near point-blank range can also trigger the retaliatory fire damage.
This reach distance trigger can come into play when a large creature, such as a dragon, attacks an ice shield - the dragon's sprite "circle" is so large that it often won't affect the beast, even if a party member is as close as they can get to the dragon.
The fireshield retaliatory damage is unaffected by Magic resistance, and it isn't deflected/turned by personal spell protections such as Spell Turning, nor is it blocked by a Globe of Invulnerability (which is different than what occurs with a Fireshield (Red).
Similarly, creatures immune to 4 power level spells are immune to the icy shield as well, such as a Lich or Rakshasa.
This shield can be removed by any Dispel Magic effect or a Breach spell.
Where to obtain its scroll[]
The Black Pits[]
Sold by[]
- Dinguer the Mad (×3)
Baldur's Gate[]
Shadows of Amn[]
Throne of Bhaal[]
The Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay[]
Sold by[]
Notes[]
- Used occasionally by enemy mages.
- A counter to this spell is to raise cold damage resistance, such as with the Resist Fire and Cold spell.
- Another way to avoid this spell's effect entirely is to outrange it by attacking the caster using long weapons (halberds, quarterstaves, spears and two-handed swords). Just make sure that your character stands outside of the fiery circle when attacking. Ranged weapons (bows etc.), of course, can do that even more easily.
- Similarly, dragons and other enemies that attack from a considerable distance (even if technically still being considered "melee" attacks) will hardly ever be affected by this spell (though it's possible).
- A fireshield blue can be active at the same time as a Fireshield (Red) - both shields act independently and are fully functional.
The fireshield bug (below) is a potential gameplay Exploit, see the link for the Fireshield Hot Potato section.
Bugs[]
A bug introduced in EE v. 2.6 has a quirky interaction that can occur when two creatures with fire shield-like effects (including Keldorn's Hallowed Redeemer) engage in combat.
These effects may initiate a vicious circle as they instantly (yet endlessly) trigger retaliation damage upon their opponent until one of the combatants is dead. In effect, a character's own fire shield may end up causing their death.
Due to coding, the Fireshield (Blue) retaliatory cold damage is able to penetrate a Globe of Invulnerability, but this isn't what occurs with a Fireshield (Red), where the retaliatory Fire damage is blocked and a "Spell ineffective" text is displayed. This spell's coding could a bug, or the Fireshield Red coding is a bug, either way, one shouldn't be different than the other.
See also[]
Trivia[]
The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition Wizard Fire Shield spell lets the caster choose a "warm" or "chill" shield. The behavior of these two types differs significantly from the BG game's spell implementation. See the External links for further reading.
Gallery[]
Mod content[]
This section is about unofficial content that is only available via fan-made mods.
Spell Revisions mod has removed this arcane spell from use by the players and AI. It has no direct equivalent in Spell Revisions. See Fireshield (Red) article and the Mod content section for the replaced Spell Revisions version, which does provide some Fire and Cold damage resistance.