Improved Chaos Shield is one of the three spells exclusive to Wild Mages. It increases the odds that the mage will successfully cast the spell they intended in the way they intended even during a wild surge.
There are no scrolls for this spell included in the game.
Description[]
| “ | Improved Chaos Shield increases a Wild Mage's chance to gain a favorable result when a Wild Surge occurs. Every time a roll is made on the Wild Surge chart, an extra 25 is added to the dice roll. When Nahal's Reckless Dweomer is cast, the bonus from Improved Chaos Shield stacks with the Wild Mage's level bonus. | ” |
Gameplay[]
The Wild Mage casts this spell upon self only.
When the spell is finished, a brief 3D graphic effect renders upon the caster's sprite, and a sound effect audibles.
A player character will show an icon (No. 162) titled "Improved Chaos Shield" on their portrait for the spell's duration.
This spell cannot be "stacked" with Chaos Shield or a second application of Improved Chaos Shield - those spells and Robe of Goodman Hayes all set the base value for the mage's wild surge bonus, so they are not additive/cumulative with one another.
The spell implements an adjustment to the chance for a "Wild Surge" to occur:
A wild surge bonus of 25 can be thought as a combination of two desirable things:
- First, it increases the odds to cast the desired spell in the desired way by 25 percentage points[1] during a wild surge.
- Second, it lowers the proportion of bad surges in the pool of surges that could occur, because the density of bad surges is higher in the lower rows of the wild surge table. Wild surge bonuses always remove lower rows from the mage's pool of possible surges.
This spell can be removed with a Breach spell, but not by a Dispel Magic effect.
See also[]
Trivia[]
The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition has no spell titled Improved Chaos Shield in the ruleset. For a listing of the AD&D Wild Magic spells and further reading, see the Wild Magic from the Wizard Spells Compendium link.
Mod content[]
This section is about unofficial content that is only available via fan-made mods.
Spell Revisions mod has changed this arcane spell, revising its duration, clarifies stacking effects, and description. See below:
Improved Chaos Shield
Level: 7
School: None
Range: Personal
Duration: 2 turns
Casting Time: 7
Area of Effect: Caster
Saving Throw: None
Improved Chaos Shield increases a wild mage’s chance to gain a favorable result when a wild surge occurs. Every time a roll is made on the wild surge chart, an extra 25 is added to the dice roll. When Nahal’s Reckless Dweomer is cast, the bonus from Improved Chaos Shield stacks with the wild mage’s level bonus. The caster may have only one chaos shield at a time.
External links[]
- Improved Chaos Shield on the Icewind Dale Wiki, a wiki for the first Icewind Dale game.
- Improved chaos shield on the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting Forgotten Realms.
- Advanced D&D 2nd Edition Wiki - Wild Mage
References
- ↑ Percentage point on Wikipedia