I don't think Ray of Clumsiness is working properly.

So, I got ToEE recently, and I've been playing around with it.

I have a 7-member party with two wizards, and I crafted Wands of Ray of Clumsiness with which to go and do Unkind Things to the hill giant in Emridy Meadows with.

I figured, hey, that should be way easy. Hill Giants only have Dex 8 - if I nuke that down to dex 0, he'll be paralyzed and I can just walk my fighter up for a CDG.

I've reloaded and tried to fight him five times. His bear is charmed, so that's not my issue, it's actually fighting on MY side, though he NEVER attacks it, infuriatingly, he always makes a bee-line straight for my druid.

Problems I see: I frequently see his armor class listed as fluctuating greatly, from as high as 25 to as low as 17.

Nailing him with Wands of Ray of Clumsiness are not helping. There's no mention of him making fortitude saves, it says ability drained, but I've hit him over eight times in one of our bouts. Even if I rolled 1 on 1d6 Dex each time, he should be paralyzed, but neither his armor class goes down, nor does he.

What in the world is going on here? Can someone give me a clue?

[e]Oh, I see. Ray of Enfeeblement cannot drop STR below 1, so Ray of Clumsiness likewise can't drop Dex below 1. I'd be better off nuking his insane STR score, then, and loading up on Grease and Entangle so he can't approach.

 

Just load up 2 entangle spells and ranged weapons. Easy peasy.

 

His low DEX makes him very susceptible to slipping on greased surfaces.