Questions about Gaze attacks

[Anskiy]

What stats do gaze attacks check for when applied? Do they all use resistance, or some other stat? I ask because I noticed that Chaos Spawns absolutely decimate things in melee combat, even rare summons like Wraiths. You would imagine that with Death Immunity, the Wraiths would fare better than some common swordman group, but apparently not. Bless did nerf their effect a bit, but that spell specifically guards against Chaos and Death effects so it doesn't tell me much.

[Seravy]

It's resistance.
Wraiths don't have immunity to stoning, which is a Nature effect.

[MilesBeyond]

Like Seravy said, they target resistance. Quick breakdown (apologies if this is stuff you already know, maybe someone else will find it helpful): Each point of Resistance = 10% chance to resist. 4 Res = 40% chance, 6 = 60%, etc. So at 10 resistance, a unit has 100% chance to resist, or is completely immune, right? Yes and no. Most resistance targeting things have a penalty attached. Chaos Spawn's Gaze attacks say, e.g. Death Gaze -4, which means that the target's resistance is lowered by 4 for purposes of the attack, meaning at 10 resistance you'd actually have a 60% chance to resist.

So the obvious solution for gaze attacks is to buff up Resistance to being at least 14 (in the case of the Chaos Spawn). Part of what makes this tricky for Chaos Spawns, though, is their array of attacks - you need Bless to protect against their Death Gaze, but you need Resist Elements to protect against their Stoning Gaze, and I don't know if there's much of anything you can do to protect against their Doom Gaze (but that's also probably not an auto-kill).

So buffing your Resistance high enough can be great if you can hit that magic 14 but it's quite likely that you can't (and even if you can, there's still that Doom damage to worry about). The good news is that Chaos Spawn are relatively slow and, for a Rare summon, not super durable. In other words, take it down from afar. A few Magicians will do much better against one than an entire stack of Wraiths.

Chaos Spawn are a bit like a more extreme version of Night Stalkers, in that way - if you're prepared for them they're pushovers, but if you're not they're incredibly deadly.

[Anskiy]

So buffing your Resistance high enough can be great if you can hit that magic 14 but it's quite likely that you can't (and even if you can, there's still that Doom damage to worry about). The good news is that Chaos Spawn are relatively slow and, for a Rare summon, not super durable. In other words, take it down from afar. A few Magicians will do much better against one than an entire stack of Wraiths.

That sounds like they hard counter Gnolls completely. How is a Life Gnolls wizard(for example) supposed to deal with them, outside of casting Star Fires/Exorcise/Holy Word a lot?

[Seravy]

Build units in cities you conquered. Gnolls are all about early conquest and Chaos Spawns won't be summoned by other players until much much later.

[Anskiy]

That works when fighting other wizards, but I had lair/node Spawns in mind. I guess Gnolls should just skip these until they can conquer a race with good ranged units or Magicians though.

[tehemperorer]

That works when fighting other wizards, but I had lair/node Spawns in mind. I guess Gnolls should just skip these until they can conquer a race with good ranged units or Magicians though.

I know what you're saying, I play exclusively Gnolls, 9 book Death (Conjurer, Specialist, Omniscient) and the only method I've found that lets me survive in the mid to late game without and ranged attack on my starting race is Wraith Form Swordsmen/Wolf Riders that conquer small Neutrals without ranged garrisons. I don't even bother making Ghouls in the game really since they're not that strong for what Gnolls need to do out the gate.