Fire Shields

[Raj]

I think Fire Shield:Red and Blue are really sad and bad implemented spells in the vanilla game.

 

When I think I could make good use of them I realize I'm going to waste half of their usefulness: against fire creatures like dragons and giants for example, I'd like to have that 50% resistance, but the feedback damage is wasted because almost always the same creatures that deal a lot of elemental damage are immune to that particular element.

Flaming skulls and Efreeties use fireshield and deal good damage when a pc/npc hits them, but they don't need the added elemental immunity because they're already immune.

So what about swap the immunities so that Fire Shield:Red grants 50% cold immunity and Blue one grants 50% fire immunity? it makes sense, and I saw in your IR mod that Flame of the North sword already follows the same principle.

 

I'm still not sure they would be worth a level 4 slot, with stoneskin being THE defensive spell at that level, better ( lasting a lot longer, covering 100%) and cheaper (level 2/3 divine and arcane ) elemental protections availabe and SCS enemies who usually avoid to take damage from a shielded and immune to ( normal/magical ) weapons mage; a sort of aura like blade barrier dealing ( lower ) damage would be nice, or just raise their feedback damage in order to make these two very nice looking but somehow depressing spells attractive.

 

Last, Red and Blue shields shoudn't stack together, or coupled with aura of flaming death for cleric/mages, for balance and realism.

[Demivrgvs]

Let's analyze your point.

 

So what about swap the immunities so that Fire Shield:Red grants 50% cold immunity and Blue one grants 50% fire immunity? it makes sense, and I saw in your IR mod that Flame of the North sword already follows the same principle.

I do agree with this, and as you have noticed I've already implemented it in IR. It makes sense, and they would be more useful for the reasons you've explained...but unfortunately changing the original spells may cause a strange issue. You have pointed it out yourself: some creatures like Efreeti use Fire Shield (Red) but their version of it shouldn't grant cold resistance. Before making this change I should check if those creatures use a custom version of the spell of the original one.

 

I'm still not sure they would be worth a level 4 slot, with stoneskin being THE defensive spell at that level,...a sort of aura like blade barrier dealing ( lower ) damage would be nice, or just raise their feedback damage...

The problem here is that Stoneskin is too powerful imo, and though I probably cannot nerf it, I don't want 4th level spells to be as powerful as that spell. Anyway, slightly raising the damage dealt by the fire shields shouldn't make them overpowered. The aura effect is nice, but I'm not sure the AI can handle it, and it may be too effective in players hands.

 

Last, Red and Blue shields shoudn't stack together, or coupled with aura of flaming death for cleric/mages, for balance and realism.

Aura of Flaming Death shouldn't stack with Fire Shields, if it does I'll block that, but I think I'll let Fire Shields stackable (I think vanilla's and/or SCS's AI use this combo).

[Ardanis]

Anyway, slightly raising the damage dealt by the fire shields shouldn't make them overpowered.

Maybe it's just my playstyle, but I always considered shields to be more (much more I'd say) useful for enemies than for party. Vanilla damage is too low to be used as a weapon, but when an enemy caster surrounds himself with it then suddenly fighters don't feel too comfortable hacking at his stoneskins.

 

I think setting damage as per PnP (1d6+1/lvl, up to +15) won't hurt much. Or 1d10+1/2lvl, up to +10, which seems more balanced to me.

[Icendoan]

Then again, I enjoy the fight against the drow captain and his unlimited GWW with both shields up and PfMW.

 

Icen

[Demivrgvs]

Maybe it's just my playstyle, but I always considered shields to be more (much more I'd say) useful for enemies than for party. Vanilla damage is too low to be used as a weapon, but when an enemy caster surrounds himself with it then suddenly fighters don't feel too comfortable hacking at his stoneskins.

I do agree.

 

I think setting damage as per PnP (1d6+1/lvl, up to +15) won't hurt much. Or 1d10+1/2lvl, up to +10, which seems more balanced to me.

These was exactly the two possible solution I was thinking! Making the damage scalable should allow to better balance these spells in BG1 and early BG2.

 

Then again, I enjoy the fight against the drow captain and his unlimited GWW with both shields up and PfMW.

I'm quite sure I'll leave the shields stackable.