Ardanis

Fog Cloud The main implementation problem is that offering complete invisibility effect is unbalancing, while forcing the creature visible (thus keeping II only) will also strip any other invisibility effect the target might have had. Although I believe it is sensible behavior - the whirling of thick mist should expose anybody moving within. Invisibility magically disappeaer after the character casts a spell or attacks something, i.e. makes his presence known, so why shouldn't the same happen in fog. The Glitterdust spell already works by this concept. Ray of Fatigue - Power Word Fatigue Power Words' distinctive feature is no saving throw allowed, and unsaveable -2 penalty to attack/AC/casting/movement strikes me as unbalanced for 1st spell. I'd go with Ray and save. Polytope has a point too about merging Blindness with Deafness. Gedlee's Electric Loop I wouldn't worry about stun, because in order to disable a group of enemies in this manner you'd have to get the caster literally surrounded. If he does manage to pull it off without getting slaughtered, I think he deserves some bonus points. Snilloc's Snowball Swarm For these reasons - animation, AI, comparison with Fireball, - I think party-friendliness should used.

I was only proporsing the Chaos->Symbol of Insanity change, because they have nearly identical effect.SoC uses different sort of effect (cloud), if we'd like we could rename it to Maddening Whispers, to be closer to PnP. GoI's type is undetectable, and SCS only refrains from casting 3rd spells when it sees it.

Chaos Does anyone think this spell is vastly overpowered for it's level? Large AoE, party-friendly, the most vicious save penalty the arcane spellbook has to offer, and it bypasses Globe of Invulnerability by being a 5th level spell. In fact, the only defense against it is SI:Enchantment and Chaotic Commands, beside 100% MR and equipped immunity. I find it quite wrong to disable a group of summoned Cowled Wizards by a single 5th spell. In 95% cases it outshines other enchantment spells on it's level (Hold Monster, Feeblemind, Domination). We haven't found an adequate way to distinguish Chaos from Confusion a level lower. It led to a daring thought - all of the above can be solved in one feel swoop if Chaos is changed to PnP's Symbol of Insanity (8th level). It won't even have to have it's vanilla parameters changed, with the added benefits of increased level (immunity penetration) and symbol's trap-like nature they'll fit a 8th spell nicely. And back in the middle levels there will be a currently underused Confusion.

Fog Cloud/Obscuring Mist I would also add improved invisibility effect, to prevent spellcasting against creatures within. Dimension Step/Dimension Hop My reasoning to change DD to 5th level Greater DD (unlimited DD ability for 1 round/lvl) is due to the 4th Ch. boss Davaeron (BG1), who has an unlimited teleportation ability. What he does is exactly a GDD in effect.

Control Undead Mind control is simply not my playing style Limited Wish I think Wish spells deserve a separate topic...For example, we can try to add PnP features to them (duplicate any spell of lower level). Mantle It had some appeal with 3 round long PFMW, but nothing special. To make it worse, Improved Mantle is a level higher, and two same spells one level apart is a pain imo.If PFMW gets back 4 rounds, then add an extra round to Mantles and Absolute Immunity too. Also I would double the AC bonus (to 6 and 8), it will provide reasonable protection even when opponent's weapon can bypass the immunity. Mordenkainen's Sword IIRC aTweaks makes something killable with dispel magic, either mordy of nishruu. Protection from the Elements Magic damage is quite common, second only to fire, maybe.Regardless, the duration is reasonably long, thus it's fine. Summon Hakeashar I'm tempted to agree. One is enough, and I haven't even used them ever.

Protection from Normal Weapons Balance wise it should be on 3rd level, where ProNMissiles was/is, one offering greater duration and ability to cast on allies, the other including melee weapons as well. And since ProNMissiles became ProMissiles... It's not really a suggestion to switch them, but I think you get my meaning

Protection from Normal Weapons Since ADnD purists are clearly against seriously altering or replacing this spell, the only mild change I can think of is to increase it's duration. And greatly so, to 1 turn/level (or even fixed 8 hours). Then perhaps it's not a waste of a highly valuable 5th slot to memorize it. It imposes a complication, however, - the caster will not be able to cast PFMW during this time, which is a good enough reason to avoid PFNW once again... Well, if it were up to me, I'd allow it to stack with PFMW (it does anyway when cast from a trigger). No big deal imo, no AI uses normal weapons against PFMW except RR's Cyricist party - where, coincidentally, you start with no buffs, thus can't afford to waste a round or a slot in a trigger to include PFNW. I suspect, however, that despite my reasoning above the stackability won't be accepted anyway, so there is a backup option - to allow casting it on the others. Breach I'll need to investigate it further, but I think there are several places where AI is trained to dispel fireshields and armors as well. Still I doubt there'll be any field for abuse.

You aren't quite right. There are few things as annoying as watching AI to ignore a summon and keep hitting the caster. Why else would one use a summon if not to distract the enemy and give oneself more breathing room?

Conjure Elemental Putting aside the combat value of the ability to select the desired effect, as well as it being basically the same spell, being three separate spells also means: 1) sorcerers have no real way to use all three in one game; to a lesser extent, low INT wizards (Aerie) have the same problem 2) wizards have to buy/find three scrolls to learn all elementals 3) unless I'm mistaken, this is not per PnP Oracle I don't remember where did the idea end up, or even if it was for this spell (!), but back then we've considred the Arcane Sight effect - the ability to see enemy wizards' spell/combat protections. Although Demi said in the KR's thread there was a kind of problem with the proposed solution, needs to re-check. PS Breach I continue being of the opinion that removing specific protection should be moved over to Pierce Magic, and that we have to convince David to take that into account (it's fairly easy to allow for).

Confusion Disable it. 4th level needs space for new spells, and with Chaos on 5th I see no reason to keep Confusion. Contagion Emotion Despair beats it hands down. Change to Enervation. Dimension Door Move to 5th level as a Greater DD. Caster receives an innate refreshable DD for a limited time. LOS is required. Fire Shields I'd prefer Elemental Shield ala NWN, with combined effect rather than selection menu. The second shield is moved to 5th level as Acid Sheath. Spirit Armor I'd increase it's effect - duration, level progression, whatever, - as well as the backlash. I've played with 4d6 damage, seemed fine. Dimensional Anchor Good, but there's no space if we add Vitrolic Sphere, Force Missiles and Phantasmal Killer.

Skull Trap Set the casting time to 1 round. It's a "trap", so using it in combat should be more tricky. It being a trap also compensates for lower damage than Fireball. Fireball I'm for keeping 30' radius. ST does more damage and can be set in advance, but FB is faster and covers larger area. Spell Thrust You may be right. However, is there a point?

Skull Trap Explosive skeletons are out of consideration due to frequent use of this spell by AI. That said, I'd prefer the vanilla "trap" version over a walking bomb. Perhaps casting time should be increased to 1 turn, as with Symbols? This is a trap, after all, ought to take some time to place. Fireball Greater blast raduis is what distinguishes Fireball from Skull. On the other hand, reducing raduis does limit the use of this spell in scout-ahead-and-fireball-from-out-of-their-sight tactic. Protection from Missiles Like Aranthys says, except I think AC bonus should be either 5+1/2lvl or 1/lvl.

Friends In plans for Quest Revisions. Until then, 8 hours as suggested. I'm actually quite content with sacrificing one spell slot for better prices.

Reflected Image David said that with short duraion this spell is unusable by AI on mid-high levels, because it would have to compete with PFMW and always lose. At the same time, I can still see a room for player-use, because unlike PFMW it's cumulative with Stoneskin and can greatly help against greater golems and other melee foes, who still may be not worth casting a 6th level spell. True Strike 1) The name implies one guaranteed hit 2) There's already Tenser, if we want warrior's thaco 3) 1 round is indeed hard to use Chill Touch & Shocking Grasp One - ranged touch, another - enhanced attack (5 rounds?). I suppose CT is better for attack, and SG - for ranged, as you say. But then it'd have to be renamed, as I can't imagine a ranged grasp.

Chromatic Orb Great. Reflected Image Reduce duration? To 3+1/5lvl or so. True Strike Make it grant a single critical hit.

Right now - yes. Earth ones had no problem holding off Yaga-Shura's army while I was picking on major threats. I do tend to agree for making them long-lasted. They're the best candidature for it imo.

That's what I'm saying - healing spells totally outshine anything else at low levels. At the same time, IR made potions a lot cheaper, so that even 1st lvl party can be offered a couple in any shop.

Lightning Bolt a) As a matter of personal preference, I'd stick to respective vanilla animations for both spells. b) Should they look alike? One spell is single target, while another has AoE. c) I don't know if there's any direct way to identify a source referenced in fireball.ids. Needs to check manually. I assume you want to make a brand new explosion animation? Holy/unholy smite also could use the same one, they don't look too different and most certainly the source spells are nearly identical in all aspects. Speaking of CS and PS, the Prismatic Chain should then also be immune to CS, in addition to CO and PS. Not that anybody still uses CS by that time, though. Disintegrate Reposting feedback from Russian boards - both -5 penalty and 5d6 on failed save is too much. Reducing penalty to -2 would be most fine. I know we've already discussed it earlier, so it's more for statistics. Cure Wounds I've just recalled something. You said that "X+(lvl/2)dX" will present very weak CLW and CMW in BG1, yes? But, how often do people memorize something else on first levels beyond healing? Slots are scarce, and having a free substitute for a couple of potions of healing is probably the best deal an adventuring party can hope for. Then, if CLW is quite weak, there's a better reason to invest in something else. Like - Doom, Remove Fear, Bless, Sanctuary, etc. All are fine spells, but they imo pale compared with a free potion. Lastly, light wound probably shouldn't mean more than 25% of the max health.

CoC was the one I've used for visuals. I'd say it's out of consideration - too discreet, and displays almost nothing when shooting along the screen diagonal. The best choice imo is the secondary projectile used for graphics, but it still has an issue of disappearing too soon sometimes. Well, all in all I'd say it could work, but just like Demi has said, together with another issue it deviates dangerously far from 'perfect'.

I used 16. At longer distances it still spreads a bit. Agreed about A64 part, though he seems to have stopped the active development.

EDIT Alright, here's what I've managed to do. I added a secondary projectile (LIGHTBLT) to the main cone, and it displays normally - a single bolt that flies past critters up to the max distance. The only catch here is - secondary one will only fly as far as the spot the spell was cast at. So if you target ground nearby yourself, the bolt will disappear few feet away, while everything standing farther will take damage nonetheless. Otoh, seeing how electrical damage already produces lightning sparks, they might be counted as the bolt's extension. And another edit As I feared - it affects only those, whose circle's center appears within the cone. At a distance of 1 foot it's near impossible to hit somebody with a thin cone.

Call Lightning Whoops, didn't notice it. I suppose it won't work then, just like casting failure only works upon the true casting.

Lightning Bolt So the thin cone hits targets correctly, even if barely touching the selection circle? When I was working on traps, I found out that the trigger radius is checking for the circle's center, so a dragon could easily walk over radius=1 trap and not trigger it. How to enforce a single bolt, hmm... Offhands I've no idea. Maybe using the VVC field would help, like it did with Flame Strike, but this is a cone... Well, added it to the 'try to do' list. Call Lightning What about making it stronger when used outdoors? Two subspells, one has the 'outdoors only' flag, the other doesn't. Heck, Entangle may be tweaked the same way too then. For it's name, in NWN2 it's still called the same, but can be used indoors just as fine.

Perhaps we could just agree on adding the tertiary effect, to work against casters? Percentage failure, casting speed, caster level, spell slot loss, whatever. It won't be much useful, but may add the spice and flavor. Lowering INT to 3-5 will make the target vulnerable to Maze. Lowering save vs spells will do... what? With only mind-affecting spells left to use this save type, it probably is safe to go with even as much as -4 penalty.

I think I got the concept. Assuming that the chance of successful casting is dependant on primary ability score (like not implemented priest spellcasting failure with low WIS), the FB nullifies that chance, whatever it was before. In that light, high INT wizards indeed suffer far more than orcish barbarians. Problem is, naturally, that there's no such a thing in BG as the casting failure due to low stat, and everybody is (theoretically) fine even with INT 9. In other words, we're back to miscast magic in it's vanilla form. Well. It may not be such a bad thing, because enemies can be immune to hold/charm/feeblemind, but none to my knowledge is immune to the percentage casting failure. Also, being held qualifies as being helpless and may thus release a contingency with Dispel Magic on self - hardly ever happens imo, especially with AI, but still. PS Big Picture uses the 180th stat (WIZARD_GREATER_MALISON), values >10, for cloud detection. Among the other uses, I saw BP trying to shoot opponents trapped within a cloud while, rather than approaching them in melee.