StrixO

Reflected Image Wow, people sure are sensitive about this. I think it's odd people would argue that a 1st level spell offering a virtual 50% resistance to all non-AoE damage (including magic missiles, flame arrows, and irregardless of a weapon's enchantment level, in case of melee), wouldn't be useful if it doesn't last up to 1 turn (at high levels). How does this compare to armor of faith, a 1st level divine? That spell offers 20% resistance for 1 turn to only melee (and doesn't include elemental melee damage). Anyway, I've nerfed mine locally. I'll try and let you know how it plays out (along with those summons, when I eventually get to them).

Reflected Image Well, I'm clearly in the minority regarding this tweak. Maybe it's a difference in playstyle. I don't buff my party to the hilt, or use redundant buffs. And I don't think a level 1 spell needs to be able to compete with 5th and 6th level spells for utility. I think 'reflected image' would serve as a good emergency buff when all the useful, higher-level stuff runs out. If you insist on needing this buff to have enough of a duration for pre-buffing along with every other higher level buff, what's the point of playing? You know who is going to win. Summons I briefly looked through the summons and most seem nice. The only real double take I had was for the aforementioned shambling mound (how about a jackalope?), hp/resistances on the elementals, and the hp on the fiends/celestials. That being said, I haven't played around with these summons much in-game, so I haven't given these tweaks a fair shake. EDIT: Fearsome druidic summons: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...g_jackalope.jpg

Any additional departure from PnP rules is kind of sad. That being said, the infinity engine doesn't have a DM's judiciousness in picking and choosing which spells a player will receive. While a DM can keep an eye on balance and modify the game world accordingly, the IE just dumps gold and scrolls all over the player. A DM might think twice about giving a player Animate Dead or Mordenkainen's Sword to preserve PnP balance. The IE doesn't care.

Another suggestion I've seen others make - I just wanted to second it: 'Reflected Image' is strong for a lst level spell. It's equivalent to 50% melee resistance for it's duration (except you get to keep every other stoneskin!). I'd cap it at ~4 rounds, for use in brief, close-quarters situations (like PfMW). At 4 rounds, I'd definitely still have the SR version in a spellbook for fighter-mages.

Call Woodland Beings I like the new nymph, but I might remove her summons, and have it rely on (lower level) charms and enchantments instead. Rather than a straight druid spellbook, why not include a few arcane spells? Summons Does everything need to be perfectly balanced? Sometimes I use less-than-ideal spells just for fun. I also wouldn't use a mordy sword as a benchmark for balance; its a strong spell and one reason to play a mage. Do druids and clerics need balanced analogues? Re: shambling mounds - bells and whistles aside, it's a 7th level divine summons that sticks around for 8 hours. Most of my gripes about the summons come down to SR HP assigments, I think. There's too much HP for my game, and I'd like to see many of the summons slightly more fragile. A thought like this resonates strongly with me: Still considering thac0 and AC assignments. Too many details for me all at once. Elementals Assuming straight melee damage and 40% melee damage resistance, the party needs to inflict 188/0.6 (=313) damage to reduce to zero, I guess. Shambling mound is similar strong meatshield with resistance (melee, fire, cold, electric), and it regenerates. Skeletons The skellies are awesome, but I agree with Demi about the MR. Nerf them. I'd cut MR to at least 75% (50% sounds good to me), and reduce HP by 20% (SR's hit point assigment). An unpopular idea, I'm sure, but it's a level 3 divine... Anyway, still appreciate all the work you've put in.

Thanks for the reply. Are you expecting to get a working v4 out in the next few months, or more long term? Have you considered/thought of any spells to replace Divine 7 Confusion/Sphere of Chaos? Neither seem wholly appropriate to a divine spellbook. What about an extra-strength Chant, or an AoE chaotic commands? Edit: And are there any plans to tone down the summons? I agree that many were rubbish prior to revisions, but as I've played with it a bit, several now seem severely strong (as do the new ones, like Shambling Mound). I'd be curious to know other user's impressions.

What other non-damaging AoE spells besides entangle and web cause those affected to go hostile? I'm not a fan. While it is odd for the random bystander to have no reaction to being held by a spell, I think it is more odd to have them re-classified as enemy after the same effect. The subtleties of a PnP game are lost with the coarse categorizations of BG, but I don't imagine many PnP games where bystanders would seek the party's deaths after being caught in non-damaging crossfire... Or have you implemented this feature to prevent webbing/entangling and abusing of NPCs who would otherwise go hostile after a dialogue with the PC? EDIT: btw, I think all save penalties should be capped at 4. If I had the time, I'd hack the SR spls to give -4 to level 9 and 10 arcane, and maybe level 8 divine (not level 7, though). Dunno how I'd break down save penalties on lower levels.

Gotcha, thanks for the reply Quick question: was 'pierce shield' modified to remove combat protections because of liches/rakshasas and 'breach' immunity? I miss the MR reduction component, but I can understand the need for balance if the spell will include removal of all combat protections. Are there any CREs that required the vanilla 'pierce shield' to lower MR? EDIT: isn't ravager immune to 'lower resistance'? I just checked and it is. I knew there was a reason I liked the MR component of 'pierce shield'. What about adding a MR penalty to 'spellstrike'? In a vanilla installation, the spell is not useful (...though more useful in SCS where mages use multiple spell protections). Another question: I've temporarily restored 'Spell shield' in my installation to the vanilla version. I don't use it for Beholders, but I do use it for solo magic duels in SCS. Will your non-AOE anti-magic attacks still work fine with the vanilla spell shield? I think your single target spells are breach, lower resistance, pierce magic, warding whip, and pierce shield. (Spell thrust, secret word, ruby ray, and spellstrike are all AoE in SR, right?) Last question: did you make the mage HLAs belong to specific schools, rather than being school-less? Will that conflict with HLAs for specialist mages?

I've been playing with this mod for a little while, and I'm missing the arcane 'Animate Dead'. 'Summon shadow' is very neat, though. What about restoring 'Animate Dead' and replacing 'Carrion Crawler/Create Undead' with 'Summon Shadow'? I guess you could always bump 'Create Undead' up to replace 'Control Undead' (I'm not liking 'Create Undead' that much, though). Admittedly, I haven't thought too much about each individual spell's power being reflected by the levels I've suggested - I just missed 'Animate Dead', and didn't want to lose 'Summon Shadow'. EDIT: BTW, I've come around to enjoying your random flame arrows...

Ah. I didn't think so far forward. Looking at Emotion, I agree with the nerfing, but it seems now to be primarily an anti-melee spell. What about adding an effect against spellcasters, like a 25% chance of spell casting failure?

I know it's already been discussed, but I liked bouncing lightning - sometimes it worked for me, sometimes against. You take away the bounce, and it seems like instant damage is the primary way to distinguish it from other spells. The randomness of bounce kept it interesting. Regarding Blindness, I've upped my own to 1 turn, which seems plenty. It's long enough for me to be useful - though not so long as to blind a mage and then forget about him to deal with others. I've had good success with it when coupled with Doom/Malison, so I consider it effective. I think moving it to level 2 (with whatever tweaks you'd include) is a good idea. I understand if part of the rationale is to be effective against players, which makes sense. It just gives me pause to see such a strong effect for a long time because of a level 1 spell. Is there a way to work the .SPL so that each flame arrow is cast sequentially? 5th level gives you 1 flame arrow, sent instantaneously after casting, 10th level gives you the same, plus one more at delay of 1 s, 15th the same, with another delayed at 2 s, etc. If the target is set when the arrow is thrown, you can have a spell used to manually select different targets. The obvious downside is the flame arrow would cause a stuttering effect on the caster until all arrows are spent. At 30th level, it'll burn the whole round. EDIT: The only stumbling block left in my current installation for my next playthrough is trying to decide whether to use your summoned fiends or aVENGER's. They're both great, though I like to see all fiends upgraded, and not just those summoned by spell.

Just wanted to say Spell Revisions is great, I'm enjoying it. While I have a few dislikes (such as AoE anti-magic and randomness of Flame Arrows, which I removed), on the whole it's added/changed a lot of things I wouldn't have ever considered. EDIT: I've always considered Level 1: Blindness as overpowered, as it can make several nasty opponents a cakewallk (even with panic to make them run around when blinded, instead of standing motionless). I think it's duration should be measured in rounds, not turns (vanilla game) or hours (SR). I also wonder why it's been changed to necromancy? I considered the spell as creating an illusory blindness, not as actually physically affecting the eyes. I changed both Blindness to 5 rounds, Deafness to 1 turn. Blindness is a level 1 spell - a debuffer at that level shouldn't last hours, especially when the effect is so pronounced.