toxin

I'm not using IR, serves me right for running into these issues Regarding Breach, I don't think it makes sense for Spell Shield to block it, but on the other hand it doesn't make much of difference a since any AI Spell Shield would be hiding some underlying spell deflection which you'd have to take down anyway for Breach to have any effect. And in order to take down the spell deflection you'd have to take out the Spell Shield...

So I just faced the lich in Athkalta's City Gates area (secret door in the tavern) and I can say for certain Piecrce Shield doesn't work well against it. I dispel his Spell Shield (e.g. with Spell Thrust) and that works fine (says Spell Shield Dispelled on the console, and e.g. Spell Strike works after), but Pierce Shield does nothing that I can see. It just says "Lich: Pierce Shield" and his combat defenses are definitely still up ("Weapon Ineffective"), as are his spell protections (at least going by the animations, it's hard to tell if one of them was indeed dispelled since he has a few stacked). And another thing, I noticed that the Cloak of Mirroring, which is supposed to deflect all spell damage, does not deflect FireShield/Acid Sheath damage, which seems inconsistent. Finally, I noticed that Protection from Magical weapons protects against projectiles such as Fire Arrows and Bolts of Lightning on one hand, but those projectiles can't hit creatures that are immune to normal weapons on the other hand, which seems inconsistent (they should be treated either as normal or magical across all cases).

Also, I think Fallen Planetars are casting the vanilla version of Unholy Word. My lvl22 fighter was deafened, which should not have happened seeing as the planetar is lvl 18... Weidu log: http://pastebin.com/jHkFxFpi

Cure Critical Wounds (lvl4) maxes out at 4d8+40 Cure Mortal Wounds (lvl5) maxes out at 5d8+25 Surely, that must be a mistake? I would expect the latter to be something like 5d8+50...

During the fight with Firkraag, Imoen was silenced. Now, she has the Vocalize spell memorized, but can't cast it (I click it and nothing happens, the same as if I try any other spell). Going by the description (and my memory), it should have succeeded, cancelling the Silence effect. EDIT - I'm pretty sure it affects the AI, making Silence (especially PW) absurdly overpowered: http://gibberlings3.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=27636

The description for Spell Shield doesn't mention Breach in the list of spells it protects against, yet it does.

I fought him again and it seems that you are correct, at least most of the time it behaves as you specified. If memory server I've seen some deviations (PS doing nothing even when no Spell Shield was present, and the same for Spell Thrust) but I may have missed something - if I have anything substantial I'll report. Thanks!

Thanks Demi! If you could take a look at Pierce Shield too it would be great - it's pretty crucial against combat protections (as it doesn't force you to tear down all the magical defences first).

I also noticed that Spell Thrust doesn't do anything against Deirex, whereas Secret Word works perfectly.

No, because when spell shield is active I can then see "Spell Shield Dispelled" which is not the case. The only other protection I can think about would be Immunity:Abjuration but I don't see it cast it (it does cast dispelling screen, which appears in the list of spells PS should dispel anyway).

Pierce Shield doesn't seem to remove combat protections. I'm hitting Deirex with it and the console says Deirex: Pierce Shield but his combat defenses are still up (specifically, Protection from Magical weapons).

I do have aTweaks installed. Any specific component I should uninstall to fix this? Also, just to clarify, the expected behavior is that I should be able to directly control all the summons I mentioned?

When I summon Death knights and Glabrezu I can't control them, they just follow the caster. The weird thing is, if I reload I can control them directly. With "Animate Skeleton Warrior" it's even weirder - the skeletons kind of follow the caster (sometimes they stop) but they don't even have selection circles.

Thanks! I guess they're not updating the online readme.

The only CLUA commands I see in the readme have to do with fiendish and mephit gating, am I looking in the right place?

I just conjured an earth elemental and it turned on me after the mental combat. That's not supposed to happen, right? My Wiedu log is here: http://pastebin.com/fG4GWvkp Perhaps it has something to do with the improved aTweaks elementals I have installed?

I'm with you - the few spells that bypass MR are usually "meta-spells" anyway that remove magical protections and the like. It is very difficult to actually affect (harm, disable, confuse etc) a resistant creature. I can understand "innate" magic-resistant creatures like golems and jellies (I wouldn't mind if LR didn't affect those at all to be honest), or ultra powerful creatures like liches. But packs of creatures that are casters themselves and blast you with spells and abilities where you can't return the favor (e.g. Mind flayers, Drow) just seems unfair. If making the 5th lvl LR spell AoE is considered OP, how about moving it to say 7th level (assuming that's possible technically)? Another possibility would be to decrease the resistance reduction (for example to 1.5% per level), or maybe reduce the maximum reduction (for example to 25%).

I may be missing something, but I'm not seeing console feedback for some of the new spell. For example, when I cast Waves of Fatigue I don't see a list of characters affected (e.g. "Ogre - Fatigued"). Similarly, when I cast Sound Burst I don't see any feedback about deafened creatures (e.g. "Mage - Deafened"). This can be very frustrating, especially in big fights where I'm trying to figure out what's going on.

How about a "Mass Lower Resistance" (lvl7?) spell? Something like the 5th level spell but AoE. Sometimes you fight groups of creatures with magic resistance and hitting just one of them isn't enough (e.g. mind flayers). This only gets worse when they use magic against you (e.g. drow)...

That would be great too. Agreed.

Maybe just add an "Improved Banishment" (lvl8?) spell that works on these guys too? The regular banishment becomes pretty useless at some point, nobody is summoning hobgoblins anymore If by "full fledged" you mean it dispels fire shields / sheaths too, I'm all for it You are right on both accounts of course. What bothers me though is that usually to counter a spell of level N you need to use a spell of level ~N-2, and here you need to use either N (in case of fire and acid) or N+1 (in case of cold). Perhaps if Protection From Cold was a 4th level spell it would sweeten the pill. A dedicated lvl3 spell could be cool too (something like spell thrust but for shields/sheaths). Regardless of what you decide, I think there should be some way to protect from it as it can easily spell death for any affected character in many circumstances.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, unfortunately I'm not using IR in this run I'm not sure about Pierce Shield, seeing as it's a level 8 spell (seems overkill to counter a 4th level spell). Also, it would change its current usage somewhat significantly, seeing as it's currently used solely against spell protections.

No. Well that kinna sucks A high level mage loading up on Fireshields and Acid Sheaths would deal 2d8 + 4d4 + 4, an average of 20 HP per attack! (which many times would be wasted on stone skins) To counter these level 4 spells, you would need multiple level 4/5 (or a single level 7) spells to protect a single fighter, which would likely lose that protection on the first dispel (unless they have kreso's improved Dispelling Screen ) I would really love some tactical spell to dispel those. Maybe a "remove shield" spell (lvl3/4?) and/or perhaps "Improved Breach" (lvl6?) that would remove shields as well (like the original)?

I noticed Breach doesn't dispel Fireshield / Acid Sheath. Is there an alternative to dispelling them reliably (besides DM/RM that may not work depending on level)?

I see your point, that routine may be a bit too much. How about a distinction: Protections that are must have for certain situation. The prominent examples would be Chaotic Commands (e.g. against mind flayers), Death Ward (e.g. against demons with vorpal attacks), and Negative Plane Protection (e.g. vampires and wraiths). It's practically suicide to walk around certain areas without these so I'd say make them 1 turn / level (most already are, including Free Action), or even 1 hour if you feel especially generous Buffs that are "nice to have" like Aid, Chant, Bless, Barkskin, Luck, PfE, etc. Walking around with all of these at all times is probably too much like you mentioned so either keep them at 5 turns or even reduce to something like 1 round/level. You would typically only buff with these before "boss" battles (at least those that you know about) where you need any shred of advantage you can get.