Make mine brutal - a discussion of new spells.

[Eight-Bit]

Well, it seems this topic came up, and it is one that I am deeply interested in. There are a lot of spells out there that we are just not taking advantage of. I am making this thread in the hopes that we all can come to a conclusion that makes everyone happy. I for one like brutal spells. Ihave taken the liberty of finding a reliable d20 reference, found here.

[Falonthas]

well using the aforementioned listing i like the following if they could be somehow included:
d1-faerie fire,obscuring mist,shillelagh
d2- fog cloud,treeshape
d3- plant growth,windwall
d4- reincarnate ( which would come in very handy when no clerics are around even though the risk of not being yourself you would be alive),rusting grasp
d5- baleful polymorph,wall of thorns
d6- fire seeds,wall of stone
d7- changestaff,windwalk,transmute metal to wood
d8- earthquake,whirlwind
d9- shapechange(any shape)

now these are just druid ones but im kinda biased but we dont have any wind spells persay or the transmutation of nasty metal into nice wood

my two leaves worth

[LynnJuniper]

My List of Desired Illusion Spells (Yes this is rather biased and may only work in rp fashion but hey I'd take them!):

Disguise Self: Changes your appearance. (It could be like polymorph only illusionary and replacing the creatures with basic settings: Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Half Orc, Human. (Different genders would be cool too)

Magic Mouth M: Speaks once when triggered. (Would be kind of cool if I could put a talking messege on something as one would make a trap. There was something along the lines of a "trap box" Like this on Ragnarok that allowed you to input your own messege) 'Go back. This is not the way' etc.

Mirror Image: Creates decoy duplicates of you (1d4 +1 per three levels, max .

Illusory Wall: Wall, floor, or ceiling looks real, but anything can pass through. (if blade barrior is possible , why not script up an illusionary one that looks menacing but doesnt actually damage ?)

Mislead: Turns you invisible and creates illusory double. (Not sure if possible, but it would be very cool: hah! Just like the one scene in Howl's Moving Casle)


I could go into the other schools, but I dont think I will, I'd go on for ages. But I suggest a general balancing out of spells. Illusion and Divination could use more useful spells as could a few others.

[Filatus]

I love that site, some very cool spells are listed there.

I've taken the liberty of listing my favourite abjuration spells.

Antimagic Field (6th): Negates magic within 10 ft. (every scripter's nightmare I'm sure)

Repulsion (6th): Creatures can’t approach you. (scriptable perhaps in some manner akin to sanctuary?)

Imprisonmen (9th): Entombs subject beneath the earth. (great spell, should be doable if you leave out the possibility for a Freedom spell. And I do not think it's unbalancing considering it would end up like a ninth level finger of death with a will save instead of the fort and no damage on a succesful save)

[darkstorme]

LynnJuniper - 11/15/2006  6:05 PM
Mirror Image: Creates decoy duplicates of you (1d4 +1 per three levels, max .

Speaking from a scripting perspective, this one is long and away the most difficult to implement.  Likewise, mislead is trouble, because NWN's engine is not usually up to making illusory creatures.  The others all seem reasonable, particularly illusory wall, since it'd just be the application of an effect.  Making an actual wall is muc htrickier, but making an apparent spell effect?

Change Appearance I'm fully in support of - as indicated in my other posting.  If it's still up for grabs at Christmas, I'll take a real stab at coding it.

Filatus - 11/15/2006 6:10 PM
Imprisonment (9th): Entombs subject beneath the earth. (great spell, should be doable if you leave out the possibility for a Freedom spell. And I do not think it's unbalancing considering it would end up like a ninth level finger of death with a will save instead of the fort and no damage on a succesful save)

The one thing I can see about this that is unbalancing is that, in fact, the bindstones ought not to have any power over someone targetted with such a spell.  They're not dead... they're entombed, in suspended animation.  So barring the possibility of a Freedom spell, Imprisonment is a character-be-gone.  If you nerf it to be an insta-kill with a will save, it's really no different than Weird or Wail of the Banshee, and either of those is more powerful.  The reason Imprisonment is level 9 is because it's so ridiculously unbalancing.  On the other hand, I'm all for the inclusion of Trap-The-Soul and Imprisonment as new spells, but Freedom and the soultrap gems would have to be added as well.

Think about it - a high level party breaches the lair of some evil lich master.  The party moves into the musty air of the tomb, magical light radiating from their unsheathed weapons.  Silence, aside from the distant creak of aging mortar, and their footfalls in the fallen dust.  Then, a rattling of bones, as the undead spellcaster appears behind the party, skeletal hands moving in arcane gestures, and touches the shoulder of the stalwart Paladin... and with barely a cry, the paladin vanishes.

The party fights on, and may defeat the lich, but they'll then have to hunt down a scroll of Freedom, or find a spellcaster who can cast it, and venture back into the tomb to free their entrapped comrade.  (Sucks for the trapped character, this is true, but the storytelling possibilities are huge.)

[LynnJuniper]

Mirror image is done in NWN2 as a first level spell, but perhaps not the same way. I was wondering if the scripts were the same in NWN2 as it is in NWN1 and if the spells could be transfered?

[Dorganath]

Whether the scripts could be transfered is one thing. Whether the NWN engine will support something from the NWN2 engine is quite another.
  No statement was ever made that NWN2 scripts could be back-ported to NWN1...only that NWN1 scripts could be migrated to NWN2.

[LynnJuniper]

I think it would be an interesting experiment unless trying would cause everything to explode

[darkstorme]

Well, it's an engine thing.  There's no equivalent VFX for mirror image in NWN1, let alone the illusory characters that "wink out" when hit.  It's not just a script issue, it's something built into the engine - back-porting makes little sense. Sorry.  Dorg can always gainsay me, but I'd say it's not an "experiment" situation.