Styss Rebirth Mechanics Discussion: Spell Changes

Clairaudience/Clairvoyance:
Grants +5 to spot AND listen.
> Could we revert this back to +10/+10 since it's a level 3 spell?

Like the changes to True Seeing.

No idea for MHeal/Heal/Harm, but def shouldn't return to their original states.

Are there going to be scrolls/wands for sale on this server? If they are, especially if useable by non-casters, then some spells at least would be easily counterable, so they might not need as much nerfs.

The problem with that is - NWN isn't a game of Rock Paper Scizzors insofar as the default game is concerned. It is balanced, yes; for PvE. It is made so that players have multiple tools for dealing with premade challenges that are AI run, and are built to either be defeated or be challenging, or sometimes unbeatable, as suits the design. These design principles do not apply to Player Characters, though, whom instead of being built to be defeated or challenging; are often built to win, in turn ignoring the 'fighters should be strong, clerics should be wise, mages should be smart'.

In an ideal world of non-powerbuilding or contest, it works, but unfortunately; it does not in practice. For numerous examples of 'breaks' that make certain classes, or even just particular spells, shine out in the extreme.

Mages get spells like the Bigby chain that base off of the caster's spellcasting statistic and caster level, to perform strong effects against other characters against their strengths.
Clerics get spells that can entirely dismiss opponents, or types. A cleric can easily use spells like Word of Faith to completely remove the freedom to even fight back from an opponent, while using a multitude of +/- AB and DMG spells to render themselves superior.
Monks, particularly those of defensive builds, can negate almost anything and become immune to spells and attacks alike through such resources as Self Concealment V, Epic Dodge, Monk AC, Wis AC, and so forth.
The list goes on; and they aren't balanced against eachother. Hells, some of them are outright buggy and exploitable; Shadowdancers' HiPS ability can be used to disable enemy combat attacks even if they have a Hide and Move SIlently of 2, counterspelling can be intentionally glitched to counter epic spells, etcetera.

THe game is perfect for PvE in its default form, mind, but for PvP? No. Because it was never designed with that in mind; much as its base system, D&D wasn't made with it in mind. Because it's a very different design philosophy. It will never be perfect, absolutely, but you can definitely do much to prevent the prevalence of the 0.00125% autokill per swing dev critters, or the Mages Defeat Everything system that sits in the default game.

So. Yeah. I'm sorry; but it does need to be tweaked. The argument of market or popular play depends upon the context of its original creation; PvE. From the multitude of resources and scripting put into play for such an old game to build dungeons, full campaigns to be played solo or cooperatively, and even the default game; it from its design, done well, has been The Player vs The Game.


The default game is just... Not appropriate for PvP. It never will be perfect, but you can at least make it better than Mages spamming Save or Die (nat1), 10-20/x3 Dev Crit Spammers, the Ultratanks of SR 65 Epic Dodge 50% Conceal 75 AC, Buffbot Cleric Fighters, and so forth. The game is capable of far more diversity than that, with the right tweaks.

I like the Sinfar Heal/Harm spells