To Disable Buff Effects or Not To Disable Buff Effects

[Evelond Formos]

From a purely roleplaying perspective, you shouldn't be able to tell what enchantments a mage has on their person without hearing them cast the spell. I suppose there might be something in PnP where you can divine the enchantments present on something or someone using spellcraft or something, but I wouldn't know.

That said, if we're speaking purely in roleplaying terms, NPCs should not be able to tell what enchantments PCs have on their persons, either. However, this is implausible, because NPCs, being unintelligent and inflexible compared to you and I, would be easily dealt with if they did not have this advantage.

So really, if we want to keep fights against spellcasters from becoming ridiculously difficult, we should keep the spell buff effects, I guess. However, I personally can't tell what buffs a mage has on their person, regardless of VFX. It just looks like a glob of brightness to me.

[Rob]

I doubt that anyone cares, but the SRD doesn't describe any of these "buff ball" spells as having a visual effect. Mage Armor and Shield are specifically described as being invisible.

Edit: Evelond beat me to it.

[Alterity]

I find that when a wizard (Sometimes a Sorc) buffs up that they are so bright that the only thing I worry about is dispelling that massive ball of buffs. It doesn't matter what they have, because the worst ones are invisible anyways. When I play Hyel, mage armour and shield have little relevance to me, pro evil is useless and for a very short time does pro energy matter against him. The worst ones like Premonition, Spell Mantle, and Energy immunity are undetectable as is.

As for my fighters, Premonition again is undetectable, while stoneskins are easily detectable even with the spell VFX reduction. And i've never had the neccessity to know that my enemy was fully buffed before I hit them in the face with a sword or halberd, because as a fighter I have nothing I can do about it anyways.

Altogether, as I see it the buff balls aren't useful enough to take away the immersion, screenshot capability and just plain ability to see.

Just my two cents.

[Kamen]

Agreed. My vote stands on removal of gaudy spell effects. I'm not familiar with 3rd edition beyond this game, but I'd be inclined towards effects that more closely resemble what they actually should be, or even removal of all of them for that matter. Even the skin spells aren't realistic in the way that they turn your armor to stone or what have-you along with your skin. Two thumbs up to anything that enhances in-character realism.

However, If an enemy has some sort of fire shield around them that's going to burn my dumb barbarian, I don't think I need to make a lore check or whatever to know fire bad! and therefore adjust my tactics by hurling feces instead of rushing at it with my bone-club.

[Mad Dog Reno]

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Altogether, as I see it the buff balls aren't useful enough to take away the immersion, screenshot capability and just plain ability to see.
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Aye agreed!

[Redleafe]

I have no stance on this, but I voted No just to make this vote look a little less pathetic.

Of course, the rebel shows his colors.

[Vahene]

Someone explain to me why this is even an issue?

I thought there was a setting you could disable to turn them off?

K

[Kamen]

There is?

[superpoweredchimp]

There is?

Nope.

[Peregrinus]

Someone explain to me why this is even an issue?

I thought there was a setting you could disable to turn them off?

K

No, there isn't. The way people formally turned them off was by using an override back when everything had to be done as an override. Now, due to server policy being "you can't use overrides of any kind" those of us who preferred the lesser buff effects are basically SOL.

[Wired]

I thought you were PRO-buffball?

*Audits poll results*

[Vahene]

Before the expansions, I could have sworn there was a setting to turn them off. Maybe it got removed, but I'd swear it was there. Regardless, I don't see this as a big issue. You see a ball of magic, it's a mage. That still doesn't answer my question as to why this is an issue? Everyone knew going in that spell effects were part of NWN, especially if played even one second of the OC, or NWN1. *shrugs*

K

[Peregrinus]

@Wired, I've always been anti-buff ball.

@V The spell buff effects in NWN1 were quite subdued compared to NWN2. First off, they weren't light sources (well, except for the Light spell), they also tended to be much less in your face. As a fully buffed mage you could easily see your character's actions even when completely zoomed out. Not the case in NWN2. They added a lot more spherical spell effects that were also light sources, and made the spell effects much brighter and more obtrusive (this was across the board with a few exceptions where they changed spell that had awesome spell effects for MORE SHINEY LIGHTS! Alas poor MUB).

As a mage, I dislike the NWN2 spell effects because it hinders viewing what my character is doing. Keep in mind, I also play a Eldridge Knight, so I'm as frequently in melee as I am casting spells and it's useful to be able to see the action.

[Sorc]

As being lover of class called Eldritch Knight , and because my oldest char and practice is combat-Clerical.... I really hate those "Oh shiney!" balls that makes your char visual distinctivness somewhat unimportant, turning him into fractal shiney space ball..

[ChikenKannon]

I vote 'no' if only to make those pansy dress wearing flowers stand out from the real warriors out there.