Protection from Alignment change request

[KOPOJIbPAKOB]

Protection from alignment is an extremely popular buff with terribly ugly visual effect that ruins the screenshots and the whole RP atmosphere, could you disable it's visual effect please?

[Invoker]

Since its popularity is directly proportional to its strength, seeing when it‘s up (for the subject, respective allies and potential opponents) is of the utmost importance.

Removing a clear visual effect would constitute a balance issue.

[Tekill]

A different effect then?

[KOPOJIbPAKOB]

A different effect then?

That would work as well! For example, take a look at mage armor — doesn't ruin immersion and looks very neat, but easy to spot when you need it.

[Tsidkenu]

What about a smaller version of Magic Circle vs Alignment vfx?

[Valefort]

Sure, enjoy coding that on every spell

[Theodore01]

Ahh, is it possible to remove the "immunity to mind-affecting" from the spell ?

[Tsidkenu]

Why? It's what the spell does.

[whatsittoya]

Yeah that's probably the spell's most important component.

A reduced VFX for magic circle would be all right with me, as it's huge, bright, and obnoxious enough that people have asked me to shut it off at events regardless of its practical value, simply because of the visual noise it creates.

[artemitavik]

Isn't that kind of the point of the spell? Protection from such effects against that alignment? And a minor AC buff.

[DM Mercy]

Second, the barrier blocks any attempt to possess the warded creature (by a magic jar attack, for example) or to exercise mental control over the creature (including enchantment (charm) effects and enchantment (compulsion) effects that grant the caster ongoing control over the subject, such as dominate person). The protection does not prevent such effects from targeting the protected creature, but it suppresses the effect for the duration of the protection from evil effect. If the protection from evil effect ends before the effect granting mental control does, the would-be controller would then be able to mentally command the controlled creature. Likewise, the barrier keeps out a possessing life force but does not expel one if it is in place before the spell is cast. This second effect works regardless of alignment.

It's technically not meant to grant immunity to mind effecting.

[whatsittoya]

I went ahead and read the description available in nwn2 rather than the SRD.

[Vagrant]

Probably in the minority here, but I personally think having no visual effects what so ever would be optimal regarding realism. With exception to the effects that go with casting stuff like Melfs, or IGMS etc. Persisting effects on characters seems a bit meh to me. Remove them and then the spells that identify wards and such all of the sudden become much more valuable. Would definitely make the setting more gritty and require another level of intuition.

[Aspect of Sorrow]

Probably in the minority here, but I personally think having no visual effects what so ever would be optimal regarding realism. With exception to the effects that go with casting stuff like Melfs, or IGMS etc. Persisting effects on characters seems a bit meh to me. Remove them and then the spells that identify wards and such all of the sudden become much more valuable. Would definitely make the setting more gritty and require another level of intuition.

This makes sense for those spells that do not have visual indication descriptions on their effects, and not difficult to remedy. As a result of conditional examine, spellcraft rank could apply here to show what active spells are running on a perceived target. This will also reduce the amount of crash behaviors from the DM client.

Removing a clear visual effect would constitute a balance issue.

Probably fill a GUI window with party member names and the icon of the active spell will do equal justice. I wrote a tool a while back for client side indicators including cool downs but the extreme count of spells was obscene for text.

[Svabodnik]

[...]Probably in the minority here, but I personally think having no visual effects what so ever would be optimal regarding realism. With exception to the effects that go with casting stuff like Melfs, or IGMS etc. Persisting effects on characters seems a bit meh to me. Remove them and then the spells that identify wards and such all of the sudden become much more valuable. Would definitely make the setting more gritty and require another level of intuition.[...]

I'd be on board with that, provided that the persisting effects that make sense to be visible remain (by the lorewise description of the spells).

For example, for Entropic Shield from PH3.5: "A magical field appears around you, glowing with a chaotic blast of multicolored hues." Elemental Shield (Fire Shield in PnP) likewise wreathes you in flame, Bark/Spider/Stoneskin type effects would be obviously visible, etc. Conversely, the Shield spell is described as "an invisible, tower shield-sized mobile disk of force", and plenty of other spells simply don't list any persisting visual effect to them at all.

Jury may be out on the Protection vs. line of spells, though, since they are said to "create a magical barrier around the subject at a distance of 1 foot". It makes no mention on whether the barrier is visible or not. However, I'm guessing that this is merely stated due to the clause where the spell "prevents bodily contact by summoned creatures". Thus, the distance for the barrier is a note on the limit of contact, rather than an indication of visibility.