The Dog House

[villainsimple]

You know a question all the Magic users REALLY want to know, Codog... Gazebo... any of you...



When will we be able to selecively use metamagic on a spell?

i.e. When will i be able to cast an extended haste and then immediately cast a normal duration hold person?

[dragnmoon]

If I tried to tell My players that slow was a Paralysis effect I would have a mutiny..

paralysis
This special attack (extraordinary or supernatural) renders the victim immobile. Paralyzed creatures cannot move, speak, or take any physical actions. The creature is rooted to the spot, frozen and helpless. Paralysis works on the body, and a character can usually resist it with a Fortitude saving throw (the DC is given in the creature's description). Unlike hold person and similar effects, a paralysis effect does not allow a new save each round. A winged creature flying in the air at the time that it is paralyzed cannot flap its wings and falls. A swimmer can't swim and may drown.

And just for good form...

paralyzed
Frozen in place and unable to move or act, such as by the hold person spell. A paralyzed character has effective Dexterity and Strength scores of 0 and is helpless, but can take purely mental actions. A winged creature flying in the air at the time that it becomes paralyzed cannot flap its wings and falls. A paralyzed swimmer can't swim and may drown. A creature can move through a space occupied by a paralyzed creature -- ally or not. Each square occupied by a paralyzed creature, however, counts as 2 squares.
As an extraordinary or supernatural ability, this special attack renders the victim immobile. Paralysis works on the body, and a character can usually resist it with a Fortitude saving throw (the DC is given in the creature's description). Unlike hold person and similar effects, a paralysis effect does not allow a new save each round.


I don't see how Slow.. which. Slows them... not renders them immobile can be considered a Paralysis effect. Just because 1 spell says it effects more then just Paralysis, does not mean everything it effect is paralysis...

I which I could find something that out right said Slow is not a Paralysis, but I was unable to.

[Mad_Bombardier]

DeadlyGazebo, I appreciate your fast answer and consultation with Eladrin. But, I don't buy it.

Yeah this one is quacking a whole lot like a Transmutation that undead shouldn't be immune to.

Using this logic Freedom of Movement also protects against paralysis, Slow, and Web spells. Does that mean Undead should now be immune to Web spells? Of course not!

Nice one, Rodian! Or maybe... because Fire Shield protects you from Web, Web must be a cold spell.
Perhaps we can get MysticTheurge (or another Wizards forum user) to ask the Sage for a ruling?

[MysticTheurge]

It seems fairly open to interpretation.

Remove paralysis does say:

You can free one or more creatures from the effects of any temporary paralysis or related magic, including a ghoul’s touch or a slow spell.

A ghoul's touch clearly is paralysis. It's called paralysis. I'm not even sure why it has to be mentioned separately in the spell description.

So slow being on there does kind of suggest that it may be a form of paralysis. Of course, you could argue that it's just "related magic" which means that it's similar to paralysis but not actually paralysis.

That said, there's absolutely nothing in the slow description itself to indicate that the effect is paralysis. And being a fairly strict interpreter, I would definitely lean towards slow not being a paralysis effect.

[CrazySamaritan]

Hold on, it seems a lot of people ar complaining about slow/paralysis effects, so I want to make two points:

1) discussions should often go in a new/different thread.

2) Gazebo said the reason he answered that it was a paralysis effect was because the pen and paper rules the game is based on treated it as such. It was done to make coding easier.

[EspyLacopa]

2) Gazebo said the reason he answered that it was a paralysis effect was because the pen and paper rules the game is based on treated it as such. It was done to make coding easier.

Which was then countered. It can be cured with Remove Paralysis due to an exception in the rule for the spell. Other instances hold no such exception for Slow.

[Angelus_dead]

I'm certainly not going to claim this is obvious or anything -- it's more that we need to draw the line somewhere on all the special cases that abound in the PnP rules, so at some point, if it quacks like a duck, we just start treating it like a duck. So, slow is cured by remove paralysis, and by analogy you are immune to it if you are immune to paralysis, so poof, it's in the "paralysis" bucket, and I start answering questions about it with "yep, it's in the paralysis category".

That's bad. Much worse is that some purely physical nonmagical attacks like Earthgrab are also treated as paralysis.

Freedom of Movement could block Earthgrab on the argument that it gives "auto-success on grapple checks". However, its absolutely senseless for warforged to be racially immune to earthgrab.

[EspyLacopa]

That's bad. Much worse is that some purely physical nonmagical attacks like Earthgrab are also treated as paralysis.

Freedom of Movement could block Earthgrab on the argument that it gives "auto-success on grapple checks". However, its absolutely senseless for warforged to be racially immune to earthgrab.

Yes. Just because we don't have Grapple mechanics in the game for player characters doesn't mean they couldn't have effects that say "Grappled!" instead of "Paralyzed!"

Same type of thing happened in Neverwinter Nights when they added Bigby's Fist spells. . .They had to do a workaround using Cut Scene paralysis.

[Turial]

Thank you for writing. The Slow spell is not considered a paralysis effect, and therefore would affect undead.

Good Gaming!

Is the spell slow a paralysis effect that undead would be immune to? Or does the paralysis immunity of undead creatures just cover things like hold and paralyzers?

[edited to not violate forum posting rules]

[MysticTheurge]

Yup. That's the answer I got too.

Slow is not a paralysis effect but the remove paralysis spell is able to remove most things that are inhibiting your movement.

Please let me know if you need anymore help!

Chuck
Customer Service Representative
Wizards of the Coast

(Of course they tend to open up another can of worms any time they answer a question. "Most things that are inhibiting your movement"? Seriously? What about Web or Rough Terrain? Or the movement penalties from burden or heavy armor?)

[EspyLacopa]

I have two main issues with Grease:

1. It affects the caster's allies. No other spell in the game does this, so why does Grease?
2. It has a static save DC of 15.

Both are silly, and relegate a potentially useful spell to nigh uselessness, and highly annoying to party members.

Grease
Conjuration (Creation)
Level: Brd 1, Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target or Area: One object or a 10-ft. square
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: See text
Spell Resistance: No

A grease spell covers a solid surface with a layer of slippery grease. Any creature in the area when the spell is cast must make a successful Reflex save or fall. This save is repeated on your turn each round that the creature remains within the area. A creature can walk within or through the area of grease at half normal speed with a DC 10 Balance check. Failure means it can’t move that round (and must then make a Reflex save or fall), while failure by 5 or more means it falls (see the Balance skill for details).

Note how there's two portions: Moving around on the spell requires the balance check. That's essentially what's in the game right now. DC 15 Balance Check. What's missing is the round to round Reflex Save, which should also be able to benefit from Heighten.

Still not sure what's stopping you devs from having it only affect enemies.

[Boulderun]

Yup. That's the answer I got too.



(Of course they tend to open up another can of worms any time they answer a question. "Most things that are inhibiting your movement"? Seriously? What about Web or Rough Terrain? Or the movement penalties from burden or heavy armor?)

Remove paralysis has an instantaneous duration. Encumberance or terrain isn't a temporary effect that can be "removed." Web is a little trickier; off the cuff I'd say it should "unstick" you, but the web would still be in your way impeding movement as described for a successful ref save. In the DDO context it should probably just remove the effect.

[Gratch]

Two issues here:

Superiors
So the WDA just came out and no mention of STWF or STHF for the patch, 6.1, or 7.0. I'd like to tell you that I'm crying for the rangers, but moreso I'm worried about the Fighters who are running out of feat selection at the high level. So just wondering if its still planned for the game but it's going to be one of those Price as Right 6.1 moments: A NEW FEAT! (or two).... or whether the devs are having second thoughts about adding the extra attack/glancing blow attack to the game. Also... the L15,16 enhancements. same question. Providing no answer would mean you're really busy (duh) or it's one of Kate/Q's Bob Barker (psst... it's Drew Carey now) moments.

Sit and Spin Fix:
"Hello, my name is Larry, this is my 2nd week of abstaining from sitting and spinning at shrines."

<Group> "Hi Larry"

"It was tough at first... I mean... I used to be able to see if I had forgotten a zombie in my Orchard runs. But now, I'm learning to grow from that fear... to embrace it. I... I... just have to buy enough pots to make sure I can deal with him if he is behind me."

<Group Leader>"Thank you Larry. We know it's tough, but you will persevere with our help. One thing Larry... your sponsor Bill was assigned to stealth and watch you at a shrine. He um has a report."

"What? Hunh? Bill?"

<Bill>"Larry, I'm afraid, I've noticed that you're still trying to sit and spin...despite our ClockWork Orange style prevention and apparently when you do this and then standup... well your camera angle then snaps to where you rotated it while shrining. You then stagger off the shrine a bit drunkenly until you move forward enough to snap your camera angle
forward."

"Man... you guys suck... I NEED TO SIT AND SPIN. PLEASE. JUST ONCE MORE."

[Dworkin_of_Amber]

I have not yet updated the spreadsheet with any of the newer discussions, but I wanted to take a minute to post the compiled responses from Codog & DeadlyGazebo:

#5 - Spell Hotbar - I'll talk to our resident UI guru about this and see what she thinks. That would come in handy for folks that don't have 24 inch displays with enough room to fit all 10 toolbars on the screen. --Codog 2/1/08

#7 - Auto-Attack & Search - We are currently exploring some different ways to engage and disengage autoattack to make it less clunky. Your intuition is correct about autoattack disrupting the search. It turns out that it attempts an attack and breaks whatever skill you are performing. --Codog 2/1/08

#8 - Balance Skill & Trip Checks -We haven't forgotten about this one... but it has failed to make it up on the top twenty list yet. --Codog 2/1/08

#9 - Enemy Mob Unlimited Speed - It used to be that monsters didn't path away from or to players very well. The speed increase was put in place to aid the monster actually reaching players and ultimately make the monsters less cheesable. I'll forward these concerns to Eladrin for consideration. He's a busy, busy guy right now and might not have time to address this in the immediate future. --Codog 2/1/08

#12 - Overlapping Blade Barriers - Under consideration for Module 7 - Checking with Eladrin to see if this design will be reversed now that we've fixed the problem it was intended to solve to not them overlap in the first place. Originally, blade barrier could damage mobs through doors. So in an attempt to make it less cheesable, in one of the updates the ability to stack them was removed. However, when the hitting monsters through doors bug was fixed... we didn't go revisit that decision. It does seem rather unfair that you can stack walls of fire, but not blade barrier. --Codog 2/1/08

#13 - Bluff/Improved Feint Enhancements - I think it would be fair to say that this could be an improvement and possibly even an enhancement line. I'll bring it up in our next character team meeting talking about the rogues. BTW: Have you ever done a cleave after an improved feint attempt and wracked up a bunch of sneaks? --Codog 2/1/08

#15 - Bucklers - I don't think this will be addressed anytime soon. The work for the return just doesn't seem worth it. Adding another slot at this point would cause a significant amount of rewrite that would touch inventory and combat. It would indeed be nice and make bucklers worth it though. Thanks for your thoughts. --Codog 2/1/08

#20 - Collision Detection - Under investigation. --Codog 2/1/08

#23 - Create Undead Spell - This is a big "wanna fix" for me and the team. This is noted. There is a metric ton of character work going on right now for module 7. I'm not sure if you'll see this fixed in Mod 7... but I would hazard a guess that I will go insane if this problem still exists after module 8. --Codog 2/1/08

#24 - Cure Critical Wands - I want them too!!! I'll talk to treasure design about this. --Codog 2/1/08

#25 - Lesser Restoration Pots for Raging Barbarians - Fix on the way in Mod 6.1 --Deadly gazebo, 2/8/08

#32 - Gem Prices - Forwarded to treasure design. --Codog 2/1/08

#33 - Teleport & Greater Teleport - Forwarded to design. --Codog 2/1/08

#38 - Hot-Key Spells with Metamagic - Sometime I hope we can get around to a better metamagic solution that will allow us to bake it into certain shortcuts somewhat like how weaponsets work. --Codog 2/1/08

#40 - Inventory Slot-Locking - I'll talk to the inventory system coder about this... I'll hazard a guess that this isn't enough bang for the risks it might introduce. --Codog 2/1/08

#43 - Mass Spells - Under consideration for mod 7 --DeadlyGazebo 2/08/08

#44 - Mimics - We would love mimics too! :-) We have talked about them. They are iconic and funny. However, we've been unable to get approval from Wizards on our concepts for it yet. Some things are just a little too "Evil Dead Necronomicon" slapstick silly to make it through approval. --DeadlyGazebo 2/08/08

#46 - Mob Targetting - If your listen skill is greater than their move silently skill, you can tab target the mob.--DeadlyGazebo 2/08/08

#48 - Monster Targetting - Part of this was addressed in how we changed tabbed targeting. However, design felt that if you mouse over the target "looking for them" that you ought to be able to select them. --DeadlyGazebo 2/08/08

#49 - Multiple Presige Enhancements - Kicked over to design for consideration.--DeadlyGazebo 2/08/08

#82 - Summoned Monsters scaling with Spell Focus or other feats/enhancements/focuses - I hope so! It might not be as dramatic as Hard/Elite, but I'll keep it in mind as we go forward.--Codog 2/01/08

[UtherSRG]

Sit and Spin Fix:
"Hello, my name is Larry, this is my 2nd week of abstaining from sitting and spinning at shrines."

<Group> "Hi Larry"

"It was tough at first... I mean... I used to be able to see if I had forgotten a zombie in my Orchard runs. But now, I'm learning to grow from that fear... to embrace it. I... I... just have to buy enough pots to make sure I can deal with him if he is behind me."

<Group Leader>"Thank you Larry. We know it's tough, but you will persevere with our help. One thing Larry... your sponsor Bill was assigned to stealth and watch you at a shrine. He um has a report."

"What? Hunh? Bill?"

<Bill>"Larry, I'm afraid, I've noticed that you're still trying to sit and spin...despite our ClockWork Orange style prevention and apparently when you do this and then standup... well your camera angle then snaps to where you rotated it while shrining. You then stagger off the shrine a bit drunkenly until you move forward enough to snap your camera angle
forward."

"Man... you guys suck... I NEED TO SIT AND SPIN. PLEASE. JUST ONCE MORE."

Ah Gratch... it's worse than that... get to a shrine and start to use it. Then press the spacebar. You'll now be standing at the shrine and you can spin all you want.... and you are still resting! In fact, you can use the shrine, press the spacebar, and the /dance at the shrine, and you'll rest while dancing! Then, when you move away from the shrine after resting, you are still dancing while moving.

Devs: Let this be a lesson to you - don't fix what isn't really broke!

[Boulderun]

Has anyone else found problems with the new projectile speeds and bow types? Composite bows are firing projectiles that are noticably slower in both visual effect (contrail) and hit delay. Take a pile of bows out to somewhere with perched mobs to test on, or lighting conditions to make the contrails easily visible (I used the phoenix tavern) and you'll see the difference quickly once looking for it.

It looks like composite bows, both long and short, are just using the old speed values. Non-composite bows, long and short, as well as named bows (silver longbow, torturned livewood bow) fire projectiles at a much higher velocity.

I have not yet tested my repeating crossbows.

[Dirtkicker]

I do apologize if this was a question that was already asked. I did search and couldn't find the thread if it was indeed asked.

Pet Commands - Are the Devs planning to give the players the abilities to tell their pets 3 simple commands: Attack, Guard, and Stay..? Also, maybe a timer as well to show when the pets will disapear....

Im tired of chasing my kitty....

Thanks for Mod 6...Keep up the great work...

Ratt

It is now the year of the Ratt...Ratt is associated with aggression, wealth, charm, and order, yet also associated with death, war, the occult, pestilence, and atrocities....

[HumanJHawkins]

It looks like composite bows, both long and short, are just using the old speed values. Non-composite bows, long and short, as well as named bows (silver longbow, torturned livewood bow) fire projectiles at a much higher velocity.

This is the kind of thing that is easy to have happen, and easy to fix once the report gets in... Did you file a bug report? I am hoping this one doesn't get overlooked among the almost 900 other posts! (though I pretty much only use the silver longbow so it won't affect me much)

Thanks!

[Boulderun]

This is the kind of thing that is easy to have happen, and easy to fix once the report gets in... Did you file a bug report? I am hoping this one doesn't get overlooked among the almost 900 other posts! (though I pretty much only use the silver longbow so it won't affect me much)

Thanks!

Yes, filed a bug same time as my post.

Easy to have happen, easy to fix, and even easier to spot beforehand with proper QA. Sigh.

[ENGRAV0]

Ok, Codog, just a few things to be put here. As politely as possible, and hopefully without stirring up any debate about them.

1. There is a feat called: Enlarge- Purpose (mainly used (IMO) is to get those pesky critters BEFORE they agro on you.
1a. The Dev's have completely by-passed the purpose of anyone using this feat by making some enemies agro ONLY when you enter their area, thus turning it into a wasted feat, at least in some instances. Example, you removed the 100% probability of the spawning deviol, which is fine, but to make also not be selectable until he is agro's, eh, just entioning is all. This also hurts those who enjoy making their own little army of pets and have them help out, as the pets wont attack, even when in close proximity, and the Devil wont agro on them, or at least I haven't seen it yet.

2. Releasing a spell, who's ingredients are only found in the loot tables (ie. Khyber Dragonshards), aknowlege the drop rate isn't as suspected, but have no answer as to when the spell is going to even be useful because people are having to farm ingredients for weeks just to even be slightly supplied enough to use the spell. Also, wouldn't this be considered an opportune time for plat farmers to make a bundle if they figure out how to replicate the crustals, then sell them?

3. Crafting is the NEW thing (And it is very exciting, I would add), BUT, as an option for you to look at, would it not make sense to make the chests inside the Shroud RAID, once ransacked or stripped ONLY produce ingredients (This would include shard fragments).
3a. This would do multiple things, allow for the further experimentation of mixing and matching, and still give players a reason (other than to further fine tune and prepair for the RAID progression.

4. Perhaps, as a future item of interest, as surely some wizard of wisdom has written down their failed, and succesful attempts at crafting, and thus, in various locations throughout some of the quests have pieces of journal with SOMETHING written down on them?
4a. Example- Run Devils, or Dust, lot's of opportunity for a misplaced book to have fallen out of some fine Wizards sack, and when you click on it, perhaps a random recipee, or partial one at that, could indicate something to try. Some form of recipee, obviously not a complete compilation to the ultimate weapon or item, but some hints and ideas.

5. The ingredient, again, the NEW thing in DDO. Why are instances being generated, but no random collectable locations spread out throughout the encounter area?
5. I am swimming along in the Vale, happen to hit back space, and manage to locate a randomly located pebble pile, which, when inspected I pull some sparkling wet Pebbles, or near the base of a tree, I find a twig, which may be useful in some rare recipee. Perhaps, as I kill a Demon, there was a fungi in his scales, or a Trog for that matter. There are VAST opportunities to add further ingredient gathering locations within the Vale other than just rare chests. That could easily be justified, and would make total sense. This would add hours and more than just that, but a LOT of further opportunity to further explore the world of Crafting in DDO. Just an idea here.

6. The new Quests: Love them.
6a. Rainbow- Love the idea that things are random, or at least the patterns aren't known, yet.
6b. Coalesence- Ok, PITA, but can be fun, I have had a lot of laughs in there.
6c. Dust- Reward those who proceed cautiously, and are wise about what they kill, and when they kill it. Great idea here, thank you.
6d. Devils- hmm, interesting, fun, intrigueing, nicely designed. This one is a different challenge each time you run it. A lot of opportunities to change up your party composition and try different things out. CC for the win.
6e. Ritual- Love it, though there are a few overlooked ( I believe) items in there, it is a lot of fun, and I really like the portal. That thing has caused some good laughs, a slight delay in the quest, but some good laughs.

7. New gear hardness/Durability- Seems like a of the gear has been reduced in this area, perhaps in an effort to help get the excess gear that is stock piled out of rotation. Just hope that it doesn't stay this way. Oddly enough, some things are destroyed after one or two fights at times, which seems slightly unfair as the only current way to repair them is in town. Perhaps an in quest way of repairing, say, giving each class a specialty field some time in the future that they are able to use while shrining to correct some damage, maybe not fully, but some. just an idea here.

8. As it has been said 1000+ times, it is odd the way you must recall or run back to town. Perhaps the idea here was to keep the lower level characters out, which is fine. But once favor is achieved, or entrance into the Shroud is achieved, another person somewhere in the Twelve could teleport you out to meridia. After all, like TR, you have to complete a mini quest and to speak to the same guy should open an opportunity to teleport out once it is completed.

9. Oh, with each recent MOD that has been released, there have been bags and items neccesary to do certain things, perhaps a bag that collects the side quests should be considered. Something like a single bag, with NO (Repeat NO!) holding capacity to hold all those portal fragments and healing stuff from the RAID. A little more inventory space would be nice, but I guess that is asking too much, at least right now. Odd that you guys would force us to carry some spare equipage, and more bags, and not give a little more space. Perhaps another attempt at forcing us to minimize our inventories? It just plain out isn't nice to FORCE players to do something like this, give it some consideration please.

I will try to find all my notes, and get them posted up.