Word of Faith

[Lothoir]

Is there any chance of Word of Faith being removed and replaced with its four different PnP varieties?

In NWN2 Word of Faith blinds all hostile targets with no save.

In PnP there are four different types: Holy Word, Blasphemy, Dictum and Word of Chaos. They affect nongood targets, nonevil targets, unlawful targets and nonchaotic targets, respectively. The spells makes no distinction between enemies, party members or neutrals. Only alignment matters. They also affect everyone within 40 ft of the caster, rather than be a ranged AOE spell like say fireball.

And rather than blind all affected enemies without a save the spells work in the following ways:

Blasphemy
Dictum
Holy Word
Word of Chaos

The biggest differences are that the spells do not work on creatures of a higher level than the caster, and when they blind they only do so for 2d4 rounds, rather than the permanent blindness of Word of Faith.

[Philosopher]

I have proposed a change similar to this in the past and I think it warrants serious consideration. Word of Faith is definitely one of those broken spells that is simply too damn good to be true.

[Seheren]

Perhaps it is just me, but I rarely if ever see anyone use this spell. I play several Clerics that could cast this, and dont. If it were being abused then, yes a fix would be great, but aren't there more important projects for the staff right now?

I do like Lothoir's suggestion, so if it got fixed my vote is for that.

[Thief Of Navarre]

People dont use this spell, seriously?

I remember all the debate about blinding spittle and this somehow got overlooked.

[Saulus]

Blinding spittle was like a level 2 spell, this is not. This is one of the powerful cleric spells that give them an edge.

While I partially like the idea of different auras, this makes the spell fairly useless to me... because for it to be effective against all foes you encounter, you would need 4 variations of it.

Or at least two...

Also blinding for a maximum of 8 rounds even if they fail the save just seems pretty lack luster to me in the mechanics of the game setting.

[Cornuto]

Perhaps it is just me, but I rarely if ever see anyone use this spell.

Yeah I noticed a drastic reduction after I added potions of remove blindness/deafness to copper quaffs.

[Thief Of Navarre]

Blinding spittle was like a level 2 spell, this is not. This is one of the powerful cleric spells that give them an edge.

While I partially like the idea of different auras, this makes the spell fairly useless to me... because for it to be effective against all foes you encounter, you would need 4 variations of it.

Or at least two...

Also blinding for a maximum of 8 rounds even if they fail the save just seems pretty lack luster to me in the mechanics of the game setting.

In eight rounds a warrior could smash mrykul across the whole necropolis, since his divine immunities only render him immune to things that require a save
Perhaps thats a tad hyperbole on my part, but it might be worth considering if it becomes an issue?

[Darkened Skies]

*imagines Myrkul getting Bigby'd*

I think they have a certain amount of spell resistance too

[Thief Of Navarre]

*imagines Myrkul getting Bigby'd*

I think they have a certain amount of spell resistance too

Shit, 42 SR. Didnt spot that

[Kaeldorn]

8 rounds of blindness is actually quite good, because in NWN2, blindness means you can't target or attack anything. It's like a longer lasting but slightly less powerful effect than timestop (because it can be countered by remove blindness..). Being able to save against it is more than fair.

To me, the alignment-specific versions still seem good enough. You'll mostly be fighting monsters a few levels under you anyway, and it's really not like clerics will lose 'their edge' when Word of Faith gets changed into the proper PnP spells. It actually allows for different strategical too, because the effects aren't the same for each spell.

[Sonja BloodRayne]

I think I am one of the few that still uses this spell. But I happen to like it....but thats just me.

[Silas North]

This is number 3 on my Top 10 Spells That Need to be Nerfed list. Blindness with no save = too damn good. I used this spell with Kalifer quite often and it's uber-cheap. While it's true that Blinding Spittle is a much lower level, at least that one requires a touch attack, which can be avoided with Mirror Image and a few other tricks and I think that spell should be removed/nerfed as well to be honest.

Blindness is just too powerful in the game. Luckily, the potions (as Corn mentioned) do help, and there is a piece of armor that has come to my attention that protects from blindness as well. But potions take a round to ingest, and leave you open to AOO and not everyone has access to said armor.

Bottom line: I'm in full agreement with Phil, Kael, and ToN

[Lothoir]

Just to clarify, because a few people have mentioned saves.

The PnP versions do not offer any saves unless you are an outsider. A Will save is only listed because when these spells are cast on outsiders it banishes them if they fail the will save. Otherwise no saves are offered to anyone else.

And the armor Silas mentioned makes you immune to the spell Blindness/Deafness. It does not inure you against the blindness condition, only the spell Blindness/Deafness

[Silas North]

Only the individual spell? Seriously. Ouch, that stinks. Sorry about the mistake.

As for the spell not offering saves in pnp, there are some things that just don't translate well into a game. Some things from pnp should be brought into the game. Some things should not. NVN2 brought forth a few too MANY things that should not have.