Arcane Spell failure Mechanics question

[DurinRustbeard]

OK, as one of the few, if not the only heavy armor wielding wizard I typically suffer from 10% arcane spell failure When I fail it will display something like..

Arcane Spellcasting failure! x% with 10% Effective Arcane failue (or simmilar)

In my time with 10% casting failure I have seen Maaaybe one out of 15 failures to be a number above 5% which makes me wonder if I should get the dwarven feat that reduces it by 5% more thus making my 10% into a 5% but with the failure seeming always to be displayed as 5% or less will it matter?

How does this % get determined? Do you essentially roll a 100 sided die? or is it more complicated than that and may just simply display the % lower than 5 for some other reason?

Thanks all

[Raksha]

It is a "random" percentage, yes, and I can vouch for this with another character with about the same failure rate. So cutting the percentage to 5% -should- mean about half as many failures. NWN2's dodgy distribution of random numbers can come into play, though.

[Thief Of Navarre]

It is a "random" percentage, yes, and I can vouch for this with another character with about the same failure rate. So cutting the percentage to 5% -should- mean about half as many failures. NWN2's dodgy distribution of random numbers can come into play, though.

Where random being not random at all...
When you've been crit seven times in a row you'll know what I mean -.-

I just checked the wiki and I honestly didnt know there was a racial feat for dwarven casters intill like 30 seconds ago!

[DurinRustbeard]

Yea I can only recall a couple of failures being 6-10% and all the rest are pretty much 1-5% s Maybe it is just the not so random factor coming into play.

[Ethereal Edge]

The random number generation of Neverwinter Night's Aurora engine has always been weak, from what I've seen. Neverwinter Nights II's Electron engine did not improve on it as far as I can tell, so the random numbers won't always look random. Of course, I have absolutely nothing to back this up with, so take it as you will...

Nonetheless, you'll always notice an improvement, even if it isn't as substantial as you might like.

[Elusa]

NWN2 was made to try and accurately simulate D&D on a computer, in real time. Thus, they obviously selected a poor pseudo-random generator in an attempt to replicate the gods of dice in PnP. Unfortunately, unlike PnP, you cannot appease the gods. Thus, if they hate the shape of your nose, be prepared for a world of pain. Buying gear to try and reduce the amount of said pain will only anger them more.

[Ethereal Edge]

I'm pretty sure if players actually hurt themselves on critical failures in combat like they're supposed to they'd end up killing themselves as frequently as the monsters do.

And you said Obsidian doesn't hate its players! Lies. They most certainly do.

[Rugabug]

i absolutly positivly 110% agree with elusa...I have said nose.....and i cant appease the gods T.T in pnp...its sad really, i roll 5-1's 90% of the time its like.

anyways! umm yeah if you are gonna go for reducing spellfairlure i would efinitly take the feat, however i normally just take the other route and either go still spell and armor or beef my hps to hell and back so I can just take the hits (which doesnt work very well in pve....)

[Product of Void]

ummm I roll with a 5% failure from a sheild it affects me rarely. as for rolling 20's I see that time to time with encounters which is about the only way a +3 to hit monster is going to hit my charactor. or +6 if i go expertise. Four creatures all rolled crits at once that kinda hurt, but I do have advice.

GROUP hunt as much as possible, more targets less likely to get hurt. More folks gathered together means quicker xp, More RP, and maybe dm attention.

Ashinet has charged past creatures to cast minor healing for those in hunting with her. So it even increases your chance to survive if you group hunt.

Back to topic in nwn1 I played alot of casters and rarely took feats to take care of the arcane failure. I accepted it in order to gain some AC from a sheild or armor.

Only change I would like to see is if a spell fails to cast, something funny happens. Random fireball, Shapeshift, Teleport into town naked (just uniquip armor not destroy it), Make the weapon jump out of hand and attack on its own( uniquip weapon and not be able to equip it for duration while mordikan's sword fights with a copy for duration).

Just something intresting when I try UMD and fail miserably, or mis-cast a spell. Could be fun.

[Elusa]

Or you could just have them dazed for 1 round. Less exciting, but easier for the Devs to script.

[Ethereal Edge]

What you're describing is wild magic, not arcane spell failure. Madness.

[Rugabug]

omg that would be great....un alterable cahracter changes like you permenantly turn green. lmao