Magical Defense A: Line of sight

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Three adventurers of any class face off an unknown spellcaster.
They decide that they will use bait and lure tactics to get the spellcaster close to avoid being killed or incapacitated with a single spell.

The Thinker and his mage buddy are deciding who should lure, when their Stinker companion runs out to the point and gets blasted.

All mages know this scenario. A huge spell will not take down the Stinker - who charges the mage and proceeds to lop his head off - but its area of effect will fill the safe area, leaving the Thinker mortally wounded and his mage buddy in the fugue.

This can all be avoided if all parties understand the enemy spellcaster's line of sight.

Good listen skill allows anyone to "see" if an enemy spellcaster is near, before stepping into his line of sight. A very fast long range spell or missile can hit the caster before he or she can get their first spell off.

Long range luring involves letting your missile fly and ducking back out of sight before that spell goes off. This is most successful if you DO NOT WAIT to see if your missile has hit or not.

The enemy caster will either wait for your next attempt, or pursue you around the corner to face the big Stinker Axe.

In general, be you caster, sneaker, basher, or even tank. There is never any advantage to charging across the field of battle. It saves you no time and often ruins a coordinated party attack.

In the above scenario, The Stinker decides to charge. The enemy caster releases Bigby's Stinkslap, stunning our "hero", as the enemy body guard slips his tentacles around his neck and begins to squeeze.

Three options arise for the mage buddy.
1) Stay safely around the corner and let natural selection run its course.

2) run and get between the Stinker and the enemy caster to save the "hero" - This is complete insanity, but it avoids being called a coward by the Stinker. Meanwhile, the Thinker stays behind, realizing that 8 heal potions cost more gold than the best ticket out of the fugue.

3) Imagine Numor's pink line and stay behind it using the Stinker as a meat shield while cranking off a couple of good spells. The Thinker uses his bow and you both duck back out of sight when the Stinker drops. Feel no remorse. After all, Stinky made this mess.

If you have been buffing and flaming the whole party and still get no respect, it may be time to learn how to counterspell.

Counterspelling allows you to burn specific opposition spells or general dispel magic type spells to counter an enemy caster's spell, keeping it from going off and essentially wasting the casters action. The spell countered is wasted and removed from the offensive caster's daily tally of spells.

Counterspelling, unfortunately has a goofy game interface. It cannot be assigned to a hotkey, which would be extremely handy. Instead, you must right click on the caster you wish to counterspell, then use the radial dial menu to select spells, then the counterspell option (bottom left, I think) It takes a little practice to do it quickly.
It can be initiated even more quickly by right clicking on the opponent and typing 9 4 8 on the number pad.


Any server lag and the radial dial becomes impossibly slow. Area lag is generated when too many monsters are fighting at once as well, like when your fighters insist on charging a mob of monsters.

Dispel magic counters level 3 or lower, greater dispel counters level 6 or lower, and Mordenkeinen's disjunction level 9 or lower.

However, counterspelling (which requires spellcraft skill, the higher the better) is the only sure defense against IGM's and Bigby's spells. Even spell resistance can be overcome.

The other advantage to counterspelling is that it protects not just you, but the entire party from harm from spells.

The main disadvantage is that you must slot many dispels of differing levels to have a lengthy counterspell battle with a high level mage. Also, You can only counterspell one target at a time and the counterspell mode will cancel if you move. Also, you can be distracted from counterspelling if your opponent is clever enough to figure out how.

Keep in mind, not all spell casters walk on two legs. If it casts a spell as opposed to using an innate ability it can be countered.

First of all who has listen skill? Everyone!
It is an untrained skill, meaning that unlike open locks or pick pockets you do not need to assign even one point to have a chance of it working.

You get one point of listen for every point of wisdom bonus. Clerics listening?

Elves, gnomes and halflings get +2. Half-elves get +1.

Rangers get their bonus vs. Hated enemies to listen to hear any of them on the other side of a wall.

ANYONE WHO STANDS STILL gets +5 to their listen check. You listening Stinker?

If you click the detect button the listen skill becomes active making it check more frequently, but you won't have to. Just run up to the edge of an open door or wall and stand still for 2 seconds.

So what does this mean?
An elven druid with 18 wisdom would have +11 listen whenever he/she stood still. Cast the one with the land spell and he will have +15, EVEN WITH NO ASSIGNED SKILL.

Shifters need the alertness feat, so the same elf casting the same spell would have +17.

A half orc with 8 wisdom who never stops running would have -1, unless he is a weapon master, barbarian, or monk in which case he can have as much as he wants, he just needs to assign the skill.

Listen tells you what is around the corner. It lets your casters prepare the perfect spell and keeps the stinker from running into a mob he/she can't handle.

I loved all the tips and hints, especially as a relatively new player in NWN!

BTW... dat amazing paint drawings XD

Nice Tips and insights on the way NWNs works in relation to AI's and common DnD sense in parties and classes, however sometimes there are flaws in the terrain there shouldnt be and such things will have line of sight through a solid object, its rare but it happens. As for rushing the field, thats based on the situation, such as if there is "no" ground cover at all, and some classes are built to take that kind of stress.