Spell Visual Effects

[Quadhund/Greenhouse]

I was wondering how the community viewed certain visual effects from spells. Do most people play that if their PC sees another PC with glowing dots above their head, they know this person is protected from evil, and thus immune to mind attacks? Also does your character hear the chimes and whistles when someone walks into visual range? Most of the time I roleplay ignorance of spell effects aside from barkskin and stoneskin, but since Hroth has experienced nearly all these types of effects, I should think that perhaps he has come to understand what they mean. But then should I RP hroth as not wanting protection from evil cast on him because he doesn't want those damn glowy dots floating above his head while trying to sneak around? And would those glowy dots give him away?

So basically, how do you treat spell effects?

[Dachshund]

Well... certain spell effects are dead giveaways, but most actually represent two or more spell effects. For instance...

Those glowing dots you mention aren't necessarily from Prot. from evil... they could just as easily come from Shield of Faith.

The twirling runes from Spell Resistance could also be Protection from Spells.

The glowing eyes from True Seeing could just be an Ultravision spell. This actually brings up another question when rp'ing magical disguises... who's to say (other than the player using the spell) that his claims of using true seeing isn't just ultravision?

I don't see them as those specific spells when meeting someone, but I rp my character as knowing that they have some sort of enchantment on them. We don't have detect magic so... *shrugs*

With regards to the sounds... they're there, so I often catch myself subconsciously turning my screen cam to see who approaches. Depending on the situation, I may roll a listen check to see if I hear their footstep, but not to see if I hear the bells and whistles associated with the spell.

When someone sits down at the inn covered in barkskin, stoneskin, prot. from evil (or good), spell resistance, freedom of movement, protection from elements and ultravision, etc... and start chugging mead like there was no tomorrow, I tend to give them the evil eye. I hate rp'ing with active spell effects on myself, but I guess those who don't see a problem with it, can rp their heart out.

[ShadowCatJen]

I usualy base it on what character I'm playing at the time. If I'm playing a straight fighter or such who has no magical inclinations what so ever I basicly have them not "sence" any sort of effects. If it's more like a sorcerer or someone who might have some magical inclinations I have them at least get the notion that some spells might be in place, but might not know which.

I make a few exceptions, though. Like in Snubletraad's example when a person comes along that's obviously buffed up the wazoo I'll have my character make some sort of notice. And the spells Bark and Stoneskin are just too fun to ignore. Way too much inuendo to use on those two.

[soulfien]

Well, since it's been stated by a DM here that Barkskin provides the perfect camoflauge then I assume it's okay to RP the spell effects.

And since my mage has an unbeatable spellcraft skill with feats to make it even higher he will certainly identify IC someone's protections and act accordingly. If they have spell resistance cast he'll open with Greater Spell Breach which, in addition to his Spell Penetration feat gives him a +10 to beat your spell resistance Also, given his wide understanding of magic he'll safely assume that if it's a mage it'll be spell protection while druids and clerics get spell resistance.

My fighters just see magic and distrust it all.

[Dachshund]

of course, the problem with NWN is it's limited array of spells available which would limit the appearances of spell effects to a select few.

With this I mean in D&D you may have 5 or 10 spells with (or without) spell effects that look the same, but in NWN you have the swirling rune effect for only 2 spells. Knowing this, it's fairly easy to know in advance what effects an enemy is currently under the influence of.

Now if we could just find a way to tweak the spell effects to make them differ according to class, we could have a blast...