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Assassin vines aren't much better, though they seem to be a less prevalent issues.  Got freedom of movement?  No?  Then you're dead.  Enjoy.

I've noticed a Malar Beast attack a Wild Orc, and I've seen a Juguar attack a Wild Orc, however, I've never seen a Malar and Jaguar go at it.
 
Maybe I need to spend more time in the wild. >_>

I don't know why you'd even want to see a Malar Beast and a Jaguar go at it.  Gross.

Just make a Neutral Enchanter :P. I really would like to know the DMs reasoning behind making "Hold X" so easy to counter vs Good or Evil casters, but I suspect it might be so they can use mobs with it on scripted quests.

Yeah, me and a few of my friends were actually joking about this.  It's kind of sad that if you want to play an 'enchanter' type character you have to be neutral or else you can be gimped by a level 1 spell.

Dispel their wards before assailing them.

It's all about battle tactics.

Drakill answered this perfectly.

Lennon: it's still 2 spells rather than one. in PvP seems simple, you can unleash your whole spellbook on a single PC. on PvM or team PvP it's not as easy, because you need to divide your spellbook in between the number of PCs. Also, 1 round is not enough for a fighter to kill a wizard. 2 rounds are though, so pre-haste is a must. that's 3 spells there. I still think porotection against alignment should give +6 to saves, rather than total inmunity-

But that's not the point. Dominate person does serve a purpose: If you manage to cast and succed on a strong creature you can have a good damage-dealing tank who you can cast a fireball on once he is badly wounded to kill the entire mob. But it's impractical really, confusion is simply better. It's like tasahs hideous laughter compared with hold person, only that this time the higher level spell is the terrible one.

If the duration was something like 3 rounds + 1/caster level it could become very usefull: you dominate the big bad mosnter and you have a tank for a couple encounters. Also something should be made when casting it on players, maybe stunning them for 1 round per caster level.

Even if everyone disagrees with the idea of dominating PCs, I think most people can agree that Daze is a woefully pathetic form of crowd control.  If the Dominate line caused a Stun instead of a Daze it would be a vast improvement, at the very least.

Somewhat off topic, but Malar beasts also seem to drop gold, which seems a bit inappropriate.

I think the only real problem with the quest is the lore check that is impossible for anyone who the appropriate level to do the quest.

In PnP yeah, it lasts forever and there are multiple checks that could possibly break it.  In NWN however, it only lasts about 30 seconds.  It would be ridiculous if I could dominate a Paladin and make him my permanent pet and force him to eat babies, but making him turn against his friends in a fight for 30 seconds isn't so bad.  I can do the exact same thing to an entire group with Confusion, which is only one level higher.  So it's not a balance issue.

Let me put it this way: What is the point of Dominate Person in NWN?  Hold Person is superior in every single way.  Lasts longer, is harder to protect against, and is much harder to remove.  One of my pet peeves about NWN is during spell selection, I can automatically ignore about half or more of the spells because I know they are not simply situational, but genuinely inferior or useless in comparison to other spells.  But that is for another thread, I simply wanted to point this one out since it jumps out the most to me.

Herro.

I'm pretty new to the server, and one of the things I've really found interesting was a lot of the changes made to spells, to either make them make sense or simply balance them.  Anyway, as my sorcerer levels and I've been considering his spell selection, I've been reminded of a strong imbalance between the Hold line and the Dominate line.  The spells work perfectly in PvE, but for some reason BioWare decided that in PvP they needed to be changed to the point of uselessness.  Keep in mind that Hold Monster/Dominate Person are the exact same spell level.

Hold Person/Monster paralyzes you, if you're hit by it and fail your save, you might as well get up from the computer and go get a drink, unless you're in a party who was prudent enough to keep a Remove Paralysis scroll or spell on hand. The only buff I can think of to stop it altogether would be freedom of movement, or being paralyze immune, or being a minotaur.  Hold spells are round/level.

Dominate Person/Monster dazes you.  If you fail your save, you can still use all the myriad of magical items you have, including a clarity potion to simply remove it altogether.  The fact that a level 9 spell can potentially be removed by a potion which is worth about 50 gold is enough of an imbalance. Dominate Person also only lasts 2 rounds + 1 round / 3 caster levels.

Many years ago I was on a server that implemented a change to the dominate line, so that if you casted it on a PC, it actually dominated them.  You basically had an unwilling henchmen, in terms of game mechanics.  Considering on such a low level server you're only able to squeeze out about a maximum of 5-6 rounds on Dominate Person, I don't see how it would be imbalancing.  That only amounts to about 30 seconds of control. Dominate Monster is a spell I don't think anyone can ever even achieve, so I don't see the turn/level thing being an issue, and if it is, make it only work on monstrous PCs.  That way a role play could be achieved where an immensely powerful wizard can bind monsters to his service, at least for 15-20 minutes, where the monster could then break free and potentially slaughter his former master.