PFA to one spell

[VanillaPudding]

As the title says, I suggest that protection from alignment be changed from all of the alignments into a singular spell with the same effects.

In theory, 99% of its use is protecting against evil and for questing. Even when on the odd quest where things are not evil, it's just cast accordingly to match the alignment of those creatures anyway (oozes, etc)


When considering PVP, this change would nullify the "lame" alignments from having an advantage for no real reason and hardly has much effect otherwise.

You could look at setting the bonuses to : 2 deflection AC, +3 vs mind spells, +2 saves vs spells (5 total vs mind) or something to offset the generality of the change.

[Poolson]

I think the intent of keeping it as is, is that it eats spell slots  to prepare for covering all of your bases, or funds to make the potions for every occasion, rather than it being a one-stop-shop. Circle from Alignment is a 3rd level spell slot and has some very desirable spells on that same tier. Preparing only one CFE and not CFN or CFG opens you up to two casts of bigger boy tier spells.

You can crank out 1st level spell slots and just cast that spell 3 times, but, to do so across multiple people can start to exceed the limit of those abundant spell  slots.

There's also an added layer to mechanics (I'm at least 90% this is a bug with NWN, not an intended feature) where you can cast multiple of the same spell upon yourself and rather than restarting the effects and timer on the spell itself, it adds another layer of the spell, which persists if the other version is dispelled, and goes with the highest bonus if it's applicable. Double or triple layering leaves you less likely to be caught with your pants down against all alignments. On something that covers all alignments, that's even more of a gain.

All in all, I can totally see the merit behind it being streamlined, but I feel it's way too quick of a recovery in the event of a dispel, and gives maybe a little more wiggle room to both hand out buffs and cast other spells (which, while that would completely satisfy the fun factor, there might be unforseen consequences as a result of having GMW or something on speed dial, instead of having to cast both PFE and PFN. To the full extent encounters are balanced, I wouldn't know.)

[putrid_plum]

PfG blocks paladin DE, this would make a general spell block that.  Making it very easy to be evil and just pretend you're goodly to blend in, where as now at least you have to use a spell that you can see is not the normal evil mind ward.

[One_With_Nature]

This just makes casters stronger which are already really strong, although the idea behind it is cool.

[SunrypeSlim]

What would you think if the effect was relative to difference in alignment?

I'm thinking of the cool new Castigation spell, whose effects are pronounced the more different you are from your target.

e.g.: A Chaotic Evil Cleric casts Prot. from Alignment on himself and his mind-save bonuses are as follows:

-He gets a bonus of 2 against chaotic evils,
-A bonus of 2 + (Spell caster level / 3) bonus against neutral evils
-A bonus of 4 + (Spell caster level / 3) bonus against true neutrals
-A bonus of 6 + (Spell caster level / 3) bonus against neutral goods
-A bonus of 8 + (Spell caster level / 3) against lawful goods

[Vlaid]

I do hate the guessing game of alignment (is this player actually portraying their alignment correctly to estimate it?).

The spell would probably need some nerfs though, maybe only against other players.

[cmenden]

I think overall it'd make things easier when we compare it against a game of "PFA stacking" where people want to have Chaos and Evil up against CE and Lawful and Good up against LG etc etc
which leads to the two PFA 'metas' of either only casting PFE and spellcasters covering themselves in all 5 spells

I think it'd be wonderful to see a change like this but also I imagine it'd be really hard to implement

Additionally, I assume you'd just make PFA not block a paladin's DE but I mean... I don't really think there should be a way to block that as-is :D