What is Your Favorite Visual Spell Effect?

Mortianna

I'd have to say mine is BG2's insta-death wispy spirit effect when a creature is killed by Death Spell, Finger of Death, Slay Living, Wail of the Banshee, or Chromatic Orb (at 12+ caster level). I always thought the spirit looked like Edgar Allan Poe until I paused the game and looked at it closer:



Since BG:EE's XP cap will remain at 161K, it doesn't look like we'll be seeing this effect again until BG2:EE.

Mornmagor

I like the creepy probing hand of Vampiric Touch :P

Mortianna

@Mornmagor I think Chill Touch and Ghoul Touch have the effect as well.

Mornmagor

I just realize that i have no idea :P

Chill Touch, i never used, and when i used Ghoul Touch when i was younger, a friend that was watching me said "Oh cool, your weapon turned into a Judo Chop!"

I never used the spell again >_<

Mungri

Now I have to try and use vampiric touch to see a creepy probing hand! Oh my, cover your buttocks, bigby is looking forward to smashing you in with his crushing fist!

... There are those times when you just know an imprisonment would be a much more desirable outcome

Mortianna

@Mungri Making reference to Bigby's spells, probing, and buttocks in the same sentence brings to mind some rather disturbing imagery. *casts Forget spell on self*

Mungri

Tee hee.

Lemernis

Getting Fisted by Bibgy? Ouch!

Mungri

Ya, bigby goes POW! Right in the stinker with his crushing fist.

Mortianna

Mornmagor said:

Chill Touch, i never used, and when i used Ghoul Touch when i was younger, a friend that was watching me said "Oh cool, your weapon turned into a Judo Chop!"

I never used the spell again >_<</p>

Chill Touch and Ghoul Touch became much more useable in BG2 after the blunt proficiency requirement was lifted. They both get +4 to hit (I believe) and can weaken/paralyze enemies. I always keep one or both memorized just in case I need to lend some melee support (after casting a few defensive spells, of course).

Marric

Its hard to beat the classic Fireball. Burn baby burn!

I feel like I probably miss out on a lot of cool spell animations because they're just sub-par spells, for example color spray probably looks pretty cool, but I never use it because sleep does the same thing only better. But sleep doesn't have much of a spell animation

RavenX

Mungri said:

Now I have to try and use vampiric touch to see a creepy probing hand! Oh my, cover your buttocks, bigby is looking forward to smashing you in with his crushing fist!

... There are those times when you just know an imprisonment would be a much more desirable outcome

RofL

Man I thought they were upping the XP cap on BG:EE? So, how long until they wrap up BG2:EE? It won't take long to play through BG:EE even if I do Every side quest and everything else.

Lemernis

@RavenX You'll be able to easily modify the 2DA file to raise or eliminate the XP cap.

The devs have said work on BG2:EE will go faster, as they have already done the heavy lifting with the code in BG:EE. It should free them up more to focus on new content.

There's a substantial amount of new content to savor with BG:EE if you play with all three new NPCs and have a go at the Black Pits.

RavenX

Lemernis said:

@RavenX You'll be able to easily modify the 2DA file to raise or eliminate the XP cap.

The devs have said work on BG2:EE will go faster, as they have already done the heavy lifting with the code in BG:EE. It should free them up more to focus on new content.

There's a substantial amount of new content to savor with BG:EE if you play with all three new NPCs and have a go at the Black Pits.

Indeed. Much appreciated. I was hoping BG2:EE would make it out so I wouldn't "have" to mod the XP cap up, but I guess if it comes down to it I will. I'll also slowly savor every tidbit of new content BG:EE has to offer. So stoked for this month to be over already.

Ken

Every spell effect from Icewind Dale.

Especially the Finger of Death/Resurrection - show a rose that either dies or grows, that shit is classic and beautiful!

Kietzel

BG1 fireball

Shin

Having experimented a bit with custom spell creation I've ran into some effects I tend to come back to over and over. One is the "protection from evil" aura-like effect, but used while casting rather than post-cast. This can be seen in BG2 in some instances of Irenicus casting his Rapture of the Father spell.. it makes it look like he gathers up his power as an aura pulsing around him, and then ejects it in his usual insta-kill fashion.
Cloak of Fear has a nice-looking effect too.. the way an actual cloak appears and closes around itself gives it a suitable look for thief-related abilities as well imo.

Another thing I did was play around a bit with the visual ioun stones mod (http://www.shsforums.net/topic/43792-lols-rezmod/) to make three small fireball-looking objects circle my mage PC at differing speeds and altitudes - inspired by World of Warcraft's Kael'thas Sunstrider and his verdant spheres. I think it's originally a downsized and stripped version of the green spheres circling Yaga-Shura when you face him in ToB.

Also agree with @Mortianna that the Finger of Death effect is neat, gives a very good effect when e.g. Death Spell kills several enemies at once. And yeah, it definitely looks like Poe imo, haven't managed to see it any other way yet.

Mortianna

@Shin It looks like he has a beard, which wouldn't be too far off, since Poe had a mustache. When I first saw the effect, I thought to myself how very fitting it was that every spirit released from a violent death looks like Poe.

DJKajuru

I love Comet and Dragon Breath's animations , but I gotta say that planescape torment has the BEST spell animations ever!