Disintegrate etc in PvP

[Kaaurk]

I'm never on the side of taking things out of the game. That being said maybe it should be looked into.

[Yemin]

I'm not going to cover sparring since thats pretty well and done.

But sorrowfully I have to say I'm on the opposite side to almost everyone here to be honest. I'm not sure thats because of mudding background, or the type of player I am but its also linked to why I don't play evil characters.

In short...., I take dying very seriously regardless of what character I play. There is little chance I can internally justify not using a weapon I have if an enemy wants me dead. I'm simply not sure how to make that kind of rational or logic and still stay in character.

There's a part of my mind that tells me its only a game so perhaps I should take the more reasonable approach to make my opponent ooc player have fun but the much larger part is that this sir, is serious and deadly business (pardon the punn) and perhaps it may be that level of slightly mentally disturbed emersion that makes it more realistic and fun for me. At the same time... I have died to ridiculous but perfectly IC circumstances in the past, including randomly generated mobs dropping into previously safe rooms when I had no spells which was a shocker the first time, but I got over it quicker than it took you to read this sentence.

Right now I only have 1 instadeath capable spellcaster and I actively try and keep him out of pvp out of respect of differing opinions and whilst I disagree wholeheartedly with the majority of people, I aint no ruiner.

As to the bug, are you sure its still bugged alitar? I've seen phantasmal killer fail in two distinct ways as described in the spell in the SRD.
I've seen the target disbelieve the illusion which is the will save.and on the same creature, I've seen a shadow appear which is the fort save kicking in.

[Alitar]

I'm never on the side of taking things out of the game. That being said maybe it should be looked into.

I wholly agree, but it's been a long time now and if it is going to be longer maybe it should be locked up until the fix comes along.

As for the bug, I haven't heard anything about it being fixed but maybe it was. My lvl50 fighter still seems to consistently fall to that spell time and again despite iron will and saves boosting items. Who knows though, maybe it is just an extremely effective fourth level spell. I've never seen finger or circle of death work with that much consistency.

[Althasizor]

P.S. anyone have a link to where the bug was brought up before?

viewtopic.php?f=51&t=16864

I'm not sure I'd 100% agree with disabling the spell, either, but I'd like to believe the playerbase is capable of putting courtesy and good thought into their interactions with other players. Although PKiller does benefit from a bug, it(and death spells like it) is one of few ways to stack up against the honestly overpowered fighter class in a 1v1(Or even 2v1!) situation. I'd only throw my hat in to support further crippling them if they were given other things to make up for it(baleful polymorph, reverse gravity, etc. Just generally some of the other things that make standing with your sword and scathingly mocking a wizard a bad idea); and that's a completely different discussion in itself.

For now, from me, just a PSA: Be considerate!

[Yemin]

I'm semi-dubious about giving IC advice OOC but since you've actually tried to find a reliable IC defence against pkiller Alitar I was curious if you've tried spells that make you immune to mental and fear effects.
Since though the result is rather deadly, pkiller isn't any form of death attack and unfortunately, the amount to which any wizard can buff their effective difficulty class outmatches even some clerics, let alone a fighter that likely you wouldn't have spent many stat points in wisdom or taken iron will.

I'll make it a side project to experiment with it.

[Alitar]

The fighter in question was built IC as a "wizard hunter". He definitely has iron will and saves bonus items. As for spells to prevent such effects, evil Paladins are not permissible so he doesn't have access to death ward (though it is known that I really really want him to be a paladin even though the class is far weaker... >.>). Anyway. I'm happy to lose to finger of death but I still feel dropping a fighter with pkiller is exploiting a bug.

[Yemin]

both Death ward and undeaths eternal foe won't work against phant killer or at least it shouldn't.

Have you tried mind blank and yes... i know its weak, but bless?
Both have an affect against fear effects and mind blank especially against mind effecting spells like all illusions and enchantments, which phant killer falls under if its coded properly.

[dolifer]

If a spell is coded incorrectly or bugged, it should be disabled, or at the very least, the issue should be noted in its helpfile. I've never heard of phant killer being bugged or anything, so I use it, like, constantly. That wouldn't be the case if I knew there were something wrong with it, though.

[Algon]

Here is my take on this. If you have ever read a Forgotten Realms book, you know that it usually takes a group of people to take out a wizard. Not even an all powerful one either, just a normal run of the mill wizard. As a fighter, if you are going to try to go up against a wizard solo, you are likely going to die. That's just the way it is. Magic far surpasses the ability to swing a sword. So in my opinion, any spell in a wizards spellbook is good for PK situations. It should be known going in that it's going to happen.
Would you consider turning off your forth and fifth attack as a fighter in a PK situation because it is too over powered against a bard? No, you will use everything at your disposal to win the fight, so should a wizard be able to do.
Also, this is not my opinion against a buggy spell, just about using or not using certain spells in a pk situation. If the spell is bugged, then I would not want to use it. But, you have other spells like wail of the banshee that will do the same thing and it is not bugged. And I can promise you, if I am loosing a fight...you are going to get wailed XD lol
Just my opinion on the matter.

[Yemin]

That was well put.

For people who also aren't aware, dnd 3x editions which this game is based on has a bunch of overly argued and raged against balance issues of which this spell and conversation in particular is a good example and has been argued back and forth across the internet. On the whole, dnd's gotten more balanced after 3e to that point where fifth edition fighters can go straight away into Eldritch knight at level 3 and gain spells of their own if the player feels magic is superior.

This (Dnd) is a game where there are actually established rankings of how much power each class has, which in itself should tell you that there are going to be balance issues and that more or less the only reason people play different classes is having fun as it should be. Unsurprisingly of course in 3e Wizard was at the top of this ranking even above Cleric if i'm remembering right.

In path finder Oracle was at the top and so on and so forth.

[Mele]

There's a VERY large difference between "You're going to die." and "You're going to get one shotted, and so is your pet." or "You're going to be one shotted from a room away." or "You're going to be a good sport and know you'll lose in a group vs you alone, but you'll be one shotted." etc.