Did you know that Wall of Flame doesn't turn neutral NPCs hostile when cast on their face?

[Not So Clever Hound]

Maybe this is already well-known, but I just discovered this: casting Wall of Flame on neutral NPCs results in them taking damage without ever turning hostile. If the spell is recast enough times that one NPC dies, then the survivors will turn hostile. A couple more notes:

I've tested this first on the Spindle Man, an Ogre and a Crystal Eater Spiderling. Casting WoF repeatedly did not initiate combat, until the Spiderling died from WoF. Then the entire crew went hostile, with the Spindle Man and the Ogre already being in dire straits.

Then I did more testing with Biakara Bekarna and Llengrath in the Temple of Revelations (don't ask me why). Then I found the following:

Other Wall spells: WoD doesn't do anything as long as you don't do something else to initiate combat. Wall of Many Colors turns NPCs hostile after a little while, not sure why (I intially guessed it was because of the Dominate component that would trigger/reset alliances but Petrify also seems to work the same way. Maybe the hostility triggers when an Affliction happens). I didn't try Wall of Force but I suspect it would be the same as WoF - EDIT: unless the Hobbled component does the same as for WoMC! Will try and test later. EDIT2: Wall of Force is even different, it is actually like Wall of Draining, it only targets foes so it doesn't work on neutral targets.

Interestingly, WoF intiates combat the second it is cast in the Temple of Revelation situation, even though everybody remains neutral until one is dead. If no one dies or if no other offensive action is taken, the game is stuck in combat forever, everybody remaining neutral. Again, WoF did not initiate combat with the Spindle Man or Ernezzo for example -just when one is dead.

This little trick has limited uses, but it can help outright kill or heavily soften one or several NPC(s) currently neutral. Well, they have to be in some kind of line .

Conclusion: I knew Wall spells were funky, but now they're even funkier.

PS: I am using the Community Patch, I'm not yet using @Elric Galad's BPM.

 

 

Edited August 19, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound

[Boeroer]

Funny.

I only knew that Wall spells are "hazards" like traps and the Priest's seal spells (the ones you can put on the ground out of combat and which will stay there for a long while - like traps basically). Hazards seem to be a "character" of their own. At least in several situations the game will not treat them as spells that were cast by the character. They don't break the invisibility of Arkemyr's Brilliant Departure, they don't profit from lots of benefical effects the caster might have an which would apply to other spells and so on.

[NotDumbEnough]

Might be useful for taking out Rust super early as he is an example of a lone enemy (but overleveled to compensate). He does have super high reflex defense though, so it might take a long time.

[thelee]

33 minutes ago, NotDumbEnough said:

Might be useful for taking out Rust super early as he is an example of a lone enemy (but overleveled to compensate). He does have super high reflex defense though, so it might take a long time.

does his escaping, combat-ending AI script still work if he gets badly hurt while still neutral?

[Not So Clever Hound]

11 hours ago, NotDumbEnough said:

He does have super high reflex defense though, so it might take a long time.

Good idea but yeah, exactly. Too high reflexes for my low level wizard to hurt him faster than HP regen in non-combat mode. Still managed to do it with a level 20 Blood Mage/Assassin - but that defeats the purpose!

11 hours ago, thelee said:

does his escaping, combat-ending AI script still work if he gets badly hurt while still neutral?

His script still triggers, it is not bypassed.

 

EDIT: but I'm pretty sure you could use this trick to soften/kill Dessiral's bounties: Katrenn, Torkar etc. The Torkar encounter can be brutal, if you can kill or soften him or some of his powder monkeys or whatever before initiating combat, all the better. I'll try when I get there in my current playthrough.

Edited August 20, 2021 by Not So Clever Hound