Barkskin and Stonesskin Visual Effects

[Waldo52]

I've noticed that when casting barkskin on Arelith that ugly visual effect seems to be gone. However stoneskin never got the same treatment. Is this deliberate or an oversight?

Stoneskin is such a good buff that everyone seems to cast it, which is a shame. Beautiful customized armors and cloaks turn into this weird mush of gray pixels and in my opinion this detracts somewhat from my experience of the game.

[Good Character]

There was actually a thread on this a long while back which is why Barkskin got removed. IIRC stoneskin was kept for the specific reason you mentioned; without knowing it's Stoneskin casted you run into poor game mechanics because now you either keep smacking wondering if it's Stoneskin or another DR source. Blindly casting dispel or breaches causes you to lose action economy.

[Waldo52]

I can see the reasoning behind leaving the visual effect but let's be real here. Dispelling is an important part of high level play and anyone who's doing high level dungeons ot PvP is going to want to dispell if possible. Even if you can't tell weather they're stoneskinned, enemies will likely be hasted and buffed to hell anyway. We don't need this uglifying visual effect around to tell dispellers that they've got to do a job they were probably going to do anyway.

I've finally gotten a character into the twenties and it's a little demoralizing knowing that the epic player versus player wars I'm hoping to take part in are gonna look so much sillier than thr squabbles I had at level four character in Skal. I obviously don't blame Arelith for this, it's a Neverwinter thing. But I think we'd be better off without the silliness of stoneskin if that's possible.

[Pincushion]

Using the large creature floating rock effect would be preferable, or simply adding text at the bottom of the description box would be great. I spend way too much time designing outfits for it to be wasted on a crusty stone texture.

[Waldo52]

Using the large creature floating rock effect would be preferable, or simply adding text at the bottom of the description box would be great. I spend way too much time designing outfits for it to be wasted on a crusty stone texture.

This.

I would still be annoyed if it was a rare spell, but the fact that it's ubiquitous and borderline mandatory just makes the situation worse. Many times I've encountered casters who stoneskinned me as I waaddled through town, assuming they were doing me a favor. Inevitably when I get to whatever writ I'm trying to do I look at the stupid re-skinning effect and curse the original designers of Neverwinter Nights for making something so bad.

There are surely technical/mechanical reasons to keep the effect, I do get that. But shouldn't immersion take priority in the best RP server out there? I don't think that the climactic last stand of a band of woodland elves against a marauding orc warband or a heroic raid of Radiant Heart paladins into the underdark should amount to nondescript gray blobs bumping into each other.

[Curve]

To offer another perspective, I don’t use stone skin for the reason stated above: fashion. I just figure that I don’t get to look cool and be protected by Stoneskin at the same time. Seems pretty reasonable.

[Bunnysmack]

Unless I know I'm going into a potentially dangerous situation, I tend not to cast stoneskin as an every day thing. For one thing, a lot of other PCs tend to RP being less at ease talking to someone who's skin looks like a statue. For another thing, a lot of settlements have laws against peace-time use of wards that conceal the model-appearance of the caster, and I'd rather not cast a spell only to have to then later remove it upon walking into some of my favorite townships.

[Quidix]

I really wish they would remove the visual, it is really immersive breaking.

In general anything to make buff visuals milder and less in-your-face would be amazing.

[MissEvelyn]

Is it not possible for the skin to be stone but the clothes to remain clothes?

If not, I'm seconding the floating rock.

[AstralUniverse]

There was actually a thread on this a long while back which is why Barkskin got removed. IIRC stoneskin was kept for the specific reason you mentioned; without knowing it's Stoneskin casted you run into poor game mechanics because now you either keep smacking wondering if it's Stoneskin or another DR source. Blindly casting dispel or breaches causes you to lose action economy.

This really sums it up. It's not going away. I'd also argue the same thing about protection from elements but I understand the lack of it's 'sparkles' visual really raises up everyone's game performance so I guess it's worth it in that case.

[Morgy]

Please no floating rock. A party walking about with circling rocks is going to look even more ugly and distracting. I get it’s not very pleasant to look at, but it’s definitely important to be an obvious buff, without having an active animation like energy buffer.

If you only have it affect skin, then it’s going to be invisible on anyone wearing helms/armour anyway. I’d suggest not using the spell unless you really need to, if it’s that important not to be ugly during combat/adventures.

[Kuma]

Please no floating rock. A party walking about with circling rocks is going to look even more ugly and distracting. I get it’s not very pleasant to look at, but it’s definitely important to be an obvious buff, without having an active animation like energy buffer.

If you only have it affect skin, then it’s going to be invisible on anyone wearing helms/armour anyway. I’d suggest not using the spell unless you really need to, if it’s that important not to be ugly during combat/adventures.

This please. The floating rock would be even WORSE, and it scales up something fierce based on appearance resizing. You'd have gigantic rocks hurling everywhere with a full buffed party.

[Hazard]

Spells like stoneskin/shadowshield absolutely destroy the colours on my character's clothing, so I avoid using them unless I must.
Reseting the colours eats my spell books, too. Double annoying.

[Good Character]

Spells like stoneskin/shadowshield absolutely destroy the colours on my character's clothing, so I avoid using them unless I must.
Reseting the colours eats my spell books, too. Double annoying.

Save the outfit so you can -loadoutfit when this occurs.

[Curve]

You can just hit -hood twice to fix

[Hazard]

Spells like stoneskin/shadowshield absolutely destroy the colours on my character's clothing, so I avoid using them unless I must.
Reseting the colours eats my spell books, too. Double annoying.

Save the outfit so you can -loadoutfit when this occurs.

-loadoutfit is what destroys my spellbook.

[Hazard]

You can just hit -hood twice to fix

wowthanks!