Animal Companion Aggression (Or; Honey, I killed the mage.)

[Commissar]

Not entirely certain if it's a bug, but animal companions have a tendency to get exceptionally murderery when friendly casters throw AOE spells down in their proximity. As demonstrated when my wolf inadvertently tore apart the wizard casting darkness before I noticed what was happening. Is there any way we can tone it down a little, perhaps holding companions off on attacking PCs that aren't set to dislike?

Alternately, if any wise, greybearded druids have advice on how to avoid accidentally becoming a human blender, I'd appreciate it.

[Rodent]

Popping in to confirm that Commissar ate our friendly caster.

It's happened twice just today, so the bug is quite consistent. Tends to happens when AOE spells considered debuffs and/or damaging hit around the druid in question.

[Flameborn]

This has been a thing in nwn forever, many summons try to murder the caster of AOE spells.

Best not to use them, as it will never be fixed.

[DaTexican]

This has been a thing in nwn forever, many summons try to murder the caster of AOE spells.

Best not to use them, as it will never be fixed.

Grey beard here. Yes this is true and I have asked many years ago about it. The summons/companions are npc and act like npc. You need to pat close attention to them and baby them. That said with the new player tool update for Summons we have some new options! If you use the player tool(I HIGHLY recommend putting this on your action bar) and select your characters icon in top right, you will select all associates (dominated creatures, animal empathy, Summons, animal companions, cohorts, familiar) and allows you manual control of them, even if dreadfully crude controls. If you do this, you must select where they move by clicking b the tool on your hotbar and then the ground to move them. Same goes for attacking. Select tool then target and they will all attack that target. This function turns off the AI of the companions temporarily. If your Wizard friend casts darkness on then while you have them selected on the ground or an enemy they won't attack him. The draw back is if you forget to select an enemy,the Summons will stand there and do nothing while you fight. They also will stand there and do nothing after they kill whatever you set them to attack unless you select another creature to attack. More work for you as the summoner but it gets the job done!

Friendly warning as a fellow druid who has died to this. Your own aoe Spells such as entangle, grease, firestorm, ext... Will aggro your own Summons to attack you. BE CAREFUL! My Summons killed the enemy and then ran back to me like normal just to 1 shot me. You have been warned! Having Summons comes with some extra work

[Rwby]

Don't forget the basic Neverwinter Nights command systems work perfectly well if you're quick enough on the hotkeys.

[DaTexican]

Yes they do but only to an extent. If you tell your companion to hold position and it gets hit by a aoe spell it will break the hold to attack. If you use the player tool it won't.

[Commissar]

My Summons killed the enemy and then ran back to me like normal just to 1 shot me. You have been warned! Having Summons comes with some extra work

That's hilarious. I can just imagine a druid standing there, hands up in dismay as a pack of wolves turns, growling, to face them. "OhGodOhGod. I'm so sorry. Can we be friends again?"

Thanks for all the advice, folks. It's a tremendous help! I'll have a bit of a play with the summon controls and generally be more careful in future, lest I find myself knee-deep in dead party again.

[DaTexican]

Another option, at least for your case of the darkness spell, cast Ultravision on all your summons and they will be able to ignore the darkness spell

[InfiniteSecrets]

As a heads up, the Succubus did not care about having ultravision and frequently enjoyed tearing my face off with debilitations and curses. So don't trust that too much either if it's happening to you. It seems pretty 50/50, certain pets don't care about aoes and other ones vehemently hate it. It was fun playing it out IC either way.