Open debug logs

[thejeff]

The short answer is, because it got a better score, but that doesn't actually mean anything.

As I understand it, and I was just looking at this for the Astral Shield nonsense, a scripted spell -- favspell, gets a 100000 bonus to its score. That should have been enough to override Body Ethereal. The only reason I can think of is that it had some huge penalty, or simply couldn't be cast.

Did Mind Burn show up in the log at all?
Take a look with more levels of debug. -ddd gives a lot.

[WraithLord]

you're right, mind burn wasn't cast at all, not even once.
I think the game engine categorized it as non applicable for some unknown reason. I base it on the following line:
comp_castspell: eval Mind Burn result -1

Now since the foe in this battle wasn't mindless I don't understand why but I think I'll give it a rest at that. Its enough for me to know that for some reason the engine dislikes mind burn in this situation so I'll avoid scripting it.

[thejeff]

Oh, obvious question? They were S2 slaves, right?

result -1 seemed to come up for spells I didn't have the paths for.

[WraithLord]

They were part of communion of 30 or so shamans. The slaves should have been at astral 5 or something, at least according to the communion guide by Baalz, or maybe I got it all backwards

[thejeff]

No, only the communion masters actually get levels for casting spells of their own. Slaves get pseudo levels, that are only used for absorbing the master's fatigue.

Slaves do get the benefit of the master's caster effect spells, so having a master cast Power of the Spheres is a cheap way to boost all the slaves up one level in everything.

[WraithLord]

Oh, I understand. Thank you for your patience thejeff.