Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Stoneskin vs. Stoneclothes

One of the very minor complaints I had with the BG series was how the spell Stoneskin changed not only the skin tone, but also that of the clothing. I guess some players liked the pronounced visual feedback of restored color once the skins wore off, even though there was a status icon. But it is a long duration spell which the AI would auto-cast immediately, and I never liked losing my colors when shopping or otherwise not in battle. I want to look good all the time, ya know? Besides that, stoneclothes just don't breathe as well.

Seems like a legitimate point. The spell description doesn't claim it will protect your silk drawers, just your skin, so I can see where you're coming from. On the other hand, if you happen to choose a half drow, half orc, or some oddly colored tiefling, your natural skin tone may very closely match your spell coloration so they would have to keep an eye on that icon. From a gamers point of view, I'd think that we've progressed past the previous games in the series graphically enough that we no longer needed to have the entire character colored to figure out whether or not the spell was active.

Overdone VFX in the name of visual feedback is one of my pet peeves in D&D video games.

You have so many long lasting protection spells and effects in D&D. When they are stacked the entire party ends up looking like a force bubble spark swirly mess 24/7. There's less of that in 5e but it's still there.

In BG3 level 1 mages already have very pronounced persistent effects. I hope they tone it down.

My mind always jumped to the far more awkward question of "just how far does the stoneskin go.. and wouldn't that be uncomfortable?" It's like... we don't just have an 'outside' and an 'inside' with a clear-cut hard defining line, and we don't just have our skin as a distinct, discrete piece of anatomy... we've got orifices, and all of that, and the transition form exterior skin to otherwise is not exactly cut and dry... seems potentially very uncomfortable to me.

Maybe the stoneskin affects out clothing as a tacit way of saying it doesn't affect what's underneath, so the don't have to worry about those oddities...

On the other hand, if it only affects the body and not the garments, then if it's doing its job and stopping slicing blades and the like from harming you, then there's a good chance that all those unprotected clothes are getting cut up, and potentially cut into rags that won't stay on... so enjoy dealing with that issue when the spell ends and your soft places turn soft again...

These are the things I think about all the time... the problem may be with me.

Stoneskin turns flesh as hard as stone, not into stone. Technically it doesn't need any kind of visual effect. It needs a CLANGG sound effect as weapons bounce off the hardened skin, and a *resisted* indicator.

I can only hope Larian can resist the urge of applying a literal stone texture all over the character model just because they can and the spell has the word "stone" in it.

The way Stoneskin is explained is much more elegant and sensible than actually turning a character's skin into stone.

Barkskin on the other hand does make the skin have a "rough bark-like appearance". But only skin. Not armor, weapons, shields, cloak...

A good visual effect would be a wave of grey turning the character's skin to stone from head to toes, but then after a second fading back into the character's normal skin tone. This would give a nice visual that the spell has been activated but then not be a permanent visual efffect.

Scleroderma is actually a very serious condition, and apparently it is somehow tied to an immune system attack on the host's own body, resulting in hard calcium deposits under the skin. When you read about it, it kind of makes the Stoneskin spell seem not so attractive anymore.

I like this idea. I'd build on it by adding the expiration effect could make the characters skin appear stony again, then suddenly shatter before resuming it's normal appearance, or they could put an icon of a stone over the characters head and have it crumble.

You could also show the vfx only when the spell is activated when the protected character is hit. That way you could have more pronounced effects without obscuring everyone constantly, if the base state has subtle or no vfx. I would do always on spells like Mage Armor especially like this. In that case, show a force deflection on a miss when the spell does its job. That would also be a much more accurate (and way cooler) visual than dodging inside a force bubble.