"Gnav would cast mind dragon, but he is playing a song.

dragonbait · Post by **dragonbait** » Tue May 30, 2006 4:04 pm

I have this gnome arcanist who I have trained through the Summoner level, and when I try to cast certain spells like (Lesser Demon) or (Mind Dragon) I get a message saying "Gnav would cast mind dragon, but he is playing a song." or Gnav would cast lesser demon, but he is playing a song." I found it strange since he is an arcanist and not a bard so why would he be playing a song? I don't normally play the game with a bard on my team (for the most part) so I went back to the Adventurer's Hall, got my bard to join and play a song. Then I had my Arcanist cast Lesser Demon and I was able to cast it now that my bard was playing a tune. Has anyone else had this happen to them? Could it be that the lack of having a bard on my team drove my gnome arcanist insane and now he hums songs whenever the bard isn't around instead of casting spells?
8)

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Tue May 30, 2006 9:47 pm

Maybe the 'he' in "..but he is playing a song.." refers to the Lesser Demon or Mind Dragon.

Never had this happen, but then don't recall casting either of those spells--& rarely used a Bard.

What version of game are you playing?

dragonbait · Post by **dragonbait** » Wed May 31, 2006 6:04 pm

Maybe....but i think it's too much of a coincidence that both the mind dragon and the lesser demon are playing a song at the same time....unless of course theyre playing the same song together on 2 different instruments. Actually after casting the spells they really weren't that useful. The illusionist's mind dragon is basically the same as the hydromancer's water dragon except for the fact that it is an illusion, and the lesser demon (dactyl) although has high hit points really isn't much good in a battle. I have mostly elementalists and arcanists in my party and usually throw in one fighter type character for fun but mostly bombard my enemies with solar flare's and thor's rage from afar. 8)

dragonbait · Post by **dragonbait** » Wed May 31, 2006 6:07 pm

forgot to mention i'm playing version 2.0 8)

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Wed May 31, 2006 6:28 pm

dragonbait wrote:after casting the spells they really weren't that useful... I have mostly elementalists and arcanists in my party and usually throw in one fighter type character for fun..

Meant to ask if you were finding the various summoning spells (ones that call up extra critters to help fight) very useful vs. other approaches--but makes more sense since you're playing with mostly magi-types..

Is it tough starting out with mostly magic-users?

{btw, mental dragoons & lesser or grater demonics tend knot to play well together--or apart for that matter}

dragonbait · Post by **dragonbait** » Wed May 31, 2006 7:13 pm

Actully i started out with
1 Arcanist
1 Pyromancer
1 Hydromancer
1 Bard
1 Warrior
1 Saurian Redclaw
1 Psi Knight

But i quickly started eliminating my fighter characters in place of more magic users. I kept the bard for a while so i could play the walking song so i could get further in the dungeons to get to more tougher battles that held more experience pts. but the songs lasted such a short time that I ended up leaving the bard behind and now have
3 Arcanists
4 Elementalists
and whomever i feel like having take the last space....be it a water dragon or one of my fighter type characters.

Maybe mind dragons and lesser demons might not play well together but it would be funny to see them performing together in an orchestra. They could star in (Devil Whiskey: The music video)

Meanwhile · Post by **Meanwhile** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 12:54 pm

I'm also finding that the bard's songs last for a very short time. Sometimes in the dungeons i'll have the bard sing a song and only a few paces through the dungeon and the music stops although the harp light is still on. frustrating.

dragonbait · Post by **dragonbait** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 3:48 pm

I found that I ran into the same situation with the bard having the songs last for such a short time. (when i had a bard that is) After a while of him singing off key and out of tune I left him at the bottom of the dungeons to fend for himself. 8)

dragonbait · Post by **dragonbait** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 4:08 pm

I found that I ran into the same situation

Must have repeated myself. Sorry. Actually i found that the bard songs harp light would go out while the music still played. I figured if the bard's light wasn't on it's bard's song wasn't in effect. And the bard's light went out very frequently. Only a few paces like you said.

Meanwhile · Post by **Meanwhile** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 5:32 pm

Yeah the bard is basically useless. Has anyone actually kept a bard long enough for him/her to reach expertise level 4 to use the river stane? or gnome hollow? And if so are those songs worth the wait and patience of training the bard to those levels?

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 8:23 pm

No.
No.
&
No.

tho others may disagreeably counter..

Can't recall--did any of the newest (using 'new' as a relative term) patches make the Bard any better?

dragonbait · Post by **dragonbait** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 2:52 pm

Growler wrote: Can't recall--did any of the newest (using 'new' as a relative term) patches make the Bard any better?

hmmm. don't know. currently using version 2.0. didn't want to use any newer versions until i beat the game. Got through level 3 or 4 in the mages tower then decided to go to the lair and beat that first and then go back for the grand finale or lack thereof so i've heard. 8)
It would be cool if i could make a copy of certain characters and then restart the game using version 2.1 bringing high level characters to the beginning of the game to replay with the patched version. Anyone done that?

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:34 pm

Unless you could hack into your savegame file & edit various event-related flags, don't see how you could otherwise 'reset' a newer ver/patched installation while retaining yer existing playas..? Unless Origen or a dev has any ideas?

origen · Post by **origen** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:41 am

To my knowledge, it is not possible without the source code. The only possible way to do it without the source code would be to go through all of the script files and copy down all of the tag's that are set throughout the game. Then, create a script which resets all of these tags to their default values.

But that seems like a pain.

jy_blaste · Post by **jy_blaste** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:48 pm

I just ran into this problem. Was trouncing around the dragon lair, sending Green dragons flying, and taking some bad licks, when suddenly after a big fight I kept getting the message "...would cast ___(spell) but is playing a song" I have no bards in the party, and no musical items. BTW, playing v.2.0 when this happened with no patches applied.

I tried a few quick fixes and heal everyone spells, but nothing worked, so I remebered reading this thread and decided that it looked a lot like a program corruption to me, so I shut down without saving and reloaded the saved game. Fixed the problem right away.

So, if you get this message in 2.0, quickly shut down without saving or reload your last backup, or you may be in a world of trouble (until Origen rewrites the code for this, of course

)