Bayjin Sea Sprites

[SpitBall]

Something happened during an encounter with Sea Sprites and Rayjin Sentries last night that has me wondering. I had just climbed down from the rocky out-crop and was walking the beach when I surprised a group of Sea Sprites. During the first, or second round of combat, I cast Turncoat and one turned against her friends. Right about the same time, a group of Rayjin Sentries joined the brawl - for some reason, ALL of the Sprites become friendly. i.e. turned to green dots on the scope and began fighting the Rayjin with me. The one I had just turned appeared to still be attacking her friends, but she died quickly from a back-fired spell (her own) so I'm not certain what alliance she had. Anyway, the Sprites and I beat up on the Rayjin for some time, eventually chasing the last one down to the shoreline. About that time, I noticed that we were close to one of the guard huts on the beach, so I combat walked over to the fire and engaged the next group before the last Sentry died - thinking that I could preserve the friendly status of the Sprites for the next battle. That seemed to work and they stayed allies until the Rayjin were dead, then immediately (new encounter) attacked my party.

Now, what happened? Are the Sprites natural enemies of the Rayjin, or did I somehow turn them with my Turncoat spell? Maybe the Rayjin pissed them off somehow? When the Rayjin first showed up, the Sprites were between them and my party. Any one have insight into this situation?

[Scatter]

I've seen a similar thing happen, there's some bug associated with Turncoat and backfired spells, as well as with missed ranged weapons, that can make a whole group join the turncoated individual. It has something to do with engagement range and weapon/spell range; i've never seen it happen with groups in Short range. (it's very rare as it is, and i've not figured out how to "make" it happen)

[SpitBall]

At the time, the Sprites were rather spread out and I'm not sure where the Rayjin were. The party had ducked into a crevice after retreating a bit and X-ray had expired. After being silenced, one of the Sprites advanced, not quite to melee range, and that was the one I hit with Turncoat. So she was fairly well separated from her friends, who were all at the edge of the long range spells. The Rayjin, I think, were also in the long-range area, but they may have been hiding just on the other side of the rocky out-crop, because until they got hit with the Fear Bolts, they were advancing quickly. I had thought that, perhaps, the Rayjin had accidentally hit one of the Sprites , either with a back-fire, or from my Eye4Eye spell, and this pissed them off - just like if I did such a thing to one of my allied groups. I'm sure that to "make" it happen would be nearly impossible because it may have had to do with the precise sequence of events in a battle over which you have little control.

[SpitBall]

OK, these alliances and turncoats are getting even more confusing. Recently, I was fighting some Scorchers in the Mountain Wilderness, so I conjured up a Greater Fire Elemental to help me out. Everything was going as planned. The Elemental was smacking the little creeps around, while I sat back and lobbed Iceballs, Noxious Fumes, and Freeze Flesh at them. At some point, for some reason that is beyond my comprehension - the Elemental turned on me. I had suffered no spell back-fires and the Scorchers don't have any spells - like Turncoat. The Elemental was not in the "ranged" zone, rather standing smack dab in front of the party. Is this just one of the risks one takes with conjuring elementals,or what?

[LewyRay]

I have had this happen...and I think I know what happened, at least in my case.

The elemental was right in front of me, so I had everyone practicing their casting skills. While targeting one of these spells (paralyze I think) I thought I had selected the group of rapax in front of the elemental, but when the spell went off it was targeted at the elemental. I figure I slipped a bit on the mouse, or the animation shifted as I was clicking.

To avoid this I will now always click on the monster group name at the top of the screen. This is usually easier anyway, especially for bats and critters that shift around a lot.

[SpitBall]

That's very possible, LewyRay. Most of what I was tossing at the scorchers were sphere spells, but I might have hit with the freeze flesh, or mind flay. When there is only one group, as in this case, I usually let the auto-target take over - no real choice anyway - but had never considered that auto-target would target an ally. I mean, in order to fight a turncoated monster, I have to manually target them.

As to targeting the moving beasts - if you hold down the Ctrl key, the monsters will stop moving and you can target them quite easily. Plus, you can also check up on how damaged they are, which may help you to decide which one to target. Like with turncoat, or might-to-magick spells - best to target a beast that has a good number of HP.

[ 04-07-2005, 02:20 PM: Message edited by: SpitBall ]

[SpitBall]

Apparently, Sprites (in general) are strange little monsters with regard to alliances and such. Yesterday, I was taking a tour of Ascencion Peak and a group of 6 Mountain Sprites was tailing the party for quite a while and they were neutral (yellow dots on X-ray and map). They stayed out of range, but followed me nonetheless. I had two encounters while they were trailing me and they hung out and watched me battle the Scorchers and Gazers. They were well out of range and off to the side, so I had no problem missing them. Between battles, I turned around and approached the Sprites, but they scooted off in the other direction, remained neutral, and resumed following me when I continued on the adventure. Eventually, I ran into a Willow Guardian and killed it. They remained neutral throughout the battle. I was pretty beat up, so I found a little crevice with a tree and rock for cover and bedded down for a bit. When I awoke, the Sprites were still neutral, but were now slightly ahead of me. As my party moved out of the crevice and toward the Sprites, they became hostile and we had a fight. They were tough, but mostly killed themselves with their reflected Quicksand spells.

It is as though, they were neutral towards me until I tried to "sneak up" on them from behind.

Strange and intriguing creatures, these Sprites.