Stratagems of Mystra: Changes by Category

This page lists the contents of each of the categories of spell-system changes (you can choose to install some or all categories. Within each category, changes are listed in alphabetical order, along with a note of which games are affected. If you would prefer to see the spell changes organized by level of spell, you can do so here.

Tweaks in this section alter Icewind Dale spells to more closely match how they work in Baldur's Gate / Baldur's Gate II. In most cases this slightly increases the power of the spell. The effects are for the most part self-explanatory.

Chant no longer prevents spellcasting (it does still reduce movement speed by 50%) (IWDEE)

Flame Blade does +1d4 fire damage, rather than +2 (IWDEE)

Flame Strike does 1d8 damage per level, not a flat 8d6 (IWDEE)

Flame Strike is now targeted on a creature rather than a point (IWDEE)

Ghost Armor gives an AC of 1 (rather than 2) and lasts for 1 hour rather than 1 round per level (IWDEE)

Holy Smite and Unholy Blight now do 1d4 damage per level, rather than 1d6 per two levels with a cap at 5d6 (IWDEE)

Ice Storm inflicts 2d8 cold damage per round for 4 rounds, rather than a one-off 3d10 damage (IWDEE)

Spirit Armor lasts for 2 hours rather than 3 turns (IWDEE)

Summoned creatures from Mordenkainen's Sword and Conjure Animals are now low enough level that they will be killed by Death Spell (which, in IWD, does not automatically slay summoned monsters). (IWDEE; not Spell Revisions)

Tweaks in this section alter the Restoration and Lesser Restoration spells.

Restoration spells restore ability drain

The Lesser Restoration and Restoration spells (and any items or abilities that duplicate their effects) now restore lost ability score points, e.g. from the Ray of Enfeeblement spell or the Devour Brain ability of the mind flayer. (The spell does not restore permanently lost ability score points.)

Revert Greater Restoration back to only affecting one creature (BG1TUTU,BGT,SoA,ToB)

Throne of Bhaal makes an undocumented (but widely known) modification to the Greater Restoration spell, making it into an area-effect spell that heals the entire party. This component reverts Greater Restoration to its SoA version (also its BG2EE version), where only one creature can be affected.

Tweaks in this section alter shapeshift spells, making them more flexible and somewhat more powerful.

Revised version of Polymorph Self (BG2EE,BGEE,EET,IWDEE)

This component revises the forms available from the fourth level wizard spell 'Polymorph Self' (which, in my judgement, are generally a bit underpowered). The ogre and flind forms are removed (the flind form included an implausible magical weapon). The druid-equivalent forms (wolf, brown bear, black bear) are also removed, to keep thematic distance from druid shapeshifting. The mustard jelly form is unchanged; the spider form is unchanged except for a minor web-spinning power.

Four new forms are introduced:

• Hill Giant Barbarian (powerful attacks, Barbarian Rage)
• Ogre Mage (reasonably strong attacks, permits spellcasting)
• Hell Hound (immunity to fire, fiery breath attack)
• Rat (good Armor Class, can become invisible when not in combat)

Full documentation on the available forms can be found here.

In addition, Polymorph Self now allows you to choose your first form when you cast the spell, instead of having to wait until the next round.

Revised version of Shapechange (BG2EE,BGEE,EET,IWDEE)

This component revises the forms available from the ninth level wizard spell 'Shapechange' (which, in my judgement, are generally a bit underpowered). The werewolf and elemental forms are removed, to keep thematic distance from druid shapeshifting. The mind flayer form gains some physical damage resistance, can use Psionic Blast at will, and permits spellcasting. The iron golem form gains a poison-gas breath weapon. The giant troll form has significantly improved regeneration (30 hp/rd) and permits spellcasting.

Three new forms are introduced:

• Marilith Demon (many attacks, strong resistances, permits spellcasting, teleport at will)
• Greater Basilisk (petrifying gaze, poisonous claws)
• Invisible Stalker (becomes improved invisible automatically once per round, permits spellcasting)

Full documentation on the available forms can be found here.

In addition, Shapechange now allows you to choose your first form when you cast the spell, instead of having to wait until the next round.

These tweaks alter a range of spells, mostly but not entirely focussed around a spellcaster's defenses and abilities to remove other creatures' defenses. What unites them is that all are assumed by the enemy AI in Sword Coast Stratagems, and enemy spellcasters may act quite strangely from time to time if this is not installed.

Alignment-appropriate fiends

The fiend-summoning spells (Cacofiend, Summon Fiend, Gate) are a little inconsistent in the kinds of fiends they summon: Cacofiend and Summon Fiend summon chaotic evil tanar'ri (demons), Gate summons lawful evil baatezu (devils). This component causes the fiends that are summoned to be on the same point of the Law/Chaos axis as the caster: Lawful characters will summon Bone Fiends, Cornugons and Pit Fiends; Chaotic and Neutral characters will summon Nabassu, Glabrezu and Balors.

Allow Spellstrike to take down a Protection from Magic scroll (not Spell Revisions)

"In the original game, the protective sphere produced by a Protection from Magic scroll is completely impenetrable by any spell at all - if you use one, all a hostile wizard can do is run away or fight in melee. This component allows the most powerful mage anti-magic spell, the 9th level spell Spellstrike, to destroy the anti-magic sphere of one of these scrolls. It also allows the anti-magic ray of the Hive Mother beholder to destroy the sphere.

Allow players to use the individual versions of Spell Immunity in triggers (BG1TUTU,BGT,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

Spell Immunity is really eight sub-spells. This component allows a subspell to be placed into a Contingency or Spell Trigger. (This is already present on Enhanced Edition games.)

Antimagic attacks penetrate Improved Invisibility

"This component changes those spells which target a creature's spell defences (e.g. Secret Word, Spellstrike, Ruby Ray of Reversal - but not Breach) so as to allow them to target creatures which are protected by Improved Invisibility. The idea of this component is that these spells can now be cast on enemy mages who are protected by Improved Invisibility - this makes the Improved Invisibility / Spell Immunity: Divination combination less overpowering.

Make Protection from Normal Missiles affect some magical projectiles (not Spell Revisions)

This component improves the power of the Protection from Normal Missiles spell. It now blocks most magical arrows, bolts etc that lack a formal "plus": that is, it blocks fire arrows, ice arrows and the like. The exceptions are the Arrows of Detonation, the Arrows of Slaying, and the Arrows of Dispelling. This significantly increases the usefulness of the spell (read: makes it not entirely useless for NPC mages).

More consistent Breach spell (always affects liches and rakshasas; doesn't penetrate Spell Turning)

Although it isn't documented, the 5th level spell Breach will remove a creature's combat protections (such as Stoneskin) even if that creature is protected by Spell Deflection, Spell Turning or Spell Trap; it will not, however, affect creatures like liches or rakshasas, because they are immune to spells of level 5 or below. This component removes both features: Breach now bounces off Spell Turning (etc.), but it affects even those creatures immune to "normal" 5th level spells.

Once this is installed, the Breach effect of the Wand of Spell Striking will behave in exactly the same way as the Breach spell.

Remove the battle for control from arcane elemental summoning spells (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB)

The fifth- and sixth-level Conjure Elemental spells on the mage spell list require a three-round mental battle to control the elemental. This in practice makes the spell mostly useless (three rounds is far too long to stand around in combat; players could cast it in advance, but the AI can't) and in any case very underpowered. This component just makes the summoned elemental directly under the player's control.

Slightly increase the power of Mantle, Improved Mantle, and Absolute Immunity (not Spell Revisions)

In the unmodded game, Mantle protects you from +2 or weaker weapons, Improved Mantle from +3 or weaker weapons, and Absolute Immunity from +5 or weaker weapons. In all cases, arguably this is slightly too weak given the prevalence of such weapons in the game. This component increases each protective range by one: Mantle protects against +3 or weaker weapons, Improved Mantle against +4 or weaker weapons, and Absolute Immunity against +6 or weaker weapons (i.e., basically everything.)

Tweaks in this section alter Baldur's Gate / Baldur's Gate II spells to more closely match how they work in Icewind Dale. In most cases this slightly increases the power of the spell. The effects are for the most part self-explanatory.

A successful saving throw against Blade Barrier or Globe of Blades now reduces damage by half rather than negating it altogether (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

Chromatic Orb has less drastic effects at high level, but no longer gives a +6 bonus to saving throws (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

Color Spray now affects any creature of the caster's level or below (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

Death Spell and Death Fog no longer automatically kill summoned monsters (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

This tweak removes the automatic killing of summoned creatures from Death Fog and Death Spell, following Icewind Dale's model. Note that since Death Spell kills any creature of 8th level or below without a saving throw, the great majority of summons will still be killed by the spell. The swords summoned by Mordenkainen's Sword and the bears summoned by Conjure Animals have been slightly adjusted so as to be low enough level to be killed by Death Spell.

Defensive Harmony increases AC by +4 instead of +2 (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

Lower Resistance decreases resistance by 30% + 1%/level, not 10% + 1%/level (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

Magical Stone does 3d4 damage (6d4 vs undead), rather than 1d4 (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

Shocking Grasp does not require a successful melee attack (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

Slay Living no longer requires a successful melee attack (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

Slow Poison now genuinely slows the effect of poison (reducing the speed of its effect by 90%) instead of neutralizing it altogether (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

Sol's Searing Orb does 6d6 damage, not 3d6, and does not require a hit roll (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

Strength has a duration of 1 hour per level rather than 1 turn per level (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

Strength of One increases recipients' strength to 18/76 rather than 18/75 (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

The lightning bolts from Call Lightning now strike somewhat more frequently (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

The priest version of Protection from Fire now lasts for 1 turn per level rather than 3 rounds + 1 round per level (BG1TUTU,BG2EE,BGEE,BGT,EET,SoA,ToB; not Spell Revisions)

Tweaks in this section rebalance various slightly too-powerful spells. The enemy AI in Sword Coast Stratagems will sometimes behave a little oddly if this component is not installed.

Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting does not affect undead, constructs, and (non-water) elementals (not Spell Revisions)

From its description, Horrid Wilting ought not to affect creatures with no moisture in their bodies. The actual spell, as implemented, affects basically everything (the IWD version does not affect undead). This component restricts the spell so as not to affect earth/air/fire elementals, undead, constructs and the like

Note that the 'Telekinetic Storm' spell, introduced by the New Arcane Spells component, does affect all these creatures, at the cost of doing slightly less damage (1d6 per level, not 1d8). This should help fill the tactical hole left by this component's restrictions.

Cap damage done by Skull Trap at 12d6 (not Spell Revisions)

Skull Trap, like the other Level 3 spells Fireball and Lightning Bolt, does 1d6 damage per level. Unlike those spells, though (and, I suspect, via an oversight on the developers' part, though I could be wrong) Skull Trap's damage is not capped at 10d6, which makes it extremely lethal for a third level spell by the later part of the game. This component caps the damage of Skull Trap at 12d6 (the slightly higher cap reflects the much shorter range of Skull Trap compared to Fireball.

Give True Sight the ability to prevent magical blindness (not Spell Revisions)

"This spell modifies True Sight (and the clerical version, True Seeing) so that the caster is immune to Blindness while the spell is effective; existing Blindness effects

Grant large, amorphous, solid, or similar creatures immunity to Web and Entangle

Logically, things like Fire Elementals, Grey Oozes, and Giants ought to be unaffected by Web and Entangle effects. This component grants them immunity to those effects. Affected creatures are elementals, slimes, incorporeal creatures, any sufficiently large creature, and (on Enhanced Edition only) any creature shrouded in magical fire.

Haste and Slow effects cancel; slow always gives AC and THAC0 penalties (BG2EE,BGEE,EET,IWDEE; not Spell Revisions)

The Haste and Slow effects cancel each other out; also, Slow effects always give a -4 penalty to AC and THAC0. (This was true for the Slow spell itself but not for many other spells and items.)

Make Minute Meteors into +2 weapons (not Spell Revisions)

In the unmodded game, the meteors created by the third-level Melf's Minute Meteors spell strike as +6 weapons, enough to penetrate any creature's resistances and to cut through even the (unmodded) Absolute Immunity spell. This strikes me as a bit overpowered for a third-level spell. This component makes meteors +2 - still enough to hit most creatures, but not enough to cut through any of the (Stratagems-modified) protection-from-magic-weapon spells.

Make Power Word: Blind a single-target spell (not Spell Revisions)

Unlike other Power Words, Power Word: Blind has a small area of effect. This both makes it rather powerful, and makes it virtually impossible for enemy AI to use without "friendly-fire" incidents. This component just makes Power Word: Blind target a single creature.

Modify the Harm spell so it does damage rather than reducing target hit points to 1 (not Spell Revisions)

The Harm spell reduces its target to 1 hp in 2nd edition D&D; in 3rd edition, it does a large amount of damage instead. This component modifies Harm to work more like the 3rd edition spell: it inflicts 150 hp damage, with no saving throw, on a successful touch attack, to a minimum of 1 hp. The rationale for this is that Harm (especially combined with Critical Strike) is otherwise an almost-instant way of eliminating even foes with hundreds of hit points. Harm remains lethal in this component, but is not quite so overwhelming.

Nature's Beauty effects are not removed from hostile creatures by True Sight

Nature's Beauty is an illusion spell, which means that its blinding effect is removed by enemy-cast True Sight spells. This is a bit counterintuitive and doesn't really fit with the concept of the spell. This tweak prevents the blindness effect from being removed by anti-illusion magic. (On Spell Revisions, this applies to the Charm effect instead.)

Prevent clones made by the Simulacrum and Project Image spells from using their magic items and innate abilities (not Spell Revisions)

present, clones can use magic items belonging to their creator - even one-shot items - as well as any class-based innate abilities, which arguably isn't what the spell is intended to do. This component blocks use of useable items and innate abilities, by greying out the quick-item bar and innate-ability bar for clones. Magic weapons, armour, and protective devices still function normally.

Rebalance Acid Storm

"The seventh-level spell Acid Storm inflicts a small amount of damage once per round, with no saving throw, on all in its area of effect for one round per level. The damage itself from the spell is minor, but this is an absolutely devastating way to shut down spellcasting.

Rebalance Insect Plague spells (and the like) (not Spell Revisions)

In the unmodified game, Insect Plague and Creeping Doom (and, to a lesser extent, Summon Insects) are very hard indeed for a spellcaster to deal with or defend against. This component (which was partly inspired by Demivrgvs's Spell Revisions) handles the insects more systematically as summoned creatures: they inflict piercing damage; they cannot harm or affect creatures immune to nonmagical weapons; they are unaffected by antimagic or by Dispel Magic; they will not attack undead creatures, and cannot penetrate the extreme heat or cold of a Fire Shield.

Rebalance Mordenkainen's Force Missiles

Mordenkainen's Force Missiles, a 4th level spell, creates one missile plus one more per three levels above 7th, to a maximum of 7 missiles at 25th level; each missile does 2d4 damage (no save) and then does 1 point of damage per level of the caster (maximum 25) in a small area-of-effect, with a save to avoid. At 25th level, that's potentially 175+14d4 damage, which is pretty ridiculous for a 4th level spell. Put three of them into a sequencer, and now the damage is 525+42d4, which is ludicrous.

This component caps the number of missiles at 4, and the area-of-effect damage per missile at 15. (And I'm still worried it's overpowered.)

Rebalance bombardier beetle cloud

In IWD, bombardier beetles have a gas cloud which has a 1/5 chance of stunning its target for 5 rounds (no save) and a 1/4 chance of deafening any non-stunned target for 7 rounds (again, no save). This is a pretty faithful conversion of the 2nd edition AD&D power, but while it's balanced about right for low-level play (where these creatures are encountered) it's excessively, and implausibly, powerful at higher levels.

This tweak grants a save vs. breath against both effects; as partial compensation, the probabilities increase, so that a creature is always targeted either by the stun or the deafness, with a 50% chance of each.

Rebounding lightning bolts only inflict damage once (BG2EE,BGEE,EET,IWDEE; not Spell Revisions)

This component alters Lightning Bolt (and similar spells) so that any creature takes damage from the lightning bolt only once, however often it rebounds into them.

Remove the Antimagic Shell spell

The Antimagic Shell spell is removed entirely, on the grounds that it's an awkward fit to the BG2 antimagic system

Tweaks in this section alter the schools of certain mage spells.

Make spell sequencers, spell triggers, and contingencies learnable by all mages (not Spell Revisions)

In the unmodded game, spell sequencers, contingencies etc are in the Evocation school, making them unavailable to Enchanters; this is a serious weakness for the class. This component moves them to be in both the Conjuration and Evocation schools (like Wish), so that all mages may use them. The affected spells are Minor Sequencer, Spell Sequencer, Spell Trigger, Contingency, and Chain Contingency.

Move Power Words to the school of Enchantment (not Spell Revisions)

At higher levels, BG/IWD spells are very unequally divided across the spell schools - there are no enchantments at all above 5th level. This component addresses this by reallocating power words (Sleep, Silence, Stun, Blind, Kill) to the Enchantment school.

Move Symbols to the school of Enchantment (not Spell Revisions)

At higher levels, BG/IWD spells are very unequally divided across the spell schools - there are no enchantments at all above 5th level. This component addresses this by reallocating Symbols (Fear, Pain, Hopelessness, Stun, Death) to the Enchantment school.

Tweaks in this section somewhat increase the power of various spells which (in my subjective judgement) were a little under-powered compared to similar spells at the same level.

Adjust Monster Summoning spells (not Spell Revisions)

In the unmodded game, summoned monsters from higher-level versions of Monster Summoning are of course more powerful, but the number summoned decreases. This tweak removes the number decrease, so that Monster Summoning spells always summon 2d3 monsters. The tweak also systematizes the levels of summoned monsters (which were already slightly higher than the spell descriptions suggest), with Monster Summoning VII summoning 11th-12th level creatures.

On BGEE or BG2EE, this tweak only applies if you are using the Icewind Dale arcane spells; on IWDEE, this tweak also standardizes Monster Summoning to summon humanoid monsters.

Blade Barrier and Globe of Blades only affect hostile creatures (not Spell Revisions)

Even in the unmodded game, hostile priests used a special form of Blade Barrier that only affected their foes. (This is probably because, in the Infinity Engine, it is almost impossible to script creatures to avoid them crashing into each other.) This component (in the name of fairness, and also of hassle avoidance) extends this to the player's version of these two spells: with it installed, players and NPCs use the same form of Blade Barrier. (They don't quite use the old NPC version, which had a rather shorter range: they use a hybrid version, as large as the old PC version but affecting only enemies).

Energy Drain spell drains five levels rather than two (not Spell Revisions)

Energy Drain is a 9th-level spell with touch range that drains two levels from the target. That's not really competitive with other 9th-level options. This compnent increases the drain to 5 levels. It also applies to the 7th level priest spell of the same name, if you have it installed.

Enhance Impervious Sanctity of Mind

The Icewind Dale spell 'Impervious Sanctity of Mind' is seventh level but functionally identical to the BG2 spell Chaotic Commands (except it's self-only). This component enhances it to add a Spell Shield effect (first anti-magic spell absorbed harmlessly) and grant immunity to spell failure (though spells can still be disrupted by damage).

I will admit that this change, and the next, have an ulterior motive: I want to experiment with giving clerics more defensive magic. (At present, they can be killed off very quickly by a party.)

Entropy Shield protects from abjurations

In IWD:EE (as of version 2.6), Entropy Shield has powerful, hidden protections: it makes the caster immune to Imprisonment, Spellstrike and Breach (the only spell that can take it down!)

This is pretty obviously a bug. None of these spells exist in vanilla IWD; there is no added documentation; what blocks them is that they all use the same projectile file (a green sparkling ball); that projectile is in just the right place to be accidently blocked by someone making an out-by-one error in editing the spell. The version of the spell shipped with SCS fixes the bug.

That said, it's actually quite an interesting thing to do to what's otherwise a somewhat underpowered spell, and usefully improves clerics' somewhat weak defenses, making NPC clerics more capable of surviving a few rounds. So we systematize it a bit, making it block spells of the Abjuration school, but not anti-spell attacks (and changing its type to SPELLPROTECTION, so that it can be removed by those spells).

Increase damage of Thorn Spray

The Icewind Dale spell 'Thorn Spray' is thematically cool but very underpowered given its low damage. This component increases the damage from 2d10 to 4d12, increasing to 5d12 at 9th level and to a maximum of 6d12 at 11th level.

Increase duration of Circle of Bones

The Icewind Dale spell 'Circle of Bones' (basically a low-level version of Blade Barrier) is thematically cool but very underpowered given its short (3-round) duration. This component increases the duration to one round per level, to a maximum of 20 rounds, and removes the immobilization effect.

Increase the accuracy of Mordenkainen's Force Blade

Mordenkainen's Force Blade (the IWD version of Mordenkainen's Sword) attacks as a fighter of half the level as the caster, which is not really competitive at the level at which it is cast. This component shifts it to attack as a fighter of the same level as the caster.

Increase the power of Cure Wounds and Cause wounds spells (not Spell Revisions)

The Cure and Cause Wounds families are very weak, especially at higher levels - it really isn't worth (e.g.) using a fourth-level cleric slot to heal 14 hit points or do the same amount of damage. This component increases the effectiveness of these spells somewhat (roughly following 3rd edition D&D): they heal (or cause) 5 hit points per level of the spell, plus a bonus amount equal to 1 per level of the caster but no more than 5 per level of the spell (so a maximum of 5 for Cure Light Wounds, but 20 for Cure Serious Wounds). For lore reasons, this is capped at 20th level on Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II. (The exact amount of enhancement can be customized; see the main readme.)

Larloch's Minor Drain becomes more powerful at higher levels (not Spell Revisions)

The necromantic spell 'Larloch's Minor Drain' drains 1d4 hit points (in IWD) or 4 hit points (in BG/BG2) from the target and gives them to the caster. That's minor but not useless at first level, but it quickly becomes worthless at higher levels. This component makes the drain level-dependent: 1d4 at first level, increasing by 1d4 every two levels to a maximum of 5d4. That makes it roughly competitive with Magic Missile (the benefit that it heals the caster is offset against the slightly lower damage and the fact that it doesn't work on undead.)

Modified version of the Iron Body spell (does not prevent spellcasting)

Iron Body (an 8th level wizard spell introduced in IWD) is thematically cool but in practice not that useful: it gives moderately nice defensive boosts but they're not that exciting, and it shuts down spellcasting, making it useless to single-class wizards in most circumstances. This component improves the physical damage protection (to 75%) and replaces the outright block on spellcasting with a -2 casting speed penalty. This should make the spell a fairly powerful defensive choice - but it is 8th level, so that seems apposite.

Rename 'Mist of Eldath' to 'Healing Mist'

This is a purely cosmetic change, intended to remove mismatches between an in-game character's faith and their memorized spells.

Rename and tweak Shield of Lathander

Shield of Lathander, an Icewind Dale spell, is a thematically awkward fit for Baldur's Gate, where clerics can have kits that dedicate them to specific gods. This component renames the spell to 'Divine Protection' and makes it usable by clerics of all alignments; it also restricts it to be self-only, since I think the third-party-target version is probably quite exploitable. Its casting time is also slightly shortened.

Symbol of Pain does not permit a saving throw

Symbol of Pain imposes a -4 penalty to attack rolls, -2 to Dexterity, and -2 to AC - but there is a saving throw to avoid it, making it uncompetitive with other Symbols like Death, Stun or Hopelessness, which actually take the target out of the battle if it fails its save. This component just removes the saving throw, making the Symbol a reliable weakening spell.

Symbols only affect hostile creatures (not Spell Revisions)

Hostile spellcasters in the unmodded game use a special form of Symbol that only affects their foes. This component (for fairness and hassle avoidance) applies this to the player's version of all Symbol spells.