On Mon, 4 Oct 1999 jhenders@... wrote:

> group gate off (does anyone actually use evac or succor?) But, I'll
> never forget the time I tried this in the undead tower in lower guk.
> Something was beating on our druid as he tried to cast a group gate so I
> fired up fear to try to clear a space. It wasn't even 3 seconds later
> that most of the tower, including the gargoyles from way out by the
> drawbridge were on our butts. Unfortunately the ghoul beating on the
> druid resisted so the druid died, followed by the whole rest of the
> party about 30 secs later.
>

My bard friends and I have been discussing this for awhile now.
In certain dungeons, nod song is simply better because of the way monsters
behave in that dungeon. Screech trains in lower guk, but nod doesn't.
And, well, I've never been to lower guk when I was between lvl 35 and 49
without a group gater (I'm willing to go now, because dying doesn't
matter to me personally anymore). If there was a bard in my group, I made
it abundantly clear that if we have to evac out, he plays nod, not
screech. Even if most of the monsters resist the nod spell, the hate
factor is so high that the bard pulls everything off the gater
immediately. Then, it's just a matter of gettting the gate off before the
cleric is unable to keep the bard alive any longer. And it's definitely
better for the bard to die, than for the whole party to die.

Miriana Windryder