Death by spamming: Caster AI and spell lists

[Dyson]

I've seen this happen in both AO and especially TC. MANY guards have access to spells like Grease, Cloud of Bewilderment, Web, Mind Fog, Acid Fog, etc etc etc, or even worse can also summon creatures that can do the same like the Spider type creatures summoned by Circle Guards.

Now these can be useful spells against certain builds or lower level characters, but it is lethal for another reason. Whenever I get a few of these mobs on a screen they SPAM cast these spells, stacking them over and over and over until my poor vid card slows to a chunky mess and even if I could tell what's going on all the spell effects stack up and obscure everything. I can't heal, can't do much of anything.

I've tried to move out of the area effects but in TC for instance the guards just don't seem to run out of these spells. As soon as I move the spamming starts anew. Do they or their summons have limits on these spells or spell like abilities? Not to mention having to make 10-15 saves a round causes as much lag as old IGMS used to, and some of those effects definitely still have auto fail in. Which ones I can't be sure since I am just constantly making saves. Sometimes I fall down, get confused, sometimes I get entangled/stuck for a LONG time and have a web addition to my character graphic even tho there is no web spell around.

Re: AI, something I noticed with the MA guards and elsewhere. They will cast dismissal every time 2-3 times while I am in melee with them, and I have also seen a lot of casters cast stoneskin and greater stoneskin multiple times while the previous spell is still active.

Please trim some of the lag hogs from AI monster spell lists, or at least limit the number of times they can be cast. We can't all have Radeon 9800's.