Animal Empathy Incongruence

[Borin Drakkmurl]

I know this is not a new topic, and some changes have already been made in the past (like removing immunity to mind effects from wolves,thank the gods), but there are still some incongruencies in the way Animal Empathy works. Or more accurately, what it works on.

Example of weird things it works on:

Gargoyles
Displacer Beasts

Example of natural creatures it does not work on:

Snakes / Cobras
Spiders (Insects in general).


Is this something that is intentional, some hard coded weirdness from the game itself, or just something that has never been considered too important to lose time on?

[Cortex]

They're vermin and mind immune.

[Borin Drakkmurl]

I understand and knew that.

My question/point was:


Should they be?

If interdimensional aberrations / magical monsters from other universes can be controled by a druid, it makes little sense that natural animals (beasts or vermins being inconsequential, in this case) cant.

Specialy when there're such things as a Spider Totem Druid and a Rat Totem Druid.

[Ork]

Vermin by the nwn definition is a creature that doesn't have enough intelligence to even have a mind to control. That means you can't empathy it because that is basically mind enchantment.

[High Primate]

Spiders are not capable of empathizing. They are non-sentient, and only capable of basic sensations like sight and touch. Even then, it's possible that with their relatively primitive nervous systems, they're just complex machines with the ability to respond to stimuli, but without any conscious experiences. I take it that that's why they're mind-immune.

[Dreams]

Animal Companion / Totem affinities are probably the best argument for this being available. It makes sense for a Druid/Ranger who has a companion of whichever type to be able to attract more of these creatures, right?

Certainly with rats and snakes, maybe not spiders for the reasons above.

Edit: Snakes/Rats should be classed as animal subtypes anyway, where spiders are actually vermin. http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Vermin