Shattered Kingdoms

Damn good question. I alwasy forget how it works with the other two anyway.

I admit to not recalling this conversation, but it sounds like I might have been misinterpreted. Like stunning, magic damage also only attacks the main hit point pool, so you were probably just seeing the same affect that I described earlier. That is, the opponent had already taken more damage to a vital area due to weapon strikes, so in the meantime your flamestrikes damage wasn't showing on his health meter. That doesn't mean you were doing 0 damage.

If you don't like the extra casting time, switch to neutral stance. That's why it was added. I prefer the extra casting time, because it's always going to be a hindrance, unlike cost or concentration, where you might have so much extra that you really don't care.

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Again, the solution to your problem is neutral stance.

Help stance references help rescue, which has the explanation. For purposes of rescue, neutral and defensive do the same thing.

I disagree. A caster dedicating all his concentration to using his spells to the exclusion of defending himself (as is the case with aggressive stance), should be gaining a bonus for the overt penalties associated with aggressive stance. It's the same reasoning used to buff melee damage and speed for a warrior using aggressive stance: they're not concentrating on defending themselves in order to be more offensively capable. A caster could very conceivably be doing the same thing, exchanging swinging a sword for slinging a spell.

Are you thinking of adding a benefit to the aggressive stance for casters or is it going to be solely for fighters?

If I were to add spellcasting bonuses for aggressive stance, I'd also have to add spellcasting penalties. Currently there are none.

PS. I'll add I still don't feel it makes sense. The benefits of the stances are all physical.

Yes there are. You're more vulnerable to ranged attacks (dodge, shield block will fire less EDIT: and overall AC will be lowered), and with the lag that was added for switching stances, if your tank drops you're done for. There are currently just as many drawbacks for spellcasters using aggressive stance as there are for warriors, but without the benefits.

I said there are no spellcasting penalties, not that there were no penalties whatsoever. Again, the benefits to stances are all physical. To get those physical benefits, sometimes you are trading in magical penalties. The only reason there are not already magical penalties for aggressive stance is specifically because it doesn't really help casters to use it.