So, I just tried an experiment where I wanted to cast a Fire Dart spell on a "friendly" NPC.
I play Eschalon on my 2.4 GHz Intel Macbook - that means no mouse, and certainly no two-button mouse.
Anyway, when I tried to cast the Fire Dart (or any target-specific offensive) spell on the "friendly" NPC, I tried to hold down the Control key and click on the trackpad button, like I always do to cast spells, but the dialog prompt appears over the NPC and I get a "You must hold down Left Shift to cast a spell on a non-hostile target" message when I click on the trackpad button.
OK, so I try that - hold down the Left Shift and click on the trackpad button to cast the spell on the NPC. The cursor turns to the dagger all right. But then I click the button, I get a "That person is currently out of your attack range" message.
Apparently, the game thinks I'm trying to attack with just my dagger, and not with a spell!
OK, well what about Left Shift + Control key + Trackpad button? Nope! No dice - the dialog prompt again appears over the NPC again, and when I click, I'm back to the "You must hold down Left Shift to cast a spell on a non-hostile target."
No other obvious combination of keys seems to solve the problem either.
So, anyone else have this problem? Is this a bug?
(P.S. Casting a non-target-specific offensive spell like Supernova still works fine. This only happens with target-specific offensive spells cast against "friendly" NPCs...)