As I said to Balrahd, those were the first examples that came to my mind. If you thought about it you could probably come up with more common ones.

As far as awaken goes, maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong... but the sup works how it works, I don't see that changing. It's probably related to the "wake" command which is much better bringing someone to standing than resting, for practicality purposes. If your group leader wakes you because your group is moving on or because enemies are coming, it's much better for the group if you can move with them.

As fireshield goes, how many times have you been grouped with some idiot who takes 10 minutes to realize that they're using a weapon that can't harm what you're fighting? I have plenty of times. The same type of guy easily can not see that the fire weapon they're using is healing the Maran that you're *trying to kill*. Now if you're an invoker you don't have to word the groupmate when he's still helpfully bashing away, you can flee, come back, and fireshield the Maran. This isn't going to happen often, but does that sound unbelievable to you? Is it going to be more rare than fly/buffet... probably. But is fly/buffet that common? And if we're looking for uncommon examples, where do you draw the line?

I think there's a big difference between resisting a spell like fly which is mostly beneficial, and a spell like dispel or blind which is mostly bad. I can think of situations where I'd want to be dispelled or blinded, but I still wouldn't want them to be done without a save.

Oh, and as the poisoner goes, the 8 person gangbang example is an extreme example. How about two thug thieves walking up to you and trip/cheapshotting you to death? That's much worse, really. For a poisoner to make the poison, get the vial, and make the suggestions work isn't as easy as it looks from the victim's perspective. And I don't see what you mean about lagging badly making you less likely to be caught up by a massive gang... to me it increases the chance that you won't get a chance to react and run like hell if the gang comes into the area you're in.