Data, including very recent results at low beam energies, for pion total and total reaction cross sections on complex nuclei are reviewed. The emphasis at low energies is on the coherent effects possible at long projectile wave lengths and accessible because of the long mean free path expected. At high beam energies the question of interest is the existence of nucleon isobars within complex nuclei. Comparison of existing pion data to eikonal calculations and with a comparison to recent analyses of photon cross sections agrees with the conclusions from the photon data that any N* modes other than the delta are severely damped in a nucleus as heavy as carbon.