Herein I describe details of my ongoing campaigns, discuss the D&D game, and talk about other issues in gaming that I find relevant. I am not very fond of 4th edition, having played it once and found it too WoWish. Consequently most of my articles will reference 3.5 and previous editions.
This Spells Trouble, Part IV
Posted 4th December 2008 at 07:06 AM by airwalkrr
This week we have a mish-mash of enchantment spells that need tweaking. I'm gonna give them the see-saw treatment, pumping a couple up (just a smidgen) and knocking the other down just a tad (you'll get that pun when you see it). Let's get straight to it.
Tasha's Hideous Laughter
Great spell. Awesome spell. Incredible spell. Too great, too awesome, and too incredible. Compare it to other enchantments of similar level and you see why. Not only does it incapacitate the target, it knocks them prone. That's a -4 penalty to AC and there is nothing the creature can do about it. And when the spell is up the creature has to endure attacks of opportunity to get up. On top of that, it can be used on a variety of creatures, while spells like charm person must target a humanoid. The spell is like lesser hold monster more than anything. Let's just get rid of that falling prone part and make it like an improved daze spell. Here is the new text.
This spell afflicts the subject with uncontrollable laughter. It erupts into gales of manic laughter, unable to take any action but laughing. The subject is not considered helpless. After the spell ends, it can act normally.
A creature with an Intelligence score of 2 or lower is not affected. A creature whose type is different from the caster's receives a +4 bonus on its saving throw, because humor doesn't "translate" well.
Sleep
Another great spell, it's coolness mitigated by the fact that it really just makes the bad guys waste a round waking their companions up. But it really outlives its usefulness pretty quickly. Then you are stuck with a dead page in your spellbook or a worthless spell slot in your repertoire. To extend the usefulness of sleep beyond 1st-3rd level, change the the first line of text to the following:
A sleep spell causes a magical slumber to come upon 4 Hit Dice of creatures plus 1 Hit Die per two caster levels (to a maximum of 9 Hit Dice at 10th-level).
Deep Slumber
Same problem as above, except change the text to the following since this is a higher-level spell:
This spell functions like sleep, except that it affects 5 HD of creatures plus 1 HD per caster level (to a maximum of 20 HD at 15th-level).
Well, there you have it. I think we've corralled enough spells for one entry. This next one's gonna take a different turn. I've already addressed a lot of the "little" changes to the game that I thought would make it better without affecting backwards compatibility. In two weeks, I will go a bit beyond that with Have a Little Class.
Tasha's Hideous Laughter
Great spell. Awesome spell. Incredible spell. Too great, too awesome, and too incredible. Compare it to other enchantments of similar level and you see why. Not only does it incapacitate the target, it knocks them prone. That's a -4 penalty to AC and there is nothing the creature can do about it. And when the spell is up the creature has to endure attacks of opportunity to get up. On top of that, it can be used on a variety of creatures, while spells like charm person must target a humanoid. The spell is like lesser hold monster more than anything. Let's just get rid of that falling prone part and make it like an improved daze spell. Here is the new text.
This spell afflicts the subject with uncontrollable laughter. It erupts into gales of manic laughter, unable to take any action but laughing. The subject is not considered helpless. After the spell ends, it can act normally.
A creature with an Intelligence score of 2 or lower is not affected. A creature whose type is different from the caster's receives a +4 bonus on its saving throw, because humor doesn't "translate" well.
Sleep
Another great spell, it's coolness mitigated by the fact that it really just makes the bad guys waste a round waking their companions up. But it really outlives its usefulness pretty quickly. Then you are stuck with a dead page in your spellbook or a worthless spell slot in your repertoire. To extend the usefulness of sleep beyond 1st-3rd level, change the the first line of text to the following:
A sleep spell causes a magical slumber to come upon 4 Hit Dice of creatures plus 1 Hit Die per two caster levels (to a maximum of 9 Hit Dice at 10th-level).
Deep Slumber
Same problem as above, except change the text to the following since this is a higher-level spell:
This spell functions like sleep, except that it affects 5 HD of creatures plus 1 HD per caster level (to a maximum of 20 HD at 15th-level).
Well, there you have it. I think we've corralled enough spells for one entry. This next one's gonna take a different turn. I've already addressed a lot of the "little" changes to the game that I thought would make it better without affecting backwards compatibility. In two weeks, I will go a bit beyond that with Have a Little Class.
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