Are Spells Balanced by Level?

[I'm A Banana]

I'm not saying it's overpowered at all, but if I were a spellcaster, I'd take it.

Well, there is a big difference between useful and overpowered...

....okay, maybe the difference isn't very big, but it does exist.

Ideally, the spells would be so well-balanced by level that choosing one is a hair-pulling process...but they are so varied in form and function that not all characters equally value all spells in all campaigns. If my DM is running an encounter-lite campaign with more intrigue and fewer battles, Magic Missile becomes a lot less effective than if my DM runs somehting that's just a big dungeon crawl.

Glitterdust is useful, but I'd say it's no more useful than comprable spells at that level. Invisibility just isn't that stupendous of a defence. People do have 5 senses, y'know.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Elder-Basilisk, you give an excellent analysis. I was going to present some of the same basic points, but you beat me to it.

This is an interesting point, especially in connection with the recent "low magic" discussions. If we eliminate spell scaling, powerful evocations don't go away, but they might not rule the roost quite so much.

Thanks for the compliment. My thought is that if you got rid of spell scaling, there are still a lot of spells which would still be good at high levels.

Off the top of my head:
1st level: Grease (you'd have to give it a longer duration but it's still pretty good), shield, protection from evil, charm person, true strike.

2nd level: Web, glitterdust, invisibility, see invisibility.

3rd level: haste, slow, fly, hold person, suggestion, protection from elements, summon monster III.

4th level: polymorph self, polymorph other, charm monster, ice storm, phantasmal killer, dimension door, improved invisibility, wall of ice, evard's black tentacles.

5th level: energy buffer, teleport, wall of stone, wall of force, wall of iron, dominate person, cloudkill.

6th level: disintegrate, death spell, undeath to death, tenser's transformation, mass haste, summon monster VI.

7th level: energy immunity, prismatic spray, teleport without error, finger of death.

8th level: at this point, why are we talking about scaling? It's not as if you're getting to a much higher level. . . .

The most noticable difference from the standard list of really good spells is that almost all of the evocations are gone. So, as you say, this might be a clever way to eliminate the dominance of flashy evocation type magic from a campaign.

The other really significant casualties are buffing spells with durations of 1 hour/level. At high levels, these spells offer great advantages and will often last all day (or all week for sorcerors with the extend spell feat and unused high level spell slots at bed time). (Greater Magic Weapon is a special casualty of this and since it's a very important spell to archers and fighters, etc whenever damage resistant creatures show up, it probably needs to remain as a scaling spell).

As to your other comment:

"Useless" might be a bit strong, but forcing spellcasters to use up higher-level spell slots (rather than scaling up effortlessly) is an unequivocal hit to the spellcaster's power. Either we'd have to bump up the spells' power (e.g. 1d6 Magic Missiles and 1d8 Fireballs), or we'd have to increase the number of higher-level spell slots the spellcaster gets.

I agree wholeheartedly. The thing about a lot of scaling spells is that, even at their maximum scale, they're not worth a much higher level spell slot. For instance, a magic missile at clvl 9 wouldn't make a very good 5th level spell. In fact, a 3rd level spell that did 5d4+5 points of damage spread between one and five targets within twenty feet of each other would be a very weak 3rd level spell. It'd probably be too strong for a second level spell though. Fireball is probably the only exception to this: it would still make a good 5th level spell at 10d6--but only if cone of cold didn't scale either.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Common misperception: Invisibility is a defensive spell.

Invisibility is best used on the party rogue giving him an automatic sneak attack against anything that can't counter the effect. Even worse is improved invisibility, which when coupled with a thief of the same level as the caster (7th), allows the thief to add 4d6 damage to most opponents without worrying about getting attacked back or needing to flank.

 

[Al]

On Glitterdust

Glitterdust is the most powerful, and most overlooked 2nd level spell.

At first, we laughed at it. We assumed it was much akin to faerie fire, and whilst slightly useful against invisible opponents, had a very small niche before Invisibility Purge rendered it totally obsolete- Invisibility only got dangerous when Improved, by which time Invis Purge is a standard defensive spells.

And then I read it.
And then I used it.

Given the duration of most battles, and given that most opponents are only encountered once, it absolutely blows Blindness/Deafness out of the water. It blinds ALL of your opponents, and with a Will save rather than a Fort save, disables the fighters- the most dangerous at low-levels, and the rogues, the ones most badly affected by blindness (wizards can still cast spells in general directions etc.). Never mind Invisibility, this can effective make the whole party invisible to those unfortunates who fail their saves- and more than one attack. Remove B/D is a 3rd level spell, so no defenses against it either.

And of course the anti-invisibility usage just adds to its power.

Another overlooked one: Magic Jar.

I never realised it's effectiveness until the party necromancer used it to devastating effect. The standard tactic is: possess someone with low Will save, commit suicide with body, return to gem. Repeat.


(Edit)
On Necromancy: Useless?! (so sayeth Dinkeldog)
I think not. You should talk to the party necromancer.

1st level:
Cause Fear. Not as good as sleep, but still useful.
Ray of Enfeeblement: remains effective as a disabler against high-level tanks.

2nd level:
Spectral Hand. Useful.
Ghoul Touch. Nasty. Use Spectral Hand or familiar and it becomes roughly the equal of Hold Person (touch attack only difference)

3rd level:
Vampiric Touch. Mediocre on the offense, useful on the defense: coup de grace a Ghoul Touched foe and boost your HPs through the roof.

4th level:
Enervation. No explanation needed.
Fear. Reduces a squadron of hostiles to gibbering panicking wrecks.

5th level:
Magic Jar. See above.

6th level:
Circle of Death (useful vs. lower-level foes, or enervated ones)

7th level:
Finger of Death. Very nasty.

8th level:
Horrid Wilting. Best direct damage spell in game- arguably better than Meteor Storm as no fire res possibility, no evasion and comparable damage at top-level (20d8 v 24d6)
Clone: The perfect escape-clause.

9th level:
Energy Drain. Seriously unpleasant.
Hide Life. Clinical immortality is yours!

Now who said Necromancy was useless?

 

[Zerovoid]

That seems like a pretty good analysis of the various necromancy spells. They aren't really that weak, its just that there are so few of them. At 3rd level, you have only Vampiric Touch listed, and while its good (I never thought of coup de gracing with it). But you probably won't get that opportunity very often, and if you end up filling your other slots up with Fireballs, then whats the point of being a necromancer, besides that its cool.

Glitterdust really is awesome, and I laughed when I first saw somebody take it. Like you said, I thought it was some crappy variation on Fairy Fire. I thought Flaming Sphere was the best 2nd level spell. Then I saw Glitterdust used, and I now consider it a staple spell.

Rope Trick is the same way. It didn't look good in combat, and frankly, it seemed kind of stupid, but after I saw another player take it, I consider it a staple spell.

I wonder if there are lots of other hidden gems like these.

 

[Darklone]

Well...

About those 1st level spells:

Sleep: I've seen it more than once ending a combat. Waking up someone is a standard action which means you could keep a group of enemies busy casting sleeps on them if you sleep half of them all the time. Elven fighters in their middle make the matter worse. Sorcerers not taking it: Only if they expect not to meet many low HD monsters later.

Colour spray: Why didn't anyone mention it? It's more powerful than sleep IMHO. You can take out 5HD monsters with it as lvl1 illusionist with Spell Focus without problem. Ogres? No problem.
Lvl4 fighters? no problem. Sure the range is worse than sleep and you got that random d6 targets... but that makes it more effective against more powerful individuals. And you are talking about glitterdust? colour spray may blind and stun enemies too and it's lvl1!