Rystil Arden said:This spell is not really "overpowered" , but I happen to dislike the super-low level dimensional transportation spells due to the precedent that a Wizard can perform a dimensional transportation that is magically more or equally powerful to a Dimension Door at level 1 simply because the metagame utility of the spell is lower. It begs the question "If he can swap them both, why can't he make a spell of the same level that just puts the one guy where the second one is?"
Rystil Arden said:I don't like it because I don't think it's an effect that low-level casters should be able to create,<snip>
Rystil Arden said:An example came to mind just now: Animal Companion / Familiar beacons. You could send a flying familiar up to the top of some place and then Benign Transportation to switch yourself up, or send the familiar through a small hole and use Benign Transportation to get to the other side. It also makes it more difficult to correctly peg the level of new spells that have a dimensional travel effect.
IcyCool said:At the risk of sounding sarcastic, why must we avoid anything that makes a familiar more than a 200gp liability?
I agree that the circumstances (especially 2 and 3) rarely occur, which is why it's metagame not a gamebreaker (to add to your combat options, don't forget the time-honoured tradition of switching the guy with Lion's Charge and a lance with someone who is at a distance so they both get full attacks and lance guy does extra damage. It needn't necessarily be a lance, really, just someone with pounce or lion's charge).Patlin said:That's a pretty good point. (And also funny!)
I've had this spell memorized in my face to face game for several sessions now, and I feel pretty safe saying that the circumstances in which it is usefull rarely occur. It's pretty cool when the circumstances are just right, but usually at the end of the day it's the spell I haven't used.
Here are the good circumstances I've thought of:
1) Swap with the familiar to get somewhere you otherwise couldn't reach (through a hole, up to a height, etc.)
2) Get a weak (or damaged) party member out of melee range and a stronger member into it
3) Escape a grapple, with a cetain sacrifice. If one is around, great time to swap places with a summoned monster.