Spell Compendium: What are the "broken" spells?

[Zanticor]

What do you guys think of Phantasmal Assailants? Sure it's two saves but 8 damage to both dex and wis? That drops a lot of creatures. And because it's damage it even stacks so you can cast two (or twin it). For a specialised illusionist that can be a poor man's Phantasmal Killer.

Zanticor

 

[billd91]

What do you guys think of Phantasmal Assailants? Sure it's two saves but 8 damage to both dex and wis? That drops a lot of creatures. And because it's damage it even stacks so you can cast two (or twin it). For a specialised illusionist that can be a poor man's Phantasmal Killer.

Zanticor

Seems a bit much to me. The original version in Complete Arcane does 4 points to each (2 with a save). I think I like that version better.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

What do you guys think of Phantasmal Assailants? Sure it's two saves but 8 damage to both dex and wis? That drops a lot of creatures. And because it's damage it even stacks so you can cast two (or twin it). For a specialised illusionist that can be a poor man's Phantasmal Killer.

Zanticor

Spells that do ability damage (rather than inflict a penalty) are generally a bad idea, but I am not too worried about phantasmal assailants. It's a low-level spell and nearly everything has either a good fortitude or a good will. Sure, you could heighten it, but if you're in the market for gambling that your opponent will fail both his will and his fortitude save, you might as well get phantasmal killer and have an opponent who is straight up dead, not just disadvantaged.

 

[Terron]

And in any event, wraithstrike is still way broken for any character who has any use for it whatsoever. Fighter 12/Wizard 3? It's still broken. (And pearls of power are cheap). Fighter 2/Wizard 3? It's still broken. The effect: getting to resolve ordinary power attackable melee attacks as touch attacks is too good to coexist with balance in the game.

I am not certain about wraithstrike being broken for all characters who can use it.
I once played a monk/sorcerer/enlightened fist.
He needed wraithstrike to compensate for his poor BAB (the low point was +2 at 6th level).
He did not have Power Attack. His strength was only 12 and his BAB was too low to make it useful anyway.
He had the Ascetic Sorcerer feat so his primary stat was Cha.

I can see that the combination of Power Attack and Wraithstrike would be too good together. Perhaps making the spell stop you from power attacking would fix it.

 

[SnowHeart]

(In response to a question about the Orb spells...)
They are super-useful and will negate most of the advantages things like golems and high-SR creatures have on the caster. When on a very limited list like the warmage's, they fill a certain niche. The warmage is very damage-spell dependent, with few encounter-ending spells that so many people seem to say are so much better than damaging spells (something of which I'm not convinced). Of all classes, he kind of needs them.

But on a general wizard list and open to all who use those lists, I think they may be a bit too good. Their range is shorter than, say, fireball, but with the "back to the dungeon" ethos of 3e, range was rarely a problem. And with the spotting rules of 3.5 (one of the worst changes from 3.0 to 3.5) based on the Spot check and the -1/10' distance, nobody is seeing anybody at extended fireball ranged anyway.

I know this is more than a day late but I just saw this thread brought back up and had to chime in. I'm playing a level 19 war mage in a campaign right now and I rely heavily on those orb spells. Not because I actually like them, but because they are the only spells I have that get through damage resistance -- for most of the other creatures we encounter, I need a 17+ on my CL check to get through SR so the orbs are the only reliable way I have of doing damage. And even then, it's only against a SINGLE target and requires a ranged touch attack, plus they almost always make their saves against the additional effect. Given my druthers, I would rather use the flashier spells, but these are a very solid backup and, IMHO, not ban-worthy or overpowered. They fill an important gap in the mage's arsenal at higher levels. JMO.

As for the wraithstrike issue... I could see it both ways. I've been playing around with a Master Transmogrifist (on paper only thus far) and picked up wraithstrike for his spell list not because I was thinking, "OMG THIS WILL RULE" but because I thought, "If I run into something with an AC that's too high for me to hit, this will be an another option." It only lasts for one round which really does not seem that game breaking to me. But, I haven't looked at the other spells mentioned in comparison, so maybe it ought to just be a higher level spell rather than ruled "broken" and banned.