Otto's Irresistible Dance is actually great. No save so it bypasses legendary resistance for a minimum of one round, making it basically a free Action Surge for everyone in your party against whatever big solo monster you cast it on. It's one of the better 6th level spells.
Precisely. If someone in your party acts between you and the solo, it is even better, as they have advantage to attack and the dancer has disadvantage on DEX saves. And it may even force the boss to burn one use of its legendary resistance just to shrug it off on its round to avoid a second action surge, making it more vulnerable for further magical attacks.
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Harzel Domo arigato gozaimasu.
So, I can see where most of those are considered bad in that list, but what's wrong with Jump? Or Weird- too small of an area, maybe? I presume the dislike of Color Spray is because Blind is a weaker condition than Sleep? Not sure about Melf's Acid Arrow, why that's considered poor? Just not enough damage?
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Gadget - why do you dislike Crown of Madness. I know that I'm disappointed it doesn't scale with level (making it fall behind for a warlock), but other than that? Seems solid. And the Ray of Enfeeblement?
Going at a random order:
Melf's acid arrow can in some cases perform better than scorching ray, for example against enemies with high AC, even when they have decent DEX saves, as it still does damage on a save. Of course it gets better against enemies with poor DEX saves to begin with, and the fact that it does acid damage instead of fire also helps improve its usability, as acid is less commonly resisted. But overall I would agree this spell lacks, as all it does is damage, and is not generally very efficient doing so. If it were just generally worse but capable of shinning when the right occasion arises (for instance, by doing damage over more turns, which would be specially nice against trolls) then maybe I would care about it.
I don't think color spray is outright useless, but I do think the circumstances I would be glad to have it instead of sleep at lower levels are very few and specific. Maybe letting it last for one minute, with each affected creature having a save at the end of their turn to overcome its effect would bring it on par with sleep? Or would that be too good?
I actually have a lot of fun with jump. For example, with STR 14 one can just move 10ft and jump up to 15ft high. If your DM goes along the idea that you can really time your action at any moment during your move (which I do), you can then cast lightning lure mid-air for some extra damage and plausibly a prone enemy.
Regarding crown of madness, it eats up your concentration, your action, and the target can save at the end of any turn. Moreover, even though you direct the subject's attacks, the spell does not state you can direct their movement, so it seems legal for the victim to just move away from its allies after the first round of combat, and considering that monsters commonly have weak ranged attacks, now this spell becomes just a poor man's hold person. It will generally be better than hold person only when facing more than one enemy, and you can target an enemy who has a better offensive capability than yourself, including ranged.
The weird spell, I don't know. The area, 30ft radius, is quite nice actually, more than twice the area of a fireball, for instance. I think I would like it better if it would target INT saves. Maybe not the initial save, as it causes the frightened condition, but at least the following ones, as they seem more a disbelieve save. Nonetheless, it is a 9th level spell, and it only imposes disadvantage on attacks and prevents your enemies from moving towards the source of their fear (which the spell does not actually position, so I guess is left for DM's adjudication). If the DM actually rules the affected enemies are too busy trying to save themselves from the source of their fear until they make their save, only bothering to interact with PCs if the given PC attacks them directly, then I think it can be quite useful, as in this case it would manage to disable some enemies as the party deals with others.
