spells you think are the wrong level

[Vanye]

My general feeling on the conjuration / energy damage thing is that conjuration should be the source of your more damage over time spells, and if it's channeling energy and/or force it should be evocation.


Conjure some acid or some lava onto the guy? No problem with that being conjuration. It's tangible. It's a physical thing you took from somewhere else and put there. Channeling the raw fires of creation to burn your foes? Evocation all the way.

QFT.
That's how I run them in my games. The force Orb spell doesn't exist, nor does the sonic. The others conjure or create elemental effects (elemental fire or magma, paraelemental cold, creates acid) which is no longer effective after the initial attack...

 

[Felon]

My general feeling on the conjuration / energy damage thing is that conjuration should be the source of your more damage over time spells, and if it's channeling energy and/or force it should be evocation.

Conjure some acid or some lava onto the guy? No problem with that being conjuration. It's tangible. It's a physical thing you took from somewhere else and put there. Channeling the raw fires of creation to burn your foes? Evocation all the way.

QFT.

Uggh. A flawed rationale I can let slide, but a flawed rationale that someone QFT's, I gotta respond to.

Let's think this through. Why should conjuration be limited to just summoning solid matter? Why lava but not fire? It doesn't have to come from the "raw fires of creation". There's fire all over the place. There's a whole plane full of it. Similar cases could be made for any energy type. Heck, what about the different cloud spells that belong to the conjuration schools--they're gasses, just like fire is. Your rationale seems to claim a basis in logic, but is there really one there?

As to restricting conjuration spells to damage-over-time, I think the designers have come to realize that DoT's don't work that well on the tabletop. The average combat just doesn't last that many rounds.

 

[Plane Sailing]

As to restricting conjuration spells to damage-over-time, I think the designers have come to realize that DoT's don't work that well on the tabletop. The average combat just doesn't last that many rounds.

The problem is that damage-over-time with no spell resistance as part of a schools schtick balances well against damage-in-an-instant and has spell resistance for the core of a schools schtick.

As it was originally portrayed in the PHB it makes a nicely balanced decision. As aberrations such as the Orb spells arise it becomes a no-brainer, and you'd rarely use anything else for anything more demanding than pest control.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Melfs Unicorn Arrow. (PHBII)

its another no save, no SR! spell now listed as 3rd level with a 17th lvl caster
45-80 damage with 5 hits probably closer to 36-80 as a 17th level caster.
plus a bullrush - in what way is 5d8+40 with several ranged touch attack rolls inferior to to the Orb spells ?
as a 4th level spell it is much better in balance.

 

[Vanye]

Let's think this through. Why should conjuration be limited to just summoning solid matter?

Because, in d20, Conjuration spells work with matter?

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#conjuration
While the first paragraph does mention summoning energy

Each conjuration spell belongs to one of five subschools. Conjurations bring manifestations of objects, creatures, or some form of energy to you (the summoning subschool)

none of the descriptions of the subschools mention pure energy. They all mention matter and/or creatures.

On the other hand, Evocation specifically mentions manipulating energy:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#evocation

Evocation spells manipulate energy or tap an unseen source of power to produce a desired end. In effect, they create something out of nothing. Many of these spells produce spectacular effects, and evocation spells can deal large amounts of damage.

If a spell is dealing raw energy damage from nothing, by the Rules As Written, it should be Evocation. If it's a Conjuration spell, it should create, manipulate, or retrieve matter which in turn does the damage.

At the very least, a conjuration spell that does direct damage should not have a duration of instantaneous, since instantaneous means

The spell energy comes and goes the instant the spell is cast, though the consequences might be long-lasting.

.
Having a non magical orb of force laying around after a spell attack seems...odd.
If it had a duration (say, 1 round) then it pops at the end of the round, and is gone. That takes care of most peoples (including myself) objections to the Orb spells (I beileve, based on what I've seen).

 

[Kmart Kommando]

Just change the Orb of Force to SR: partial, see text, and add in the text "..if the caster fails to penetrate SR, then the orb does half damage..."

 

[Slife]

Ice Assassin from Frostburn should be epic at least.

 

[Thurbane]

I think these have been raised already, but some that spring immediately to mind are Invisibility, Rope Trick (when used as an invisible, impenetrable camp site overnight) & Fly...

 

[Kmart Kommando]

Lightning Bolt is 3rd level, has a range of 120ft and has SR: yes

Arc of Lightning is 5th level (for a wizard), has a close range, and is SR: no.

I don't see any problems between them. To have the potential to hit as many targets as possible with Arc of Lightning, you have to be right in their faces and target things on opposite sides of you. Average senario is, you'll hit 2 to 3 targets with either Lightning Bolt or Arc of Lightning. For 2 spell levels, you're getting 5 extra dice cap and through SR, not an unreasonable thing at all.

 

[lukelightning]

It really depends on how much you want a party to be able to recharge before resting.

With the advent of thing such as a Binder's ability to gain rapid healing and unlimited low-amount healing, it seems that it will become more common for parties to be fully healed between encounters.