What's wrong with Sound Burst (Brd2, Clr2)?

[Gizzard]

Used once in a tense combat in Forge of Fury by our cleric. Did some minor damage, stunned a foe. The cleric had taken it to see if it was any good and the consensus was that next time he should cast something else. Hold Person, Silence, Cure Moderate, Bulls Strength, Summon II.

 

[Kraedin]

Sound Burst

Pah. My cleric can hit them harder with his sword, and not have to waste a spell that could have been Bull's Strength or Endurance.

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

You really chose a weird spell to start a broken crusade.

1D8 of damage is nothing. And the save to avoid being stunned is relatively low since I've yet to meet a cleric with Spell focus: evocation and other similars gimmicks.

 

[zorlag]

---

It's useful, but not for the damage. Stunned opponents drop what they are holding and are unable to act for one round (that's good). Might make that annoying invisible wizard with twin wands drop them

Z.

 

[pontus]

One of my players, thinking it would be a good idea used this spell against a group of orcs once. Sure, he did stun about half of them, but an orc that doesn't attack for a round is not much different from an orc that attacks but can't hit, and everyone survived the damage. Realizing he had just wasted a perfectly good 2nd level spell slot he cried out "This spell sucks!"

What puzzles me is that there is a Will save and not a Fort save to resist the stunning.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Re: ---

It's useful, but not for the damage. Stunned opponents drop what they are holding and are unable to act for one round (that's good). Might make that annoying invisible wizard with twin wands drop them

Exactly.

If you think of it as a damage spell, of course the spell is not a big deal.

But if you can drop this on top of 4-5 Ogres or Trolls or Giants, 3 of them will probably fail their save and drop their weapons. So one spell action neutralizes the actions of 3 dangerous creatures for a round, as well as hurting their AC and next round of attacks (need to pick up their weapons).

The Rogue we be very happy. She can unload Sneak Attacks with a nice, safe ranged weapon.

Sonic Burst is a very powerful spell. You just need to pick the right target.

Is it overpowered? Maybe a little. Dropping weapons pushes it just a little over the top IMHO.

 

[J'quan]

It's all about setting up the monsters for the rogue(s) in your party... we've used Sound Burst to great effect.

We ran up against a Purple Worm at like 3rd level - it wasn't supposed to be an encounter we fought, but being stupid PCs... we did. Every round we could neutralize it's actions, helped, and the Sound Burst helped here too.

 

[Shallown]

I use this spell to fairly good effect. The Cleric does anyways since I am the Fighter/Rogue. He cast it when I have scouted ahead. Once stunned an opponent falls victim to my sneak attack and expert tactician or sometimes a trip attack with improved trip. This puts the person out for 2 rounds sometimes as they have to get up and retrieve a weapon. It is also great for knocking out low level caster's High level ones have too good a save.

So far it has been effective but only under certain circumstances and in conjunction with a rogue but by itself it probably wouldn't be worth it.

Later