D&D 5E Is stoneskin underpowered?

[Uller]

I have yet to see a use for stoneskin. It gives resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage and requires concentration. There are better buffs to cast on allies and casting it on yourself doesn't seem like a great use of a concentration spell.

Last night I had a caster villain that had cast polymorph on a minion (giant ape) and a PC had been turned into a t-rex.

Eventually the t-rex player got the brilliant idea to go chomp on the caster and breaking his con with 30 plus damage. It would have been a great use of stoneskin to have cast it on himself and cut that damage down.

Are others finding it lacking? Or am I missing something?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Stone skin is pretty good, but not worth a 4th level slot, I would use it more as a 2nd level, maybe 3rd... but 4th is pretty late in the game

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I think that stoneskin sticks out as being much less of a "go-to" spell as it was in prior editions because a fair number of the differences in overall approach that 5th edition takes happen to directly affect this spell.

For starters, prior edition spell casters that had access to stoneskin typically had a very small number of hit points, so a spell that effectively increased those hit points appeared helpful. Now that the spell casters that would get stoneskin have a higher number of HP (because of larger hit dice, better hit point gains from high constitution, more encouragement to have a high constitution, and even an easier time of having an AC high enough to cause significant amounts of missed attacks) the bonus doesn't feel as needed or as large.

Then there is the change regarding buff spells in general. Prior editions assumed they were layered on and could only be stripped away by specific sorts of characters - 5th edition assumes a much smaller number of spells active at once, and has given every character a way to potentially strip away the most meaningful of them. To put it simply, 5th edition is built so that the "really good" buff spells fail at some point.

Because I feel I am about to get far too long-winded, I'm going to just abbreviate my remaining thoughts: Stoneskin is a decent spell with about as much use as any other spell, it's just different from what it used to be and thus needs the user to have different expectations for how to put it to good use, and that's not a bad thing.

 

[Gadget]

I think that stoneskin
Because I feel I am about to get far too long-winded, I'm going to just abbreviate my remaining thoughts: Stoneskin is a decent spell with about as much use as any other spell, it's just different from what it used to be and thus needs the user to have different expectations for how to put it to good use, and that's not a bad thing.

I'm not sure I completely buy this. Yes, the expectations are different in this edition, but this is a fourth level spell we're talking about. I mean, it basically does the same thing as a cantrip (bladeward), just with a longer duration. A cantrip that few people find worth their time. I understand the restrictions on buff stacking in this edition, thus the concentration, but I think the spell needs a little more bang for the buck or to have the level lowered. Perhaps it can bestow a pool of temporary Hit Points as well?

 

[Panartias]

I’m going to echo AaronofBarbaria: Because of the concentration required, stoneskin is much less powerful than in prior editions (where it was one of the best buff spells and pretty much overpowered)!

 

[Zaran]

All of the concentration spells that grant resistance are rather Underpowered. All it takes is 2 points of damage to make you do a Concentration roll and since almost all casters do not have Con as a favored save it's very easy to lose the spell.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

in 2e Stone skin was my go to buff, infact I would as a PC count the levels till I got it.... you rolled 1d4 and added it was either 1/2 or 1/3 your caster level, that number was the number of hits you ignored...

As a DM my players HATED it, because they loved to alpha strike the caster with everything they had... witch lead to this very real sceneroe:

Player: I crit the wizard, and unleash the spell in my sword, and do 79 damage on the first swing, then I hit a -6AC for 22 damage and a -2 AC for 26 damage
DM: nope, that's 3 off my stone skin...
Player: AHHH!!!

 

[JackOfAllTirades]

I think it's not underpowered so much as overpriced. If the material components cost weren't so prohibitive I wouldn't mind using it once in a while. Then again, there aren't a lot of other things to blow my loot on in this edition.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I'm not sure I completely buy this. Yes, the expectations are different in this edition, but this is a fourth level spell we're talking about. I mean, it basically does the same thing as a cantrip (bladeward), just with a longer duration. A cantrip that few people find worth their time. I understand the restrictions on buff stacking in this edition, thus the concentration, but I think the spell needs a little more bang for the buck or to have the level lowered. Perhaps it can bestow a pool of temporary Hit Points as well?

The cantrip is almost completely irrelevant to discussing whether stoneskin is "worth" a 4th level spell, as the cantrip can't be used on anyone but the caster and "until the end of your next turn" isn't even in the same league, let alone ballpark, as "concentration, up to 1 hour."

Sure, when used the way people are accustomed to using stoneskin that doesn't seem like much - but when you actually embrace the new paradigm, you can squeeze a whole bunch of effective HP out of that 1 hour duration... it just might not be the most exciting thing for the caster to do, though, since it hinges upon the caster putting the spell on someone that is going to be taking repeated attacks of the right sort and then doing their best to avoid being the target of any attacks themselves.

JackOfAllTirades does hit a good point, though, in that the cost/rarity of the spell's material component can make it an unappealing choice when the campaign either isn't involving a lot of wealth or isn't providing the opportunity to have that wealth in the appropriate form.

 

[Eric V]

I feel it's ok as a PC spell, but not worth it for NPCs in an average magic campaign.

-E