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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 908358" data-attributes="member: 99">I'm really not sure that this change is what I'd consider a "good thing".  I would rather have seen the duration go to 10 min/level instead of 1 min/level.  Because I (unlike Monty) do think that this will result in these spells being used almost never under standard adventuring conditions.Think of it like this:  Unless the party knows the encounter is going to happen in advance (I'll talk more about that in a second) then these "buff" spells are going to be optimally cast on the first round of combat.  I can't think of many circumstances under which casting one of these ability booster spells is going to be a good choice of what you do on the first round.If you're the Wizard and the combat just started, you are probably best off trying to zip off an early area effect spell (sleep or color spray at early levels, fireball, etc. as you rise in level) before the combat area gets too crowded.  Alternately you might need to slap up some kind of defenses to make sure you don't die the first time an enemy takes a whack at you.  By the time you've got the luxury of casting the buff spells, the characters who could benefit from them are probably already in melee.As the Cleric, you should probably be trying to put up some sort of defensive spells or other widely beneficial spell on that first round (Bless, Magic Circle Against Evil, etc.).  Again, after that the battle is already joined and the question is further begged, "Am I doing more good by chasing down the fighter and giving him Bull's Strength or wading into melee myself and whacking a monster with my mace?"  Add to that the fact that the Cleric needs to be running around healing folks and he just doesn't have a lot of time to do a bunch of this sort of buffing.The obvious solution to this is that the PC's are the ones that need to be starting the fights.  That means that they are going to need effective scouting.  I'm all for scouting and fighting smart and our group does this frequently.  But there is a fine line between "doing the proper amount of scouting" and "all the players sitting around doing nothing while the rogue scouts ahead or the wizard does a bunch of scrying".My initial reaction to the duration change is that one or more of a few things will happen:These buff spells will almost never get cast during an encounter that the party did not initiate.These buff spells will only occasionally get cast during an encounter that the party initiates.  Why would the casters prepare them when they know that under most circumstances they won't be able to use them.Parties will spend a lot more time and effort trying to scout the enemy and then rush in with a carefully planned commando raid that will try to optimize the duration of the buff spells by hitting several close enemy positions at once and then withdraw or consolidate those gains.The first two things just seem to relegate the buff spells to "second class spells".  The third is cool once in a while, but it starts to feel a bit less like fantasy and a bit more like, well, D20 Modern.Nonetheless, I'll wait until 3.5 comes out before I make any final decisions on how this fits with the rest of the rules.I will make one other side note though.  With fixed benefits, there won't be any more Empowered or Maximized Bull's Strengths going on.  I'll leave the implications of that to others to discuss.</blockquote>

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