I was playing a game the other day when the party decided to attack a group of guards. The party is very melee oriented- I play a human monk, there is a half-ogre fighter/barb, a half-orc druid/barb, a dual-wielding elven fighter/ranger, a ratling ninja/fighter, a human cleric and a human psion.
We are level 5 and have only three spellcasters- and only one of them gets 3rd level spells. Usually, the presence of buff spells means that parties with a lot of casters have a huge advantage if they are willing to blow spell slots. Well, 3.5 buff spells are insane.
The party had potions of enlarge person (that we took from some enemies after a fight earlier that day). Between Enlarge Person, Bless, Cat's Grace (on the ninja), Bull's Strength (on the Monk and Druid) and Shillelagh (does this thing really make a two-handed club for a medium sized character do 3d6 base damage?) the party practically doubled its offensive power.
For example my character, the monk, went from +6/+6 in a flurry for 1d8+3 to +9/+9 for 2d6+6 with reach. The now large druid's greatclub was something like +12/4d6+11, 10-foot reach (and he has cleave!).
Surprise is still extremely powerful. Having everyone in the right place and fighting the right enemy is still really good. What 3.5 changes is the marginal number of buff spells cast in an ambush as opposed to in a normal setting. 1 minute/level spells don't work well if you don’t know a fight is coming right away. Our enemies could have all had the ability to use Bull's Strength 3 times a day but wouldn't have known to use it until too late.
Has anyone else noticed this problem? 1 minute/level spells don't just result in a "go, go, go" mentality; they also make surprise even more important. This is just at low levels. I don't know how things would change at higher levels. However, in 3.0 the advantage of surprise got greater as you gained levels. It is probably still the same way.
This fight should have been very tough (lots of Warrior 4-8s) but ended up relatively easy (except when the ever-unlucky half Ogre was hit for 48 in one round when his opponent rolled two 20s on his attack rolls...)
We are level 5 and have only three spellcasters- and only one of them gets 3rd level spells. Usually, the presence of buff spells means that parties with a lot of casters have a huge advantage if they are willing to blow spell slots. Well, 3.5 buff spells are insane.
The party had potions of enlarge person (that we took from some enemies after a fight earlier that day). Between Enlarge Person, Bless, Cat's Grace (on the ninja), Bull's Strength (on the Monk and Druid) and Shillelagh (does this thing really make a two-handed club for a medium sized character do 3d6 base damage?) the party practically doubled its offensive power.
For example my character, the monk, went from +6/+6 in a flurry for 1d8+3 to +9/+9 for 2d6+6 with reach. The now large druid's greatclub was something like +12/4d6+11, 10-foot reach (and he has cleave!).
Surprise is still extremely powerful. Having everyone in the right place and fighting the right enemy is still really good. What 3.5 changes is the marginal number of buff spells cast in an ambush as opposed to in a normal setting. 1 minute/level spells don't work well if you don’t know a fight is coming right away. Our enemies could have all had the ability to use Bull's Strength 3 times a day but wouldn't have known to use it until too late.
Has anyone else noticed this problem? 1 minute/level spells don't just result in a "go, go, go" mentality; they also make surprise even more important. This is just at low levels. I don't know how things would change at higher levels. However, in 3.0 the advantage of surprise got greater as you gained levels. It is probably still the same way.
This fight should have been very tough (lots of Warrior 4-8s) but ended up relatively easy (except when the ever-unlucky half Ogre was hit for 48 in one round when his opponent rolled two 20s on his attack rolls...)
