D&D 3E/3.5 3.5: Spells and items to look out for?

[Thanee]

An absolutely ridiculous spell is Wall of Thorns.

Basically, autowin against anything that cannot teleport.

I consider dropping the Strength Check base DC down to 10.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

My worry with Planar binding and ally was what would happen if they got stacked with Moment of Prescience -- absurd Charisma checks seem to be the order of the day!

What do you mean? That the caster will certainly succeed then?

Not such a big deal, or is it?

The spells still require a long preparation time or XP to cast.

Hardly broken.

Bye
Thanee

 

[frankthedm]

Also, web and entangle are pretty good for their level, so those are other spells to keep an eye on.

i have greater concerns for glitterdust's No SR, will save based blinding.

You need to decide whether blade barrier produces blades along a grid line or through the squares. Ditto for wall of fire.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-3rd-edition-rules/188877-placing-wall-fire.html

 

[billd91]

With the scry-buff-teleport trick, you've got to be extremely strict about how long someone studies an area. They have to have studied an area for an hour to be able to get "studied carefully" and scry only lasts 1 minute/level. I personally would not let the scrying allow any accuracy better than "viewed once". And I'd be pretty mean about being off target or causing mishaps.

 

[Darklone]

Enervation isn´t that bad since none of my players would leave home without deathward.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Deathward is level 4, the same level as Enervation, but is only single target and min/level. It will not be sufficient to keep your entire party protected from enervation every combat, and even if it were, at terriffic expense in daily spells.

If there were say...a level 4 spell that removed all temporary negative levels from the subject, similar to many Remove x spells (about the same level as the offensive spell version causing the affliction, and immediately removes said affliction), maybe it'd be less troublesome.

 

[Elethiomel]

Teleport is only a problem if you allow it to be a problem. Traditional adventure design has progress foiled by physical obstacles that have to be overcome; rivers, chasms, walls, doors, and so on. Teleportation spells (including Dimension Door) circumvent all those obstacles. The common reaction to this is to make all important areas in the game world impossible to teleport into / out of.

I find that high level adventures are better foiled by information compartmentalisation. This makes sense in any organisation where the main form of advancement is stepping into the shoes of someone higher up on the chain of command (this should fit many organisations likely to be antagonists to your typical PCs), and the best way to ensure that people do not buff up, teleport into your room at night while you sleep and kill you is to make sure they don't know who or where you are.

If your adventure *needs* the villain to be in a specific location that the PCs can research well enough to teleport into, look into the Delay Teleport line of spells. When someone teleports into the villain's stronghold unannounced, their arrival is delayed for a few rounds. Use these rounds to summon some monsters and escape (via teleports for maximum irony), then clairvoyance into the room to get a tab on who teleported in, scry on them and Do Unto Others what They Did to You. This may seem like a cheesy counter-PC tactic, but it is a reasonable precaution anyone who has significant cause to worry about a violent death would take.

TL;DR: Don't nerf teleports to fit your preconception of an adventure, instead let teleports inspire you to make a new kind of adventure.

 

[FEADIN]

An absolutely ridiculous spell is Wall of Thorns.

Basically, autowin against anything that cannot teleport.

I consider dropping the Strength Check base DC down to 10.

Bye
Thanee

Even with Teleportation it's very difficult, I remember 5 Vrock meeting the group with my 13th level Druidess and her Dire Bear in animal growth, they went running (teleporting) nearly every round just to survive (they didin't )

 

[FEADIN]

Nearly every spell in a certain way or combination can be broken but it's the ultimate challenge of the DM to not abuse and "win" over the players, the opposite is more acceptable, they are the Heroes after all.

 

[Darklone]

Deathward is level 4, the same level as Enervation, but is only single target and min/level. It will not be sufficient to keep your entire party protected from enervation every combat, and even if it were, at terriffic expense in daily spells.

There are several items and armors in MIC IIRC that grant Deathward against the few first negative levels...