Anyone else miss Dispel Magic?
- Thread starter Ipissimus
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pawsplay
Hero
Sphyre said:
We're talking about wizards being able to change into things or cancel others' spells. Very basic, archetypal stuff. You can see a polymorph spell in Willow, The Sword in the Stone, Spirited Away, and the Odyssey. Simply removing them from the game is an admission of defeat. Somehow, generations of D&D players have muddled along, but the D&D 4e design team can't figure out how to deal with a fairly straightforward effect.
If you want to call that a sacred cow, well, moo. Wizards should be able to polymorph; any D&D that lacks that is worse than all versions of D&D that don't.
It isn't daring and new. It's lazy, limited. It's saying, "That construct is too hard to fit into a game, let's just get rid of that." It's identifying as a problem what should be seen as an opportunity. Conceptually, polymorph is a great spell. The game is poorer without it.
Dispel still cancels spells. It doesn't cancel the effects of rituals, and it doesn't end buff effects (all of which seem to last for 1 round now). It does remove lasting spell effects, such as conjurations and zones (long lasting AoE).
We haven't seen anything on rituals yet. Who can say if there is a ritual that removed ritual effects? I would be very surprised if there weren't.
As for counterspelling, meh. I've never seen anyone do it in 3e. I read the rules just in case, but it never happened. Saving an action to stop someone else from doing something is just boring when you could be spending that time doing something yourself.
It's my post; of course it's my opinion!
Ken
Update: I fixed some more spellling. Thanks Saitou.
We haven't seen anything on rituals yet. Who can say if there is a ritual that removed ritual effects? I would be very surprised if there weren't.
As for counterspelling, meh. I've never seen anyone do it in 3e. I read the rules just in case, but it never happened. Saving an action to stop someone else from doing something is just boring when you could be spending that time doing something yourself.
It's my post; of course it's my opinion!
Ken
Update: I fixed some more spellling. Thanks Saitou.
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pawsplay said:
1) We don't know what they've done with polymorph/shapeshifting in 4E. Hazarding a guess, I imagine it will be diced up into various spells for various forms, much like it was in 3E. Some of it may even end up under a utility heading. Subdividing it into categories and reworking the mechanic somewhat would probably be the best heading, not the one spell fits all brokenness of yesteryear.
2) Polymorph breaks the game. It's as simple as that. It is by far the most potent spell in the PHB, and the only spell that grows exponentially in power depending on the diversity of monster types present in a campaign/sourcebooks available. It may be a 'straightforward effect', but its impact is meteoric.
There are plenty of horror stories about polymorph. One just came up in an AoW thread wherein Morrus mentioned a Barbarian in his campaign with a ring of polymorph. Others are not hard to find.
Sacred cows are one thing, but when said cow is a ravenous, flesh-eating, campaign-wrecking beast....shooting it out back and rearing a new one is pretty much the best option.
That's what I get for commando posting at work. No time to check things over carefully. Thanks.
