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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Balancing a Homebrew AoE Stun Spell
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<blockquote data-quote="Esker" data-source="post: 7569971" data-attributes="member: 6966824"><p>Well, it's 10 creatures of your choice, not an AoE, which makes it a lot more powerful (compare the strength of the debuff on Slow vs the one on Hypnotic Pattern as an example of what that's worth), plus it lasts until they save. I mean, yes, of course it should be stronger as a 9th level spell. But suppose this were a 5' radius or a 10' cube. Maybe if you're extremely lucky / your enemies have extremely poor tactics you might be able to get 3 or 4 creatures, but realistically you're usually using it on 2.</p><p></p><p>You could use a 3rd level slot to cast Command on three creatures of your choice and tell them to grovel. They lose a turn (same as this spell), and they're prone (not as good as auto-advantage unless you have mostly melee allies, but pretty good). They can still take reactions, and they don't fall prone until their turn, which depending on initiative order could be significant. But you're likely affecting more creatures most of the time and you don't have to worry about friendly fire. And a true 3rd level spell ought to be stronger than upcasting a 1st level spell.</p><p></p><p>If the wizard and the bard cast Hypnotic Pattern followed by Faerie Fire, creatures that failed both saves would be pretty much stunned with _no_ further save.</p><p></p><p>To be clear, I'm not necessarily claiming this spell is not overpowered. And I don't mean to sound like I'm arguing; my intent is just to think through this carefully and play a bit of devil's advocate in the spell's defense. </p><p></p><p>Maybe it should be 4th level as written. I don't think it's comparable to a 6th+ level spell.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Esker, post: 7569971, member: 6966824"] Well, it's 10 creatures of your choice, not an AoE, which makes it a lot more powerful (compare the strength of the debuff on Slow vs the one on Hypnotic Pattern as an example of what that's worth), plus it lasts until they save. I mean, yes, of course it should be stronger as a 9th level spell. But suppose this were a 5' radius or a 10' cube. Maybe if you're extremely lucky / your enemies have extremely poor tactics you might be able to get 3 or 4 creatures, but realistically you're usually using it on 2. You could use a 3rd level slot to cast Command on three creatures of your choice and tell them to grovel. They lose a turn (same as this spell), and they're prone (not as good as auto-advantage unless you have mostly melee allies, but pretty good). They can still take reactions, and they don't fall prone until their turn, which depending on initiative order could be significant. But you're likely affecting more creatures most of the time and you don't have to worry about friendly fire. And a true 3rd level spell ought to be stronger than upcasting a 1st level spell. If the wizard and the bard cast Hypnotic Pattern followed by Faerie Fire, creatures that failed both saves would be pretty much stunned with _no_ further save. To be clear, I'm not necessarily claiming this spell is not overpowered. And I don't mean to sound like I'm arguing; my intent is just to think through this carefully and play a bit of devil's advocate in the spell's defense. Maybe it should be 4th level as written. I don't think it's comparable to a 6th+ level spell. [/QUOTE]
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