Batch Buffing

[GuardianLurker]

I recently realized that my wimpy wizard's combat prep spell was actually long enough that he could miss combats, and drain about a quarter of his overall spells for the day.

Right now, as a 4/1 wiz/rogue his complete buff schedule looks something like this
Shield
Mirror Image
Mage Armor
Blur
Protection from Arrows

To which he'll eventually add
Cat's Grace
Stoneskin
and replace Blur with Blink,
and Mirror Image with Improved Invisibility.

And that's a LOT of spells. Normally, with a wiz, I'd just stand back and not worry about. But I'm going to have to get closer than safe to use the rogue abilities safely, plus I've got a sneaky GM.

Anyway, I've been toying with the idea of a single "batch" spell that would let
me fire all of them off at once.

Here are my first cuts :
Well-Armored
Sor/Wiz 3
Range : You
AoE : Personal
Dur : 10 minutes/level
Save : None (Harmless)
SR: None
This spell duplicates the effects of both shield and mage armor, providing a +4 armor bonus and a +7 cover bonus to AC for the listed duration.

Protected Mage
Sor/Wiz 4
Range : You
AoE : Personal
Dur : 10 minutes/level
This spell duplicates the effects of shield, mage armor, mirror image, blur, and protection from arrows; it provides a +4 armor bonus and +7 cover bonus to AC, a 20% miss chance, DR 10/+1 versus projectile weapons, and 1d4+4 illusionary images.

Improved Protected Mage
Sor/Wiz 6
Range: You
AoE : Personal
Dur: 10 minutes/level
This spell duplicates the effects of shield, mage armor, cat's grace, protection from arrows, blink, and improved invisibility; it provides a +4 armor bonus and +7 cover bonus to AC, a 1d4+1 enhancement bonus to Dex, DR 10/+1 versus projectile weapons, a 50% miss chance, and renders the character invisibile.

Opinions?

 

[CRGreathouse]

Too powerful for sorcerers, IMO.

 

[Impeesa]

Maybe a 'batch casting' feat... although I'm not sure how it would work..

--Impeesa--

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

There was a 2e wiz spell in BG2:SoA, I think it was called Spell Storer. It was a 4th level spell that allowed you to "precast" and hold two spells of 1st-2nd level (only two regardless of combination). You could then cast "spell storer" and your stored spells would instantly be cast. You could use this for offense or defense. Two magic missiles or melf's acid arrows, shield and blur, etc. You could only have one spell storer memorized per day. Very cool, time-saving spell.

 

[poilbrun]

Well-Armored
Sor/Wiz 3
Range : You
AoE : Personal
Dur : 10 minutes/level
Save : None (Harmless)
SR: None
This spell duplicates the effects of both shield and mage armor, providing a +4 armor bonus and a +7 cover bonus to AC for the listed duration.

This spell duplicates two first level spells the effect of which doesn't change according to the spellcaster's level (in comparison with Magic Missile) and saves 1 round (since it takes one round to cast it instead of 2), so I believe level 2 would be better than 3.

Protected Mage
Sor/Wiz 4
Range : You
AoE : Personal
Dur : 10 minutes/level
This spell duplicates the effects of shield, mage armor, mirror image, blur, and protection from arrows; it provides a +4 armor bonus and +7 cover bonus to AC, a 20% miss chance, DR 10/+1 versus projectile weapons, and 1d4+4 illusionary images.

This spells duplicates two first level spells (which, according to me, equal a second level spell), and three second level spells, the effect of which doesn't scale according to the spellcaster's level. So this spell duplicates 4 second level spells but saves you 4 rounds, and as such should be level 5 rather than 4.

Improved Protected Mage
Sor/Wiz 6
Range: You
AoE : Personal
Dur: 10 minutes/level
This spell duplicates the effects of shield, mage armor, cat's grace, protection from arrows, blink, and improved invisibility; it provides a +4 armor bonus and +7 cover bonus to AC, a 1d4+1 enhancement bonus to Dex, DR 10/+1 versus projectile weapons, a 50% miss chance, and renders the character invisibile.

This spell duplicates two first level spells, two second level spells, a third level spell and a fourth level spell and saves 5 rounds. I hesitate between sixth or seventh level, but comparing it with other spells from these levels, I would say sixth...

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I agree with the previous poster's logic on the spells except for the Improved Protected Mage. Improved Protected Mage grants the effect of at least a 5th level spell (10 min/level improved invisibility) in addition to the other spells.

However, I would suggest looking into metamagic and long duration spells instead. In this case, Persistent spell and Extend Spell are your friends. By the time you can cast Improved Protected Mage, you could have a Persistent Shield spell (5th level) and a double extended Mage Armor (33+ hours for a 3rd level spell). Add in Energy Buffer to protect you from area effect spells (5th level Tome and Blood) and you're ready to go. In my experience, too many more spells are not usually necessary.

If you're willing to spend more slots, a persistent Protection from evil (5th level) or at higher levels, Magic Circle against Evil (7th level and the rest of your party would enjoy the benefits too) would be very beneficial. It'd be horribly abusive, but persistent haste also becomes available as a 7th level spell.

As a further advantage, you wouldn't have to waste the opening rounds of combat protecting yourself (a fireball in the first round will help out the party much more than a fireball in the third round) or guess at when combats will occur. You're always prepared.

 

[GuardianLurker]

Elder-Basilisk -

I think you're missing the main driving point behind the "Batch" spell; it isn't so much the buffing benefits (though I don't doubt that there are perhaps better combinations), or even so much the time issue (although that isn't a small thing), it's the drain of your spell slots.

I can cast two first, two second, a third, and a fourth, for a total of 6 rounds and 6 spells OR 1 6th level spell. And that's a fair trade, especially considering how useful some of the lower level spells remain.

Kaptain -
you've got the basic idea, and that (and similar spells) was the original inspriration.

Poilbrun -
What would you change to drop Protected Mage to fourth? And how does this stack against Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer, in your opinion?

 

[GuardianLurker]

bump

Rescued from the depths.

*bump*

 

[poilbrun]

I think that you can easily lower the level of any of these spells by simply lowering the number of spells (and the total levels of spells duplicated). I suppose that you could also create generic spells just saying : this spells allows you to cast x spells at once. If we decide that two spells of level x are equal to a spell of level x+1 (eg : two level 1 = a level 2), we could easily create the spells.

Level 2 = 2 levels of spells
Level 3 = 4
Level 4 = 8
Level 5 = 16
Level 7 = 32
Level 8 = 64
Level 9 = 128

This would be good, but with one exception : you cannot use this spell to duplicate the same spell twice. I also think we shoul limit this to non-attacking spells. A level 4 duplicating a fireball and a lightning bolt would already be strong, but imagin combos you could create with the level 9 spells... That spell would blow away the maximum damage for spells of a given level as outlined in table 3-22 of the DMG (p95). And that's what troubles me most : if this kind of spell is broken for attacking spells, wouldn't it be broken even if you use it with non-attacking spells?

 

[Ace]

Just a friendly comment and a bump, I like these spells. They are potent and cool.
I could imagine a high levl mage with a quickedned version of some of these "Shields Up!!"