Batch Buffing

[twjensen]

Um, Time stop is a ninth level spell. The ability to rattle off spells at greater than the normal rate of speed is carefully controlled in 3e.

The mage armor + shield combo is a little weak for a 3rd level spell because haste is 3rd level. But it's a little strong for a 2nd level spell. It saves 6 precious seconds on spells that *everyone* casts, regardless of the fact that they are 1st level.

So, I'd just get in the habit of casting haste at 3rd.

For the others, look into the quicken spell feat. Makes casting the spell a free action! You can only cast one such spell per round this way normally, but note the play-balancing.

It should cost a spell slot four levels higher! And that only really gives you two for the time of one, not 3, 4, or 5 for the time of one.

Instead of trying to "go outside" the rules in creating new spells, I'd suggest looking carefully at what is already in place. If the stuff already avaliable, quicken spell, haste, etc. is not enough, ask "why." Is "why" that your character just isn't high enough level? If that is the case, you're trying to break the game balance and your DM should smack you.

OTOH, if "why" is that you could do these things but would rather give up something else (like casting a 6th level spell to get the benefits of a measly 2 second levels and a 1st level spell as opposed to using mass haste to quicken the whole party), then its ok.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

That's actually somewhat strange because I'm not certain that the new spells accomplish this aim.

At ten minutes/level, these spells are have more than decent durations (particularly at high levels) but they will never be spells you can count on only casting once or twice a day. Even a 20th level wizard's multi-buff spells would only last 200 minutes (3 hours and twenty minutes). So, unless the wizard has control over the timing of all the party's combats (no attacks at night or while the party is resting, no travelling, searching or exploration where transit time between encounters could easily eat up the three and a half hour duration), the wizard is likely to need three such spells per day in order to ensure protection during all combats.

Comparing the slots taken up at the lowest level (5th level wizard):
Well armored: 3 3rd level slots

Extended Mage Armor, Shield: 1 2nd level, 3 1st level slots.

Although the extended Mage Armor only achieves 10 hours of protection (what a 20th level wizard would get with three of these protection spells) I would think that the third level slots are far more precious to a 5th level wizard than 1st and second level slots. The hypothetical 5th level Well Armored wizard won't be casting any fireballs, lightning bolts, Hastes, Slows, or dispel magics. A couple of extra magic missiles don't make up for that. Similarly, long duration spells like extended mage armor and persistent anything don't eat up the first round of combat. If there's no immidiate physical threat, the wizard can fireball his/her opponents right then and there.

At higher levels, the payoff is somewhat better (and the opportunity cost significantly better because you can prepare fireballs, etc) but enemies have more resources as well. Attacks while you are sleeping and ambushes should be more likely at higher levels.

So, I don't think that these actually give you as much of a spell-slot advantage as you think. (Although, I certainly don't use as many slots on defensive spells with my wizards as the buffing spells you seem to have selected indicate you do. A persistent shield, extended mage armor, and energy buffer are enough for me at mid levels. At higher levels, I'd use stuff like persistent haste (if I were feeling really munchkin) and mindblank, but I don't think I'd ever want to have blink, improved invisibility, mirror image, and protection from arrows (in fact, my Living Greyhawk character always carries around a protection from arrows spell--he's an abjurer and it's his only 2nd level abjuration but in the course of a half dozen adventures, he's never had a use for it)active at the same time.)

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.

 

[GuardianLurker]

Um, Time stop is a ninth level spell. The ability to rattle off spells at greater than the normal rate of speed is carefully controlled in 3e.

Again, it's the spell slots, not the time. Quicken spell doesn't really solve this, and in some sense even agravates it, by raising the level of at least one spell in the combo by 4.

I repeat, it's the spell slots, not the time. Heck, let's make all the batch spells have a casting time of "One round", or "Two rounds".

It should cost a spell slot four levels higher! And that only really gives you two for the time of one, not 3, 4, or 5 for the time of one.

On the other hand, Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer restores three levels of spells - any three that you have prepared that day. Which would argue that a spell that only restores 2 levels would be a third level spell. And the Twin Spell and Repeat Spell feats are both +2 levels (if I remember correctly).

OTOH, if "why" is that you could do these things but would rather give up something else (like casting a 6th level spell to get the benefits of a measly 2 second levels and a 1st level spell as opposed to using mass haste to quicken the whole party), then its ok.

Bingo. Speaking from a point of self-interest, Mass Haste (or its lesser cousin) don't help my wizard live through the battle, or even the first round; the party can wait a round while I cover my wimpy wizard butt. Besides, I'm more than willing to brew those potions of Haste for the other guys.

Thinking about it, given the Rary's issue I mentioned above, I think the spells should be revised to :

Protected Mage would unhappily seem to work out to a 9th level spell if we follow a strict n-1 limit, but that seems awfully high. Especially since the two feats would essentially allow you to double cast a 7th level spell (for a total of 2n-4 levels). And Polibrun's logarithmic scale seems overpowered - a 9th level spell is not going to let you cast MM 128 times. As an interim, suppose we take 2n-5 as the general number of spell levels a Nth level spell will restore in a Rary's type spell.

Then we have
Level 2 = -1 (not possible)
Level 3 = 1 (possible but why bother?)
Level 4 = 3 (That's Rary's)
Level 5 = 5
Level 6 = 7
Level 7 = 9
Level 8 = 11
Level 9 = 13

This would put Protected Mage at 6th, with 8 total spell levels, and Improved Protected Mage (with 13) at 9th, if I was to use a Rary's type spell. Since I don't need the flexibility of a Rary's, and I'm willing to do this as a full-round cast, I think I can probably get away with droping Protected Mage to 5th and Improved Protected Mage to 8th.

Actually, I just realized that it's silly to have both blink and improved invisibility, so if we drop the blink, we drop to 10 total levels (a solid 7th), and the power reductions would take us to 6th.

How's that sound?