Broken Spells in SC and Broken Items in MIC?

[ydirbut]

What Items/Spells do you consider broken from these two books? Just to start it off:

Kelp Strand- Incredible Usefull for a second level spell

Wraithstrike- Not Even gonna go there.

Draconic Might- as a 3rd Level Paladin Spell. Course, Paladin Spell casting isn't exactly broken,
but compare it to Visage of the Deity, Lesser

Arrow Mind- AOO with a bow?

Hunters Mercy- Autocrit with Bow

Horrible Taste versus animals- Does it only work on bites?

Launch Bolt- Seems kinda useless

Fist of Stone- +6 Str as a first level spell?

Shieldbearer- Why use it instead of shield?

Items

Steadfast Boots- Automatic brace for charge ala spears. With any weapon.

Healer's Belt

Amber Amulet of Vermin

Artificers Monocle- Free Identifies for 1400 GP?

Shirt of the Leech

Augment Crystals

Caduceus Bracers

Ehlonna's Seed Pouch- Why the huge gap between the 8th level slot and the cost?

Hammer Sphere

Rod of Bodily Restoration and Orb of mental restoration- Not neccesarily broken, but really, really useful

Rod of Escape

Rod of Frost- How can a large creature walk across a ice bridge 5 ft wide? Would it have to make balance checks

Runestaffs- Especially for Sorcerors

Scrolls of uncertain provenance- seem too risky

Wilding Claspe- Old Issue

 

[Doug McCrae]

Runestaffs- Especially for Sorcerors

They reduced the price of all of these in the errata. Rightly so imo. I would never have bought any as a sorcerer PC at the old price.

What do you think of Belt of Battle? That's probably the only broken item in MIC.

 

[gnfnrf]

Steadfast Boots- Automatic brace for charge ala spears. With any weapon.

Definitely broken, but broken-doesn't work, not broken-good.

How does it work? Does your initiative change, as if a readied action went off? Either answer to this question produces horrible rules inconsistencies.

--
gnfnrf

 

[Infiniti2000]

launch bolt is kind of useless, true, but for some reason I really like it and so took it for my sorcerer. The only benefit of it has been that I couldn't afford a real crossbow at first level. I haven't burned any feats on PBS/PS, so I take penalties when shooting an opponent in melee. Sometimes you get a spell just because it's fun. "Why's he carrying out those bolt cases without even carrying a crossbow?"

 

[AnonymousOne]

Apparently to the OP Half of the game is broken ...

*sigh*

How the deuce is the Artificer's Monacle 'Broken'?! It's a great item, but it in no way overcomplicated or overpowers the individual using it.

And the Healing Belt?! Come on. Really. It's a forward looking investment in something that is practically worthless by upper levels. A Cure Serious Wounds Potion is unlikely to save you against Grazzt. It's a really good item, and even cuts down on the 'how many potions do I have again' bookkeeping. But it's not anywhere in teh realm of gamebreaking.

 

[billd91]

I'll also chime in that the Artificer's Monacle is not broken. I specifically got it into the campaign I'm running so the PCs could actually ID magic items without always having to run to town for the pearls. Identify may have gotten some good reform over the years, but it's still an annoying spell to deal with.

 

[Rackhir]

Apparently to the OP Half of the game is broken ...

*sigh*

Agreed. I've been using Arrow Mind for several years now and I think I've gotten to take an AoO like once. Not really sure how getting to take an AoO with a bow is broken in the first place, but it's certainly not broken in practice.

Perhaps the OP thinks it gives you an AoO over the range of the bow (or out to 30' or something like that), instead of the standard 5' range it actually gives you (ie. it gives you the same threatened area you would have if you were wielding a melee weapon).

 

[Mistwell]

Steadfast Boots- Automatic brace for charge ala spears. With any weapon.

I think people are misreading the item and that is the source of the feeling that it is broken.

Healer's Belt

Not broken, just cheap. Probably a misprint, given the cost to create does not match the formula for the cost to purchase.

Amber Amulet of Vermin

I believe this was already errata'ed to fix.

Artificers Monocle- Free Identifies for 1400 GP?

Seems fine to me, and most people who have written about it embrace it in their games (DMs and players). Why do you feel it is broken, and not that the spell Identify was broken?

Shirt of the Leech

Never heard of it, and nobody I know of has ever claimed it was broken.

Augment Crystals

You are calling ALL augment crystals broken, wholesale? That's a mighty broad brush you have there. I think you're dismissing a lot of good, sound, not broken items.

Caduceus Bracers

Never heard of it, and never seen it reported as broken by anyone else.

Ehlonna's Seed Pouch- Why the huge gap between the 8th level slot and the cost?

A gap makes it broken?

Hammer Sphere

Wow, really? It's not even a new item, just a reprint! I've never heard anyone call the hammersphere broken, and it's been around for a long time.

I'm going to stop there. While I appreciate your perspective, I think it's not met with much agreement among others who have read the book. There are a couple of troublesome items, but most are not even on your list, and the ones on your list are, well, not ones most people think are broken. They are just "new" and thus a bit daunting, much like the Mystic Theurge once was.

 

[Psion]

Ray of Stupidity tops my list of troublesome SC spells, though I have heard woes about Consumptive field.

 

[GilaMonster]

Caduceus Bracers
Never heard of it, and nobody I know of has ever claimed it was broken.

Allows a char with a form of hp per day healing ability (lay on hands, wholeness of body or similar) to exchange 5 points of healing to heal 1 point of ability damage (not drain) or remove one of the dazed, fatigued, sickened conditions.

Must adhere to the limits and conditions imposed by the healing ability that the char has.

2000gp.

Honestly, it looks underpowered to me. My cleric's soon going to have the wholeness of body ability (from contemplative) but I'd never consider buying these.

Might be useful for a low-level paladin in a group without a cleric. Other than that... *shrug*