Knowledge Sinkhole said:
Sorry, forgot to change Evocation to Enchantment. Though, I'm open to other suggestions regarding school.
The reason it is level 3, versus, say, level 1, is simply this:
1d6 Intelligence damage has the potential to incapacitate ANY creature with an Intelligence of 6 or less. That' s a bit too powerful for first level. Take, for example, a Remorhaz. If the spell was level 1, that means that a first level caster has a 33% chance of knocking out a CR 7 creature. Or look at a Purple Worm. CR 12. With Synaptic Shock, all it takes is a ranged touch attack against AC 4 for a first level wizard to knock it out. THAT is why it is more appropriate at a higher level.
To kill this little argument, allow me to point out that as a Level 4 spell, a Level 7 Wizard can KO the Tarrasque or any legendary animal as well. Guess we should make it a Level 9 spell, huh?
Technik4 said:
Anubis, as K.S. posted, you are flat-out wrong. Ability damage is FAR FAR FAR more powerful than an ability penalty. Consider the following:
A) The PCs are tracking the villain on the way to his lair. The villain ambushes them, but seems outclassed so flees. The wizard casts Ray of Enfeeblement for -7 Str Penalty on the villain.
B) " " ". The wizard casts Synaptic Shock for -4 on the villain.
In A, by the time the PCs encounter the villain again (perhaps that same day, or the next day) that ray of enfeeblement is long gone. In B, it will take 4 days after the day he got shocked for his Int to be back up to par. If the villain was an assasin or wizard, this may impact his spell abilities, if he is anyone else it is almost as bad. Why? Because in the next encounter the PC Wizard is going to be gunning to use that spell against the villain AGAIN. It allows no save, only a RTA, meaning as long as the wizard can hit, it may be K.O. villain (or at least reduced to animal intelligence).
Also consider a wand of this mythical 1st level spell. Lets say you use this wand 3 times at 1st level ability in a fight. You hit twice, dealing 2d6 Int damage (missing once entirely). Which is more powerful, 3d4+3 (if you had used a wand of mm, at 1st level ability 3 times) or 2d6 intelligence damage (which is assuming you flub one of your RTAs)?
I agree with K.S. that it is power-wise a 3rd level spell, but I think it should be given enough versatility to affect more than just Intelligence. Also, it should be either a Necromancy or an Enchantment, as written.
Technik
You can effecively disable any fighter with a Wand of Ray of Enfeeble ment just as easily, or better yet, you can disable any pesky spellcasters with a Wand of Touch of Idiocy just as easily as well. Maybe not helpless, but effectively helpless. So why don't we bump 'em all up to Level 9?!
Knowledge Sinkhole said:
Synaptic Shock
Necromancy[Mind Affecting]
Level: Sor/Wiz 4
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Effect: Ray
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes
A ray of disruptive energy springs from your hand. You must succeed on a ranged touch attack to strike a target. The subject suffers 1d6 points of either Wisdom, Charisma, or Intelligence damage. The caster determines which of the three attributes is to be dealt damage. Creatures without a score in the selected attribute are not affected by this spell.
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Well, a further updated version. As you can see, it now offers the choice of damaging a mental attribute of the caster's choice. The type has been changed to Necromancy (mind affecting), as most attribute lowering spells seem to belong to that school. The spell level has been increased to fourth, to reflect the added versatility.
Um, Necromancy? If you look at the books, you'll not find a single Necromancy spell that lowers mental attributes; they are all Enchantment. You should read over all that again. Necromancy is for spells that effect life force and physical stuff (which is why there are tons of spells that hurt the physical attributes) while Enchantment is for pretty much all the stuff that effects mental attributes.
Super_Nerd said:
No way! Level 4 spell at least! If joe shoot 5 of those at my wiz I am royaly screwed. if its lvl 1 or 2 i can quicken spell these and then do 2/round then you are a wiz slaying machine. remeber if I am a wiz with 18 intel and i take 4-8 intel dmg that means i can possible cast only 0 zero lvl spells and at best i can cast 4th lvl. and thats only 2 rounds of casting!
Hmmm . . . I would rather, with a Wand of Enervation, just kill you by hitting you a few times and making your negative levels equal or exceed your level. Thanks for giving THE best argument in my favor. Enervation > Synaptic Shock . . . BY A LOT . . .
Anyway, after looking, I actually can't find a single spell that deals ability damage save for Contagion and some Corrupt spells from the BoVD. Unfortunately, those are bad comparisons as they're all stronger than this one but also have backlash (and some have saving throws).
It appears to me that without a cost or backlash of some sort, a spell should never deal ability damage. That seems to be the standard set by WotC considering the only ability damaging spell in the PH takes days to work.
With that, here's what you do with Synaptic Shock . . . Make it Level 1 with some kinda backlash, an XP component, or a costly material component . . . OR . . . Change the effect to an ability penalty and make it a Level 1 spell equal to Ray of Enfeeblement . . .
As the spell stands, there is NO appropriate level, and it's because of the ability damage effects, plain and simple. Or do you think it's cool for a Level 7 Wizard to be able to KO a Level 20 Half-Orc Barbarian in two rounds without breaking a sweat?
