Daze vs. Freedom of Movement

[Dark Dragon]

Good point, Frank. I'll talk to the player about NWC...his wizard may get the spell after he battled a Red Wizard

Back to topic (and one thing I remembered...). The party (level 17) recently encountered two undead balors (still using all their abilities except vorpal swords) and a cleric of about level 20. The fight was CR 25 and should normally have ended in a TPK. Anyway, we were lucky (only two dead PCs), because of one fact: neither the cleric nor the balors had cast Blasphemy. A balor can use it at will, at caster level 20. This would render any non-evil PC of level 20 or lower dazed for one round (in our case with an additional 2d6 STR drain), no save, SR applies. Now suppose a party of level 20 encounters a balor (CR 20). The balor summons another balor (can cast Greater Dispelling to get rid of Magic Circle against evil), and then casts Blasphemy (radius 40 ft.). Party is dazed, summoned demon picks a PC and attack him, Balor casts Blasphemy again.
Rinse...repeat...TPK.

Normally, the party should have no major problems with the balor except when having bad luck. FoM would be of great help against the daze condition (Blasphemy does not duplicate the Daze spell, it creates a condition. So, no protection from Mind blank).

 

[Li Shenron]

Dazed: The creature is unable to act normally. A dazed creature can take no actions, but has no penalty to AC.

It doesn't really sound like a condition on movement, but rather a condition on the mind. I am not native english-speaking but I thought "daze" means like when you are suddenly unable to recongize what's going on, like in stupor and temporarily "idle" .

Note also that you can't take actions but you have no real penalty on things like AC, speed, dexterity or the like. You are still able to move in theory but you are not taking the initiative to any action. You can dodge (you don't even lose the Dex bonus to AC!).

I mentioned before that also spells effects like Sleep or being nauseated or even dead obviously don't let you take a move action, but not because they directly hamper your movement. You are asleep! What if you have freedom of movement cast on you? Would you sleepwalk? It doesn't remove the sleepness itself... Well, you can house-rule every specific circumstance as you wish: for ex. when nauseated you can't take actions that require attention (including attacking) and you only take 1 move/round; you could rule that FoM lets you take a double move, or even attack, but that would not prevent you to... ehm... wash everyone around with your stomach fluids...

 

[FrankTrollman]

That's only the beginning of the problems with Blasphemy. Imagine that the 20th level Cleric had used a Karma Bead and then cast Blasphemy. Or what if he'd had the Evil Domain and used a Karma bead and cast Death Knell. At that point he doesn't even need a Balor around to kill the entire party. With no save.

Blasphemy in 3.5 is not even close to balanced.

-Frank

 

[Darklone]

Suddenly the Legacy feat does not look so weak anymore... and I do expect most lvl20 dudes to have some SR... but it's still ugly.