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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ximenes088" data-source="post: 4142800" data-attributes="member: 59899">There's a 3.5 spell that lets you forcibly direct a large group of enemies around in an area? Or one that makes "Concentration" eat up more of your action, or become prohibitively difficult if it's too burdensome an effect? Or lets you ignore the brunt of an explosive effect and be pushed safely to its edge? There may well be such things, but I can't say I've heard of them. These effects are "in the space constraints" in the sense that they don't introduce new resolution subsystems, which earlier editions loved to do. If you require a spell to introduce a new subsystem to be "new", then I'd agree that 4e is discouraging you.But all right, let's take your challenge on its face. Suppose I've got a tribe of kobolds infected with a form of reptilian elephantiasis- they suffer egregious overgrowth of scales, fangs, horns, claws, and other draconic elements. The deluded tribal shamans believe that this sickness is merely a transformative process that will eventually end in their apotheosis into full-fledged dragons. They've created a number of spells that merge elements of the sickness and their reptilian nature, and I want these powers to feel unique and characteristic to their PC enemies. I want to use the 4e guidelines to make these spells. What are some ideas?Breath of the Hatchling: Caster bites off a mawfull of jagged, tumor-raddled scales from his own body, chews, and breathes out a cloud of infectious blood and scale fragments. Blast effect versus Armor Class for weapon-type damage plus necrotic ongoing until save.Promised Flight: Caster rips two 'wings' of loose scales from the hide of his back and leaps upward convulsively, landing fifteen squares away, ignoring AoOs for the movement, and doing minor weapon-type blast damage around the 'liftoff' area from flying scale fragments.Blessing of the Claw: Caster claws their own pus-filled buboes and dances about, spraying all within the blast radius. On a hit, victim takes necrotic damage and is briefly magically infected and Slowed as scaly, tumorous growths cover them until a save is made. On a miss, victims take the damage but fight off the sorcerous plague.Great Wyrm's Molt: The caster's body begins to swell inside his skin, forcing the crusty mass tighter and tighter until it explodes around the caster in flailing ropes of razor-edged scales and infectious hide, strip after strip bursting loose in a continuous cascade of tissue. Acts as a mobile encounter-duration Zone around the caster, creating difficult terrain for all non-kobolds and doing weapon-type and necrotic damage. When the spell is terminated, the caster is skinned alive and reduced to 0 hit points.Three of the above effects are instantaneous spells that Dispel Magic never would have worked against in 3.5, not without holding an action to dispel. The fourth is a Zone that seriously changes the battlefield every time some kobold shaman decides that _he_ really _will_ become a great dragon when he casts it, and thus can be an excellent occasion to throw a Dispel. Not only do you take out the zone, but you kill the enemy caster as well. And I can testify that my design concerns with the spells placed flavor first and worried about descriptive mechanics afterwards. 4e provided everything I needed.</blockquote>

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