Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 1400643" data-attributes="member: 3146">The new versions of the spells are still stupid decrepit versions of spells that were once useful but now would be weak at first level. I've been running and playing 3.5 for quite a while now and I've only in one or two situations seen the new stat buffs be useful. And in both of those situations, it was bull's strength.In one situation, a party was invading the lair of some Kuo Toa and I suspected that combat would break out when we entered but everything would probably be over in 8 minutes. At that point, Bull's Strength was worth casting because 1. It didn't take any time in the battle, 2. I couldn't do anything useful with that slot anyway (it was a domain spell, my other options were enlarge person and heat metal, and I already had enlarge person for the only person who wanted to be enlarged (it ruined the paladin's ability to ride, and it nerfed the rogues and archers' dex) So I prepped a bull's strength and cast it on the paladin.The other situation featured a dwarven tripping expert. The 3.5 effectiveness of Improved Trip and the exponential importance of the trip check differential made bull's strength a decent choice to cast on my dwarf during battle.As for the rest, WotC was smoking crack. There wasn't anything wrong with spells replacing items (especially since spells are easily dispellable). In fact, I thought that the choice to use spells to increase natural capacities or to use items and save the spell slots for things like scorching rays, etc was a very interesting tradeoff that made it possible to play 3.0 spellcasters in dramatically different ways. At higher levels, characters wanted items anyway because dispel magic becomes a very significant part of combats. The only real abuse was using multiply empowered mental buffs to boost DCs to unsavable levels and that was already solved by making the statboosts last a fixed amount of time.As for the "morning buff session", anyone who's played 3.5 on a regular basis knows that it's still a large part of the game and that 3.5 has also introduced the "nearly there" buff session too. Mage Armor, False Life, Overland Flight, Rary's Telepathic Bond, Status, Moment of Prescience, Shield Other, Hero's Feast, etc are all morning buff routines by the time that bull's strength, etc. could become a part of such in 3.0 (around 8th level, they start to last long enough to be "all day"). However, in 3.5, that has been joined by the "nearly there" buff session that includes Resist Energy, Alter Self, Magic Circle, Freedom of Movement, Spell Immunity, Foresight, Heroism, etc. And then, because 3.5 makes characters weaker on a continuing basis, it becomes more important to be able to guess encounters to +/- a few minutes so there's also the "Go! Go! Go!" minute per level buff session. Animal Buffs, Enlarge Person (the significance of this spell in making the minute/level buff session a part of 3.5 at every level cannot be overestimated), Death Ward, Shield, Expeditious Retreat, Polymorph, Fly, Mirror Image, etc. are all a part of this routine. If the designers thought that remembering what your stats, attack bonusses, armor class, and damage was in any given situation would become easier with the new changes, they were sorely mistaken.3.5 made a number of good changes (clarifying the grappling rules, reworking the ranger, reworking the druid, changing the bard, making Enlarge Person, Spiritual Weapon, and Aid more worthwhile, clarifying polymorph, giving Harm a save, clarifying that Sunder takes an attack action, removing the save from Ray of Enfeeblement, adding Scorching Ray at second level, etc.) It also introduced a number of bad rules changes. IMO, the changes to the animal buffs are near the top of that latter list.If you want to change them without going back to 1 hour/level, making them like Monte Cook's Mark of X spells would be a good change. (They give a small bonus for 1 hour/level but can be expended for a more significant bonus that lasts 1 round/level). Alternately, hour/level switching to minute/level as soon as combat begins could work. Or you could just go with 10 min/level. (Although this would just make them a part of the "nearly there" buffing routine just like they were in 3.0 before level 6-8).</blockquote>

Verification