Kemrain said:
Charm spells with moderate and major efects are reduced a step on a successful save, not negated. My GM saw this and flipped out, especially when he saw Fear and Daze effects. I pointed out that you usually get a save every round, but he argued that you should only "save for half" against numeric affects, and that you should never be better off failing a save than making it: when 'held' you can take purely mental actions but when 'dazed' you can take no actions, and that seems to be a downgrade. (I realise that changing daze's definition would make half his argument moot, but...)
I actually didn't think of that. I suppose daze ought to just restrict physical actions, and also allow mental ones, but I was working from the existing definition of dazed. In most cases, being held is much worse, because people can coup de grace you, but I suppose if you're flinging spells at a psion who's standing on a balcony overhead, daze is better. If you want, it would not be unfair to change the 'dazed' effect so that it doesn't keep you from using mental actions.
I'd be grateful if you'd explain what you were intending for the Charm lists, and why they work this way (a way I don't think I've ever seen used in d20). My GM thinks we need to modify the list for our game, and knowing why you designed them the way you did could be useful in deciding how we should rule this.
If you're playing an evoker, and your opponent fails a save, they still take some damage. With charm spells, though, the core rules make them everything or nothing. If they work, they cripple your foe, often for quite a while, and if they don't work they're worthless. Just like I worked to remove most save or die effects, I wanted to make charm spells be a little more flexible in how powerful they are. At high levels you can still create spells that just leave people paralyzed or stunned for an entire combat, but at low level there's more back-and-forth. You can't just take someone out with a single spell, usually.
At high levels it's not so much of a problem, because you have allies who can dispel stuff, counter stuff, heal you, etc., so that even 'instant death'-like abilities, such as polymorphing someone into a statue, isn't that bad.
