Fey of the Month #1: Winter Shade

[Krishnath]

I also make spells and magical items... hmmm... like this one:

Hover
Transmutation
Level: Sor/Wiz 2
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 round
Range: Touch
Target: Any creature
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes

The subject rises above the ground and hovers at a nice hight of 12 inches above the it. The affected creature can move in any direction except up at a leisurely pace of 20' per round. This spell allows the recipient to cross fluids as if they where moving over solid ground. Additionally the recipient gains the benefit of a Feather Fall spell during the duration.
Material Component: A feather.


But, back to the winterdeath spell. I still think it should be a 9th level spell for two simple reasons:

1. There is an epic spell called Animus Blast that deals 10d6 points of cold damage, the people killed by it are raised as skeletons.
2. Your spell deals the same amount of damage as an Ice Storm with the added effect of animating those who are killed by it, as if the corpses was affected by Animate Dead (a 5th level arcane spell). As per the rules of spell creation, combining spell effects equals a stacking of the spell levels, in other words (4+5=9)

As for anything lower, it's to unbalanced. IMHO.

Later,

 

[Clay_More]

Well, it doesn't animate those that are killed by the spell. It can only animate dead if there are already skeletons present (dead, not undead). And, the skeletons are vulnerable while digging their way out of the ground. 2 rounds of being considered prone. Any decent group of adventurer would have them smacked to pieces before that.
But, if Krisnath sayeth then Clay obeyeth.

Cool spell Hover, very useful. It actually fulfills a good slot, enabling a wizard to cross smaller hindraces with a 2 nd. level spell before getting the sacred Fly.
Did you like the other spells, btw

 

[Krishnath]

Obeyeth, heh, that's a new one...

Corpse Locator Should be a 1st level spell IMHO, as it is not that useful or even powerfull. It should be a divination spell, not a necromantic.

Elemental Missiles Good and balanced spell, very usefull, although I think purple is a better color for sonic, that or teal...

Sundering Cascade should be a ninth level spell, as it deals force damage. You might also want to change the maximum number of damage dice to 25...

Spell Alteration Very usefull spell, I like it. More usefull for a sorcerer than a wizard though...

Bewildering Missiles Interresting spell, could be very usefull. You should add the [Glamer] subtype to the spell.

Cold Heart Very nasty, should also have the [evil] subtype in addition to [cold].

That's my unbiased opinion.

 

[Clay_More]

Well, after hearing some other people's opinions, I think that I would give Corpse Locator longer duration and range and retain it as a lvl 2 spell. Off course, Divination is more correct, but I was still doubtful when I made the spell. Think ill make it Divination.

Hehe, I actually had a load of headaches from having to decide which color the Sonic missile had to be. The other four elements are easy, but Sonic.... Perhaps, if it was a Sonic-damage missile, it should look like Ozzy Osbournes head. Hmm, I think ill go with purple though (grey was a "panik" decision)

Sundering Cascade could easily be a ninth level spell, thats one subject I have to agree on. It doesn't actually penetrate spell resistance, but it instead "waits" for an opportunity to do so and it deals good damage (force), so ninth is as good a choice as eigth level.

Now that you mention it, I could see that Spell Alteration would be highly useful for sorcerers. After all, if a wizard has seen an enemy sorcerer fight, he will know exactly what spells the Sorcerer has. Thus, a simply Spell Immunity will render the Sorcerer powerless.

Bewildering Missiles was another spell-affecting spell, [Glamer].. I should have thought of that. Didn't have my PhB with me, always forget all the different descriptors to use with spells. Same goes for Cold Heart, off course it's an [Evil] spell.

What level is your group btw. ? Any major House-Rules you play with at home?

 

[Krishnath]

Well, I we split between 2 adventuring parties. The first one (which includes my CN rogue Exodore Praxis.) is about level 6 at the moment. The second group (or the main group) consists of six (roughly) lvl 18 characters, well, it used to anyway, the half-dragon paladin fell from grace and left the party, while the Elf Shade got eaten by a player, and being an outsider couldn't get raised. My character (or NPC, I like to play in my own games, but I don't solve the puzzles for my players) Terel Darkmoon is a LE human wizard with a raven familiar named Matthew (the raven, of course ). Terel is a minor noble, who has a reputation for being hard, but fair. But it's not below him to let lose a Horrid Wilting in the middle of a city to stop a major threat, as he reasons, the civilians that die, due so to stop a greater evil. Of course he doesn't see himself as evil.

But since most of the party is neutral to evil it's not that big a hassle.

I'm currently working on my next adventure, that will take the LVL 18 characters into epic levels.

As for house rules I have a few. Half-outsiders can gain HD as outsiders or by class. Any innate HD (from for example being a lizardfolk) are automatically transformed to outsider HD. This is because the only way to get access to the innate spell-like abilities of those templates, as I feel that they are very powerful in the wrong hands (I.e: My players). My players are O.k. with that, as I use the same rule for NPC's. Also, it is probably the easist way for a PC to attain Deityhood. (the others being the Genesis Orb, sponsorship by a intermediate (or more powerful) deity, being born an abomination, or finding and using one of a small number of artifacts). And gaining outsider HD is quite good: Saves as a monk, BAB as a fighter, and 8+int skill points per character level. So I think it's a fair trade.

Later,

 

[Clay_More]

So, is it hard designing adventurers for such a relatively high level group? I had a high level group in 2 ed., which was centered around a city one of them had built in a wasteland. It was kinda easy making adventurers for them, since they had offended pretty much everyone of their neighbours.

I normally have a rule for a group. Either, they have to be neutral or good or they have to be neutral or evil. Evil/good combos arent always good, especially if your group already has enough of external foes.
Some of my players have difficulties playing good anyways, so they normally range from neutral to evil. Last time my female player had a Paladin, she said a sentence which kinda summs up their relationship with being good. The group was asked to help some villagers that were being hazzled by goblins. The group could only get a 200 gp. reward though, since the villagers were poor. The paladin tried to haggle with the mayor, trying to get him to give more. But, the players could see that the village was a poor one, nine cottages with some starved cows. She did though accomplish getting the mayor to give an additional 12 gp. which was all that he had left. So, when she was unsatisfied with the low payment, she said "Couldn't you just sell something?"

Interesting thing for a LG paladin to say to a starved village....

Anyways, I was actually contemplating something. Could be fun to do an "Archmage of The Month" thing. Design an Archmage that has some specific area of interest (Like Ukast has Necromancy/Cold). Design some spells / items that follows that archmage, after which you design the Archmage himself as an NPC. There could be many interesting themes that would make good subject. A Fey-Archmage, a Lizardman-Archmage, a Lawful-Neutral law-abiding Archmage that has plenty of non-lethal spells, an Chaotic tome-raiding Archmage that has spells to deal with traps, both nonmagical and magical etc. But, it would need more than one person. The NPC would be kinda cool, since it would enable any DM who wished to get an unusual NPC to get a high level wizard with customized spells and items which would really set him apart from the standard fireball-hurling wizard. Just an idea.... off course......

 

[Krishnath]

Well, I allow all alignments save CE. CE has no place in a gaming group as CE pc's have a tendency to become psychopaths. Also any PC that is played as a CE character (even if the char-sheet says something else) will have that character retired permanently.

As for your paladin, she should have lost her paladin status for that little affliction of greed, at least until she could attone.

Regarding an NPC archmage of the month, I like the idea, as I have a few such ideas floating around in my head at all times. Not all of them are arcane spellcasters mind you, one of them is an epic level druid.

As for coming up with adventures for High level characters, it's a real <Female Dog>. Particularly considering the low ammount of challenges in the upper end of the CR spectrum that is neither a celestial, fiend, or dragon... (Give me more CR 15+ Monsters!)

Later,

 

[Clay_More]

Thats my problem with high level campaigns. A player can only kill that many dragons and demons before the world runs out.

Well, we should make the Archmage of the Month, IMO. You could be the one to come up with the first idea. We would start with the spells / items, so you could design the Archmage (or Arch-Druid) using these spells / items. I got ELH, but thats the only source for high level (above 20) characters. I saw that the Faerun Campaign setting had some good material on the subject though. I got MoF, but not the campaign setting...

Well, if youre game, im game. Pretty sure there's some ppl out there with ideas to give.

 

[Krishnath]

You really should get the FRCS, IMHO, as it is filled with usefull stuff, such as some very good feats (Spellcasting Prodigy friggin' rocks!), prestige classes (Archmage and Shadow Adept are clear favourites.), cleric domains (including racial domains for several species, as well as storm and time.), new player races (genasi for example.), new creatures (including the Shade and Dracolich templates.), and heaps of info that is just so easy to incorporate in your own campaign (such as the Red Wizards and the Cult of the Dragon ).

As for an archmage idea. How about:

Sahak of the Nine Colors (Tiefling Wiz 30)

Later,

 

[Clay_More]

Sahak, Tiefling Wizard sounds fine. Lets make a thread somewhere, not sure Homebrews are the right choice. What is his speciality? Nine colors, sounds illusionistic, not sure though. I think House Rules would be a proper forum. Well, if you make a thread, ill start contemplating on spells.