[Frostburn] Shivering Touch: The new Harm

[Scribble]

Sounds broken to me. If it is, then it'll be fixed in an errata.

Seee you have to look on the bright side of life. Without these mistakes the errata team would be out of a job!

 

[Nail]

Errata: what game designers do on their coffee breaks.

 

[Ahnehnois]

BTW Lahm's Finger Darts from the BOVD is even worse. No attack roll, no save, 1d4 dex + 1d4 for each 2 CLs beyond first, and its only level 2. Of course it does have its costs, but its still worse. Not that this spell isn't overpowered...

 

[Night Watchman]

mmm...I smell a new edition!

 

[Henry]

BTW Lahm's Finger Darts from the BOVD is even worse. No attack roll, no save, 1d4 dex + 1d4 for each 2 CLs beyond first, and its only level 2. Of course it does have its costs, but its still worse. Not that this spell isn't overpowered...

I'd like to point out the fact that the "cost" to Lahm's Finger Darts require you to shoot your fingers at the target. They do grow back, but if I recall, it takes a DAY to grow them back, which means no spellcasting for you with that hand until they grow back...


As for shivering touch, I smell errata in the brewing - that's too much.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I'd like to point out the fact that the "cost" to Lahm's Finger Darts require you to shoot your fingers at the target. They do grow back, but if I recall, it takes a DAY to grow them back, which means no spellcasting for you with that hand until they grow back...

Oooh... Vile Spellweaver...

-Hyp.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I'd like to point out the fact that the "cost" to Lahm's Finger Darts require you to shoot your fingers at the target. They do grow back, but if I recall, it takes a DAY to grow them back, which means no spellcasting for you with that hand until they grow back...

The fingers also return when the corruption cost ability damage is healed, which is not all that difficult to do. The price is significant, yes, but at medium to high levels, this spell will render helpless virtually anyone. Any wizard can kill a helpless target eventually, whether his fingers work or not.

Shivering Touch, no drawback, except the touch attack, which no self-respecting cleric will miss very often. If they thought that 3.0 harm was overpowered, how could this get through? Bizarre.

 

[Spatula]

IMHO only a very few offensive spells should have no save. A spell which requires a ranged touch attack roll is fine without a save, because there's still a chance to miss the target. A melee touch spell should always have a save (at least if it is potentially deadly), since you never really "miss" and waste the spell, you just lose time but not the spell.

but... you have to get into melee in order to touch the target. I'd rather have a spell with range: ray vs range: touch any time.

As for this particular spell, since it's nice and low-level it can also be used in conjunction with spectral hand if you're a wizard.

 

[provik]

Scaled Upgrades on Shivering Touch

By the logical scale they provided, everything else staying the same, you could easily design a 5th level Improved Shivering Touch that does 5d6 damage.

And then 9th level Shivering Touch would deadl 9d6 damage.

At this point, you're just seeing who you can catch without an Elemental Kiss: Cold on at that time.

This spell is blatantly overpowered. If you put the cap on for 1 Dex minimum, then yes, I could accept it much more readily. Also, cleaning up its clarification of "damage" vs. "penalty" would be nice. They way they word it now, I've had players arguing that multiple castings stack because its damage and not penalty. *That's* even more broken.

Damage occurs and that's it. Penalty has a duration. This spell has a damage and a duration. WTF??

And also, at 3rd level, 3d6 Dex is still really powerful.

 

[Cabral]

IMHO only a very few offensive spells should have no save. A spell which requires a ranged touch attack roll is fine without a save, because there's still a chance to miss the target. A melee touch spell should always have a save (at least if it is potentially deadly), since you never really "miss" and waste the spell, you just lose time but not the spell.

Maybe they should've put a reflex save for half?