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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 1889711" data-attributes="member: 63">I once again feel the need to post how unhappy I am with instant kill spells.AT FOURTH LEVEL!I could deal with a harm or slay living spell offing a villain (touch range), or a 9th level power word kill spell or something.  But phantasmal killer's 4th level, and has a range of medium.  I don't care if you get two saves against it; no 4th level spell should just kill someone with so little of a risk to you.Ditto frikkin spells like baleful polymorph.  Yeah, turn the 16th level wizard into a guppy.  Great.Anyway, the main thrust of this post is that I tried to have a big magic villain for the spellcasters to fight, and a big combat villain for the warriors to fight.  Instead, since the spellcaster seemed the more immediate threat, the PCs warrior went at him, attacking his bodyguards so they could get to him.  Then the spellcasters killed off the magical villain with two spells (greater dispelling, then baleful polymorph).  Then the PC warriors turned their attention to the 16th level warrior villain, and he was killed with a phantasmal killer.I dunno.  I'm just a little miffed.  I don't mind that the villains lost, just that they were taken down so easily.  I really really really want fights to have a rising action, ending with a nice climax.  I hate fights that end on round 2, even when there are tons of henchmen.  I don't use instant kill spells, even though, yes, logically you'd want to use those first.  I want the party to fight their way to the villain, then battle the villain for several rounds of back and forth combat, and then someone does something cool to finish off the villain as the big guns come out at the end.I can do that with weapon combat, but the magic system encourages you to use HUGE guns first, and then you don't need the 'Big' guns.  I mean, in this last fight, after finishing off the two main villains, the mooks weren't really enough of a threat to impede the party, so they surrendered.  But if they were fighting with just weapon combat, they'd have to force their way through the mooks to get to the big villain, at which point they'd be worn down, and it'd make the final fight all the more intimidating.I just don't like high-level offensive spells.  High magic I'm fine with.  Scry, divine, teleport, shapeshift.  Screw with the fabric of reality all you want.  But stop killing my bad guys in two hits.  Give the warriors something to do!</blockquote>

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