Haste, should it age you?

[mirivor]

What does everyone think about this? Haste in particular begs this question because of its power. In second edition, haste aged you... a considerable drawback. Now there is no drawback yet the spell remains third level. Just curious about how everyone felt about any aging effects being removed from the game.

 

[hong]

If you're comparing across editions, haste is actually 6th level now, and renamed to "mass haste".

In general, I'm happy to see the end of aging as a mechanic. It affected some races disproportionately and others not at all. And dying of old age is hardly a major consideration for a lot of PCs anyway. Most of the spells that aged you before now cost XP.

 

[Lucius Foxhound]

I'm with hong. Elves could be hasted without even thinking about it in 2E. That's unfair.

No, they've balanced it pretty well in 3E. Haste only affects one person now, but no aging.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Aging wasn't a significant penalty in 2e, nor 3e.
Anyway, if you want to inflict a penalty, then spending 60 seconds hasted should remove 120 seconds of the character's life (instead of 60).

 

[Dr_Rictus]

In my experience, when haste aged you, the decision came down to: "let's see; I can lose a year of my life (if I'm hasted), or the entire rest of my life (if I'm not)." It was no disincentive at all.

 

[mirivor]

I see all points, but I disagree with aging not being a noticable penalty. The aging penalties add up to quite a knockback in the physical stats... And considering the fact the magical aging grants only the penalties and none of the bonuses, it isn't something to be brushed aside.
The reason for this post is that I feel that some uses of haste are unbalanced. Haste armor enhancement stands out real huge-like. Lets see... a +4 Speed enhancement on my weapon, or a +3 bonus on my armor for 3 times the effect... My friend has upped Haste to the 6th level and Mass Haste to 9th. We can't seem to find a way to balance Haste's power as a Magical Item ability with it's not-so-whacked regular spell ability. Know what I mean?

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I'm very happy that they've done away with that silly stuff. Before, the spell was something you only used in dire situations, and now you can use it regularly. (And humans got the shaft again).

That the different speed abilities are badly balanced has nothing to do with haste, but with the abilities.

And the explaination that haste magically speeds you up is just as well, and I don't see why this should age you in any way. You can get magic to hit harder and you're still not exhausted faster, are you?

 

[Berk]

Haste armor enhancement stands out real huge-like. Lets see... a +4 Speed enhancement on my weapon, or a +3 bonus on my armor for 3 times the effect... My friend has upped Haste to the 6th level and Mass Haste to 9th. We can't seem to find a way to balance Haste's power as a Magical Item ability with it's not-so-whacked regular spell ability. Know what I mean?

The haste armor that you are reffering to, is it the one from DotF? If it is that was errata'd to act just like the boots of speed for up to 10 rounds a day, standard action to activate and all.

And as for the upping hastes spell level, I can kinda agree with that. Everytime we get into battle all the spellcasters cast haste right away.

 

[dkilgo]

I agree with Berk on the grounds that when ever a mage is in combat, and can is able to cast the spell, they seem to go a bit haste crazy.

It is pretty much getting to the point that a lot of the mage combat in these realms seems to be based on haste, or haste effects.

Those damn mages can never do anything original.


<waves the "I'm the village Idiot" flag around as he flips off a beholder>

 

[Stalker0]

If your looking to tone down haste, I'd say go about it in a diff. way. Maybe take off the +4 to AC, or up its level. But don't introduce a 2e game concept to 3e, that just gets messy.