Elder-Basilisk
First Post
If that was the 3.5 revision team's reasoning, they did a rather lousy job of implementing it.
As other people have pointed out, in 3.5, it's more of an instant death spell than it was in 3.0 because the enemy knows they have to CDG you right then and there if they're going to get much more out of the spell than an extended Daze.
If the were woried about low-level spells that keep players from doing stuff (the "what fun is that?" argument), then presumably, they wouldn't have beefed up other spells designed to do exactly that--Tasha's Hideous laughter for instance. That argument has as much plausibility as the "instant death is no fun" explanation of the disintegrate changes. If that were really what they were thinking, they would have done something about Destruction (a spell that REALLY sticks in my craw since it is so dramatically better than Finger of Death (10d6 vs chump change on a successful save) that it blows the whole "wizards are better at slaying things" argument out of the water AND it's not reversible by Ressurection) Slay Living, Death Touch (death domain ability), Implosion, etc.
I see little indication that much in the way of systematic rational thought went into the 3.5 spell changes.
As other people have pointed out, in 3.5, it's more of an instant death spell than it was in 3.0 because the enemy knows they have to CDG you right then and there if they're going to get much more out of the spell than an extended Daze.
If the were woried about low-level spells that keep players from doing stuff (the "what fun is that?" argument), then presumably, they wouldn't have beefed up other spells designed to do exactly that--Tasha's Hideous laughter for instance. That argument has as much plausibility as the "instant death is no fun" explanation of the disintegrate changes. If that were really what they were thinking, they would have done something about Destruction (a spell that REALLY sticks in my craw since it is so dramatically better than Finger of Death (10d6 vs chump change on a successful save) that it blows the whole "wizards are better at slaying things" argument out of the water AND it's not reversible by Ressurection) Slay Living, Death Touch (death domain ability), Implosion, etc.
I see little indication that much in the way of systematic rational thought went into the 3.5 spell changes.
Liquidsabre said:Correct. 3.5 reasoning for the Hold Person spell change: Low-Level, relatively instant death spell where player sits around and does nothing for several rounds (i.e. in real world translating = death or quite possibly hours of boredom for long combats). So boring or death spell for victims = bad. Thus the change. Though, if this happens to be some folk's idea of fun...more power to you.
