D&D 3E/3.5 House Rules for Spells in 3.5

[Scion]

Hey nifft, I know that we have had this discussion before.. but..

The feeder weapons arent broken as is, nerfing them nearly to the point of unuseability just isnt cool But those things shouldnt have the same names, they do completely different things.

As for spells, you might want to change silence. It isnt much of an illusion as written, I changed it to be more illusory and grant 20% spell failure for vocal spells (like being deaf).

 

[Plane Sailing]

It's your game, you can do as you will, just know that you are drastically changing the tenor of your game by increasing the duration of Stat boosting spells. Fly and Polymorph are also huge changes. If you want to run a game where travel is interesting, you've killed that once your players reach 12th level or so.

Since there is no real penalty for keeping the buff spells as you've rewritten them up all the time, you've turned your medium to high level characters into supermen. Once again, that's okay if you are willing to forego some of the other parts of adventuring (dangerous travel, unprepared ambushes, etc).
.

I think you are completely wrong here.

1. increasing the stat boosters to 10mins/level isn't "drastically changing the tenor of the game". Even extended that is only 240mins, 4 hours at 12th level. That's hardly "keeping them up all the time" and you forget that 12th level characters could easily have a +4 buff item for their primary stat by that level, which *does* work all the time.

2. At 12th level teleport is available as a standard, so how does increasing the duration of fly and polymorph slightly (again, note to still 1/6th of the 3e versions) kill interesting travel, hmm?

Your arguments seem foolish since he's not even proposing to bring the durations back up to 3e standards, yet you are responding as if he was taking them even further than 3e had.

 

[Plane Sailing]

For all my spell house rules, check here:
http://klimt.cns.nyu.edu/~fishman/DnD/spells.shtml

-- N

Curious as to why you changed one of the Pyrotechnics saving throws?

(It was my sorcerers first ever 2nd level spell, partly because it fit thematically and partly because it was one of the few spells that enabled you to target either Fort ST or Will ST depending on which variant you cast. Danged useful for sorcerers, and an often overlooked spell)

 

[Nifft]

Curious as to why you changed one of the Pyrotechnics saving throws?

Basically, my premise was that saving throws shoud generally follow school of magic.

Abjuration -> mostly self-defense, Will if any
Divination -> Will saves, if any
Conjuration -> no save or Fort
Evocation -> Reflex saves
Enchantment -> Will saves
Illusion -> Will saves
Transmutation -> Fort saves
Necromancy -> Fort & Will saves, or no saves -- this school is an exception

I'm open to arguments from my players about when to not bend the rules on certain spells. For spells like Flare, Glitterdust and Pyrotechnics, it's hard for me to understand how having a strong will allows you to see despite a very bright light. It seems more like a physiological effect -- either Reflex (you closed your eyes in time) or Fort (you have a painful after-image, but amazingly, you can still see).

That's just my intuition. I'm open to discussion.

-- N

 

[Cheiromancer]

IMC I've made identify work on 1 item/caster level. Magic missile is capped at 5th level (3 missiles).

It hasn't come up, but I think blasphemy type spells will not have their effects based on caster level- rather they will have a static effect like they did in 3.0

 

[Thanee]

It's your game, you can do as you will, just know that you are drastically changing the tenor of your game by increasing the duration of Stat boosting spells.

I have a hard time to figure how to make a serious reply to this one...

Fly and Polymorph are also huge changes. If you want to run a game where travel is interesting, you've killed that once your players reach 12th level or so.

Ever read the spell descriptions of... Phantom Steed, Overland Flight, Teleport, etc? No? Thought so.

Since there is no real penalty for keeping the buff spells as you've rewritten them up all the time, you've turned your medium to high level characters into supermen.

There is a penalty, you have to use up one of your spell slots to gain the advantage!

And the duration is not so long, that they are up and running all the time, but the spells are now useful for more than a single encounter, which made them utterly useless, as spending an action to cast a buff spell is a waste in combat in almost every situation.

Once again, that's okay if you are willing to forego some of the other parts of adventuring (dangerous travel, unprepared ambushes, etc).

Yeah, right! Upping the duration of a +4 to one stat spell from 1min/lvl to 10min/lvl turns PCs into invincible supermen that automatically succeed on everything they do! Right on, man!

Bye
Thanee

 

[DonAdam]

We've got alot:

We combine all the stat boosting spells into one spell (Enhance Ability) that gives a +5 for 1 min/level; you pick which stat it increases at the time of casting.

Invisibility- 10 min/level

Spider Climb- 1st level

Enlarge (better than bull's strength) and Reduce- 2nd level

Scorching Ray- no 3rd ray

Polar Ray- d8/level, chance to Slow opponent

Touch of Idiocy works as Ray of Enfeeblement, except that any mental ability may be chosen at the time of casting

Tasha’s Hideous Laughter: duration becomes Special; the victim saves every round, with a cumulative +1 bonus each round, until he makes a save, at which time the spell ends

Daze Monster becomes Stun Monster; it has no HD cap and the victim is stunned for 1d3 rounds

Endure Elements is as 3.0